I’ll do that. Will be back in town Oct 22-25 for a wedding and will likely take a look at what’s new.
Mr Taster
Hey Taster. Welcome to the fucking board.
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Good to see you here. Saw the Fred Armisen/Jerry Seinfeld episode of “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee” and it gave me a major hankering to have a cup of joe in Portland! In the episode, they were at Coava Coffee Roasters.
Fred Armisen is terrible and as much as i love PDX that show sucked…ok, moving on…i do enjoy those seinfeld shows tho!
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a fun spot to go to at night with your partner is the portland city grill, live piano music and great views of the bridges etc…food sort of basic, but drinks and snacks music and atmosphere…a classy different edge to portland from the usual tit spikes and neck tattoos.
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Lol don’t beat around the bush yo. Yeah I thought the episode was weak but I zoned in on Seinfeld’s reaction to the coffee and I was like damn, I gotta get me some!
Snoozer I meant portlandia. But Fred a is terrible. But I love pdx.
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Hi MrTater,
I live 30-40 minutes from PDX . It depends if you ask me or my husband. We moved here about 15years ago from Los Angeles. Unfortunately we do not get to Portland to eat much anymore. We did when we first moved here but I guess we have grown lazy. We like to cook and we like our view so we find it hard to get ourselves to drive to Portland for dinner. For one thing we like to drink and the winding hwy to our house is not a good idea for us after a few glasses of wine but we also find that much of the food in Portland is over-hyped and sort of boring. I will be looking forward to reading your reviews in hopes that it inspires us to get out more. We really need to. I growing mossy. It is not really fair for us to judge the food scene since we do not really participate in it.
I will especially enjoy hearing about any Asian food finds. We occasionally enjoy dim some at Wong King’s. The one on Division. I was told by a waiter at http://vancouver.tasteofsichuan.com/ that the Hong Kong Cafe has the best dim sum in Portland. We have yet to try it. Have you? We had a nice lunch at a place I think called happy something (Happy Chinese?) when it first opened. We ate either mussels or clams and they were very fresh and flavorful. The staff was friendly and the restaurant comfortable. We planned to go back but when we are in the area it is usually to early to eat. It is across the street from Fubonn on 82nd where I sometimes shop. For all I know the restaurant has closed it has been a while since I have been in the area.
People at portlandfood.org seem to like Taste of Sichuan. I was less than impressed. Their dumplings were pretty good, their fish was bad. Do you see yourself eating in Vancouver? If so I would be interested in your views of Tangs Wok. http://www.tangs-wok.com/ You need to ask for the Chinese menu. They call it the secret authentic menu which I find silly and annoying but whatever, They are nice and unpretentious. I think the Chinese menu at the restaurant has more on it than the one online. So far I have tried the beef noodle soup. I liked it in-spite of it having a bit too much sesame oil for my tastes. I would not go out of my way to try it but if you ever find yourself on 164th in Vancouver you might give it a shot. It is across the street from New Seasons. Taste of Sichuan is just up the street if you are interested. Sorry for the rambling…
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Hi snoozebutton
I’ve seen that episode. I, too, find Fred Armisen an oddball, but knowing that Seinfeld also felt that way about him, and found humor in his idiosyncrasies, somehow made him funnier to me. I like the observation that Seinfeld made about Portlandia, which is that none of the quirky characters in the show think that anything they’re doing is funny, and that’s what makes the humor work. It’s kind of the same thing for Fred Armisen, the man.
Coava (the coffee roaster that the episode takes place in) is a quintessential hipster coffee shop in that they utilize under roasted beans that give the coffee what I find to be an unappealing sourness. I’m just not sure why Seinfeld waxes poetic about the stuff. I prefer a properly medium roasted espresso blend, like the ones at Caffe Spella and Caffe Umbria. Caffe Spella is a Portland original, and has been, for a long time now, using a traditional medium roast espresso blend (before the so-called “third wave” of single origin, under roasted sour coffee became so popular). Caffe Umbria came from Seattle, who never seemed to jump on the third wave wagon. On my first visit to Seattle, I was fully expecting to taste their take on the third wave/sour coffee phenomenon, and was pleasantly surprised to find lovely, complex medium roasts everywhere I tried.
