Deschutes Brewery: II

Location(s): 210 NW 11th Avenue

Website: http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/

Phone: 503.296.4906


Again to the Deschutes Brewery and Public House!




A great thing about this public house is that you can pretty much find something for everyone. That's always a tough one when my family is involved: My dad and I have what my mom and sister might describe as "weird" taste in food. And they have boring traditional taste. :)

Sorry Deschutes, I don't mean you're boring. But it is hard to find a place that serves interesting original dishes, as well as something more suited to a traditional palate. Well done, you guys.




So, on the menu:
Winter Squash Ravioli
Falafel
Chicken Curry
and
Chicken Salad

I'll let you in on a secret food blogger perk: If you tell people in your party that you're writing a blog, they will give you bites of their food! Cool trick, huh?


Not to sound immodest, but I did like my food choice the best, as usual: the winter squash ravioli, which is a seasonal Deschutes speciality. Made with "roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions and Gorgonzola cheese tossed in a wort butter sauce [editor's note: this... wort sauce, whatever it is, is to die for.] with rainbow chard [not my favorite, but all right] roasted shallots," and the brewery's own root-beer braised bacon from Carlton Farms.




The chicken curry salad and the chicken salads were pretty good, too. I am not usually a fan of falafel, but I have also taken it upon myself to be fearless in the face of food, and took a liberal bite of my sister's. It was... well, falafel! Tossed in a pita wrap with some salad and white sauce, it wasn't bad!

Washed it all down with some good ol' Black Butte Porter, and finished our palates with some "Black and Tan Creme Du Pot" dessert: chocolate pudding with a caramel finish and whip cream. Super sweet stuff! Really. Get milk.

Papa Haydn's, of the Southeast Persuasion...

It is my sad duty to inform you that the Springwater Grill on SE Milwaukie is no longer in existence. I discovered this because we meant to go there, but it was gone!

Never fear. Papa Haydn's is just down the street to help you bear this sadness.

Like the Papa Haydn's I went to in the Pearl District, the restaurant's selection of desserts was very tantalizing. There was a 20-30 minute wait, so I had plenty of time to sit and stare at the case full of cakes and crisps, crumbles and crunches.

When we were seated, I had no trouble picking out what I wanted. Rarely does this happen, but the Roasted Game Hen just reached out and grabbed me -- no, not literally. That would turn one's good restaurant into a particularly bad one, I'd say. But the game hen sounded like the perfect resolution to the day. And it was. I received a hefty shank of chicken -- er, do those come in shanks?-- that was roasted most succulently.

It also came with veggies and a triangular quiche, which was also quite good, especially when soaked with chicken gravy juice.

As for dessert (haha! You didn't think I'd go to Papa Haydn's and skip dessert, DID you?) I ordered the chocolate hazelnut torte, and was not remotely disappointed. The display was gorgeous, and the torte was excellent. Melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, dustings of hazelnut all around, and scads of caramel to boot.

Bagdad Theater and Pub

The Bagdad Theater and Pub is an installment of McMenamin's, located on Hawthorne St. It's a quick jaunt from the Hawthorne Theater, Imelda's Shoes, and Fred Meyer.

With a store front full of windows, the Bagdad opens its walls, tempting the summer breeze as its patrons enjoy some fresh air, inside and out. A cheery bar sits in the midst of all the fuss, providing the denizens of the Hawthorne thoroughfare with McMenamin's faithful microbrews.

Hands down, the best thing on PDX Glutton's menu today was the Ginger Mushroom Soup. It's not often that you run into a soup that simply delicious - just mushrooms, broth, and ginger spice. It literally made my mouth water -- and that never happens!

Also quite good was my little pizza: the Mediterranean Chicken. Garlic-roasted chicken, tomatos, garlic, kalamata olives, and fresh basil.

That's Dad's Ruby ale in the background -- I had an iced coffee (hey, I had to work at 2!)

Mediterranean Chicken Pizza: 9 (mini)

Ginger Mushroom Soup of the Day: 3.9 (bowl)

Stickers Asian Cafe

While waiting around for a Joy Kills Sorrow concert, Dad and I decided to check out the delightful south end of Milwaukie ave in SE.

We chose, easily, the most colorful restaurant there: Stickers Asian Cafe. The brilliantly purple, green and pink place stands out invitingly. You can't help but want to go there.


Sticking to the theme, I ordered the Jaozi potstickers with shrimp. They came with soy sauce, and, a surprise from all the other potstickers I've had in my lifetime, they were not oily or greasy at all! They were very freshly made, and served with fresh onions and red peppers, made an all-around healthy-feeling meal.

