Aviary

Like all the other Jews and Chinese people, we found ourselves looking for any open restaurant to celebrate Christmas Eve.  I originally was planning to make dinner, but Verde was orphaned for the holiday so we decided to make a night of it at Aviary.  This restaurant had the unfortunate luck of burning down shortly after its opening, but has reemerged like a phoenix from the ashes.  The menu certainly looked interesting, but a little too off beat to be appealing.  I'm glad Dumpling Man made the executive decision to eat here because it was DELICIOUS.

We started off with the most amazing bread and "butter."  I say "butter" because there was something else in here that made it ohh soo tasty, but too bad I don't remember what it was.  All I know is that I kept sopping it up with every teeny bit of bread.  Just go there and try it!


Spiced Duck Leg and Broth slow poached egg, daikon, dates, brioche persillade
This was another tasty dish.  The downside was that it was so tiny.  It probably could have been eaten in 3 bites so between Dumpling Man, Verde, and myself we pretty much only got a small niblin' each. The duck was tender, the egg yolk was runny and rich, the dates brought the sweetness, and the brioche added buttery crunch.  It was like a dish you've never had.


Oxtail Croquettes tomato jam
Have you ever had chinese beef stew?  Well this tasted like a bite of that with a slight crunch on the outside.  It was a neat take on a traditional dish.  Super small though!  I could have fit 3 in my mouth if I tried.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Hainanese Chicken & Rice

Dumpling Man really likes Hainan Chicken & Rice.  It's a pretty simple dish that I usually cheat to make since I never wanted to attempt poaching my own chicken and making my own rice.  So I've used various versions of this pre-made seasoning in a jar over the years, and Dumpling Man has always been pleased.  All you do is add a couple scoops to your rice and then pop it in the rice cooker.  As for the chicken, I usually season it and slather it with some ginger and steam it. 

Anyways, I decided to hunker down and do it all from scratch.  Watching the episode of No Reservations, when Anthony Bourdain visits Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken and Rice Stand in Singapore, was the final push to try and do it.  They showed the process of poaching the chicken and using the poaching liquid to make an aromatic delicious rice.  I found an easy enough recipe at Steamy Kitchen.

So when my mom makes bun thanh, which is a kind of Vietnamese chicken noodle soup dish, she says it should be made with a free range chicken.  She's not very clear on why, but it's supposed to be better.  This recipe too, called for a free range chicken.


I have no idea how many pounds the chicken was, but by my guestimation it was at least 4 lbs?

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Joe's Burger

The argument over the "best burger" seems to be an endless debate for the ages.  Some of the more well known contenders nation wide are probably In 'N Out and Shake Shack.  Every city has its own local battle.  In LA, there's Father's Office, Golden State, Umami Burger, etc.  You can find me in the In 'N Out and Father's Office camp.  In Portland, I'm sure a battle is raging, but I'm not so "in-the-know" and I have no desire to hike all over the city trying different burgers.  I've tried Little Big Burger, which was just ok, but not worth a revisit.  Although I do pass it by on my way to workout and I cannot deny that the aroma wafting from it's doors is intoxicating, especially AFTER my workout.

More recently, I've tried Joe's Burgers, which is located at Bridgeport Village in Tigard.  Imagine the Irvine Spectrum, a highly commercialized and relatively new and shiny outdoor shopping complex in the heart of the suburbs.  There's a large movie theater & IMAX, Crate & Barrel, The Container Store, Banana Republic, etc.  It feels like a little bit of home away from home, so Dumpling Man and I find ourselves there A LOT.  Now Joe's Burger is not a restaurant or even a food cart.  It's a food kiosk, surrounded by other food kiosks like Wetzel's Pretzels, The Sweet Factory, a bakery selling overpriced gourmet cupcakes, and Portland's Kogi wannabe, Koi Fusion.  Despite being just a kiosk, it serves a burger that has come the closest to replicating In 'N Out's deliciousness.

Fries
These were delicious and fried to a golden crisp.  They really remind me of McDonald's french fries, having that perfect artificial fried potato taste very much lacking from In 'N Out's fries.

