PDX Stumptown

I started out our trip to Portland much like I thought I would, drinking coffee. After landing it was close to 1am back here in NYC, but that wouldn't stop me. Stumptown is something of a Portland institution. It's probably the most well-known coffee roaster from the area. When I saw that we had gotten on to the ground in time to visit their airport outpost I knew I wasn't going to pass that up.

The item that jumped out at me the most on their menu was the nitro poured cold brew. It wasn't the cheapest, but you need to pay for good coffee. They have the tap right by the register, and I got to watch the woman working expertly pull a smooth, cascading cup full of dark goodness.

The coffee itself was a cold, smooth entry point into the Portland coffee scene. There was little to no lingering sourness from the beans used. Overall the flavor was bold and rich, and even though I keep using the word, the coffee itself was extremely smooth. Some cold brews come out a bit harsh, but the nitro pour, as it does with beer as well, makes things a little creamier. The coffee kept me awake long enough to get to my parents' house and gave me a pretty good indication of what I could expect from Portland and its magical coffee.

QFC

For Thanksgiving lunch we found ourselves at QFC, one of the local grocery stores, with A's dad, picking up some sandwiches for lunch. One thing we knew for sure was that we didn't want to get a turkey sandwich!

So instead we got chicken breast and muenster cheese. We split the sandwich, so we picked the largest bread they had, which was the baguette, and piled on vegetables. Their selection of free vegetable toppings was actually fairly impressive, including artichoke hearts, carrots and roasted red peppers. We decided to go with mustard, lettuce, tomato, raw onions (except they forgot to give us those onions and I think it would have made the sandwich taste better), grilled onions, roasted red peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. I considered adding avocado for 50 cents but forgot by the time the topping adding time rolled around.

The size of the half sandwich was generous, but the flavor wasn't that great. All the cold cuts were supposed to be Boar's Head, but the flavors just seemed somewhat muted. Also, all those vegetables theoretically sounded like they would go well together, but they just didn't gel into one cohesive unit (or have very distinctive flavors), which was kind of disappointing.

I've always said that a sandwich tastes better when someone else makes it, but I think this sandwich disproved that theory. I'm pretty sure if I had the same ingredients at home and threw together this sandwich, it wouldn't taste any less exciting. Depending on how I put together the vegetables, it could potentially even be better.

That said, the sandwich was fresh, and it served its purpose, which was to tide us over between breakfast and the Thanksgiving dinner feast. We were just sad that it didn't have much flavor and didn't live up to our expectations.

Shopping in Portland

Our love of visiting grocery stores when traveling isn't just an international thing. Even when we don't leave the country, we still try to find time to stop and browse. Of course, on our Portland trip, we did more grocery shopping than usual because it was Thanksgiving week and we were tagging along with A's mom to pick up provisions for the week, but we were happy to go often and try as many stores as possible.

We have Costco at home, but every Costco is a little different, carrying local and market-specific products. One thing we noticed at the Portland Costco we visited was that there was a really extensive beer collection. That isn't really surprising since it's Portland, one of the country's craft beer capitals, and there were a lot of local brews there.

We picked up a case of Stone IPA for the week. Stone isn't a local Portland beer, but A was so excited to see a case full of it that we had to get it. We get some Stone beer at our local Costco now, but we didn't have any back then and we still don't have this sampler pack.

One thing that Costco carries on the West Coast but we've never seen east of the Mississippi (and don't know why!) is the giant bag of Hi-Chew. It's a great deal for the size and I really wish we could get it here. It's a 17-18 ounce bag with grape, strawberry, mango, and green apple candies. We love Hi-Chew candy and it's now become a thing on our West Coast trips that we go to stock up (kind of like the Hawaiian pilgrimage to Trader Joe's for cookie butter?).

Other than Costco, every grocery store we visited was one we couldn't go to at home. There was New Seasons Market, which seemed similar to Whole Foods, and had the most extensive "bulk bin" section I had ever seen. (We may have gotten some pine nuts to bring home since the price was so much better.) We went to QFC, which was more of a standard grocery store (more on QFC in the next post). The one we really enjoyed though was Fred Meyer, where we went multiple times. The prices at Fred Meyer often beat all the rest, the products looked great, and they didn't just carry food. They had a whole liquor shop and clothes and everything else you could want. It was like a Target with a full and better grocery store. We loved shopping and looking to see what was different from home.