Dad ordered the Street Satay Sampler with shrimp kebab, grilled chicken, marinated beef, and barbecued pork. The sampler came with little dishes of peanut sauce, soy sauce, ginger salad, and tamarin sauce, so you could try all the different meats with all the different sauces.

Esparza

Well, it is time for my first not-so-good review. Maybe it was my mood; I'd been at work all day, and I was pretty tired. Maybe it was the music; when you spend a whole Saturday working at Bi-Mart, the LAST thing you want to hear coming from a juke box at a restaurant is "One Is the Loneliest Number," or others of that ilk. Maybe it was the creepy marionettes dangling from the ceiling, heads drooping, arms sagging. Maybe it was because I should have just ordered an enchilada.

It was an... interesting place, to be sure. A classic example of "Keep Portland Weird." The decor was a kind of cross between an old Western cowboy theme, and vintage, "I Spy" book knickknacks.

The waitress, a pixie-haired hipster, gave us chips and salsa and water, and told us which specials they didn't have. Another, darker-haired pixie hipster waitress took our order. I was sorely tempted to just get an enchilada. But, one good thing about this blog is that it makes me step outside my comfort zone for the sake of providing my readers with awesome new edibles, and cool photos (this is why I passed up Pad See Ew for Pineapple Fried Rice!) I decided to order the "Dirty Bird," which was described as roasted chicken breasts with chocolate mole sauce, mashed potatoes, and beans. What showed up was definitely not chocolate anything. It was chicken, slathered in a super spicy red sauce, of which I only ate 1/6th. After that, the mashed potatoes and beans were bland, and a bad mix (I would go at lunch when they serve rice as an option to this meal). When I told my boyfriend about this misadventure on the phone, he said, "You ordered something called "Dirty Bird?"" What did I expect?? Something else, I guess.

Dad's tamales (on the left, there) and the flan I ordered, however, were delicious. The flan was was super soaked with honey, and tasted like heaven.

So, all in all, I will probably go back, to give this place a second chance, but I will definitely NOT get the "Dirty Bird!"

Marrakesh

The extent of my experience with Moroccan food has been Moroccan Chicken Wraps at the Valsetz dining hall at Western Oregon University. They were ok. Lots of curry and raisins.

But this! Oh, I shall never eat Valsetz' Moroccan Chicken Wraps again!

My dad, my aunt, and I waited around for the restaurant Marrakesh to open. When it did, we entered a very, very dimly lit place. We were greeted by a short, friendly man wearing a tall red cap, and asked whether we would like to sit on the floor, or on the couch. We chose the floor. There were only short, beautifully inlaid tables, surrounded by colorful little mushroom seats stitched of leather, with the option of loud paisley couches against the walls. It's not a good idea to wear a short skirt, if you so wish to sit on a mushroom seat!

The walls were all carpeted, with beautiful patterns of red and blue, which contrasted magnificently with the couches. Looking up, draperies billowed from the ceiling. The only things I'm pretty sure have nothing to do with Morocco were the strings of miniature Christmas lights that scrambled along the walls.He brought us menus, and three white terrycloth towels. There's only one price for everything (unless you have 4+ people in your party). You choose a unique entree, and the rest is up to Marrakesh. I chose Tagine of Chicken Honey and Prunes.
Our waiter took our orders, then brought out a large, ornate copper pot and pitcher. He instructed us to hold our hands over the kettle, to wash them, as he poured warm water from the pitcher. Aha! That, my friends, are what the towels are for!
Our first course was lentil soup, which was brought in small blue bowls, without spoons. It was delectably spicy.

Our second course, which came with fresh squares of bread, was the salad. It was a diced cucumber, tomato, cilantro and spices, surrounding a scoop of beans. The bread was our silverware.The third course was by far the most interesting bit of the meal. Called B'stilla Royale, it was a round pastry of phyllo dough, stuffed with chicken, scrambled eggs, raisins, dates, and myriad Eastern spices. The top was dusted with powdered sugar, and criss-crossed with cinnamon. It was hard to decide to mess it up, just to eat it! But I'm glad we did. The way the phyllo dough crackles under your fingers is of the utmost satisfaction a person can have. Seeing your dad make a complete slobby mess of his side of the table with powdered sugar is also pretty satisfying.