Mr Taster
Hi Rainycatcooks
Pleased to meet you. I’ve been to Taste of Sichuan several times, and I’ve mostly enjoyed the dishes I’ve tried there. I like that they have the cold deli case of “small eats” (小吃) which I’d grown used to seeing at my favorite Sichuanese restaurants in Los Angeles. The best restaurants have an extraordinarily broad selection of different “small eats”, and you get to pick 3 or 4 as an appetizer for a relatively low price. I found the dish know (in Chinese) as “water boiled fish” (水煮魚) to be quite good (despite the innocuous-sounding name, it’s boneless chunks of a tender white fish cooked in chili oil, served with cabbage and eaten over rice). I did not like the knife cut noodles, which they have on the menu but is not at all a Sichuanese specialty. The one thing I learned eating regional Chinese specialties- stick with what the restaurant is known for. Menus are often fleshed out with “filler” - dishes that the restaurant doesn’t specialize in or prepare to a Chinese standard of excellence, but is there to try to please people who are looking for something different. If you’re not interested in trying the Sichuanese specialties, I’d go elsewhere. (And yes, I’m looking squarely at you, Taste of Sichuan 小籠包!)
And thank you very much for the recommendation to try out the so-called “secret authentic menu” at Tang’s Wok. I’ll be curious to try it out and talk with the chef, to see where he’s from and what his specialties are.
Oh, and as much as I understand your distaste for the “secret menu” practice, Chinese restaurants do this for a practical reason. Americanized Chinese food is a formula that we have acculturated to. We, as a culture, have a broadly understood interpretation and expectation of Chinese food-- we all know beef & broccoli, General Tso’s Chicken/Orange chicken, sweet and sour pork, egg foo yung, wonton soup. What Americans have not acculturated to, in any kind of meaningful way, is beef noodle soup (which often has slithery, tender strips of tendon, prized by the Chinese), dongpo pork (which has a thick later of skin and fat attached to the meat), and countless other dishes that Chinese restaurants really take a risk on by selling them to people who don’t know or understand the food. Someone who receives dongpo pork and complains about there being too much skin and fat speaks more of their own ignorance of the dish, moreso than the chef’s skill at preparing it. Chinese restaurateurs got tired of throwing away perfectly good food because it wasn’t made to the expectations of beef & broccoli Americans. Eventually, the “secret menu” was born as much as a way of ensuring that Chinese customers, with Chinese expectations, got the food they knew and expected, as much as it was a way to keep out American customers with American expectations from being served something that challenged their cultural understanding and expectations of Chinese food.
So you see, it really doesn’t have anything to do with elitism or preferential treatment-- it has only to do with trying to make the customer comfortable and fulfill their expectations. If you’re ever offered a fork instead of chopsticks, the same rationale applies. They’re trying to meet your expectations-- not make you feel inferior by assuming you’re such a stupid American that you’re incapable of using chopsticks.
The interesting thing happening now is that Americans, in larger and larger numbers, are becoming more educated and adventurous in their dining choices, and are starting to seek out the real stuff. Chinese restaurateurs are still unaccustomed to this-- too many bad memories of perfectly prepared food being sent back to the kitchen. I think we’re in a transitional period now- as regional Chinese food slowly grows in popularity, it’ll be interesting to see in a generation whether the “secret menu” becomes less and less a thing.
Mr Taster
I just looked a bit closer at Tang’s Wok… and, WOW!
The so-called “secret” menu has several Taiwanese specialty dishes, like minced pork over rice and beef noodle soup. I love that there’s another source for Taiwanese food in the area, even if they’re not advertising it as such.
And as an added bonus, Mr. & Mrs. Tang were trained in New York style Chinese cooking! For those who don’t know me, I was weaned on that style of Chinese American cooking-- I still miss those glorious, fat, dark brown eggrolls with the crispy, chewy, blistered skin.
If, at the same restaurant, my Lovely Tasting Assistant™ (LTA™) and I can eat a bowl of beef noodle soup and a side of julienned pig ears, I’ll be one happy lao wai.
