When Everyone Else Goes Right…

No, this isn't about Hill vs. Don or Bernie. It's about perspective, and, from what I've seen so far, mine is pretty different from the pack. As background, Mattie John Bamman, the new editor for the Portland outpost of the restaurant-industry website Eater, sent the following request: "Would you be interested in sharing your dining opinions as part of Eater Portland's end-of-year coverage?"

Now, I met Mattie—yes, it is his real name and isn't short for Matthew (the reason he gives is that he had "hippie parents")—at a media lunch given by the wonderful Bette Sinclair. For whatever reason he decided to include me in this year's survey. Here are the questions and my answers. I'll include links so you can read what others felt was noteworthy.

What were your top restaurant standbys of 2015?
My husband and I don’t go out much because, frankly, dining out is way too expensive for us to do on any kind of regular basis, so I’m hopelessly out of date on the “hot list.” As a matter of fact, several of them will close before we ever get a chance to go to them. (Cases in point: June, Levant, Noisette.)


Nostrana's Cathy Whims (r) and one of her—and my—favorite farmers.

So our standbys are places that make the kind of food we love and source ingredients from local farms and farmers: Bar Avignon, Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty, Old Salt Marketplace, Nostrana, Lucca and Davenport. Tastebud has to be included even though it’s just opened (we’ve been twice) because Mark Doxtader and Sarah (of Lovely’s) are the god and goddess of woodfired pizza made with local ingredients. Burrasca has become a favorite on our hit parade, as well.  Read more.

What were the top restaurant newcomers of 2015?

Tastebud because of the reasons listed above (Mark Doxtader, right). Burrasca (top photo). Love their take on Florentine classics like ribollita, peasant food that uses the simplest ingredients like old bread, leftover beans and greens to make a bowl of comfort; pappa al pomodoro; the deeply intriguing combination of squid and kale that is inzimino.

I’m hoping they’ll find a source for the fourth stomach of a cow, the abomasum, so I can have the famous street food favorite of Florence called lampredotto. Read more.

Describe the 2015 Portland restaurant scene in one word.
Free-for-all. Read more.

What was the best dining neighborhood in 2015?

No place like NE: We live within walking distance of Alberta, Killingsworth, Cully, Williams and Mississippi. (Sarah Minnick of Lovely's Fifty-Fifty, left)

Cully has to be the up-and-comer. Read more.

What was the biggest dining surprise of 2015?
No idea.

What was your single best meal in 2015?
Overall, very few meals can match what we have at home on a regular basis, from roast chicken to braised beef neck to pig trotters in a pot of Ayers Creek Farm beans to steaks on the fire when we’re camping.

Ben Meyer (l) and Bill Hoyt.

Meals out, wonderful as they can be from any of the places listed above, become more special because I don’t have to cook them. Current crave is the beef tartare at Old Salt using beef from Bill Hoyt of Hawley Ranch in Cottage Grove. Read more.

What was the biggest restaurant grievance of 2015?
The focus on chefs and technique versus good food made simply using the best ingredients (preferably local). Read more.

What are your headline predictions for 2016?
No idea.

Farm Bulletin: To Every Farm, a Muse

No visit to Ayers Creek Farm is complete without a demonstration of the culinary uses of the food that contributor Anthony Boutard and his wife, Carol, grow on their 140-acre farm. To their credit, their decade-long Herculean effort has been rewarded with the appointment of their very own muse. 

Before the Olympian deities took over and bureaucratized the Office of Muses, there were just three muses residing on Mount Helicon: Aoide (expression), Mneme (memory) and Melete (occasion). Linda Colwell is our Melete. Whether it is a ramble or some other occasion, Linda steps in and everything flows smoothly.

Linda Colwell, Ayers Creek's Melete.

When Lane Selman of the Culinary Breeding Network asked us on a hopeful afternoon in April if we could host a lunch and tour at Ayers Creek for the Organicology conference in early February, it seemed like an reasonable idea. With our lovely Melete watching over us, what could go wrong? Nothing, as it turns out, even in a week marked by torrents of rain, the sun shone and we all had a good time.

The gorgeous groaning board.

