Roux: Happy Hour Southern Style

Monday night, being in NoPo, which is just like the South (not really), my friend and I realized we were both hungry, and due to the hour, we stood a good chance of hitting happy hour somewhere. I love happy hour: it allows you to try out a swanky restaurant's offerings without breaking the bank. Roux was just a couple blocks down the street, and I had never been there, so I suggested it. Excellent suggestion!

The happy hour menu is completely different from the dinner menu, and therefore not necessarily representative, but I figure if the happy hour food is good, it's likely that the regular menu is too.

I ordered the catfish and chips, and a mint julep. The catfish was great: breaded with crunchy cornmeal and deepfried, but not greasy. It was accompanied with "tartar" sauce, but it was unlike any tartar sauce I had ever tasted before, which, I must say, was a huge improvement. Usually, I'm not a big fan of tartar sauce, but this stuff was great. It was thicker than usual, and of a yellow hue. It was studded with herbs, although I really couldn't tell you which, as it was fairly subtle. The common, overpowering dill flavor was absent. The french fries were, well, soggy, in a word.

I enjoyed my mint julep, but as I've never had one before, I have no basis on which to judge it. But I liked it.

Margaret had a shrimp Po' Boy. I had a bite, and sort of wished I had ordered it. It was really good. A delicate baguette stuffed with deep-fried shrimp, lettuce, and various accoutrement. It sounds heavy, but wasn't.

Ingrid ordered a salad, which I didn't taste, and don't know the details of, but her comments sounded generally favorable, and included such descriptions as "garlicky."

We ordered bread pudding for dessert, and it was very good: very moist, sweet, and studded with fruit. A dollop of whipped cream garnished the top. Two thumbs up.

So that's the story. I enjoyed Roux, and would like to go back again for actual dinner.

Roux

1700 N. Killingsworth

Portland, OR 97217

503.285.1200

Yay for CSA!

Alex and I joined a CSA ("Community Supported Agriculture"), Hood River Organic, to be exact. It's pretty exciting, we get a box full of seasonal produce every two weeks. We got our first delivery last week, and it included a loaf of bread, farm-fresh eggs, turnips, mixed greens, spinach, potatoes, button mushrooms, sunchokes, and crimini mushrooms.

Each box is a surprise, and it will force me to eat things I wouldn't normally buy, such as sunchokes.
The price really isn't that bad, especially split between two people: $299 for ten boxes. You can choose to have it delivered either every week, or every other week. There are many CSAs in the Portland area, but I chose this one because 1) it delivered, and 2) it provided more variety than just produce--you might get bread, or eggs, or cheese in addition to fruits and vegetables. Everything is locally produced, I think the farthest it comes from is Seattle, and most likely organic, even if it hasn't been officially certified. So I'm pretty excited about it.
Check out Hood River Organic.

Easter Brunch with a Worldly Lady

My friend Megan (of Mlle Megan) was in town over Easter weekend, so we made a plan to go out for brunch then do a little shopping. I asked around, and the consensus was the Heathman was the place to go. I made reservations, which was definitely a fortuitous decision, because when we arrived, the place was packed.
We started off with a sampler of oysters and champagne. I never realized before how different various oysters could be, but comparing them side by side, taste by taste, it was obvious. All were so delicious, we decided to order a second plate.


After all that decadence, it was time to order an actual breakfast. I went the traditional route, with brioche french toast. It was quite possibly the best french toast I've ever had: thick, eggy brioche topped with sliced bananas, a dusting of powdered sugar, and maple syrup.







Megan continued the decadence with creamy panna cotta topped with sliced strawberries, slivers of basil, and a balsamic vinegar hinted sauce.
Plus, since it was Easter, everyone got Hot Cross Buns: spicy with candied citrus and crossed with a lightly sweet frosting.

Shopping didn't go quite as planned, as the only stores open were Banana Republic, Anthropologie, and Powell's (although who can complain if Powell's is open? I can't.), but brunch was so delicious it totally made up for it, and it was a lot of fun finally hanging out with my friend.

I Promise I'll Update This Soon

I was out of town on vacation last week, and just got home late Friday night. I took lots of interesting food-related photos, and I promise I will upload the full story soon. But, (sorry to use a tired cliche') as soon as I landed back in Portland, I hit the ground running, and haven't had a chance to relax and catch up. I'm tired. But it will happen soon. I swear.

