Life With….

For the past week I was in Portland, OR to explore some possible business ideas I have, – I will write more about my class on coffee, speciality coffee, the business of these bars  and thoughts there at a later date as the ideas become clearer in my head.  Suffice it to say I learned a lot about coffee and found I like well prepared brewed coffees a lot, a fact I had forgotten as they are so rarely found.  Portland reminded me of a super-sized Durham in good ways (food and books) and bad (too many hipsters, a need to assert the progressive agenda even when there is no need to politicize things, dirt and grungy hipsters) but the good outweighed the bad and the public transportation counterbalanced to an extent the extreme amounts of homelessness, the eco friendly-ness and affordability counterbalanced some of the sense that the town was on the verge of changing into an overgrown hipster college scene, and relaxed vibe and welcoming atmosphere helped compete with the rainy cold weather.  (In a side note I realized why grunge was so dark in color on the whole – due to the weather most people don’t wear much color unless they are making a statement by wearing BOLD colors, needless to say, I stuck out like sore thumb.  I did enjoy that the women treated umbrellas as a way to show unique fashion accessories with bold designs and colors, my umbrella from the Freer depicting Whistler’s Peacock room did not stick out!)

I arrived midday sunday and Sunday afternoon was supposed to be my day to wander around the city – go to the galleries that were open – and check out places.  I did a little of that, but having landed at 11:40 PST and gotten up at 4 AM EST (and not really having slept well) I was exhausted, so I wound up grabbing lunch from a food cart serving to order Thai on the cheap and on the street.  .  (In a side note – Portland has a fabulous light rail and for$2.30 I took a train from the airport almost to my hotel’s door – along with hipsters with dogs, other travelers, and a collection of pot smoking hippies who were so high and had been smoking so long that they recollected in many ways Cheech and Chong, even as they gave me a warm welcome and pointed out interesting land marks in the surrounding area).  This particular cart was decent – nothing to write home about but also just as good as most generic Thai places.  The others I tried were better.

Following a nap,  (and the information that my room had been complementarily upgraded to a suite) I went to a place that is synonymous with Portland for book lovers – Powell’s City of Books.  Even being exhausted, sore, and overwhelmed by the number of hung-over tattooed people in what can only be described as authentic 90s grunge (down to men in tights and skirts with stretched ears walking chihuahuas) Powell’s overwhelmed me.  It is a bookstore that is four stories and 68,000 square feet of new, used, and rare books.  It had copies of books I have been looking for for awhile and other new ones displayed that I had not heard of and otherwise may not have been exposed to.  At the same time – it is so big as too be confusing, and it is not clean.  It is a warehouse and outside of the main entrance and rare book room, does little to create the ambiance typical of a bookstore.  For me at least I did not feel (or observe) people relaxing into the book and store in the way I am used to seeing in local (or even chain bookstores).    At the same time I saw volumes of books I had not seen anywhere but libraries, and used books at prices so reasonable as to prevent my ignoring them.  The rare book room was a rare treat, and the drama section almost had me in tears as it had copies of every play I have wanted to read in years – unfortunately suitcases only have so much room – and my budget for the trip did not include many books.

I did find this ambiance the next day when I stopped into Cameron’s books while visiting the downtown Stumptown location and the food carts (I do love that idea and am so glad that Durham now has a Korean Taco Truck which is phenomenal, mobile Taco trucks, an empanada truck, mobile cupcakes, and OnlyBurger and the Indian mobile station outside Sam’s Quick Stop though I have not tried those two).  At Cameron’s I found a used book I have been looking for for months at half the price used sellers on Amazon had it. They had books on poetry that I had not seen, and better archives full of magazines going back to the turn of the 20^th century that one can request to examine.  This was still a pleasure to explore – in a manageable setting!

