PDX July 18-21, 2012

The temps were no higher than 80F. Quite a change from KC’s triple digits.
We hit the Deschutes Brewery (great steamer clams there) and the Rogue Brewery “substations” in the Pearl District. Deschutes had better beers & food. Esp. the draft only Arsenal XPA. Deschutes is $6.99 in the grocery stores there. Perhaps Boulevard might take a hint.

Looks like Rogue’s VOODOO DOUGHNUT Maple Bacon ale is being remaindered with the pink t-shirts. Bad idea, maple bacon ale.

At the Japanese garden in Washington Park, PDX.

Great Lebanese at Habibi and great sushi at SinJu. We were staying in the Pearl District and had no need of a car. $2.50 on the light rail to the airport from downtown.

Pig roast at Local Pig, KCMO and another opening.

Wow.. this was great. They made their own beans and the cole slaw was not some bland and overly sweet grocery store salad bar mush. I was most impressed.  This was for the grand opening at Local Pig, a an artisanal butcher shop that produces charcuterie  in the East Bottoms. This is about two blocks from Knucklehead’s, a music venue where have I occasionally sat in on accordion at the blues jams, just north, across the railroad tracks.

The Local Pig has a nice interior.

There was quite a crowd, even when I got there a bit after noon. It was chilly and windy, in the 40s, but pleasant. There seemed to be a rather well-behaved crowd.

The crowd is served.

The plates were quite nice. The buns/rolls were amazingly good. Not some sort of  Bunny Bread/burger bun dreck.

Here’s a photo of my plate.

Pork plate at Local Pig's grand opening.

If I had known, I could have gotten some ribs. But I didn’t. Here’s a plate of rib remains. Sigh. Whimper.

Had I just know; I could have had a rib or three. Shucks.

Lest we forget, the guest of honor… a noble beast..

Head office!

And here’s the guest of honor with the woman who was nobly serving the Boulevard Ales on tap. Good work, folks!

The Guest of Honor and one of his Minions..

Not forgetting, EL TORITO #3 (I think it’s number 3) just opened its new supermercado on the north side of Independence Avenue, across from ACE Hardware. It’s a really nice place to shop for comida and has a great carniceria.

Pine-Sol?

I had a glass of BLUE MOUNTAIN’S  Über-Pilsner Sunday and was quite disappointed.  The first couple of tastes were fine, the maltiness and mouthfeel right, but as I drank it, the hoppiness became quite coniferous. Like chewing on a pinecone.

Show some restraint!

A real beer festival..

From deepest Bavaria! With an ox, too! That might cheer up the wingeing chaps..

It's the Weihenstephan ox!! Much better than Spuds Mckenzie!

End of Two weeks in Kansas City.

Well, the high point turned out to be during the 4.5 hour layover in DFW where I got to meet one of my culinary heroes. I was at a gate in the D concourse where my Richmond flight was to leave after a flight to Mexico City left. It turned out the flight to Mexico City was delayed and an elderly lady sat down across from me. I noticed that DSK was inscribed upon her rolling duffle and she looked familiar. I went over to her and said:

“Pardon me, are you Diana Kennedy?”

She said she indeed was Diana Kennedy and we had about a 10 minute chat where I told her that I had most of her cookbooks and had really appreciated her work. She told me that she’s working with a couple of ethnobotanists on a huge volume on chiles and that she and José Andrés are planning to do a presentation at the Kennedy Center on the Deiz y Seis de Septiembre.

I asked if I could take a photo of her and she said “Get someone to take one of the both of us!” So here it is..

Una encuentra con la maestra!

After this, I had to check the departure screen and had to hoof it to concourse C.  I heard some guys saying that they’d seen Roger Staubach in the concourse.

Roger who?

~~~~~

The two weeks in KC were quite good, BTW.  I saw my wife,  and my son and his wife (for a few days on their way back to Toronto) and my mother-in-law, who had arrived Tuesday from Oregon.

We ate asian dumplings at BLUE KOI

Pork dumplings at BLUE KOI (we ate there three times!)

Great mezze at LITTLE EGYPT (sorry, no photo but here’s one of the Farmer’s Market which opens at 5:30AM. These guys aren’t “hobby farmers“! No sir!)

Kohlrabi

Samosas, kebabs, & rooh afza (a chilled & delicious pink rosewater & milk drink) at CHAI SHAI

Lamb kebab & rooh afza (we ate at Chai Shai twice)

and I made the rounds of various taquerias getting a fix of serious Mexican food which is not to common around here, except at LA MILPA

La Guacamalera (they make guacamole at your table in some places)

And several BOULEVARD ales were quaffed. BTW, BOULEVARD has joined up with DESCHUTES brewery from Bend, Oregon and they will be in the KC area in a few months. Be still my heart.

I was at MEKONG on Thursday. Where the hell were you?

My colleague Dr. Benway and I had some rather good Virginia beer at MEKONG Thursday night. My favorite was the Flemish ale kept in  a Kluge wine barrel. None of this was lawnmower beer. Seguro que hell no!

Behind the bar!

Dr. Benway returns!

Released Kraken salad! It was good.

The peripatetic muse of beer.

The last two beers Dr Benway and I had were extremely strong so we didn’t finish them.  Such is life and hats off to An for his hospitality.

Out on the town in a minimalist way.

The son of an old Austin buddy and I were going to have dinner Thursday, going out for Indo/Pak.  The weather made us push it to Friday and we went to Malabar by way of Patterson & Lauderdale since we wanted to avoid the chaos of Short-Pumpitudia.  Had a fine meal of samosas, channa sag & curried fish (too bad it was that mudfish, tilapia). We talked about his folks and how they were coming up this week in an RV. Tres honkey.

channasaag

 

Then we went for a beer at Commercial Tap House.  I had a Blue Mountain Full Nelson and Jacques had a Victory 4-y.o. barleywine (10% ?) both of which were excellent.

Their Full Nelson Pale Ale is GREAT!

 

I was home by 8:20,  sensible person that I am.

Richmond braucht das BierBike!

Ja gewiß! Cruise down Jeff Davis on this!

Sunday Lunch, Afton, VA

We stopped at the Blue Mountain Brewery and had their cheese platter/plowman’s lunch with one of their 6 glass samplers between the two of us. The brew sampler had a lager, a kölsch, two hefewiezens, a belgian, and a porter. All were good. Some were great. Very pleasant atmosphere without a hint of the Richmond vibe.

Enough for the two of us..

They grow their own hops there.. and seem to have nitrogen-fixing legumes as a cover crop along the rows.

Hop vines.

We were gong to hit AQUI ES MEXICO in Charlottesville, but drove back through Schuyler & Howardsville, instead.