Celebrating beer writer Fred Eckhardt's birthday for the seventh year in a row while raising money for charity, the annual FredFest at Hair of the Dog Brewing showcased rare and one-off beers from 22 breweries for its 2012 extravaganza. Read on to discover our choices for the 8 most memorable sips from FredFest 2012. More
1970s rock gods Jimmy Page and Robert Plant embodied one characteristic above all else: excess. And the aptly named Egg Zeppelin ($8) at the Fried Egg I'm in Love (sensing a pattern here?) food cart on SE Hawthorne in Portland mirrors its namesake's penchant for overkill with a fat, salty, spicy stack of eggs, sausage, cheese, and hot sauce designed to transform your groans of agony into sighs of delight. More
Slow Bar's massive Slowburger, topped with two fat beer-battered onion rings, is a major value, and very few places in Portland serve a burger and fries of this quality at this price point. It's a shame Slow Bar's chefs can't be more consistent, but it's a risk worth taking. Intrigued? Then you'd better start your mouth-stretching exercises right now. More
A cube of fatty pork belly and several hunks of tender pork shoulder first spend several hours in a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili oil. The meat next undergoes a long braise in a syrup of caramel, garlic, ginger, and chili paste before it's ladled on a bed of steamed white rice. The dish gets a touch of Portland (or is that Portlandia?) with the addition of chopped egg pickled in honey, soy sauce, and star anise. A second egg draped over the pork to allow the yolk to spill over everything beneath it completes the stew and helps nudge it a little closer to the breakfast end of the meal spectrum. More
As part of the company's "Love Bacon? Marry It." advertising campaign, Jack in the Box recently released the BLT Bacon Cheeseburger in conjunction with its thoroughly heinous Bacon Shake. The result? Exactly what you would expect a burger from Jack in the Box to taste like. More
As part of Jack in the Box's recent and mildly disturbing "Love Bacon? Marry It." advertising campaign, the scientists slaving away in the fast food chain's laboratories have concocted a new milkshake that will either have you sprinting to the nearest franchise location or recoiling in horror: the Bacon Shake. More
Kim Boyce, author of the James Beard Award-winning Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours cookbook, recently opened the quaint and cozy Bakeshop in Portland, Oregon. Fans of her cookbook are in luck: Bakeshop sells a number of items from Good to the Grain, including her chocolate chip cookies, Figgy Buckwheat scones, ginger molasses cookies, corn gruyere muffins, and maple pecan granola. Here's a peek behind the scenes. More
There are few ways to get me to review a burger joint in my fair city faster than when someone makes a "best-of" list and includes a place I haven't tried, as was the case when The Oregonian released its list of the top 10 classic burgers in the Portland area. And while Dea's In & Out can't hold a candle to that other In-N-Out, it's that rare 50-year-old institution that still holds up somewhat. More
The key to good pollo a la brasa lies in a salt-heavy marinade and proper cooking on a rotisserie to ensure the tenderness of the meat. There's not enough time for that here (this is a sandwich place, after all), but the grilled hunks of juicy white and dark chicken are still plenty soft with a salty crust. More
Huevos ahogados en caldo de pollo, literally "drowned eggs in chicken broth," seems tailor-made to get you back on your feet after a long and ill-advised night of alcoholic debauchery. As served on the weekend brunch menu by Autentica, one of Portland's premier purveyors of upscale Mexican cuisine, the dish ($10) clears both headaches and sinuses with equal aptitude. More
Anyone with an aversion to salt should probably stay away from this sandwich (and the Lardo cart in general). Gencarelli doesn't shortchange you with subpar bread, either. This is the good stuff: light, airy ciabatta rolls. If you have even a passing interest in sandwiches with piping hot salumi and melted cheese, you'd be remiss to ignore Lardo's take. More
One of Portland's best food carts, Lardo puts out some of the tastiest (and, it should be noted, saltiest) sandwiches in the city. Having sampled a number of these over the past few months, I had to know if owner Rick Gencarelli's Double Burger, at a mere eight bucks, could qualify as one of Portland's best burger deals. The answer depends on how high your standards have been set. More
