"Postcards from Portland" - Biscuits, Beer & Books

Postcards from Portland - Biscuits, Beer & Books

Thanks for tuning in to my "Postcards from Portland" series documenting the delights this pacific northwest city has to offer. 

Portland Day 1 consisted of, as the title lends itself to, a day full of culinary and literary delights...plus new friends made along the away.

We (the hubby and I) arrived in Portland late on a friday night. We checked into The Nines, and decided to head upstairs for a drink and bite to eat at Departure, which is ironic, since we had just arrived. Departure is a posh little spot perched on the top of The Nines Hotel, boasting modern Asian cuisine, and a late-night happy hour menu - specials on drinks and small plates, which can be found in a variety of locations throughout the entire city (the late night happy hour that is). 

With full bellies, and a night of good sleep, we were set to embark on day 1 of our Portland adventure.

We started the day off in search of coffee, Portland style. Feeling a little jet-lagged and trying to get our bearings, we ended up at a Starbucks to our own regret, but we needed the jolt to get things going. Portland coffee would have to come later. 

Coffee in-hand, we headed off in search of the famed Portland Farmers Market. And boy, did it deliver. This farmers market alone, had me won-over and ready to pack my things and move across country.

Here's a few snapshots....

 

After seeing all this...our mouths were watering, but with multiple vendors, how to choose what to eat for breakfast. Well thankfully, I had the opportunity to sit next to a Portland resident on the flight out, who graciously provided a lot of great tips and must-see spots to check-out, and Pine State Biscuits was one of these. (Which happened to have a cart at the market!)

I must say, I've never been crazy over biscuits and gravy (yes, I admit this, even being a full-blooded southerner). However, the Pine Street Biscuits made me a convert. I'm still craving these biscuits and more so, the gravy, weeks after we've arrived home.

On the menu:

I opted for The Reggie - biscuit complete with fried chicken, bacon, cheese and gravy. The hubby opted for The Moneyball - a biscuit (I think there was one on the plate) topped with gravy and an over-easy egg.

Fat & Greasiness...y-u-m-m-y is all I have to say. 

The Moneyball

The Reggie

And before we left the market...a little music to go on the side...

With some food in our bellies and a few extra calories sticking to the ribs, we could set off to explore the beer capital of the world. And when I say that, this is why...Portland has 40+ craft breweries within its city limits. In my books, that makes it the beer capital of the world.

So, we hopped on to the MAX Light Rail, and headed over to Widmer Brothers Brewery. 

Remember the Portland resident I mentioned earlier. Well, this person also happened to be an employee of Widmer, which I'm very grateful to for not only providing us some great tips, but also, for getting us in on a brewery tour Saturday...apparently, these tours fill up fast. 

Widmer was a great way to start out some beer tasting, as well as, beef up our beer making knowledge. 

These 4 massive tanks produce some absolutely delicious beer...

Hops in a bucket

At the end of the tour was a tasting consisting of the Hefeweizen, Citra Blonde Summer Brew, Drifter Pale Ale (my favorite), and the Rotator IPA: Shaddock IPA.

Happy Tasters

After the tour and tasting, we decided to head on over to the Widmer Gasthaus Pub for a couple of more samplings and some grub.

The tasting menu (of our choice) included the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose, Oatmeal Porter, Nelson IPA, Rotator IPA: X-114, and unfortunately, I can't remember the last two. I suppose the the beer already drank might have had an impact, but I do remember that one tasted like pineapple.

Let's just say out of the tastings...the Marionberry Hibiscus Gose was the clear winner. So good, and super refreshing for a beer!

After Widmer, we were off to Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland for the largest Craft Brew Festival in the country. Why, I ever thought this would be a great idea to do on a Saturday has failed to escape me. It sounded good...over a 100 beers at your fingertips, $6 dollars for a mug and $1 per token for samples.

What we realized is that after an hour in line for one beer, we decided that sampling was out of the question, and we would have to fork over 4 tokens for a full glass of Terminal Gravity's IPA.