Working with Mark Doxtader and Jason Barwikowski of Tastebud, and Sarah Minnick of Lovely's 50/50, Linda showcased the fruits, vegetables and grains of the farm. While we led a tour in the fields, Linda gave a talk about the various ingredients in the lunch. One participant confided to us that he loved Linda's talk so much that he was tempted to sit through it a second time. Here is the quartet's menu:

• Amish Butter popcorn with Aci Sivri cayenne
• Black Radish soup
• Green Posole made with Amish Butter hominy, pumpkin seeds, and sorrel
• Late treviso panzanella style salad with roasted Sibley squash and kakai seeds
• Roy's Calais Flint polenta with braised Borlotti beans with leeks and chicory
• Oven-roasted sweet potatoes
• Focaccia with late summer dried green grapes
• Sprouted barley toast with roasted winter squash drizzled with honey and Ayers Creek jam
• Winter field greens as available: rocket, chervil, kale
• Adzuki bean ice cream between Kakai pumpkin seed cookies
• Chester blackberry ice cream between Amish Butter and Almond cookies

Salad of winter field greens.

The Tastebud oven has welcomed guests to the Ayers Creek since the first ramble. This Christmas, we received greetings from a former Hillsdale Farmers' Market regular, now residing in Portugal, recalling that day. Sami's teenage daughter was convinced rather reluctantly to fritter away a Sunday afternoon at that ramble. The walk went well for her but the high point of the day was walking into the shade of the oaks and seeing her favorite feature of the Hillsdale market, the Tastebud oven. It always heralds a good event when Mark's truck maneuvers into position.

Great Gifting: Last-Minute Market

In the "What were they thinking?" category, all of the big Portland area farmers' markets have sold their last turnip for the month*, leaving those of us with holiday meal shopping, not to mention hostess gift-giving, to fend for ourselves among the hordes running amok at local stores.

Fortunately, some brilliant minds have come up with a Winter Solstice Pop-Up Farmers' Market and Bazaar that will be dispensing local goodness this Saturday at Tastebud restaurant in Southeast Portland. There will be a small, well-curated list of the city's top market vendors taking over the street, the inside of the restaurant and adjoining garage space. They'll be featuring produce for your tables, Tastebud's fabulous Montréal-style bagels and specially assembled, unique gift bags of local goodness that will make you the hottest party guest in town.

Vendors

• Persephone Farm: Finest produce around
• Tamiyasu Orchards: Apples and pears
• Dee Creek Farm: Goat cheesy & sweet cajeta
• Ayers Creek Farm: Amazing pantry-stocking dried grains, legumes, corn, jam, plus fresh chicories and more!
• Lauretta Jean’s: Pie! Pie! Pie!
• Olympic Provisions: Meat! Meat! Meat!
• Springwater Farm plus The Soup Annex: Mushrooms (fungi and spores), mushroom broth and delicious hot soup.
• Tastebud: Open House! Bagels hot and fresh from the oven; Mobile brick oven parked out front with pizzas and cider

Authors

• Anthony Boutard: Beautiful Corn: America's Original Grain from Seed to Plate
• Karen Brooks: The Mighty Gastropolis: Portland, A Journey Through the Center of America's New Food Revolution (10 am-noon)

Looks like a killer line-up with plenty of holiday food and gift opportunities. Come for lunch and snacks, check a few items off your list and say "Merry Christmas!" to your favorite vendors.

Details: Holiday Pop-Up Market. Sun. (12/22), 10 am-3 pm at Tastebud,3220 SE Milwaukie Ave. 503-234-0330.

* People's Co-op will have their usual market on Wed., 12/19, from  2-7 pm, and Jackie at the Oregon City Farmers' Market informs me that they will have a "Get Your Merry On" market on Sat., 12/22, from 10 am-2 pm.

* * * 

If you're looking for other consumable Christmas items for yourself or for gifting, GoodStuffNW contributor Jim Dixon of Real Good Food will have his retail warehouse open Friday and Saturday with lovely gift-size (375ml) bottles of various olive oils, plus fennel pollen, salt-packed capers, Katz vinegars, Italian oregano, etc.

Details: Real Good Food Holiday Hours. Fri.-Sat. (12/21-22), 10 am-5 pm. At Activspace, 833 SE Main at 9th Ave., space 122.

