I really do try and not go on too much about the city I live in, on the other hand - it's spring, and love is in the air. Please visit, but don't stay - is how most Oregonians want it. We'd rather not have a traffic problem like big cities often do. The weather, despite rainy days (you do grow to love them) is really quite pure Pacific Northwest: refreshing, temperate, clean.
The residents are not the most diverse of people, but they are laid back and yet passionate about political, social, and environmental issues, you know - those topics that if you have kids, you become passionate about. The geography is extremely lovely with the Cascade range in the background, the valleys with their rivers and wineries, and a nearby ocean chock full of seafood. It's hard not to be in love.
And then, if I could feel for a place anymore, there is the food. The FOOD - oh, if there was any a place to make you drool like a Pavlovian experiment - it's the words "Portland" and "food" in the same sentance.
If you like to cook, there are numerous neighborhood farmer's markets bountiful with organic produce and fun food hunts where you can learn when to pick the biggest chanterelles or go digging on the coast for clams. You can grow vegetables year round since the climate is mild. How are your beans? is an acceptable topic at any party. If you are a "foodie", the Pacific Northwest is home to, as Tony Bourdain says, cook's cooks. Where easy going chefs obsess over the finest ingredients Oregon has to offer.
Portland has lately become is obsessed with affordable street cuisine. Just stop at any of the infamous neighborhood food carts which have been steadily popping up all over the city where you can the finest street food from around the world all made right here, with again - many organic and locally grown ingredients. There are a few charmers like Whole Bowl and Pok-Pok who have taken street food to the dine-in level.
Yesterday, I decided to try out a take-home-and-bake place, you know like Papa Murphy's, but WAY better. While I'm not a bad cook, my passion lies more with savoring meals placed in front of me, rather than the preparing and cooking portion of the process. Much to my joy, my friend Kell (who did teach me how to make a four day marinara sauce) turned me onto a place where you can go and buy premade, uncooked dishes pretty much straight from the purest Italian kitchen Portland has to offer. My latest love is called Taste Unique. For $20, you can easily feed four people. I decided to go simple and order their Traditional Lasagna: We make it like 50 years ago with home made pasta, béchamel, Parmigiano, mozzarella and the best, local grass-fed beef ragu.
So good, I ate it for breakfast the next day.
Located on Division between 21st and 22nd, Chef Stefania Toscano cooks Fresh Pasta, Ravioli, Lasagnas, Cannelloni, Sauces, Cream Pastries and Tiramisu which you can pick up in a matter of minutes, take home and pretend to your husband you slaved all day making. Salty Roman focaccia is baked every hour and all made from scratch using the very best local ingredients and there is something new everyday.
Fresh Cannelloni with Ricotta, Parmigiano and Shitake mushrooms.
Cascade Natural Peppered Roast Beef with Blueberry & Balsamic Vinegar Sauce