Light Lunch

Lunch is to budget foodies as Goodwill is to penny-pinching fashionistas. If I want to try out a high-end place before plunking down serious cash for an evening out, I'll gravitate toward those that offer a down-sized (and lower priced) sampling of their menus at mid-day.

Always wanted to go to Nostrana but can't scrounge enough out of the sofa cushions for dinner? Or heard about the fabulous shoestring fries at Café Castagna but the full meal deal is out of range? Try lunch at either. Seriously. You'll spend a fraction of what dinner would cost and get a good idea of what the kitchen is capable of. Plus who orders a whole bottle of wine with lunch, much less a cocktail? Again, savings in the bank.

If there's one spot in Portland that has garnered endless gibbering in the local press since it opened, it's Andy Ricker's love song to Thai street food, Pok Pok. And lunch is the ticket here as well. Same fascinating food, somewhat lower prices, and you're not obligated to try everything on the menu.

I went with a friend the other day and ordered the Tam Kai Yaang (top photo), a mellifluous-sounding and flavor-packed melange of roasted game hen with long beans, tomatoes, peanuts, Chinese celery, cilantro, Thai chiles, garlic, lime, palm sugar and fish sauce for $9.50. And the Yam Makheua Yao (left), another salad that featured smoky grilled Chinese eggplant with fried dry shrimp and garlic, chopped boiled egg, Thai chiles, shallots, cilantro and a lime-fish sauce dressing, priced at $9. Smashing.

Now, you might well ask, "Two salads with similar ingredients?" and you would not be out of line. But in this kitchen, the sum of the parts do not mean the same tastes emerge in the final preparation.

A side of sticky rice and our lunch was still light. In more ways than one.

Details: Pok Pok, 3226 SE Division. Phone 503-232-1387.

Date Night Delights

It had been a very long time since we'd had a "date night." So when a friend called to say she couldn't meet us because her visiting brother-in-law broke his collarbone, we decided that, rather than taking chicken soup to the invalid, we'd go out on the town. Shows you what kind of friends we are.

Deciding where to go, however, was not just a snap decision. Should we go to one of the hip bars and see what the kids are doing these days? Would it be better to try one of the myriad new restaurants that have opened recently? Weighing these heavy matters, all Dave had to do was ask, "Who's the best bartender?" and the decision was made.

There is no better bartender that we can think of than Suzanne at Café Castagna. My brother says that a good bartender is like a trusted closer in a tight game, and she's been called Cy Young material. So once we got there and she poured one of her signature gimlets (above, left), the evening just fell into place. (And check out that sexy meniscus!)

We started with a half dozen of their fresh oysters and mignonette, three each of the teeny Tottens from the Puget Sound and another three of the only slightly larger Nootka Sound oysters from British Columbia. The Tottens were light and fresh, the Nootkas meatier and stronger, and neither really needed any accompaniment to taste absolutely perfect.

To follow those briny gems, we chose the "meat board," a selection of their very own house-cured products with a salad of Ayers Creek chicory in a light vinaigrette. In the photo, clockwise from the upper left, is their lomo, thinly sliced cured pork tenderloin; rabbit pate; mortadella with pistachios; and lardo, cured pork fat. It doesn't get much more delicious than that.

And to finish off, it was a salad of crumbled croutons and duck cracklings sprinkled on top of frizee, topped with a halved soft-boiled egg that had been lightly battered and deep fried to give it a crunchy coating. This is what we call "scary good."

Suzanne suggested a digestif of Elisir M. P. Roux liquer, a densely herbal and slightly sweet concoction, to top it all off, and who were we to refuse? A sip or two later and we were waving goodbye and strolling out of the restaurant in a lovely, satisfied fog. You can be sure our next date night won't be so long in coming.

Details: Cafe Castagna, 758 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Phone 503-231-9959.

New Lunchin' in a Favorite Spot

Growing up in Redmond, my mother would bless me with a day off from school and take me to the big city of Bend and the Pine Tavern for shopping and a "ladies lunch." Overlooking a sloping lawn with a stunning view of Mirror Pond on the Deschutes River, and with a 200-year-old pine tree growing up through floor and through the roof, it's always set the standard for a perfect mid-day repast.

Now, I love the lunches at Nostrana and Lorenzo's but it's nice to have more choices. So I was thrilled when I heard awhile ago that one of my favorite places in all of Portland, Café Castagna, was opening for lunch starting this week. I immediately made plans with fellow Castagna groupie Kim to go for their opening day.

We hit the jackpot with fabulous weather, the garden in full and glorious bloom (I'm totally enamored with the cardoon plants, those tall leafy things against the wall...so architectural!) and a table for two on the patio. The menu is a somewhat simplified version of their dinner menu, with three pizzas, their fabulous burger and fries, a pasta dish, appetizers and desserts. Plus a great idea for lunch, half orders of two of their terrific salads.

We opted to share a bowl of their Ten Treasures soup (above, right), a light broth with bit of artichoke, spring onions, fava beans, chives and peas, a perfect portrait of spring's first harvest. We followed that with a wedge of iceberg lettuce with a creamy green goddess dressing, the crunch of the lettuce offset by the richness of the chive-studded dressing.

Their featured pasta that day was chitarra with grilled scallops, tossed with preserved lemons,a "really good" Ligurian olive oil and a mild Italian green, agretti, that I'd never had before. Tubular in shape and about two inches long, owner Monique Siu said they'd had it in London recently and found a grower here who could supply them with some plants for the garden. Apparently native to marshy areas, it reminded me of sea beans with the same crunchy texture and mildly green flavor. With a couple of glasses of icy cold jewel-like rose, it made a wonderful and reasonably priced lunch.

Details: Cafe Castagna, 1758 SE Hawthorne on the corner of Poplar and Hawthorne. Phone 503-231-9959.