Unlike the dairy sections at grocery stores at home, the ones in the Portland area were often overrun with Tillamook products. (That's a good thing.) We've known about and been fans of Tillamook since we learned about their Oregon roots and tried their cheese years ago (including on one of our flights).

We decided to pick up lots of yogurt for the week, so we tried a whole bunch of Tillamook flavors. As a general matter, the quality of the yogurt was good. The fruit flavors for the most part tasted natural, unlike some of those artificially sweet yogurt brands out there.

Although we did get some classic flavors like peach and lime, we tried to concentrate on flavors that really reflected Oregon. We picked up Oregon strawberry, mountain huckleberry, and marionberry (a blackberry that was developed in Oregon). Out of all the flavors we tried, the one we liked best was the marionberry.

One thing the Portland area grocery stores definitely did better than most of our regular stores is samples. There were tons of samples everywhere! Sometimes they would just leave fruit around, like all of these peeled Clementine slices.

Other times they gave out full cups of ice cream! Try finding that here.

We also had cookies, cheese, pumpkin bread, and more. Fred Meyer even had wine tastings (although we didn't partake). We love grocery shopping as it is, but all the free tasty treats made it such an enjoyable experience. I think even people who hate grocery shopping would like such a comfortable and welcoming environment. Look at how well the samples do at Costco.

We really had a fun time visiting the grocery stores out in the Portland area. We do most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods (and sometimes Fairway), since most of the "standard" grocery stores out here are downright terrible. We wish we had options like this at home. The stores we visited were so spacious. The aisles were so large, the stores weren't crowded, and you could just shop at a leisurely pace without feeling rushed like you do at stores here in the city. We'd have so much variety with these stores if we had them at home and could get some great stuff!

Philly Bilmo's

We didn't dine out for many meals while in Portland, and only one of those was not Chinese food - our lunch at Philly Bilmo's (in Vancouver, WA). Funny how we came all the way from NYC to go to "an East Coast deli." The nice thing about Philly Bilmo's is that they use Amoroso bakery bread that they ship in from Philadelphia, so it's authentic.

Philly Bilmo's had cheesesteaks, hot and cold subs and hot dogs on the menu. We both decided to get cheesesteaks instead of subs. A's dad got the roast pork hot sub on garlic bread (no photo) which A thought was very tasty if a very, very small bit dry, but the barbecue sauce added a nice sweetness and more than enough moisture to get through the mildly dry pork.

We split a small side of fries with A's parents. They were thin and crispy. Not bad, but nothing very special.

M got an 8" loaded chicken cheesesteak, which had sliced chicken, onions, peppers, mushrooms and cheese. The primary difference between the loaded and the regular were all those extra vegetables, and M is always looking for more vegetable options. M was surprised that it was sliced grilled chicken instead of chipped chicken like a regular cheesesteak (which we've gotten before in a chicken cheesesteak sandwich). The sandwich wasn't bad, but she would just call it a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a real cheesesteak sandwich.

A got the 8" loaded cheesesteak which had the same ingredients as M's sandwich except it was beef instead of chicken. The meat and cheese had the perfect amount of saltiness and tenderness to taste really good. The onions and peppers added sweetness to balance out the salt, and the mushrooms added more texture and moisture. The beef was nicely chipped, and in the end this was a very good cheesesteak.

Our lunch at Philly Bilmo's wasn't bad, but with so many places to visit and a limited amount of time on our visits, we're not sure if we'll be back. Not a bad option though if you're in the area.

Philly Bilmo's, 2100 SE 164th Ave, in Vancouver, WA.

HK Cafe

Our first day in Portland continued with a family dinner full of delicious Cantonese dishes at HK Cafe, not far from where we stuffed our faces with dim sum earlier in the day. I've grown up going to family dinners at Cantonese restaurants, so many of the dishes we had were very familiar to me. I think this was the first time I'd gone out for a Cantonese dinner with A's family so it was like both worlds colliding!

