Posts for June, 2010
June 30, 2010
Pasties and Pig Ale at Coalition Brewery
After a long wait for Coalition Brewing Company to open on SE Ankeny & SE 28th (in the old Noble Rot space), Buckman neighborhood beer drinkers got their wish last week. I stopped by the new brewpub this afternoon for a midday snack.
June 29, 2010
Vintage Mixer Charms & Lavender Lemonade Mimosas
I cherish my baby-blue KitchenAid mixer with a deep and abiding affection normally reserved for expensive champagne and baby bulldogs. A KitchenAid mixer is a rite of epicurean passage, an objet d’lust, a culinarily-inclined girl’s best friend. After all, what are first marriages for, if not the immediate post-engagement stampede to Williams-Sonoma to register for THIS beauty? And true love, of course. Ahem.
Given my feelings about stand mixers, I couldn’t help but be entranced by this vintage mixer charm ($36), hanging in tiny pretty Verabel Jewelry Studio (3012 NE Alberta St.). It even comes with a cupcake pan for good measure.
June 28, 2010
Water Avenue Coffee Opens Today
Water Avenue Coffee opened bright and early this morning to a steady stream of caffeine-craving folk bearing welcomes and well wishes. Located in the old Q Center space on SE Water Avenue, the coffeehouse is just around the corner from the much-mourned Southeast Bakery Bar outpost, in which WAC set up service temporarily during the buildout of their bright and shiny new coffeehouse/roastery.
June 25, 2010
Table Scraps Is Alive!
I’ve been really busy with some big projects, and my weekly newsletter, Table Scraps, has been neglected. But it lives again this week, and the latest edition landed in an inbox near you a few moments ago. If your inbox has newsletter envy, you should sign up. You can check out this week’s issue here, and sign up here. Happy Friday!
June 25, 2010
Forktown Food Tours
There’s nothing I like more than walking around eating, unless it’s sitting around eating or standing around eating. So I was looking forward to trying brand-new Forktown Food Tour’s foodie whirl around Northwest Portland’s Alphabet District today. Led by fun, food-loving Portland girl Jessica Kleiderman, the tour starts at Besaw’s and ends with a full stomach. Read full story »
June 25, 2010
7 Fun Things To Do This Weekend
Life has given you a weekend, now use it wisely. Here are seven enticing events occurring in Portland this weekend, all of which are almost guaranteed to be a good time, unless you somehow muck it up. You can wax poetic about pie, drink too much organic beer/root beer, pay a visit the Project Grow folks to admire their new garden and pet their pygmy goats and join their CSA, show some cleavage while learning to make medieval stew in the Beaverton Farmers Market’s Shire of Dragon’s Mist, butcher a pig, watch fútbol and stuff crawfish until your belly resembles a soccer ball, or ride your bike around in a vehicle-free NoPo eating pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, and shave ice. Ain’t Portland a kick in the head?! Read full story »
June 24, 2010
FIN To Open in Late July
Here’s the press release announcing “eco-modern seafood restaurant” FIN’s July opening, as well as a few sample menu items.
FIN, an eco-modern seafood restaurant, is slated to open July 28, 2010 under the direction of executive chef Trent Pierce and owner Joan Dumas. FIN will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 5pm to close through the summer. Beginning early fall, FIN will move to a seven day schedule. Read full story »
June 24, 2010
Gone Shopping
I was poking around in Memento (formerly Greg’s) on SE Hawthorne, when I came across these two gems.
An excellent gift for the sharkophile or sharkophobe (depending on whether or not you like the giftee) in your life, this Kikkerland shark peeler deftly skins carrots, zucchinis, and cats.* Kikkerland also makes a darling squid peeler, but it didn’t have teeth, so I eschewed it in favor of the shark peeler. Memento carries them both for the low, low price of $3.
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With barbecue season looming, you now have the perfect host/hostess gift for your favorite cowpatty cook. This delightful hamburger kitchen timer will ensure that they never burn the brioche buns again because they’re engrossed in an overly long anecdote about that time they almost qualified for the Krystal Square Off. Except for the puzzling absence of bacon and blue cheese, it is anatomically correct, and sells for only $5.