Mr Taster
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I am in no way offended by the two menu system. I understand how silly people can be about food they do not understand. I will never understand why people freak out about a whole fish for example. I have many times ordered something and have been told that I will not like it. It is sort of annoying to be put in the situation of having to beg to be served a dish but I realize that they have reason to be cautious.
Unfortunately the beef noodle soup at Tangs did not have tendon it. I really love tendon. I will try the pork dish you mentioned next time. Thanks for the suggestion.
Which Taste of Sichuan did you go too? I did not see a deli case at the Vancouver location. Next time I will try the water boiled fish. I had the spicy black bean one. I did not feel that it was very fresh but I will give them another shot at it.
ETA: I want to make it clear that my make me beg for a dish is not referring to Tangs. The woman who runs it is happy to give me what I call the other menu and she always brings me chopsticks. Tangs does a lot of take out business at lunchtime of the typical American Chinese type dishes. I suspect most of them have no idea about the other menu available and probably do not care.
hello mr taster, did you give up on chowhound? you know me as ritabwh at chowhound.
I actually enjoyed that show - Armisen (and Portlandia - the show, and the city) are not for everyone though, so it’s all good.
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Love Portland. Can’t stand the show or actor.
who’s the fucking actor ???
good question – i think fred armisten tries, maybe he’s that way in real life…he’s on my top ten most annoying/worst list and im bummed that he led up the show about a city i really like
Hey Mr Taster, greetings from a former LA CHer…wish id seen that you were up in Portland before i went up there a couple weeks ago…several people on the board recommended Kenny and Zukies for deli…as it turned out it was right across the street from my hotel, Mark Spencer… one morning had a pretty good bagel/cream cheese…went back for a pastrami sandwich that people raved about…no kidding, i had to put both hands on the sandwich and then pulled and twisted to tear through the meat…never happened before in my life…also, never before had i left half a pastrami on the plate…oy vey, you shouldnt know from it…have you ever been? anything youd recommend for my next trip? i know the 2 best pizza places are Apizza Scholls and Kens Artisan Pizza but as they dont open till 5pm i couldnt make it…Happy eatin’!
Hello hello lapizzamaven
Yes, I’ve been to K&Z and I share your conclusion. Their bagels are fine- properly boiled and all, but not malty or chewy enough for my taste. But unless I feel like making my own, they’ll do.
I’m late to the scene since I’ve only been in Portland for a year, but my understanding is that K&Z was one of the early attempts at modernizing Jewish deli for a non-Jewish (hipster) crowd. Nick Zukin (the “Zuke” in K&Z) is known locally for being a difficult hard-ass, but is also obsessive about his food. At some point, Nick split up from Ken and I hear the quality of the pastrami suffered. I wish I could have tried it during the early days-- I’d have been really curious to know how it stood up next to Langer’s.
There really isn’t much else going on Jewish deli (or bakery)-wise in Portland. There’s Kornblatt’s deli, which has the right name and the right feel, but the food is strictly poor to middling. One time I ordered a matzo ball soup to go for my sick wife, and when I got home she tasted it and said “something’s wrong with this.” (Mind you, she’s Taiwanese, and not a fussy eater-- so if she had a problem with it, something must have been really wrong). The soup tasted like dishwater- or perhaps the water they boiled thew matzo balls in. Horrifyingly bad.
We do have a Jewish Community Center in southwest Portland, which is where the Jewish community is centered. I’ll have to check out with them if they have any leads and I’ll report back.
Mr Taster
Great to hear from ya, Mr Taster…someone i can now trust in Portland! whew!..i cant imagine K&Zs ever be much better…compared to Langer’s? no way it could be that much worse from what it was…in fact, it looked more like corned beef…whatever it was, literally i had to tear it apart with each bite…youre right, it’s a failed attempt at a hiipster deli! but bagel was adequate…oy vey! otherwise, i had a great time…it rained 65 of the 72 hours i was there and i loved every drop…i was there for a great jazz festival
Hope you love your experience there! id love to meet up sometime if we can next time im up there…the pizza i can guarantee…check out Apizza Scholls and Ken’s Artisan Pizza, both across the river from downtown…may all you taste be exquisite!