Stuffing Myself for a Good Cause

Field to table. Farm to table. Plate and pitchfork. Outstanding in the field.

The table awaits.

I've been hearing those phrases everywhere this summer, and they pretty much all mean dining outdoors under the stars, feasting on fresh-from-the-farm produce and meats prepared by local chefs dedicated to seasonal cuisine. It goes without saying they're served with locally produced wines from some of the state's premier winemakers. Some of these events happen on actual working farms, some on restaurant patios, others on private lawns or at wineries.

Dinner in progress.

They're generally not cheap, costing anywhere from $100 to more than $200 per plate, serving from a dozen to a hundred folks at a time. Some are benefits for charity, others are for-profit businesses. But all of them have a interest in spreading the gospel of local food and celebrating the region's bounty.

Wood oven-baked fig and fennel seed flatbread.

Me? I'd never been to one, so when Zenger Farm asked me to attend their first-ever Farm Supper, I jumped at the chance. And not only because I knew the food would be fantastic, prepared by my friend, chef and Zenger board member Linda Colwell and the inimitable Mark Doxtader of Tastebud, with wine poured by Ben Thomas of Montinore Estate. It's because proceeds from the dinner, which totalled nearly $3,000, would go toward Zenger's work educating youth and adults about where good food comes from.

Corn spoonbread.

I arrived to find Mark hunkered over his brick oven, pulling out the perfectly browned fig and fennel flatbread and bubbling roasted peaches and cherries that would start the dinner. These paired perfectly with Ancient Heritage Dairy's Adelle cheese with its delicate ooze and creamy center, and the crisp pinot gris and Müller-Thurgau that Ben was pouring.

Tomato zucchini gratin.

There was a brief tour of the farm, which offered sweeping views over well-tended fields down to the green wetland, all of 16 acres along the Springwater Corridor. Then the twenty or so guests were seated on wooden benches lining an elegantly appointed table next to the farm's barn. The four, yes, four wine glasses looked really promising, and the first course of a bright pink Eastern European-inspired sour cherry soup (top photo) with Montinore's slightly dry, strikingly delicious gevurztraminer had me closing my eyes and sighing with pleasure.

Full plates, happy diners.

The second, main course was an explosion of summer on a plate with…get this…a large meatball-sized lamb kebab, wood oven-roasted corn spoon bread , a tomato-zucchini gratin and a frikeh, beet, carrot and purslane salad. Crazy! That was washed down with two of Montinore's premier reds, their Parsons’ Ridge and Graham’s Block 7 pinots, both insanely good, matching especially well with the smoke from Mark's oven.

Panna cotta with blackberry coulis.

I was already groaning when the dessert, softly oblique cylinders of panna cotta topped with Chester blackberries, came dancing out on sweet pastel-colored glass plates. As the sun was setting, Ben couldn't help but offer Montinore's completely over-the-top ruby port and watch as the whole crew swooned.

Tired but happy chefs.

To say the evening couldn't have been better would be true, but knowing that it benefitted this unique educational community center made it stellar. I'd highly encourage you to check their calendar for upcoming dinners and events that help support this great organization.

Growing Food, Building Community

 

Growing up in a largely rural state like Oregon, you'd think people would be all been there, done that about where our food comes from. I was lucky growing up with relatives who were cattle ranchers and allowed their crazy-about-horses city girl niece to go on cattle drives and hang out at the ranch during vacations. At least it gave me some idea of the work involved in producing the food that appeared on our family table.

Students on a farm tour at Zenger Farm.

But here in DIY Portland there are kids (and many adults) who couldn't tell you what a brussels sprout plant looks like, or point to the part of a live chicken that hides the drumstick. It's not a stretch to say that the closest a lot of city folk get to actual farm animals is a petting zoo at the pumpkin patch.

The wetland at Zenger Farm.

Fortunately we have a place like Zenger Farm, a unique partnership between the City of Portland and a non-profit organization that encompasses a six-acre working organic farm and a 16-acre wetland inside the city limits. Originally owned in the 19th century by Jacob Johnson, a sawmill operator and Johnson Creek's namesake, a portion of the original 320-acre property was bought by Ulrich Zenger, a dairy farmer and proprietor of Mount Scott Dairy. His son, Ulrich Zenger, Jr., sold the land to the City of Portland in order to protect it from commercial development and preserve the Johnson Creek Basin and Watershed.

