Oui, Oui

Fruit Tartlet, $3.75
 I’m on a me kick. This entails a Facebook hiatus, yoga, lots of daydreaming about Paris and the French countryside, a New York Times Bestseller, writing and as much park and Ipod time as possible. I had a dream I was in Paris the other night . . . then I listened to French music and coincidentally enough I posted on my Facebook—pre hiatus—that I wanted to go in September. You won’t guess what happened next, suddenly I found myself in front of Petit Provence. So I took it all as one big sign that I must have a Fruit Tartlet and guess what? I was right; I was supposed to have a tartlet.

La Petite Provence gives the Oregonian the perfect boulangerie fix and for a reasonable fair. Their breakfasts are large and rich and their homemade pastries are out of this world, or at least out of the states. Allow me to digress; I have trouble making decisions. I spent over 30 minutes in Powell’s today deciding which color August to August day planner to buy. I am that crazy woman walking back and forth, away for a moment and then back again, pacing the shelves, trying to make a simple decision. I almost always walk away feeling regretful.

So you can imagine my dismay tonight when the dessert choices at La Petit Provence were endless. Finally, with a little guidance I choose the Fruit Tartlet. I did not regret. I ate each bite slowly, savoring the plump blueberries, sweet strawberries and custard filling; adoring the gelatin over glaze and buttery crust. I even licked my fingers clean of the last few crumbs on my plate.

If for anything else, maybe you’re gluten free or something (I’m getting annoyed of you people), go to Le Petite Provence so that you can sit in their beautiful boulangerie, which they’ve clearly spent tons renovating. Sit next to the open windows and forget you are on the most gentrified street in Portland. Forget you have work tomorrow, that you spilled wax all over your tile floors and that you have 3lbs to lose. Sit, breathe and eat pastries. 

Forget Taco Bell

Al Pastor Taco, $1.25
The only way to end a night of drunken messiness is with a hardy meal, before passing out makeup and all. For awhile this meant weekend trips to the McDonald’s walk up window and then driving a cab through Taco Bell--which was obnoxiously expensive--but anything to get your fix. Dante’s Pizza is of course in there plenty of times and I often stay away from VooDoo Doughnut because of that story I told you about where I ate an entire bucket of doughnuts. A new found favorite was just discovered and if you knew about this and didn’t tell me, I officially dislike you.

I might be super late on this one, but I was introduced to Taqueria Las Piedritas, on NW 4th and Davis St. Friday night. Taqueria Las Piedritas: a lone midnight taco cart, serving a short menu of classic Mexican, including fresh tacos with homemade corn tortillas for $1.25 and massive burritos for $4.50. Why have we been supporting Taco Bell when this place existed? I’m ashamed. The Al Pastor Tacos were incredible and the homemade tortillas were so fresh. You don't even need to feel guilty, because unlike the Tachos I inhaled  last night this midnight snack is fresh fresh fresh! See you there tonight?

Food Cart Frenzie

Summer To Do List

• Drink champagne for no reason at all
• Read in the park
• Eat raspberries, cherries and nectarines
• Buy a Digital SLR camera for you ;)
• Eat from a new food cart every week

Khao Man Gai, $6
 Her name is Nong and she serves traditional Thai street food. Apparently the streets of Bangkok are filled with venders selling Khao Man Gai (rice and chicken). Don’t be fooled by its simplistic appearance—Khao Man Gai is some serious cart food. Nong poaches a whole chicken and then with its carcass creates a Thai seasoned broth in which to cook the rice. The meal is complimented with Pungeon sauce: pureed soy beans, ginger, garlic, chilies, vinegar and dash of sugar. It’s served with few sprigs of cilantro, slices of cucumber and a small bowl of light, lemony soup to balance out the meal.

 

This little cart on SW 10th and Alder creates quite the stir, with constant lines, even aside from lunch rush hour. Her one item menu has even been recognized by Gourmet.com and the Oregonian votes it in the top 8 of carts. If you haven’t yet explored the SW carts, this is a perfect place to start.