However in the process, we made some new friends - Kim & Matt - a really nice couple from Wisconsin. 

After all the beer, crowds and heat (75 degrees...what I'm talking about), we decided to check out Henry's for dinner with our new friends. Henry's is located in the Pearl District, in a historic brick building...and of course, they serve beer and good food. This is Portland after all.


After dinner, we set off to explore Powell's City of Books...a book store that literally takes up an entire city block and houses more than 1 million new, used and out of print books. Let's just say the first trip there was a little overwhelming. I didn't even know where to start, so I took photos instead.

After soaking up some literary culture, we, and new friends headed over and up to the Portland City Grill at 111 SW 5th Ave. on the 30th floor, for a nightcap and an amazing view of downtown Portland and the Cascade mountains. 

And that ladies and gentleman was Day 1 of Portland...
complete with Biscuits, Beer & Books.

Stay tuned for "Postcards from Portland" - day 2. 

-Mo Vid

Portland

Portland....is definitely a city with more to offer than 5 days could lend itself to.

About a year ago, the hubby and I decided we needed to check out this happening metro area that prides itself on being one of, if not "the" greenest city, as well as, a land of bridges, roses, outdoor activities galore, music and of course who could forget craft beer and farm-to-table cuisine along with the famed food-truck craze.

That's a lot to pack in 5 days. And, I'll just say this...we need to plan another trip...Or, consider relocation options.

So please stay tuned as I kickoff my "postcards from portland" blog series over the next few weeks, but first here's a snapshot of what's to come:

The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

• 7 Craft Breweries visited, a Craft Brew festival, and I lost count of the # of local brews tried
• A Farmers Market that would make any foodie think they'd died and gone to heaven 
• A snow capped mountain 11,000 feet up and a seaside stroll that was straight out of "Goonies"
• Satisfied (and slightly larger) bellies full with fresh oysters, ranier cherries, figs, biscuits and out-of-this-world gravy, thai style chicken wings and donuts with maple frosting and bacon.
• Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

Stay tuned...

Smyrna Food Truck Tuesday, July 24th

The popular trend has finally hit Smyrna...the food truck craze that is! And oh, how excited was I.

It started 3 weeks ago, but tonight was our first venture out to the Smyrna Food Truck Tuesday in Taylor Brawner Park. Have I ever mentioned, how much I love my little town! If not, let me divert for one second to tell you how awesome this little place I call home is.....

Smyrna has not only put together a food truck event, but they encourage people to walk and bike there. This is one of the reasons we fell in love with Smyrna - it's a city that works on projects that reflect community such as widening sidewalks and creating pedestrian bridges that make it easier to be mobile in something other than a car to get to great events like Food Truck Tuesday or the various festivals in the Market Village.

Ok....diversion over. Back to important stuff like Food Trucks and the food coming out of these kitchens on wheels.

On tap tonight...we opted for Ibiza bites and King of Pops.

Ibiza bites was something of a southern latin fusion that included (from left to right in the pic below):

• Waffle fries with a lemon sauce and maple syrup...yes, I said maple syrup, and believe me the combo may not sound complimentary, but it worked!
• Lobster Mac 'n' Cheese with grilled corn....need I say more. 
• Coconut Fried Chicken with Slaw and Coconut Mango Rice...a little piece of paradise. (Just needed a pina colada or mai tai to top it off!)

And of course the June bug was there to do a little begging....and drooling.

King of Pops...these craft popsicles are pure frozen fruit fabulousness...flavors of choice this evening included Raspberry Lime and Apricot & something...we forgot.

 

Overall, a very enjoyable first Food Truck Tuesday for these Smyrnites and the June bug. We braved the 90+ degrees, but we got to spend some quality time with our neighbors and their new baby; plus we walked there, so the indulgent food was guilt-free...at least that's what I'm telling myself.
 