Veritable Quandary is best known for two things: mega-popular weekend brunches, and crowded weekday power lunches for downtown Portland's movers and shakers. The menu leans heavily toward the upscale: pumpkin mascarpone agnolotti, rabbit pate with roasted brioche, duck confit spring rolls. Probably not the first place you'd think to find a really good burger, but with the kitchen helmed by current chef Annie Cuggino, that's exactly what you'll find here. More
Grinders—named so because of the effort it took to chew through the hard, crusty bread used in the original version—often get overlooked in this day of more inventive, experimental sandwiches. But the Italian Salami grinder from Little T American Baker deserves the spotlight for nailing a perfect balance between quality cured meats and outstanding bread. More
There are a number of ways to describe the muffuletta from Eastmoreland Market & Kitchen. "Oily gut bomb" is one. "Damn delicious" is another. More
Salt. Without it, your precious all-natural grass-fed ground beef is nothing. Nowhere is this more painfully obvious than Dick's Kitchen, a bizarre pastiche of old-school '50s diners, greasy spoons, and upscale sit-down restaurants that works on none of these levels. More
It is extraordinarily difficult for me to pass up ordering anything with porchetta on it when I see that magical word on a menu. There's just something about those fatty slices of succulent, herb-stuffed pork that fills me to the brim with pure, unadulterated joie de vivre. A pity, then, that more of it didn't make its way onto the pan-seared porchetta sandwich ($8) at Laurelhurst Market. More
The double cheeseburger at Metrovino first entered my radar when Nick Zukin, co-owner of Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen, rated it the best burger in Portland. Better than the one at Grüner?, I wondered. To quote the immortal Vizzini, "Inconceivable!" More
Unlike San Francisco or Chicago, Portland is not one of the great doughnut towns. That said, the city still offers some hidden gems for those willing to look beyond the Tang-dusted and Cocoa Puffs-encrusted. Read on to see which glorious circles of dough we crave most in Stumptown. More
Few restaurants in Portland, Oregon, can boast the kind of zealous following of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok. The restaurant recently kicked off the release of its Som Drinking Vinegar line at Portland's House Spirits Distillery, selling the concentrated formulas of Pok Pok's four original flavors to the home market. More
While some apple soda tastes like apple-flavored hard candy, most brands tend to hew closer to the wholesome source fruit than you'd expect. For our blind taste test, we sampled 11 different apple sodas and ranked them. Which one came out on top? More
It's summertime, hot sun's beating down, what do you crave? Ice cream. You've had your chocolates, your vanillas, your mint chips, your rocky roads. And those are fine. They're classics for a reason. But sometimes you want to branch out, try something a little off the beaten path. Maybe a lot off the beaten path. That's where Salt & Straw comes in. More
Most grapefruit soda isn't as pucker-inducing as its namesake fruit, thanks to a decent amount of sugar applied to even out the tartness. We sampled 9 nationally and locally available grapefruit sodas in a blind taste test and ranked them. Did we pick your favorite? More
'Bout time we got him in the hotseat! Great interview, as expected. The candor is refreshing. I like the idea of bloggers writing down the number of visits to a pizzeria in their "reviews"...think I'm gonna have to steal that one. And if this professional pizza-making career should see fruition, well...expect to see me standing in the undoubtedly obscene line to get in.
I've only been once, but on my visit to Artichoke in 2009, the artichoke dip slice was an abomination, and the regular "round" slice was mediocre with a really bad, break-in-half-if-you-try-to-fold-it crust.
Now, the square slice on the other hand...that was fantastic (with the exception of the bottom of the crust being burnt). I think what really made it was the tomato sauce, which was fantastic (at least to the 2009 version of me).
Lovely photo! Romesco is delicious; Toro Bravo in Portland uses it on its burger, and it makes you wonder why more places haven't stolen this idea.
Nice report. I would have visited VT by now if it weren't for its location.
Awesome! Thanks again for doing the grunt work, Kenji. Looking forward to trying this out once I get my wok.
Interesting. I recently used a can of Rao's Italian Peeled Tomatoes for my Sicilian pizza sauce and thought the tomatoes tasted better than just about any other brand--including any brand of San Marzanos--that I've ever tried. Might have just been a really, really good can, but I'm definitely going to use them for my next pizza.