Doughnut Pool Party: Tonalli's Doughnut's and Cream

Deep dark secret: last summer, the students drove me to eat an entire bucket of doughnuts. I know, sick right? I couldn’t eat a doughnut for six months and ever since Voodoo Doughnuts kind of make me weary. But my doughnut eating days are back and in perfect time for school and iced coffees. I'm a huge doughnut fan--probably my biggest vice is binge eating doughnuts. Confession: I used to go to church for the doughnuts. Most recently I have fallen in love with Tonalli's Doughnuts.

Tonalli’s Doughnuts and Cream is a family owned (Roosevelt Roughrider family coincidentally) doughnut and ice cream shop. They began on  Alberta and stuck through when they could have easily been pushed out by some $3.00 fancified doughnuts. Lucky for us, they’ve pushed through and have even expanded to a store on N. Lombard (Yay doughnuts at work daily!). The N. Lombard store looks pretty . . . hmm, how to do I put this . . . sketch? But in all seriousness, both doughnut shops offer incredibly tasty doughnuts that are fresh, fresh, fresh. This is your classic doughnut shop, stocked full with every imaginable variety and for .75 cents apiece it feels like stealing . . . Their cake doughnuts literally melt and I mean melt in your mouth.Their maple bars and twists are light and fluffy and their cake doughnuts glazed to perfection. Try their doughnut holes too.

  

 

Came across this blog post: Holy Foods with a fabulous overview of Portland Doughnuts: live it, learn it, love it.

It's True, I've Never Been to Pok Pok

You know those restaurants you can’t stop hearing good things about and you spend months thinking/planning a time to go, but it just doesn’t happen and then suddenly you’re the elephant in the room who hasn’t been? But by this time, you feel like you can’t even go, because everyone has hyped the place up so much that the food is supposedly better then sex and it’s just never going to be as good as anyone has made out to be and so you find yourself, a food blogger, avoiding a very, very good thing, for very, very bad reasons. Welcome to my Pok Pok situation.

Saturday night, my two fake sisters were in town and what a better occasion to do it up. We made reservations for 6 at 6, I wore my new strappy wedges that make me oh so tall and I anticipated my virginal Pok Pok meal for count em’ 3 days.

We left all decisions in the hands of our waiter (smart choice) and as each dish was brought out, he explained in detail the ingredients and how to eat each item. I was too excited though and I couldn’t take pictures, comprehend ingredients and eat all at once, so I sat dumbfounded for a moment or so and then just started grabbing food as fast as I could, because as it goes with family style—when its gone, it’s gone.

The food was exquisite, the flavors unique and bursting with spice. I started with a special cocktail, made with mango infused vodka and coconut milk; it was like a very mellow version of a piña colada straight up. The Khao Soi Kai, a delicious soup had a bone-in chicken leg and thigh in it, with the meat literally melting off the bone into the broth. Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings were as good as everyone describes them— spicy, garlicky and yet caramelized with a hint of sugar. The Kuung Op Wun Sen— gulf prawns cooked in their shell with pork belly, soy, ginger, whiskey . . . had too many ingredients to even doubt their prestige. Everything was like nothing I’d ever tasted.

The table favorite was the Muu Paa Kham Waan—boar collar meat smothered in garlic, coriander root and pepper, and then glazed with soy and sugar, grilled and served with a spicy chili-lime-garlic sauce. We paired the small slices of meat with sticky rice. They serve you mustard greens covered in crushed ice to chew on post spice.
 

We ended the meal with two desserts: the Coconut Ice Cream Sandwich—ice cream made with coconut and pieces of jackfruit (a mango/papaya tasting fruit) a top a sweet bread and drizzled with chocolate syrup and the Pok Pok Affagato—condensed milk ice cream drizzled with Vietnemese coffee and served with two homemade doughnuts.

Anticipation equaled about 3 days and some odd hours. The meal was prepared in about 40 minutes and it was consumed in about 10. Brilliant, delicious, can’t wait to go back, relax and enjoy it all again.

Burger Bust: 23/Hoyt

$5.00 Happy Hour Burger
23/Hoyt went through a little makeover since last summer and this “new American tavern” now offers a $5.00 happy hour burger, which is to die for. Their burger is made with fresh ground beef from Strawberry Farms, white cheddar, aioli on a brioche bun. I’m not sure exactly what makes this burger so delicious—perhaps it’s the white cheddar and brioche bun, making it sweet and savory. The beef is tender and well seasoned and cooked excellently medium rare.

