Under the Table with Jen » Comfort Food

Screen Door

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:51:33 +0000

Judging from the lines around the block and clusters of intrepid brunchers come weekends, there are a lot of people being comforted by Screen Door’s down-home Southern cooking. Describing their food as a “survey of the south,” Screen Door’s inspiration come from everything everything from South Carolina lowcountry cuisine to Cajun one-pot cooking to the fancy French Cajun food in New Orleans, with some soul food in between. There’s an evident commitment to sourcing locally, and the food is seasonal, fresh, and well-seasoned. Set in a warehousey space at 24^th and Burnside, the cavernous dining room would feel industrial if it weren’t softened with long flowing curtains, a nice bar, and shelves of wine and jars of pickled things, which all adds up to a dining experience that comforts both your soul and your belly.

Blueplate

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:29:14 +0000

The only thing more comforting than lunch at Blueplate Lunch Counter and Soda Fountain is a binky. Knife and fork meatball hoagies, bacon mushroom mac and cheese, meatloaf sandwiches, Northwest sliders with Tillamook Cheddar and a side of mashed potatoes, some of the best grilled cheese with tomato soup in town…and I haven’t even gotten to the shakes, housemade sodas, and sundaes. Feeling under the weather? I’ve got a prescription for you. One order of chicken ‘n biscuits, an egg cream, and a food old-fashioned hot fudge sundae with strawberry ice cream, marshmallow whipped cream, chopped nuts, sprinkles, and a cherry on top. I bet you feel better just reading this, don’t you? Blueplate–the edible binky.

Grilled Cheese Grill

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:44:46 +0000

Everything about the Grilled Cheese Grill is the work of a genius, from the logo–a bus with a grilled cheese sandwich in place of the front “grill,” to the old school bus that serves as their dining room, complete with tattered green leather bench seats and old class pictures blown up and laminated as tablecoverings. They’ve even got Capri Suns, for goodness’ sake. And grilled cheese sandwiches, really good ones. They’ve got your basic model, the Kindergartener (white or wheat, American or Cheddar), fancier versions like the BABS (bacon, apple, blue cheese, and Swiss on rye), and sweets like The Jaime (mascarpone, Nutella, and grilled banana on grilled cinnamon swirl bread). Then there’s the Cheesus–a fat juicy hamburger cradled between two grilled cheese sandwiches (one with chopped pickles scattered amidst the melted cheese, one with diced onions), with all the traditional burger fixins. Creamy tomato soup is optional, and you can opt for vegan cheese or gluten-free bread as well. And did I mention the Capri Suns??

Montage

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:15:06 +0000

Montage is one of those iconic Portland restaurants that everybody knows about, despite the fact that it’s located under a loud sooty bridge in a sketchy part of town and sort of resembles a decrepit, deserted corner market at first glance (it used to be the Royal Hotel). But there’s no mistaking the young, hip crowd clustered outside, clamoring for bowls of hot ‘n hearty mac ‘n cheese after a long pubcrawl. Wonderfully quirky Montage, with its eclectic decor and dramatic foil takeaway sculptures, is the only place in town where I’d order Spold–a blend of mac ‘n cheese with garlic, cream and Parmesan + mac ‘n cheese with Cajun gravy, jalapenos, and tomatoes, Bobo–biscuits, gravy, pork sausage and cheese grits, and the legendary Green Eggs and Spam–appropriately priced at $6.66. And when eaten at 2 am when the post-party hunger pangs begin, it’s nothing short of miraculous, like mac’n cheesey manna.

Pine State Biscuits

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:45:54 +0000

There’s nothing as comforting as a good hot biscuit. Abraham Lincoln ate them with Chicken Fricasee. Aerosmith wrote a dirty song about them. Google biscuits and you’ll pull up 14,100,000 links. Even Oprah loves biscuits, which is why she mentioned Portland’s very own Pine State Biscuits in her O magazine not long ago, lauding the Reggie Deluxe–a huge piece of crispy fried chicken, bacon, cheese and a fried egg all stacked on a biscuit and slathered in gravy. Pair that with a side of golden brown ham-studded hash ups, and maybe a slice of pecan pie and a glass of Champ’s Gourmet Chocolate Milk, and you’ll be ready for anything–hit songwriting, the presidency, maybe even another biscuit. Okay, so that last one is a little farfetched.

Mother’s Bistro

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:25:57 +0000

Chef Lisa Schroeder doesn’t mess around when it comes to comfort food, in fact she’s pretty much built an ironclad Portland institution celebrating the stuff at Mother’s, a beautiful, genteel dining room with buttery yellow and white-striped walls, glittery chandeliers, and thoughtful, motherly touches like the little cookies that come with your bill. The moment I feel a cold coming on I head down there for a bowl of savory Belle’s Chicken Noodle Soup, and anybody would be proud to take their mother there for the pate-like Chopped Liver (from the chef’s own mother’s recipe), the hot cheesy mac ‘n cheese du jour, and one of Mother’s signature dishes–chicken & dumplings, beef pot roast with gravy and smashed red potatoes, and Mom’s meatloaf and gravy. Lisa even has a Mother of the Month program (MOM), where she highlights a different mother every month and a few of their traditional recipes. Now, where did I put that application for my mother and her Free-Range Pinto Beans recipe?