On the rare occasion I buy pasta sauce, I'll be sure to give Rao's a try.
Personally, I find "mouthfeel" very useful in the right situations. As for "toothsome," I've read a lot of food writing lately that used the word to describe the "give" of food as you bite into it, like a perfect al dente noodle, but I can't find any dictionary that corroborates this usage. I think it's just sort of taken on a life of its own in the current food writing zeitgeist, and honestly, I think it works fine in the situation described above.
@goducks206: Dick's online menu doesn't specify what comes on the burger, but the Deluxes we were given most certainly had mustard on them (not only was it visibly present, but it was impossible to miss on the palate). Whether this was an error on the burger-maker's part or not, I can't say.
Also, suppose most fries are, as you say, soggy and limp. Why does mediocrity have to be rewarded (or at least ignored) if it's shared by the majority?
Driven past them a thousand times and thought, "Hmm...wonder if they're any good? But I haven't read anything about them ANYWHERE so...probably not." [Presses foot down firmly on accelerator.]
Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
I love this series. I'm not familiar with Magic Hat, but I'll definitely seek them out. Thanks, Maggie!
Really cool to see the various results of the Lahey dough, and the take on the Flying Squirrel potato pizza. Great work, everyone!
Great find! I've been looking for a Sicilian slice in Portland for ages. Never would have thought to look here. Looks like it's only available at Happy Hour?
@Sandalman: "I would also suggest that a going to Hubcap and having a regular double cheeseburger is missing the point a little."
If Hubcap requires fancy toppings to mask bland beef, then I would suggest that Ewan's review couldn't be more on point.
Very cool find. Interesting that that blog writer's favorite Portland pizza is Blitz Ladd...
@Bangin': Yeah, goat cheese and American is just overkill. Choose your destiny and stick with it!
To all the goat cheese haters: Have you actually tried it on a burger? Little Big Burger here in Portland has proved that it's a great burger cheese. Cheese should be assertive. Why else would you bother to put it on a burger?
Blueberries on the other hand...I'm gonna need more convincing that those are a viable topping.
Nice! This one looks much angrier, like he's daring you to stick a pizza in his mouth, right before he burns off your hands.
Just tried it last night. Very impressed. Along with their great beer, this is already among my favorite restaurants/taprooms. A pity it's in Hood River.
Last time I hit Podnah's the brisket was perfect. Never had it in sandwich form, though. Look at the beautiful coloring on that meat!
Bummer. St. John's could really use some good pizza. Wonder if Contadino is any good.
This looks awesome. Wonder how flights to Montreal are looking this time of year...
I don't mind it, but like mfrapp said, it's not present on the best pizzas. But if it'll help a slice joint get my slices to me faster, sure, use it.
Of all the things I've had at Sunshine, I've yet to try any of the sandwiches. I've heard good things about their fried chicken, though, so this looks pretty great.
My favorite part about Sunshine Tavern is their late-night happy hour, particularly the excellent $5 olive pizza. And of course, the soft-serve honey ice cream from Fifty Licks is phenomenal. Hungryhippo, I actually find the shell very distracting from the flavor of the ice cream. Give it a try unadorned sometime!
@egadman: I'm always a bit dismayed about how little attention our Portland/Seattle reviews get. I guess Serious Eats still has a lot of room to grow up here in our corner of the country. I try to tell everyone I know about it, and I mention my reviews on PortlandFood.org, so hopefully I'm making some progress. Hey, last year there weren't even enough people to hold an International Serious Eats Day event here, and this year we already have three non-Serious Eats folks RSVP'd to come, so that's a start!
As for Nostrana, I too haven't been in over a year, so I can't say for sure what the current state of their pizza is. I do know that the last time I went (July of 2010) the pizza was a marked improvement over my first visit, with the exception of the terrible Margherita (the mozz broke down into ricotta, which I've read has happened to a number of other people there as well). Might be due for a re-visit.
There are burgers, and then there are burgers. The one served at this classy German-inspired eatery is arguably the best in Portland. More
@eatitatlanta & atmast: Have you seen Kenji's take on Sicilian? Or do you want something even airier than that?