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Category archives: Portland, OR

Little Bird

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After eating at Le Pigeon in Portland, I was absolutely impressed that I must check out their sister restaurant, Little Bird.

Foie gras is one of my guilty pleasure.

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Little Bird’s version came with a plum-filled crepe and squashes.

The foie gras was seared perfectly with soft and creamy center and crisp outer layer, paired with contrary hard texture from the squash that were a little undercook.

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Karam

The ethnically diverse food scene is always a draw for me to take the three plus-hour road trip down to Portland.

This time, I wanted to try out this highly rated Lebanese and Syrian restaurant called Karam.

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Top L: gyro salad — Top R: kafta

We went with a very big group, and were the only people at the restaurant — that got me worried a bit.

Slowly people trickled in, and next thing we knew, by the midst of our dinner, the restaurant was packed.

It was also a very good sign that most patrons were of arabic decent, we definitely went to the right place.

There were many interesting dishes that I wanted to try.

Appetizers such as Fataya, a pastry dough wrapped beef, tomatoes and onions; Kibbee balls, bulgar wheat with roast beef and pine nuts, and entrée such as goat casserole; Kibbee Saneeyeh, a layer of bulgar wheat, ground beef and spices, similar to the one at Sunset Gyro; and Molohkie, rice and bread with lamb, molohkie plant (jute family) and spinach.

Of course, two other Middle Eastern staples that I always like to try different restaurants’ interpretations: ful mudamas, cooked fava beans with garlic and spices; and kafta, ground beef with onions and spices, and shaped like sausages.

Just as most Mediterranean restaurants, Karam’s portions were amazingly generous.

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Grassa

WP_20150731_19_33_27_Pro Brought to us by Lardo folks, Grassa is a casual pasta place in bustling downtown Portland.

Once entered, the eyes were drawn to this ginormous chalk board with Grassa’s delicious offering: pork belly mac n cheese, squid ink campanelle etc.

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One single cashier by the door to take orders and payments, and we were off to look for a table to sit: seats were “grab as you see them”, there was no line to open table.

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Kachka

WP_20150712_20_14_11_ProPortland’s eating scene is so much fun and diverse.

After enjoying eateries such as Broder, Le Pigeon and Viking Soul Food, Kachka is my new love.

A Russian, Eastern European restaurant, Kachka features some iconic dishes such as cabbage rolls, and Russian/Ukrainian dumplings pelmeni or vareniki, with emphasis of lots of vodka.

In fact, a full huge page of different imported vodka from Russia, Europe, or our new world vodka from America.

Since I was the DD, my focus was on food, and I was thoroughly impressed: everything I had was really good.

The most stunning dish was the seven-layer appetizer called “herring under a fur coat”.

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Belmont Food Trucks

Portland’s food truck scene is amazing.

There are so many pods scatter around the city: multiple large pods of them in Downtown’s Alder Street, Fifth Ave. and Third Ave., and North Mississippi in the north end of the city; and so much good food came from these trucks.

The one I visited the most is the Belmont Food Truck Pod with Viking Soul Food as our may draw since we cannot get Lefse in Seattle.

I tried the shrimp one that day and it was refreshing and good.

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On the side, we had a pickled hard boil egg and it was beautifully purple!

Fairly sure that it was pickled with the sweet cabbage slaw, surkal.

Since I was with more people, perfect chance to eat more than Lefse at Belmont.

I had long wanted to try the Cackalack’s hot chicken shack and Herb’s Mac and Cheese.

At Cackalack’s, the choice of the day was their hot fried chicken with waffle.

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