I've been in Portland visiting my twin brother Paul since last Wednesday, and in this past week I've experienced a lot of food. This is a city of food carts serving up some of the best tacos I've ever eaten, and good ol' casual-American cuisine prepared by dedicated locavores. Most of the time, I've been too excited to photo-document the deliciousness on my plate. But, thankfully, I was able to exercise some restraint and capture a few morsels.
Here are some food carts, these ones arranged in a parking lot in downtown Portland. Very diverse options abound, from Mexican to Indian to Thai to burgers to Czech!
This is the first meal I ate out in Portland (a city that's early to rise, and values its breakfast fare), at a Swedish-American place called Broder on SE Clinton. I got the smoked trout hash with 2 baked eggs and walnut bread, washed down with some Stumptown coffee (of course!)
As you can see, I enjoyed my breakfast thoroughly:
Sundays at Paul and Leigh's tend to be BBQ time; the following is a breakdown of the feast:
I made a straightforward bruschetta with tomatoes from the Saturday farmer's market downtown and basil from the backyard, left to marinate for hours and served room-temp with pasta and freshly grated asiago:
I also put together a cucumber, summer squash, and canteloupe salad (all from the yard and the farmer's market) with a lemon-yogurt dressing laced with coriander and cinnamon, garnished with mint (also from the yard!):
Leigh, masterful food artist that she is, arranged a handsome plate of baguette and fresh mozzarella:
(You can check out Leigh's blog here!)
The above was served with some of Leigh's finger-lickin' guacamole and chicken pieces that I marinated in lemon juice and zest, olive oil, fresh herbs from the garden, and garlic, and grilled outside on the BBQ.
Well, I don't know about you, but I'm stuffed! Hopefully this sustenance will hold you over until I am able to write again. Best wishes from the West Coast!