Greenhouse at Zenger Farm.

Currently it's a working urban farm with a CSA, and sells its produce at area farmers' markets as well as to local restaurants. It also coordinates matching money for food stamp recipients to be able to buy, cook and eat local foods and is piloting an innovative SNAP (food stamp) CSA model program. Recently Zenger added Furey Field, a 5-acre community garden space adjacent to the farm that will become 1,000 new garden plots for low-income households in the surrounding Lents and Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhoods.

As if all that weren't enough, it also holds public workshops and summer camps to teach young people and adults that healthy food comes from healthy soil, which can be anywhere—even in the city. And all of the money raised by all of these activities goes right back into programming, making it a truly worthy endeavor.

To celebrate all this work, and just because its a great time of year to be outside on the farm, Zenger is holding two Farmhouse Suppers on August 13 and 14 at the farm. Intimate, with only 20 people each evening and dinner provided by the estimable Mark Doxtader of Tastebud and wines made by Ben Thomas of Montinore Estate Winery, it should be a summer night to remember.

Come if you can and, if you can't, be sure to plan a visit to Zenger Farm for a tour of the amazing work they're doing on our behalf. It'll make you even more proud of your city!

Details: Farmhouse Suppers at Zenger Farm. Aug. 13 and 14, 5:30 pm; tickets $100, reservations required. Zenger Farm, 11741 SE Foster Rd. 503-282-4245.

Proper Porchetta

Talk about nose-to-tail eating! This is what Mark Doxtader was dishing up at his Tastebud stand at today's Eastbank Reunion Market. (Kids were dragging their moms over for a look.) With any luck, you'll find it on Saturdays at Tastebud at the Portland Farmers' Market at PSU through Dec. 19. Just look for the smoking brick oven.

Livin' in the Blurbs: The Gift of Good Food

DIY, as in Do It Yourself, has been the new black here in the Northwest since waaaaaaay before the current economic climate had folks putting up preserves and sewing their own clothes (though that does account for the odd costumes I've seen out and about lately…yikes!). One of the first on the bandwagon was Luan Schooler at Foster & Dobbs, who started a DIY Cheesemaking Group at her store a couple of years ago. Yes, I said cheesemaking, as in people getting it from somewhere other than the dairy case at the store. The group is meeting again on Nov. 4 and will feature Gayle Starbuck, who will demonstrate basic soft fresh cheesemaking techniques using direct set cultures. She’ll discuss equipment, sources, and using herbs and flowers to decorate and flavor fresh cheeses, along with using cultures to make Fromage Blanc, crème fraiche, Fromagina, mascarpone and more. Can you say the perfect holiday hostess gift?

Details: DIY Cheesemaking Group meeting. Wed., Nov. 4, 6:30 pm; free. Foster & Dobbs Authentic Foods, 2518 NE 15th Ave. Phone 503-284-1157.

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Pie is one of those simple pleasures of life that scares the daylights out of people. Maybe your mother was a terrific pie baker and you'll know you'll never measure up. Maybe you tried once and had a leathery, leaden mess on your hands. But now's your chance to change all that just in time for the holidays. Culinary Artistry, the catering wing of well-reviewed Lincoln Restaurant, is starting a series of small, affordable cooking classes, beginning with Pie Dough 101. In the one-hour class you'll learn to make dough by hand and with a machine, plus you'll take home the dough you make and recipes on how to use it. Everyone at your holiday table (not to mention at the family dinner table) will be so glad you did!

Details: Pie Dough 101. Sun., Nov. 8, 11 am; $60, reservations required. Culinary Artistry, 3808 N Williams, #128. 503-232-4675.

* * *

Everyone knows they can subscribe to magazines. More people are finding out about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions. But subscribing to a bagel service? Such an innovative, some might say crazy-ass idea could only come from the mind of baker-cum-mad scientist Mark Doxtader, farmers' market brick-oven maven and owner of Tastebud Farm. With a minimum order of two dozen (in increments of six) and a choice of mouthwatering selections like poppy, sesame or plain, plus salt, pepper and whatever nutty combo Mark decides to offer, you can go in with friends and neighbors or your co-workers. Cream cheese and sandwich platter options are also available. And if you've got a bagel addict on your holiday gift list, what could be more perfect?

