Papa Haydn

Papa Haydn is a restaurant that falls on the many different lists of "Top Portland Restaurants."  It's probably misleading because the food really isn't all that good.  I think the "must-try" eats at this restaurants is the desserts, which unfortunately isn't all that good either, unless you like cake.  I have a sweet tooth, but when it comes to cake, you'll get a *shrug* and an "eh" out of me.  I'll eat it, I'll probably enjoy it, but it's not something I usually seek out.


French Onion Soup herbed cruton cap, gratinee of asiago, parmesan, gruyere cheeses
I needed something hot and warm on this blustery gloomy Portland afternoon.  I've never really had an onion soup that I loved, but I went for it anyways.  The soup itself was pretty light despite all the caramelized onions.  The cheesy crouton baked on top wasn't too overwhelming.  Sadly, my soup was kind of lukewarm and somehow didn't all come together.

Croque Monsieur Black forest ham, imported Gruyere cheese and mustard-mayonnaise grilled on Parmesan coated bread, cucumber salad
Our waiter recommended this as one of their signature and most popular dishes.  It was just as described, a cheesy crispy mess of salty ham and cheese.  The bread was a bit too crispy.  The cucumber salad was in need of dressing.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed.

Chicken Sandwich poached breast, cherry preserves, smoked mozzarella, crispy Walla Walla 
onions, arugula, bacon aioli, rustic bun
Leave it to Dumpling Man to order something so ordinary as a chicken sandwich.  When asked how his sandwich was, he just shrugged.  Enough said.

Read more »

Mee Sen

I can confidently say that as far as Asian food in Portland goes, most of it is pretty average.  One large exception to this is the Thai food.  Are there a lot of Thai people in Portland?  I don't think so, at least according to Verde, but sometimes his information isn't always that accurate.  Thai food is good in LA, but limited to Thai town.  West LA has plenty of Thai places but some of them are pretty blah.  In Portland, I haven't come across one bad Thai place as bad as some of the places I've eaten at in LA.  For this, I am grateful.  This is what keeps me alive in Portland because I am someone that NEEDS a regular helping of rice and all else Asian.  Granted, when I eat Thai food with Dumpling Man, I am usually limited to 2 dishes, yellow chicken curry and pad see ew, but really I love all other Thai flavors and dishes.  So when Mee Sen was recommended to us, I saw that the menu included some more atypical dishes and I wanted to try it.


Hoy Ob Sa Mun Prai green mussels baked in clay pot, basil, lemongrass, galangal, chilies
The herbs and seasoning as spot on as was the spicy dipping sauce, but the dish failed because the mussels were not good quality.  They were kinda rubbery.  Alas, not all Thai mussel dishes can be as good as it is at Jitlada.

Khao Soi Gai
I have only newly discovered this very popular Northern Thai dish and I love it.  I haven't found a version as good as I had in Thailand, but this hit the general spot.  It was slight sweet and spicy with a big hunk of chicken drumstick.  I guess what I don't like about khao soi is the crunchy noodles.  I just want more of the regular noodles instead.

Read more »

Sushirrito

I love that people are constantly trying to innovate in the food world. People coming up with new twists on old ideas.  People mashing up cuisines from different parts of the world.  It's fun to discover all these new things.  I wouldn't exactly say these innovators are always so successful.  Sushirrito seems like it would be one of the more creative and delicious ideas.  Imagine giant sushi rolls as big as burritos, and you have Sushirrito.

It's caters to the lunch crowd being located in the financial district of SF.  It's more of an eat and go or take and go place.  There are no places to sit and eat and only a small area to stand and eat.  It kind of works like chipotle where you order you food and you watch them make it on a line.

The fish looked decently fresh.

As did the veggies.

Read more »

PPQ Dungeness Island

I apologize for my long break from the blogger world.  The holidays left me with little time to blog.  I was flying back and forth from Portland to LA during my time off, and when I get to LA all I do is eat and hang out without much time for blogging.  Plus, a lot of my free time has been spent trying to plan The Big Day.  Although it's quite a ways away, I like to peruse the internet seeing all the wonderful possibilities.  It's amazing to think what life would be like without the internet.

I still have to finish up blogging about my SF trip so many moons ago.  After Bottega and Gary Denko, were done with the White Man's food, and really need to color things up a shade of yellow.  Dim sum at Hong Kong Lounge really hit the spot and we wanted to keep the momentum going.  Weeners recommended PPQ which turned out to be disappointingly mediocre so I'm going to have to reconsider her recommendations from here on out.   PPQ is really know for their crab and garlic noodles.  I'm not sure if the restaurant is Vietnamese or Chinese since the food is sorta Chinese, but there is Vietnamese on the menu.  We decided to go off the set menu stuff and order a la carte.  Maybe thats where we went wrong because none of the things were ordered were very good.

Papaya Salad with Shrimp
I love papaya salad, but I didn't like this.  It was just sorta bland.  It lacked an adequate amount of acid or even salt. It was just a sweet bland taste.  The shrimp were flavorless.  The papaya had a good crunch I suppose, but the flavoring left much to be desired.

Fish Mau and Crabmeat Soup
Nothing spectacular going on here.  Not large pieces of anything that I could identify as being seafood.

Read more »