Memento
3707 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
503.235.1257
*Just kidding, Mr. Whiskers! Please accept my apology for such insensitivity and go back to napping on that pile of freshly laundered pelts.
June 23, 2010
Belated Summer Birthday Shortcake
My dear Mette’s birthday was last Saturday, and since I seem to have “issues” with “remembering people’s birthdays,” (Sis, I said I was sorry like 7,000 TIMES! And you were in Hawaii that week anyway!!) we celebrated it Monday night, with interesting gifts like a hamburger kitchen timer, and a massive Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake, the official dessert of belated summers and belated birthdays.
June 21, 2010
Picnicking in the Beaverton Farmers Market Labyrinth
Despite the sulky grey skies and morose drizzles that have blanketed our fair city of late, signs of summer were everywhere this Saturday at the Beaverton Farmers Market.
There were rows upon rows of ruby-hued raspberries and strawberries, bushels of Rainier and Chelan cherries, fresh watermelon juice, smoking grills lined with racks of barbecued ribs and juicy German bratwurst, buckets of rosy peony blossoms, coconut gelato, sweet tiny golden cherry tomatoes, crates piled high with fat buttery fava beans, tall cups of fresh-squeezed lemonade on ice, and little red Radio Flyer wagons filled with produce and toddlers displaying diverse levels of agreeability.
June 18, 2010
Hot Pepper Chicken Vinho Verde Bath at Lucky Strike
Ah Lucky Strike, fiercely fiery den of Sichuan peppercorn power. Until recently, if I craved a Lucky Strike blaze in my belly (pretty literally), I drove all the way out to SE Powell & 122nd and tried not to feel guilty for being sketched out by the restaurant’s shabby storefront, next to a cigarette store.
Last night, that changed, as Lucky Strike threw open the doors at its new location in the west wing of the Hawthorne Theatre, for a soft opening that was anything but–to my stomach lining at least. Read full story »
June 17, 2010
Waffles and Strawberries
Sometimes you wake up with a craving that demands immediate attention. Today, that craving happened to be waffles and strawberries. Seeing as I was plumb out of syrup and this morbid weather has sucked every ounce of my motivation, I thought I’d see what newish waffle cart Wicked Waffles had to offer. Read full story »
June 11, 2010
Windshield Wiper Motor-Churned Beer Slushies at Pok Pok
Before you pull the ol’ Snoopy Snow Cone Machine out of mothballs, I think you should know that your 
favorite icy summer treat might have competition. Beer slushies. Yes, you read that right. Behold the immortal words of Pok Pok Executive Chef Andy Ricker–
“This March, I made a trip to Thailand and shipped back a couple of machines to make “Bia Wun”, or “Jelly Beer” in Thai (because the slushy beer looks like jelly to Thai people). They look like this. Well, they arrived a week or so ago here at the Whiskey Soda Lounge, and after sorting out some problems with converting 110v AC power to 9v DC (they run on windshield wiper motors!), we got one up and running today. They work just as advertised. Bia Wun will be a permanent fixture on the Whiskey Soda Lounge drinks board from now on, featuring Singha 22oz beers. One machine will live out on our new back patio, and one in the lounge itself. I am fairly confident that the WSL will boast the coldest beers in town this summer. Bring on the the hot weather!
Thanks, best, Andy”
I’m actually quite overcome by this announcement. The thought of drinking a Singha slurpee made with windshield wiper motor power is almost too much to bear. Bring on the hot weather, indeed.
June 10, 2010
The Marshmallow Test
This is fascinating. And torturous. And delightful. I love the sniffers, the dancing brothers, and the little blond girl who nibbles at hers until it’s mangled but doesn’t actually eat the whole thing. Not sure how she fared in the end.
June 4, 2010
Dining Month Portland vs WoW Celestial Steed
It’s Friday morning and while you should be hard at work, reading snooze-inducing memos and toiling over Excel spreadsheets, you’d rather browse the internet looking at menus, trying to decide where to take your honey for a romantic dinner out tonight. At least, that better be what my boyfriend is doing at work right now.
This week Travel Portland and a whole host of other sponsors kicked off Dining Month Portland, a month-long celebration of the wonders of prix-fixe dining. During the entire month of June, you can get a special three-course dinner menu for $25 at nearly 50 participating restaurants Portland-wide. Read full story »