This weekend we head out to the Food Truck and Craft Beer Mecca...Portland, OR.

Stay tuned for Our Portlandia moments.

-Mo

Thunder & Mint-Raspberry Gin and Tonics

A little clip from our Saturday evening as we listen to some thunder on our deck...

A couple of Minty-Raspberry Gin and Tonics with a twist of lime and M.Ward playing on Pandora while listening to the thunder makes for a relaxing Saturday evening.

Even Juno is braving the Thunder...........

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Need a dose of summer sunshine...for your belly rather than your skin? Try my latest cupcake experiment...Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes.

The Lemon Blueberry cupcake is based on the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake recipe (from the cupcakeproject.com) with the addition of lemon zest from 1 1/2 lemons, and 1 1/2 cup of blueberries. And to top it off, I decided to try what I think would be the ultimate vanilla frosting/icing...a modified version of my Strawberry-like ice cream icing (sans strawberries).

To make, follow the vanilla cupcake recipe link above, and fold the lemon zest and blueberries into the batter at the end before you scoop everything into your cupcake/muffin pans. In my oven, it took about 18 minutes to cook the cupcakes, and my batter produced 18 cupcakes (ironically).

Let cool.

My version of the Ultimate Vanilla Icing:

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 Vanilla Bean
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar

Directions

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Remove/de-seed the black gooeyness from the vanilla bean and add to granulated sugar in a small bowl. With the back of a spoon, break up any clumps of vanilla bean and incorporate it into the sugar. (You basically now have vanilla sugar). Transfer to a mixing bowl.

For info on how to de-seed, the vanilla bean, checkout this helpful video: http://youtu.be/nD3zH-43duA. 

In the mixing bowl, add the butter to your vanilla-sugar combo. With an electric mixer cream the butter and vanilla-sugar combo together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left.

Then, add the completely cooled milk/flour mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. Beat it until it all the ingredients are combined and it resembles whipped cream. If you love lemon, you could always add some more lemon zest, but it's just fine with out it.

Frost your cupcakes before you eat all the icing!

5 month hiatus...

Hello out there. I feel guilty that I haven't blogged in 5 months. Yes, it has been a little too long.
I don't have a good excuse, other than I've been focusing on a lot of different things such as:

• a new job
• trying to work out / run on a more consistent occasion (I'm getting ready to run the Peachtree on July 4th...there may be a little walking involved too.)
• go to bed earlier
• read more
• spend more time with my hubby & the junebug
• not watch so much TV (except for my absolute musts - New Girl and Grimm, which I'm totally in withdrawal from right now)
• oh yeah...and a major overhaul to our yard

Anyway, I think it's time to get blogging again...I still owe some Country Klub Recipes, and I'll be traveling to Portland later this month for some craft beers, good food and time outdoors, so lots to come.

Country Klub

A couple of months ago, with our good friends Traci and Aaron, we decided to spice up our dinner get togethers, and hold a themed dinner around dishes from Spain. It was awesome!

Aaron and Traci made Romesco sauce, which my husband loves (this is an understatement, believe me). We made steak that had a yummy sauce made of orange juice, onions and blue cheese.

Little did we all know that this dinner would spark a culinary journey. After some wine, the four of us decided this needed to be a regular event, and our very own Country Klub was founded. This one however, does not come with membership fees or fancy pants; instead, the only requirement is that you come with a love for food and an a appetite of course!

We created a list of countries/places; put the list in excel and created a randomized sort. This way, it was completely at random as to which place would be next on the list. And so, the journey begins (already began actually).

Here's the list:

Spain

Corsica (Italy)

Polynesia

Japan

Greece

Bangladesh

South African

China

Chile

Mexico

Hawaii

Mongolia

Lebanon

Ethiopia

Australia

Sri Lanka

Switzerland

New Zealand

India

Russia

Serbia

United Kingdom

Germany

....and who knows what will be next on the list.

Next blog post....a recap of Spain, Corsica, and Polynesia.