Monday after class I wandered back into the Pearl district to try Adina, a Nuevo Peruvian restaurant I have been reading about for a while.  It lived up to expectations – with dishes that complemented sweet and heat in novel but exciting ways.  For example I tried an empanada from the owner’s family recipe that had olives and raisins mixed in with the beef and was coated with key limejuice and light powered sugar.  The tang of the olive, its salty acidity, contrasted perfectly with the sweet acid of the key lime in a perfect way.  In a similar way the pork loin dish I had was served with a pepper-based sauce and over butternut ravioli combining the traditional with the new – the sweat of the peppers and their heat – were incredibly well balanced by the butternut squash.  This was a dish in which a bit of each element must be eaten together to get the full sensation, and although not the way I normally eat it was exciting to try. I followed this with a trip to a wine bar, where the bartenders had a tasting of Oregon wines three for ten dollars.  The wines (with one exception) were good and the bartender went out of her way to talk about the grapes, wine and vineyard   – really informative and helpful  - and impressive as she was able to do this while kicking out three very drunk patrons at closing time.

On my last night two fellows from the class and I went, on our teachers’ recommendations to Le Pigeon.  A true full body restaurant where tongue, sweetbreads, cheeks and foie gras are all served frequently, the food is phenomenal.  The chef, as much as possible, uses local foods, and cross pollinates regions and cultures.  I saw shrimp cooked ceviche style and personally had coarsely ground grits that were mixed in with a few kernels of full corn.  Everyone of us was pleased with our meals (I had a bone marrow and caramelized onion sandwich appetizer with a sweetbread over grits entre, my seat mates had a foie gras appetizer, halibut, and foie gras cream puffs in one case and a scallop appetizer, with the pork entre, and a crème brule served with pots de crème decaf espresso).  Just as a amazing was the size – the restaurant seats 40 around four large tables and 10 bar seats.  The bar seats face the chef’s kitchen where all food is prepared in front of you.  The space the chefs stood and worked in was not much bigger then my couch – perhaps thee couches (one for counter space and one for cooking space) was the kitchen in toto although there is a prep area down stairs.  All I can say was that the whole experience was a treat in itself, the bookshelf lined back wall was gorgeous and meeting the owner/chef was an added bonus.

Even my streetcart breakfast was delicious and nutritious – having stopped in an at bloop oatmeal.   There I had apple cider oatmeal – made with almond milk!!! – that was essentially apples, maple syrup, agave honey, almond milk and oats sautéed together with the apples and syrup and milk sautéing first.  The oats followed and were undercooked compared to a mush oatmeal, and the honey was drizzled on top.  It was phenomenally good to eat as I walked across the river on a morning when the temperature was not yet 50 and the air and sky blue.  I may start making all my oatmeal that way, as I preferred it to the mushy kind.

All in all I see why Portland is considered a great foodie town – there are so many options – and I have thoroughly enjoyed the architecture and the causal politeness of the people – but I am sure I could not live here presently.  I am not hip enough, though do enjoy the vibe, and hope to come back one day when I am not in class full time and truly explore the city.   Hopefully in the middle of summer – as the four seasons in one day thing was a bit much 40-68 is a big range as is down pour –sun – hail in 15 minutes – all of which I experienced first hand.  Even better – on one of the few nights I was not hitting a food cart of dinner at a nice restaurant with classmates, I met my cousin’s wife for drinks.  I had not seen her since their wedding and it was nice to catch up and here how she was, how he is as he is currently in Iraq, and just really chat.  I am excited to hear how her next year of school goes and where she winds up teaching. I can’t thank her enough for driving down and meeting me.

The biggest downside though had to be coming home to Algy and Peebes.  Algy had been in an altercation with another dog at the Vet (I don’t blame them as it was a very quick fight and I know they love Algy and comped me his treatment) – apparently both are bad at stopping play and Algy did not realize that the other dog was threatening him.  Algy has a cut tail, some bruising and cuts on the skin and face, and stitches in his ear.  Therefore he has antibiotics, pain meds, and an Elizabethan Collar (his third).  He is quite pathetic as he cannot perceive depth in the thing, and cannot get comfortable.  Hopefully the stitches can come out end of next week and all will be better!  Cheers – off to watch the Lost finale, hope the thunderstorms don’t wreck that plan for me.

All text and copyrights preserved by the author 02csb For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Courtney Brown

Create Your Badge  All text and copyrights preserved by the author for words and original pictures and may not be used without author's permission. For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/peebesalgy or contact me directly through http://www.peebesalgy.com/blog/contact-me/ Courtney Brown | Create Your Badge