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Hong Kong Lounge

So after many wonderful meals in San Francisco (Gary Denko, Ferry Building, Bottega), the H.o.P. was honestly itching for something else.  The H.o.P always gravitates back to our one true love, the complex multi faceted cuisine of Asia.  What better way to satisfy that craving than with some good ole dim sum.  Hands down, Seafood Harbour in Rosemead has got to be THE best dim sum this side of the Pacific.  I haven't had dim sum in Hong Kong, but the rest of the H.o.P. can confirm this.  So far, my experience with dim sum in the Bay Area has been just ok.  Better than anything in Orange County, but nothing that knocks your socks off.  A true dim sum experience cannot be complete without some rude, pushy, and loud Cantos.  You know what I'm talking about.  They smell like mothballs and old closets, they squawk and squabble like wild chickens, and shoving and cutting you off comes as second nature to them.  Haha, I joke, right?  These are the people of Dumpling Man.  He says my people live 10 people to 1 room and are ghetto beyond all ghetto.  Ah, to each his own...

Xiao Long Bao
Tasty and pretty juicy.

Har Gow
Pretty large pieces of shrimp.

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Bottega

Michael Chiarello has made quite a name for himself by being one of the 3 finalists in the first season of Top Chef Masters.  Let's be honest, the first season was the only season worth mentioning.  Subsequent seasons have been pretty lackluster.  Anyways, I was pretty impressed with Chef Chiarello's mastery of Italian cuisine, so I was really looking forward to trying out Bottega during my jaunt to SF a few weekends back.  The Pouter had amazing things to say from her experience there, so the expectations were high.

Lamb & Egg "house made" lamb sausage, pepperonata, crispy soft boiled egg, red endive, smoked olive oil poached mushrooms
The Pouter recommended this dish.  It was pretty solid.  The sausage was spicy and was mellowed out by the rich runny egg yolk with its crispy exterior and then complimented by the slightly bitter and sharp endive.

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Thanksgiving 2011

So my mom has become sort of a traveling gnome these days.  She plans these elaborate trips, it's beginning to feel like every years now, with all her lady friends to quite exotic destinations.  This year it was Turkey and Sri Lanka with a short jaunt to Vietnam.  She often goes in the fall and this year she happened to be gone during Thanksgiving.  With her gone, my siblings and I were sort of at a loss of what to do.  In the end, everyone else decided to take a trip too.  Triple F and Running Man went to South America and Smooth Obturator and Triple T went to Bora Bora.  By the time I thought of going back home to spend Thanksgiving with Dumpling Man's family, plane tickets were through the roof.  So that left Dumpling Man and me, alone, in rainy Portland for Thanksgiving.  Luckily, Zhu Zhu Hamster was also in town and she brought along her friend, Little Pet.  So I took this opportunity to attempt my first Thanksgiving dinner for 4.  I didn't make all the usual things I normally eat with my family.  The only thing I really missed out on was the Oyster and Shrimp Stuffing which I have been eating with my family for as long as I could remember.  Dumpling Man very much dislikes my family's stuffing so I tried to do a more normal one this year.  All the recipes I used this year came from trusty foodtv.com.

Brined Herb-Crusted Chicken 
I adapted this recipe for a 4.5lb chicken instead of the intended 12-14lb turkey.  First of all I don't like turkey all that much.  And second of all, how can 4 people eat all that turkey?  The recipe also called for brining for 2-3 days and drying it out for another day.  Uh, who has all that time?  I brined it for 1 day and dried it out for 4 hours.  I figured, smaller bird, shorter prep time?

The recipe also called for cooking the turkey at 17 minutes per pound.  I did some cross referencing and went with the timing suggested by the roasted chicken recipe in Ad Hoc At Home.  It's a darn good thing I did that, otherwise the turkey would have ended up dry as a bone.  

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Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage and Fennel

Making your own pasta looks so easy.  Mix some flour, water, eggs, etc and roll out the dough and presto!  I've been wanting to try it but I haven't gotten around to it.  Instead, I've tried making my own ricotta gnocchi, also known as gnudi, which apparently means "naked."  I guess these are supposed to be like the filling of a pasta but without the pasta, hence the nakedness.  My first encounter with gnudi was at Restaurant Zoe in Seattle.  In short, it was heavenly.  So I wanted to see if I could recreate a little bit of heaven in my kitchen too.  In short, I could not.

Mario Batali's recipe for ricotta gnocchi seems simple enough.  Eggs, flour, salt, nutmeg, and ricotta cheese.  He suggested goat's milk ricotta but I couldn't find that and had to settle for regular cow's milk.  I think I bought a reduced fat one by accident.  I suppose the key here is draining the ricotta through a fine sieve overnight in the fridge to drain out the excess liquid.  After a whole day in the fridge, hardly any liquid drained out.  I think I should have taken that as a bad omen.