The meal started out with some soup, a clear broth with, I think, fish stomachs and other fish parts. From what we remember, this was pretty good. It was a thick soup with lots of flavor in the broth. The fish stomachs had a soft yet crunchy texture similar to a sea cucumber that's been stewed. The stomachs themselves didn't have much flavor though.

One of our favorite dishes at dinner were these salt and pepper fish. I'm not sure what kind of fish they were, but they were small like sardines. They were deep fried so that you could eat them whole, heads, tails and all.

In addition to the salt and pepper seasoning, which gave the fish a little bit of a kick, the dish came with plentiful amounts of onions, scallions, and jalapeño peppers, which made wonderful toppings for our rice bowls. This was definitely something we would love to eat again.

There was this casserole dish which had beef, tofu skin, and vegetables. I don't remember that much about it except that I wasn't a huge fan of the meat in it and I thought it was a bit tough. It didn't make a lasting impression on A either. He prefers the casseroles that my family orders with lamb or beef tendon.

Roast chicken is usually a fixture in a Cantonese dinner, but I don't remember if I ate any of this. I usually go for the white meat pieces, but I think they were gone by the time I looked for them since the chicken wasn't very big and I had been so obsessed with eating the salt and pepper fish. A had a couple pieces of the dark meat and thought it was just like almost any other Cantonese roast chicken that we've had in other meals with my family. It was topped with fried garlic which is another nice topping for the rice.

A well-rounded Cantonese dinner always has leafy green vegetables, preferably with lots of garlic. These pea pod greens were plenty garlicky and so good. One of our favorite healthy vegetables though shockingly expensive. HK Cafe delivered a good version of these.

They also ordered some fish with sugar snap peas, carrots, and mushrooms. This was good, but there wasn't anything really special or different about this dish from other places. It was simply prepared but it was fairly healthy and the vegetables were crisp and fresh.

Some of the more interesting dishes you can get at Cantonese restaurants involve pumpkin. I've only had a variation on this dish a couple of times, but this was a pumpkin stuffed with braised (I think) meat (not sure what kind) and pieces of the pumpkin that were scooped out. It had a nice sweetness from the pumpkin, and that balanced out the saltiness from the braising liquid/sauce that everything was cooked in. The meat was okay, a little on the tougher side again (but just remember that I have a bias against that and probably notice it more than other people do).

My family usually orders this Japanese tofu dish where the tofu is cut into rounds and served with lots of vegetables, especially mushrooms. We like that dish so much that we added it to our wedding banquet menu. This version was different, but really good. There were greens on the bottom, but the tofu came in large columns instead of smaller round slices. We've always heard it described as Japanese tofu, but the restaurant explained that it's egg tofu (which after some research is actually just another name for Japanese tofu). It's made by beating eggs into the tofu mixture prior to pressing so it adds some richness and creaminess as well as keeping the tofu from falling apart despite its silken texture. It also came topped with some sort of scallion, onion, and mushroom saute.

There was a dish of stir-fried shrimp with mushrooms, carrots, and chives. I love chives and this dish was full of them. This was fairly standard but good.

The meal ended with a sweet tapioca soup with taro. We've noticed that many Cantonese restaurants don't really end the meal with red bean soup a lot of times these days. There's a lot of tapioca soups. This one was not bad.

Having quite a bit of experience with Cantonese dishes in the States, I would say that the food at HK Cafe was pretty good. The quality of the ingredients was, for the most part, quite good, and everything tasted really fresh. Our favorite was clearly the salt and pepper fish, but many other dishes like the tofu and greens were also well done. Those were probably our top 3. We left quite satisfied!

HK Cafe, 4410 SE 82nd Ave, in SE Portland.

Ocean City

We love dim sum. We don't go very often because the lines/waits at so many places in NYC are horrendous. So when A's parents said we were going to dim sum straight from the airport, we had no complaints.

They took us to Ocean City Seafood Restaurant in Southeast Portland, which has dim sum from the roving carts. The carts kept coming and the plates kept landing on the table. We got all sorts of dumplings - shrimp, beef, pork and vegetables, and shrimp and chives. These were fairly standard dumpling renditions, and our favorite of these 4 was probably the shrimp and chives.

We also got curry chicken puffs (which tasted more like BBQ chicken pastries with not much curry), sticky rice (pretty good), chicken feet (good as always for A), peppers stuffed with shrimp cake (very tasty and M was very happy for some green vegetables), fried taro puffs (soft, stick to your ribs, and tasty), and eggplant (fine but nothing special).

