Smallwares Brunch

Smallwares describes itself as "inauthentic Asian." Not sure what this means, but the menu looked intriguing, friends who have partaken there have raved, and it's within walking distance of my house. Reviews of the brunch menu from the likes of Willamette Week and Portland monthly emphasized its innovation and departure from the typical greasy eggs, bacon, and so on. Yes, they serve eggs and bacon, but in a wholly different context.
So, I've been dying to try Smallwares, and brunch seems like a less risky manner to experience it--less likely to put down the big bucks than you would at dinner, so Derek and I tried it out this morning. Happy results below:

First item to arrive: fruit salad.

This was not the typical boring affair of semi-ripe, maybe sour chopped fruit in a cup. Instead, we found pineapple, banana, strawberry, and orange bathed in coconut milk and topped with "cornflake clusters." A bright burst of kaffir lime hits your tongue first with a pleasant, exciting surprise. "Cornflake clusters" are basically the Frosted Flakes of your dreams, but clumped into little crunchy bits. This was a truly great fruit salad.

Next up: Congee

This came with an egg (brunch requirement?) but Derek stirred everything up before I could snap a photo. But it was a delicious congee, with traditional Chinese sausage, an egg yolk, a healthy handful of cilantro, and a savory granola sprinkled on top for crunch. Delicious.

 We ordered a couple of sides as well: fried smoked potatoes, and a shrimp sausage patty. Both were well received.

The potatoes were a dish of smokey awesomeness. Smothered in a buttermilk sauce that was creamy, but not heavy, and topped with generous sprinkle of shredded horseradish and green onions. The horseradish was very flavorful, but surprisingly not spicy. No sinuses cleared here.

Finally, the shrimp sausage patty. It was definitely sausage, and made either entirely of shrimp, or mainly of shrimp, with a minimal amount of  pork to bind; it wasn't clear. But regardless, Derek described it as very "shrimpy." He meant that in a good way. Nice delicate texture, and doused with a sweet-salty sauce and green onions. It was also a winner.

The only items that weren't so remarkable were our beverages. Don't get me wrong, they were fine, but I guess since all of the food was so interesting we expected the drinks to be innovative and full of exciting or unexpected flavors as well. Derek ordered a Kimchi Bloody Mary (pictured above). He said it was a solid Bloody Mary, but that the kimchi flavor wasn't especially obvious or distinguishable. Also, he said that there was so much ice in the glass that there was not actually much of the drink to be had. I ordered the Mimosa of the day, which happened to be mango. It was a Mimosa; it was fine, but that's all there is to that. No special flair or anything. That said, the evening cocktails DO look exciting, and I want to try them.

Brunch there was a nice change of pace in terms of interesting flavors not usually to be had on a Portland brunch menu (unless you go out for dim sum, of course), as well as the lack of gut bomb grease fests that brunch usually involves. Also, it seemed that plates were shareable or not, your call. We shared, and would recommend everyone do so, in order to sample all of the interesting flavors and combinations. Overall, very enjoyable. We both definitely want to go back, to try brunch again and sample other dishes, and to also taste dinner items and the evening drinks, all of which look fantastic. Smallwares gets a thumbs up from me.