Finally, our entrees arrived. Still no silverware, people! Isn't it great? I could eat an entire vat of Tagine of Chicken Honey and Prunes. The chicken was slathered with a mass of sticky, sweet prune sauce, and peppered with almonds. All manners in La La Land with the silverware, I dipped and double dipped and slurped as much prune sauce on my chicken as I could. I also had some of my aunt's lamb, and took a photo of Dad's Tagine Chicken Apricot.
The waiter brought out the pitcher again, and we rinsed our hands a second time. Then he brought out the final course: milk pudding with almonds on top. As amusing as it would be to tell you that we ate this, too, with our hands, I cannot. We did indeed have spoons for this last portion!
Marrakesh is a great restaurant. Completely different from anywhere I have been before, and well-worth the time and money!

3 people or less: 18.5 (your choice of entree, 5 course meal with soup, salad, b'stilla royale, and dessert))
4+ people: 20 (with daily specials)
8+ people: 30 (with a huge hunk of lamb - call three days in advance!)

St. Honoré Bakery

My cousin Kate and I took a little jaunt on St. Patrick's Day from PSU to NW Thurman, in pursuit of some bucolic delights at St. Honoré Bakery.

It's an adorable little bakery, well-lit by the afternoon sun, with outdoor sidewalk cafe tables, and edible decor. When first you walk in the door, you are greeted by someone behind the counter. But pay them no mind. Instead, I direct your attention to the pastries and cheesecakes and chocolate slivers peering from inside the glass case.


For lunch, I had a very hard time deciding between the Quiche Lorraine and Jardinere, the Tian Provencal, and the Vol au Vent. I eventually chose the latter. Vol au Vent is a flaky pastry puff, filled with chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, leeks and creamy sauce. It's how I always imagined a flan was, in the Redwall books, until I discovered what a flan really was. I like these better. :)


They brought it to me toasted, which made the pastry crispy. It was almost like a pot pie. I also ordered a cranberry juice. My cousin Kate ordered the soup du jour, as you see pictured up top!

Vol au Vent: 7.2
Cranberry Juice (very small bottle): 3.2

Isabel

After a quick tour of the Ten Thousand Villages fair trade store on NW Everett, I arrived at Isabel - a cafe on 10th and Everett, recommended by a friend -- the awesome woman whose hospitality I'm invading.

It's a great little cafe! It's all windows -- I had a great view facing the Lovejoy Columns courtyard next door. The staff was very friendly - just don't ask them for food suggestions! There are so many good choices, they don't even know what to recommend!

I ordered -- on my first day back of NOT being single -- the Single Happiness dish. Toasty grilled chicken on top of rice, with grilled seasonal veggies, and a side of peanut sauce. The chicken was really tasty, and the spices they flavored the rice with were absolutely amazing. A huge punch of flavor. I used some of the peanut sauce, which had a mild flavor, but mostly just enjoyed it the way they'd cooked it. The veggies were green and yellow squash, broccoli, and sprouts (I adore sprouts!)


I also ordered a Passion Fruit Iced Tea with Lemonade, because it had the longest name, and sounded intriguing. Well, it tasted like iced tea to me, folks! But, so far, nothing that says "passion fruit" in this country actually tastes like real passion fruit.

The meal came with chopsticks. I am afraid I am not quite proficient in chopstick, yet. Ok, ok, worse than not-quite-proficient. It's very hard to get into the snooty food reviewer groove when it seems painfully obvious that your fine motor skills have just flown out the window. So, apologies to anyone who may have been witness.

Single Happiness lunch: 10
Passion Fruit Iced Tea with Lemonade: 2.5

I would highly recommend Isabel. They had some more intriguing dishes that I'll come back to try later (like Spicy Clam Chowder!) The Single Happiness was good, but don't get starry-eyed over the "Passion Fruit" tea -- it's just iced tea!

Mio Gelato

A sunny Saturday morning spent visiting the Japanese Gardens can only be followed by having gelato.

So we went to Mio Gelato, on NE Brazee St. We ordered paninis first, partly because we were hungry, and partly to give us more time to decide which flavors of gelato we wanted! Black Forest Ham, and Chicken. The chicken one had red peppers and avocado -- perfect!

And the gelato. After four different samples and many, many minutes staring at the swirled masses of white and brown and pink and yellow and green delights, I decided on a double-header of Italian Sweet Cream, and Strawberry. The sweet cream was what vanilla usually boasts: light and sweet. And the strawberry -- oh, the strawberry! -- sorbet had real strawberry parts in it! Imagine! :)

Panini: 5.9 (ea)
Gelato: 3-5 (or pints for 7, quarts 14)