Here is what it looks like after all the wet ingredients are mixed together.

This is how it looks after the flour gets mixed in.  The directions say to mix in more flour if the dough too wet and sticky.  I ended up putting in a whole sh*t ton of flour just so I could handle the dough to make the little balls.  It was still sticky up to that point but I didn't want leaden balls rolling around in my sauce.

After much blood, sweat, and tear, I finally had a tray full of gnocchi balls to boil.

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Ferry Building Farmer's Market

So after an awesome dinner at Gary Denko, we woke up the next morning wondering what our next food adventure might be.  We had reservations for Bottega in Napa Valley at 5pm, so we didn't want to eat anything too heavy or too filling.  Triple F suggested the Farmer's Market where we could just try some small things here and there and still have space for carbo loading later in the day at Bottega.  I had been to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building before, but never to eat real food.  

I remember watching Anthony Bourdain feast at Primavera.  I was having a craving for Mexican food, so I figured now was the time to see if Anthony Bourdain knew what he was talking about.  As you can see, this ain't no $1 taco stand.

Primavera Chilaquiles Guanajuato organic local scrambled eggs, refried beans, sour cream, avocado, white onions, cilantro
Everything was kinda whatever.  I think I've had better chilaquiles.  The other members of the H.o.P. could not understand what possessed me to stand in such a long line for such unimpressive eats.  I blame it on Anthony Bourdain, but maybe I shoulda had the tamales which is the more popular option here.

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Gary Danko

My apologies for my absence from the blogosphere.  After a long day of work, I usually come home and cook dinner.  Portland just doesn't have the same dining options that LA did, so its forced my hand to cook more regularly.  If anyone knows me, I don't like to cook instant or even semi-instant sh*t.   I cook the way my mom did, fresh veggies and meat.  Anyways, after that I vegetate in front of the TV and the last thing I can think of doing is blogging.  On top of that my computer is all slow because I upgraded to Lion so blogging is just difficult.  Looks like I'm only able to blog on days off, which today happens to be.  Yay for me!  Ok enough whining...

Last weekend I hit up SF to visit my sister.  It's been 3 or 4 years since I've been to SF.  I dunno why it took me so long to come back for a visit.  I'll just blame everything on my prior "overworked-ness."  Smooth Obturator really wanted to try Gary Denko, so reservations were made some time ago.  The restaurant is pretty small, so I can imagine why reservations may be hard to get.  There was actually a couple with a young child sitting at the bar enjoying dinner.  Right when I was thinking to myself, "I don't think this is the kind of place you take a little kid," the kid went and spit up his food right into mom's hand.  Thanks kid, way to ruin my appetite.

I loved the many choices available at Gary Denko.  You can make up your own tasting menu from any of the items on the menu.  They can make appetizers into entrees and vice versa.  It was just too exciting.

Roasted Tomato and Fennel Soup chives

Because we had to wait a little bit past our reservation time for our table, the chef wanted to thank us by  giving us something a little bit special.  It was certainly a teeny amount of very yummy soup.  Sweet, savory, with some tangy tomato chive topping.

This was one crazy expensive HALF bottle of wine.  I won't say how much, but it was more than I could afford.  It was a beautiful cabernet sauvignon.  Thanks to Smooth Obturator and Triple T for footing the bill on this one!

I expected a bit more something exciting for bread when it comes to a restaurant of this caliber.

Buckwheat Blini salmon, caviar, creme fraiche
I have never really had a blini with caviar that I found to be amazing.  Usually the blini is cold and hard, but this was truly a delectable bite.  The bilini was warm, soft, with a fresh crisp exterior.  The salmon was smokey and the caviar was briny.  It was delicious.

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Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

I like baking, but I've realized lately that I only like to bake 2 things, brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  So this was my attempt at stepping outside my comfort zone and doing something new and different.  I figured I could do no wrong with a highly rated recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.

The dough is a pretty standard combination of sugar, flour, butter, etc

What makes it different is the added lemon juice and zest.

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Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce

Who knew making your own tomato sauce could be so easy and tasty!  When I bought Mario Batali's cookbook, Molto Italiano, I was excited to get down and dirty with some of his recipes.  But first, I'd have to make my own sauce.  I was surprised at how such few basic ingredients could make a subtle yet tasty difference to your everyday pasta.  All you need are carrots, onions, garlic, canned whole tomatoes, olive oil, and thyme.  I found it strange that thyme was the herb of choice instead of something basil.

