I’m not a “snacker.”
Not because I’m not hungry throughout the day (I’m always hungry), it’s just that I’d rather eat a whole meal instead of fiddle with my taste buds, teasing them with salts and sugars. Then saying, “Ok, tongue and belly areas no more! You must wait for meal!” It’s like if I went out with a bunch of drunk, happy, dancing people and only had half a beer. Or like hanging out with a bunch of hot, rich single dudes that all want to make me breakfast and pour me wine and tell me I’m amazing, but I’m there with my mom and we have to go home. See? It just doesn’t work for me. Eat or don’t eat. Measuring raw almonds, and lugging sacks of carrots around to easy the hunger – not so much.
All that being said, I also don’t always order entire menus (as shown on previous posts) for dinner. Sometimes I have normal-people portions too, sometimes. I mean, I have curves. I’m curvy and confident, but I don’t want them to turn into fat tidal waves taking out entire city blocks when I leave my house.
This post is a collection of a bunch of stuff around the city, which I have enjoyed for normal meals.
First, did you know that Teardrop has a killer chef? They does. Did you know that by “killer chef” I don’t mean that he is a hunter-gatherer and brings home the meat or that he is actually a killer. No. He kills it. “It” = making tasty food. So, if he sucked, I would say, “Did you know that they have a motherly chef?” Or something. Is there an antonym to killer? Well, anyway, the menu is diverse and comforting (to most). Moving on. One tasty morsel that I scarf down regularly is the foie gras torchon with blackberry gastrique, microgreens and artisan bread. That’s goose liver, folks. If that scares you – you’re a nut bag. And, NOT a measured snack bag of healthy raw almonds, but more like a ziploc full of all the misfit peanuts that people left in the fancy bowl after they ate the cashews, brazils, hazels and macadamians.
Also, you can’t be my friend until you try it at least once. I would suggest Teardrop because foie can vary like the dickens from place to place and I know it’s good thurrrrr (and if you are there in fall, get the shrimp and pumpkin bisque, shown above). But, um, if you decide that you don’t want to be my friend, don’t tell me, ok? I don’t want to be sad. You can just stop reading my awesomesauce blog and we will call it justice.
The next place I want to share with you is Nuvrei Cafe. A Portland favorite, Nuvrei Bakery has supplied wefts of heavenly baked fragrances out of their basement vents for years. Until recently, all you could do is stand atop the vents, late at night, letting it soak in your clothes and hope that the person you are going home to notices and wants to nibble on you. OR, buy their goods in local places. Now, you can enter their cafe and order things from them, fresh. Croissant sandwiches, a rainbow of macaroons, artisan coffee and bacon cheddar biscuits. Just a few delights to enjoy when you stop by, and be sure to “check-in” on foursquare to the smelly-good vent, it’s on there. ha!
In addition to going out all the time, I hear that you can also buy food for the home. Not sure what that’s about, but here are some occasions where other people tried to show me.
Antipasti anyone!? How in the name of jeebus can you go wrong with salty meats, fatty-wet cheese, herbs and veggies all on one plate!? OH! That’s right; you add olives. You might as well cover the damn plate in pickle juice and whatever other ass-liquid you can find. I managed to pick around the leaking olive juice (that I do not olive juice.. get it?) and enjoyed some mozzarella and sopresatta. Thanks, team.
One thing that I will usually skip over on a menu (besides pickles and pizzle) is French onion soup. I love it. It’s just that everyone seems to think they can tweak it and flip it and play with it and it will still be awesome, and 17 times out of 19 they are wrong! Just make it right. Like this bowl of yumminess my mouth made love to recently. Slow-cooked sweet onions (but still mean enough to make you cry), wine, blah blah blah… garlic, bread, cheese, bake. Eat. The secret is the KISS method (keep it simple stupid).
In addition to pretty, cooked things at home, you can also slap together your own charcuterie. I don’t normally take on such a task, for fear of picking out terrible things, but if someone comes to my door with a surprise brown bag of food, I will certainly take notes. Here, a foie gras torchon, Pierre Robert cheese (try it asap), duck breast proscuitto, heirloom cherry tomatoes and a mini baguette. If any of this sounds good to you, then we should hang out immediately. Otherwise, I’m a fairly busy person, and I wish you the best in life.
I like to eat mussels (a recent development) and North 45 has a great collection on their menu. If you can make it past the smell of fried fish, raw oysters and bivalve steam that clotheslines you when you walk in, then you are in for a treat! Check their menu and eat things! Eat all the things!
I can’t lie to you and say that the gorgeous duck confit leg in the next picture was a normal size meal, it was in fact the starter for the evening. I hung out with this little guy for as long as it took me to inhale two Manhattans and a margarita. Then we went to dinner. That is how we roll. If you want to gobble down some fatty quacker yourself, head to Hotel Modera and grab a table in their restaurant, Nel Centro. If you come to visit me, you should stay at that hotel too. It’s a lovely place and there is much more modern art and way less cat hair than my Pearly apartment.
And, finally, the age-old culinary boner: the pickle.
I hate them. BUT, I still try them whenever possible. This lovely beauty comes from Meat Cheese Bread, and tasted like… a pickle (crappy). I will say, however, that my lunch date did provide his stamp of approval on it, so if you want a swell, salty snack head over and hunker down!