If you are into happy hour burgers or burgers in general, 23/Hoyt should definitely be on your radar. However, be fair warned, their staff needs a straight attitude check. I just called to double check their beef resource and the beezy’s attitude almost just got her Mangia cut! Sit outside so you don’t have to deal with people that think they are the ish for working on 23rd. Ok, now I’m just pissed—but seriously their burger is bomb, so you should try it.

Elephant Ears and Beer

I may have been more excited about the elephant ear than the beer Friday night at Zoo Brew (don't judge). Nothing compliments a beer buzz more than fried dough, melted butter and loads of cinnamon and sugar. When life takes some unexpected turns, you just need to sit back and eat an elephant ear. A staple to the Portland Zoo.

June marks the beginning of elephant ear season—zoo trips, Rose Festival, Saturday Market, Oregon State Fair (etc). Although it feels like summer may never come this year . . . at least we have elephant ears to make us think that summer is in the near future.

For beer enthusiasts, a copious amount of breweries offered tastings- 50 to be exact. You also had the option to purchase more tokens for, yes you guessed it, more beer. There was so much beer, I witnessed four people fall on their faces, including a dear bestie of mine (love ya!). Still, nothing warmed me as much as that elephant ear- hot, crispy, doughy goodness.

 

Do yourself a favor; celebrate the beginning of summer with one of Portland's finest treats, the elephant ear. You won't get enough.

Ken’s Artisan Bakery Pizza Mondays

Arrabiata Pizza $13.00

A few weeks ago I went on a little pizza date. You know when you haven’t had pizza in like 5 days and suddenly you can’t stop thinking about it and even boxed pizza seems like it will suffice? But then you realize that you will spend $5 on a frozen pizza, which is practically 2 slices of good pizza . . . ok, so now you understand my eternal pizza struggles.

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I happened to remember that Ken’s Artisan Bakery on NW 21st makes pizza’s in their brick oven every Monday evenings! I have wanted to try Ken’s Artisan Pizza for quite some time, but every venture to SE leaves me undetermined to wait over an hour.

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We walked in and were seated right away. Shhh, we don’t want all those SE folk knowing our Ken’s ‘no wait secret.’ We ordered two pizza’s; the Soppressato Pizza, with tomato sauce, spicy soppressato, fresh mozzarella and basil and the Arrabiata Pizza, with tomato sauce, hot Calabrian chilies, mozzarella and basil. The Arrabiata was topped with a small dish of sea salt and dried chilies. Both were delicious; the crusts were crispy and the sauce tasted just as it does in Naples.

So currently I’m feeling really torn. When it comes to Italian style pizzas, I've been a Nostrana’s girl, but after trying Ken's, I'm realizing that Nostrana's has some serious competition . . . I’m undecided as to who’s pizza is better. What do you think??

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Happy Graduation Roosevelt Seniors!

My nostalgia about the Seniors graduating is in full force, so I decided to buy a school lunch today and spend one of the last lunch periods with Roosevelt's soon to be graduates. If you were somehow unaware of what we are serving youth these days, look very carefully and tell me if that chicken is from a bird.

FYI, PPS is still using Styrofoam plates and those pears are covered in high fructose corn syrup and cinnamon! YUM! The plate may taste better than most entrees. However, they out did themselves with the fried spicy chicken nuggets and the cornbread was *fire.*

Can I just rant for hot second? Roosevelt HS serves a population where 76% of the students receive free or reduced lunch—meaning many students are eating meals at school for not one, not two, but three meals a day!!! And this is what we are serving them?! Believe you me, this is not the first time I’ve thought about the issue and if the staff wasn’t dealing with the districts highest teen pregnancy rates, dropout rates at 50% and mental and social health issues on an hourly basis, we may be able to get together and boycott the fair.

  Sriracha hot sauce to cover up the taste of almost anything.

Until then, cheers to school lunches and to the 2010 graduates who have eaten Nutrition Services food for the past 12 years of their lives. We love you!