Details: Bagel Subscriptions from Tastebud Farm. E-mail for more information or download the subscription form here.

Party for 50

Who he had to bribe, I have no idea. Normally at the beginning of April we here in Portland are doing that in-like-a-lion thing, with the traditional rain, hail, thunderstorms and wait-ten-minutes-the-weather-will-change dance.

But my friend Eamon "Shoehorn" Molloy (lower right), head dude of the Hillsdale, Lloyd, Multnomah and, temporarily, Interstate farmers' markets, had nothing but blue skies and temps in the 70s for his tables-on-the-front-lawn 50th birthday party.

Which is a very good thing, because he'd asked Mark Doxtader of Tastebud (top photo) to haul his huge brick wood-fired oven over for some serious pizza-making. And there were platters of salads, one a particularly fabulous wheat berry and kale flower combination that totally rocked (and yes, I'm working on getting the recipe!).

And I was forbidden from naming names or publishing pictures of the process, but certain fluffy, pastel-colored marshmallow treats got singed in a certain wood-fired oven, making them a crunchy-on-the-outside, marshmallowy soft-on-the-inside treat, a poor man's crème brûlée. Whatever it might be called, I declare it deeeelicious!

Happy five-oh, Eamon!

Noshing Nirvana: Provvista '08

It was about, oh, maybe three months ago that I started pestering my ever-patient brother about the upcoming Provvista Open House.

"Have you heard anything? Have they sent an invitation? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Pizza man Mark Doxtader

I'm worse than a four-year-old begging for a puppy when it comes to this biennial event held at one of the Northwest's leading importers and distributors of specialty food products. Normally open only to account holders, I slide in on my sib's generosity to the equivalent of a day in what surely must be foodie heaven.

Mateo "Get That Camera Out of My Face" Kehler of Jasper Hill

With tasty temptations like the pizzas produced by Tastebud wood oven maestro Mark Doxtader and biscuits and gravy from Pine State Biscuits, and detours featuring paella and fideua, espresso and gelato, it was hard not to lose my bearings and stuff myself silly. But with steely determination I kept my wits about me, remembering that the real show was in the seemingly endless aisles of the warehouse where food purveyors were proffering a dizzying variety of edible delights.

Cheese mother Peggy Smith of Cowgirl Creamery

And Provvista doesn't pull any punches, luring the big cheeses of the curd world like Mateo Kehler from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont and Peggy Smith of Cowgirl Creamery in California. Mateo was happy to talk about his new cheese cave where he's working with 11 regional cheesemakers, including Dancing Cow Farmstead Chees's Menuet from Bridport and Manchester from Peter Dixon of Consider Bardwell in West Pawlet. I'd tasted the Manchester about a year ago when I interviewed Dixon, and found the cave aging had deepened and accentuated its creamy earthiness.

Up-and-comers Amy Turnbull and Stephen Hueffed of Willapa Hills

A wink and a nudge from Tom Koolman, Provvista cheese dude, sent me searching for Amy Turnbull and husband Stephen Hueffed of Willapa Hills Farmstead Cheese. Open for only three months, they're producing some of the most promising blues I've tasted recently, including the hauntingly delicious Fresh with Ewe Hint of Blue from their herd of 80 sheep and 5 jersey cows.

Fra'Mani's ever-delightful Paul Bertolli

But the highlight for me was a hug and a kiss (on the cheek...he is a gentleman, after all) from Paul Bertolli himself, one of the progenitors of the movement toward artisanal cured meats that every chef worth his pork butt is making today. Not resting on his laurels, he brought with him some new (and mouthwateringly luscious) uncured hams (regular and rosemary) that he was slicing and handing out to the pork-loving groupies crowding his table. There were also some new patés, a Pork Liver Mousse and Paté Campagnolo, with their shimmering topping of gelée, that bode well for future appetizer platters.

Most of these products can be found at your local cheese shop or Pastaworks, but if you don't see them, definitely ask!