Portland, Oregon

A snapshot of my collection of memorabilia from our Portland adventures, starting with Easter, Powell's books, Stumptown Coffee Downtown(see more pics here), Mother's Bistro and Bar,where we had the famous french toast encrusted in corn flakes.  Oh so good. Habibi Lebonese food for lunch.  We went here while shopping, and had a tremendously delicious meal, very inexpensive, and particularly good.  Turn's out their second location was a block from our hotel, Doc Martens, such a Portland natural.  Random Order Coffeehouse and bakery makes incredible and award winning pies.  It's a coffee house in the true sense of the word.  Vintage clothes shopping, my favorite is Lulu's.  A couple other fun places, with an interesting twist:  Lulu's- upscale vintage clothing, super nice and informed staff(owners) and Kirsty's nickname, Lulu and SaySay- trendy clothing boutique and Sarah's nickname, also a fun shop, with the owner as sales staff.

Stumptown is Portland.  It's so Portland.  Awesome coffee, sassy atmosphere, stripped down, but elegant.  Fancy, yet not pretentious.  Dependable and yet sassy.  That's our hotel across the street.  Everywhere in town sells Stumptown coffee.  It's delicious and a mainstay for grey days.

As much as these are unique bikes, they are typical in Portland.  Utilitarian, yet customized.  Definitely a free spirited and energized vibe.

Crazy.  Not sure what this one is designed for.  Just because?  Note the poster on the ground.  I think it was celebrating the 100th year of the Titanic.

 Really enjoyed the bikes in town.  Here's another special one.  Be line pdx is a zero carbon emission delivery service and advertising all based on these tricycles.  Awesome!  That battery is for a little assist if needed.  What a blast to work for this company.  They've partnered with big and small companies like Whole Foods and Office Max, as well as local bakers and others.  Another fascinating area they are addressing is delivering donated perishable food to food banks and shelters.  Wow.  Talk about making a difference.  It's pretty exciting, and seems like such a natural in Portland.

Tim Abby Mike Bailey's Tap Room, Portland

timabbymike, originally uploaded by timmerbrew.

It was so much fun to see Abby and Mike in Portland. Such great people, and so nice to come into town to take me around, and share their fine city and some of it's great establishments with me! This was one of the highlights. Bailey's tap room.

Bijou Cafe, Oatmeal and Fruit

Here's another really fun place I went to in Portland.  First, this town has quite the personality, and this restaurant embodies the 'vibe'.
Okay, here comes my signature jib jab.
So, I am walking down the street, to go there, and here's what I come across.  There's these - I will call them - trailers, sitting in a corner pay parking lot.  They seem like 50 year old converted camping trailers, turned roach-coach/food truck.  They aren't the all stainless food truck type thing, but more the corrugated siding style of the 60's camper trailer, with the fold up sides, enabling the 'store front' or service front.  So, they are all lined up, virtually touching each other like cars parked in a parking lot.  Each has a sign, offering food, like Thai, or hot dogs, or Indian, or vegetarian, or what have you.  It's like this totally ad hoc idea, yet structured.  It's easy to see personality in each little place.  Everyone doing their own thing, yet somehow finding a community theme.  I wonder, and bet, the food in these things are great.I think these are the ones I saw.

So, anyways, I am cruising over to Bijou Cafe and next I see this totally cool building with neon lights coming diagonally out from the corner of the building- again, maybe a 50's - 60's sign - something like outdoor Portland - a sporting goods place.  Neon lights are so, um, unconventional for a sporting goods joint!  Yet, cool.  So, next to that is like a little local grocery store, a place to get your nails done, and in the middle of it all, a strip joint.  I am thinking, wow, way to not make a big deal out of it.  I just find it so interesting.  The tolerance for it all....  It seems to be the Portland way.  Passion and ,compassion.  Which takes me to Bijou Cafe.  I can feel my whole self smiling as I walk in the door.  It's casual, comfortable, original, and somehow, I can feel the passion.  There's a comfortable confidence with my wait person, setting me up with a cappuccino.  So, I can see they have jazz performances... It's all totally cool.  I see another guy having the oatmeal, which looks incredible.  How, you wonder?  Well, its got nuts and fruit in it.  So, I find it on the menu and it's toasted filberts, and some specialty raisins, sliced apples, pears and bananas with some special kind of brown sugar.  So, yeah, fresh grapefruit juice and oatmeal and awesome coffee.  So, she brings it to the table, and everything - I can see the attention to detail.  The filberts are perfectly toasted.  Dry, and seriously tasty.  The raisins!  Even the raisins have this bursting with sweet, sour flavor, and of course the fruit is all organic-type stuff.  And the brown sugar has some deep brown color.  I am sure, again, something special.  And then, they even asked me what kind of milk I wanted.  Okay, maybe a surprise, I like non-fat.  
So, anyways, here's our version at home.  It's Bob's Red Mill Organic Whole Grain Steel Cut Oats, mixed roasted salted nuts (walnuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios)  bananas, blueberries, apples sliced thin and yeah, skim milk.  The coffee cup is another story, and also from Portland, and it is Polish pottery from the Polish Pottery Place.  It's not much of a website, but a great store, and loved the woman who runs it.  It's in her house, just off of 23rd, about half way down.

Tomato Basil Coconut Soup

I am trying to replicate a delicious bowl of soup I had in Portland, at a French bakery/patisserie called St Honore.  Holy smoke, it was exactly what I was looking for, after eating 'travel' food for the previous couple days - it was one of those dishes that just goes beyond expectations.  I saw tomato basil soup on the board, and didn't even notice the coconut...  So, when it was served, and I tasted it, wow!  It was so rich and healthy tasting, the coconut seems to neutralize some of the tomato acid, and makes such an awesome flavor.  It's a big robust flavor, for a tomato soup.  Mmmm.

So, here's what I am trying.  I haven't tasted it yet, but it smells good!

1 red onion, chopped
1/4 c olive oil (or less.  I didn't use this much)
1 can 28 oz Organic Tomatoes (Trader Joes)
2 tsp oregano (dried - didn't have fresh)
20 sprigs of fresh thyme (stripped from stems)
2 bay leaves
bunch basil leaves (roll up and slice thin)
1 14 oz can coconut light milk (Trader Joes)
16 oz vegetable broth (1/2 box - Trader Joes - DO NOT USE the Hearty version)
1/4 c shredded medium coconut
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in olive oil.  Add tomatoes, bay leaves, oregano.  Simmer for 20 minutes.
Add coconut milk, basil and coconut.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Blend in blender, 2 -3 cups at a time.
Garnish with slivers of basil leaves and coconut.

For next time:

Try toasting the coconut.  Try Thai basil.  Pinch of kitten hair.  Preferably Bingly.

Kirsty made this incredibly delicious salad to go with.  It's greens, goat cheese, toasted walnuts, and red beets.  She makes the dressing too, so I will have to check in on what goes into it.  The whole meal was so perfect for dinner.  Yes, the soup was awesome.  I added the coconut little by little with the intent to mellow the tomatoes.  I don't think I got to a full 1/4 c, and it seemed to release more of its sugars as it simmered.  In the end, it was so good, and I would even go so far as to say- it was as good as St. Honore!