And there was even more. Tofu pudding, egg tarts (fairly standard), shrimp rice rolls (also standard), and turnip cakes (always a favorite). A is always a fan of the tofu pudding as it's one of his favorite desserts. It came with the traditional ginger-sugar syrup-y soup. The nice thing about this soup was that it wasn't overly sweet like so many of them can be.

The dim sum was pretty good, but the brief taste of dim sum we had in Los Angeles earlier that year was still better (we are almost up to that in the LA recaps). Our best bets are probably SF, LA or Canada if we're looking for really delicious dim sum (outside of Asia).

We went back to Ocean City for a second dim sum meal later in the week with even more family members. Sadly our part of the group got held up at the gas station and arrived to a table full of partially eaten plates, so you will be deprived of close-up photos of most of the dishes we got. A lot of them were the same, except the majority of the dishes were beef and pork this time. There was also congee but we didn't get any of that, so can't comment on whether it was any good.

We did manage to get a few close-ups on the shrimp dumplings, taro cakes, fried sesame balls with lotus paste, and the pork buns.

Many of the dishes we got were similar to our first visit, except with meat instead. One dish that we got this time that we didn't get the first time that M really liked were the taro cakes. We ended up with both taro and turnip cakes on the table, which made us really happy.

We also got a plate of dry beef chow fun for the table, which was excellent. M is a big fan of chow fun and this is probably on par with some of the better ones she's had. Lots of scallions and bean sprouts, and the flavor was just right.

If we were to pick our three favorite things that we ate during our 2 meals at Ocean City, they would be:

For A - taro puff, chicken feet, pepper with shrimp cake.

For M - chow fun (without the meat), taro cake, pepper stuffed with shrimp cake.

We don't do much research before going out to Portland since we're visiting family and we don't really have much self-directed food time (if any), so we don't know where Ocean City ranks in the Portland dim sum hierarchy. (We visited a different place over four years ago that was excellent, but don't know how good it is now.) But we were really glad we got to fill up on some dim sum. Twice!

Ocean City Seafood Restaurant is located at 3016 SE 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon.

Flying Elephants

We just returned this morning from a long weekend in Portland, Oregon. (Now we have another trip to write about... although this one is shorter and had more home cooking, so hopefully it will be quicker to blog.)

We flew out of PDX, Portland International Airport, which has, in previous years, been voted one of the nation's best airports. It really has a lot going for it - clean, eco-friendly, free wifi, retailers (including food outlets) have to charge the same prices they do outside the airport, no lines to check in, no lines for security, quick moving TSA screening, spacious and not very crowded. After the misery that is the JFK JetBlue terminal, PDX airport (like the non-humid air in Portland) was just so refreshing.

Before we left PDX, I made a pit stop for some soup at Flying Elephants Delicatessen (the airport version of Elephants Deli, with several locations in Portland). I wasn't feeling too well after several cases of motion sickness over the weekend (sigh, minivans and traffic) and needed something to calm my stomach. I was originally going to get Wendy's nuggets but this was the healthier choice.


The deli had a lot of options, including selected items (not mine) for 50% off, since it was the end of the day. There was a sandwich of turkey and Tillamook cheddar (Oregon-based) that looked really good, but I was more queasy than hungry, and a sandwich would have been too much.

They had 4 different kinds of soup - a summer corn chowder (sounded delicious, but wanted to avoid bacon and cream before a flight), a chicken soup (same thing, also had cream), the soup I got (more later) and a fourth soup that I can't remember.


I got the summer vegetable soup, which consisted of carrots, celery, turnips, potatoes, fennel, white wine, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, lima beans and fresh basil. It sounded so healthy and looked great. The soup came in 2 sizes. I got the large and it was $4.50. It came with bread, but that was nothing special (would have preferred the saltines that came with the small size).


Tomatoes probably should be listed as the first ingredient since the soup is predominantly tomatoes. All the vegetables tasted so fresh and tomato soup is soothing, so this was the perfect pre-flight snack for me. PDX has a lot of options that look good, but I would recommend Flying Elephants if you're looking for soup, sandwiches or salads.