Breaking in the New Table and a Word About Wine

As some of you know, I recently bought a new dining set. My friend Alex did the majority of the heavy lifting, saving me from an imminent melt-down. Once I got everything put together and uprighted, it was time to put it to use. So last week Alex came over and we cooked dinner. Here's the result:

• Spinach Salad ala Il Fornaio (spinach, bacon, ricotta salata cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, walnuts)
• Mint and Asparagus Frittata
• Crusty Bread
• Chilean Chardonnay*

Everything turned out really well, I'm pleased to say.

*A little opinionation on wine: yes, yes, everyone pooh-poohs chardonnay, just as is beginning to happen with merlot. But I really don't think it is fair to demote entire varieties of wine just because they became excessively popular at one point that every Tom, Dick, and Harry winery grew and put out a chard or merlot regardless of whether they ought to or not (i.e. yucky wine), and that it had such a mass appeal as to become totally uncool.
Just as in everything else, you have to be selective. There are good and bad of every variety. In fact, several months ago, there was an article in Bon Appetit discussing chardonnay, encouraging drinkers to give it a try again. The chardonnay we had was really nice and light.
And, just for the record, I had quite possibly the best glass of wine of my life Saturday night. What was it? A merlot. But seriously, I cannot emphasize enough how good it was. So don't turn your nose up at these just because they have (or had) mass appeal. Go past the masses, and find a little corner for yourself.

A Delicious, Easy Recipe

Chinese Broccoli with Sausage and PolentaI made this for dinner last week, and as it is super easy and really good, I thought I would share the recipe with you. I made a couple of adjustments though: instead of chinese broccoli, I used broccolini, and I also substituted chicken sausage for the pork to make it a little less fatty. So here's the recipe, courtesy of Epicurious.com:

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 45 min

Servings: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients
2 lb Chinese broccoli, thick ends trimmed

For polenta
6 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups polenta (not instant) or yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan

For sausage and garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, casings removed
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Cook broccoli:
Cut broccoli stems diagonally into 1-inch pieces and coarsely chop leaves. Cook stems in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about4 minutes. Stir in leaves and cook 1 minute. Drain in a colander, then rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Do not squeeze out excess water.

Cook polenta:
Bring water with salt to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan, then add polenta in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Cook over moderate heat, whisking, 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer polenta, covered, stirring for 1 minute after every 10 minutes of cooking, 45 minutes total. Stir in butter, cream, and cheese and remove from heat.

Sauté sausage and garlic while polenta cooks:
Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté sausage, stirring and breaking up meat into large pieces with a spoon, until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a plate. Reduce heat to moderate, then cook garlic in skillet, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes.

Add broccoli and cook, stirring and scraping up brown bits from bottom of skillet, 2 minutes. Return sausage to skillet and toss with greens, salt, and pepper. Serve over polenta.

--Gourmet | February 2003

Escape From New York

It's kind of like the Soup Nazi of Portland. No cell phones, cash only, and occasionally, attitude. But damn, the pizza's good.

I feel it's time I wrote a review of my neighborhood pizza joint, Escape From New York. High time, in fact. Long overdue. I've been going there for the last couple of years. Nothing fancy, they usually have 3 or four options: always pepperoni, always cheese, and usually a mushroom or olive variety (tonight it was a mix), and occasionally one other, sometimes with meat, usually not, though. Supposedly, it's a lot like the pizza you would actually get in New York City. I've only had pizza in New York City once or twice, and neither time it was like Escape's, but I have a feeling I didn't go to an authentic place. Whatever.

At Escape From New York, the pizza is floppy and traditional; you won't find goat cheese or barbeque chicken here. It's pepperoni, cheese, sausage, peppers, etc. You get the idea. I've tried pepperoni (numerous times), Hawaiian, mushroom/olive variety, and a veggie combo. All were good. Many people love the plain old cheese, but I've never tried it. The atmosphere of the place (although I've never actually eaten my pizza there) is classic. Really, for whatever reason, it reminds me of high school. If I had known how to drive when I was in high school, this totally would have been my place (I frequented Oasis on Hawthorne, and the now-defunct Famous Bobs at that point in time). Also, somehow, it reminds me of the 80's. I love it.

You will often get a healthy dose of attitude here: once, I realized at 10:00 p.m. that I hadn't had dinner yet, and pizza sounded great, so I called to make sure that they were still open. Their reply: "Yeah, we're still open. We're open until eleven." As in duh, I should have known.

I think they recognize me there. I like that. It makes me feel like a regular, like I live in a real city.
As a sidenote, beer, wine, soda, and Manhattans go much better with the pizza than martinis. I found that out tonight. So, unless you are from the suburbs, I highly encourage you to frequent Escape From New York. It makes me happy.