I've always heard about San Marzano tomatoes, but I never quite understood what made them so special.

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Du Kuh Bee

Aside from dumplings, Portland is also lacking good Korean food.  I'm sure nothing compares to LA's Koreatown except Korea itself.  It's amazing how Korean food used to be something so foreign and weird tasting to something I really love.  I guess it's cuz I have a penchant for stinky things and Korean food is full of that.  Anyways, Du Kuh Bee isn't a true Korean place, but rather a Korean-Chinese place, maybe?  I'm not sure.  They are known for these delicious fresh hand pulled noodles.  I've never seen anything like that in any Korean restaurant.  But then they serve kimchi and galbi.  And then they have mapo tofu and fried rice.  Go figure.  Du Kuh Bee is seriously like one little Korean family running a little kitchen.  Service is on the slow side because dad pulls the noodles and mom does everything else.  Don't go if you're starving.

Kimchi
Nom nom nom

Dumplings
Pretty standard.

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Din Tai Fung (Seattle)

Portland is a nice place to live.  The people are nice.  There's not much traffic.  Most everything you want is here sans tax (there's a Target and/or Trader Joe's every which way you turn!).  The very obvious thing it is lacking is great Asian food, especially good dumplings.  Lucky for us, the world famous Din Tai Fung has opened up a new outpost!........................in Seattle. 

Now we don't have to fly to get our dumpling fix!  We need only drive 2.5 hours one way, so that we can wait another 1 hour for a table, and then fight the food coma back to Portland another 2.5 hours, while maintaining a keen watch out for cops trying to stick you with a speeding ticket for going over 65mph.  No joke.  Who would attempt such a ridiculous trip?  On a whim no less?  Well, that would be Dumpling Man and his trusty sidekick, moi. 

The restaurant is located in Bellevue, which seems to be a pretty posh area of Seattle.  Din Tai Fung is in the top level of a new, modern, non-Asian, non-ethnic, All-American shopping complex with a Nordstroms, Crate & Barrel, and PF Chang's.  It's on the same floor as Lucky Strike.  Yes folks, you can bowl and get your dumpling on at the same time!

It seems like they've spared no expense at this outpost of DTF.  It's a striking contrast to the cramped quarters of DTF in Taiwan.  This one is sprawling with high ceilings and modern finishings.  It's easily double the size of the 2nd Arcadia location and even has a private room with an all glass wall and door.

The stand out feature of this location is the full stock bar where you can wait for your table or even eat.

And of course, the droves of hispanics industriously working the dumpling line.

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Picca

Oh Picca, why did you have to disappoint me so?  I had such high hopes for this place.  Blogger after blogger extoled the culinary accomplishments of the modern Peruvian fare here.  It was top on my list of "to-try" LA restaurants.  I even recommended this restaurant to my Triple F and Running Man during their visit down here, solely based on the reviews of all the bloggers.  Running Man was sorely unimpressed.  Triple F being more sunshine than dark cloud, was slightly more positive, but wasn't really crazy about the place.

Finally, I managed to get a group together for a visit.  Teety, Soprano Man, The Face Puncher, Quack Man T, and myself gathered for fun filled dinner.  We didn't really know what to order and in what quantity.  So out of our laziness, we opted for the omakase.  Maybe that wasn't the best decision.

Causa Sushi scallops, mentaiko
I would say this was probably one of the best dishes of the night.  I loved the take on "sushi."  Instead of rice, the proteins were sitting on top of little well seasoned potato cakes.  The scallops were fresh with just a bit of deliciousness fishiness from the roe.

Toro Ceviche leche de tigre
This was just the start of the leche de tigre overload in the omakase.  That stuff is incredibly tart.  A little bit goes a long way but some dishes were overwhelmed with them.  I can't even recall if the toro had that signature butteriness since there was just so much sauce.

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Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Dumpling Man likes his curries, specifically Thai yellow curries.  I'm not such a fan, but I'll eat it.  It's just a bit too creamy and sweet, but that's exactly how Dumpling Man likes it.  I prefer Vietnamese curry instead which is more fragrant from lemongrass and ginger and saltier from a good helping of fish sauce.  So my curry somehow walks the middle road, and as a result is never sweet enough for Dumpling Man.

I've made this before but with the lemongrass cut into short stalks.  This recipe from Ravenous Couple called for finely sliced lemongrass.  If you've cooked lemongrass before, you'll know that it is not something that softens as you cook.  So, all that lemongrass ended up being lost in the sauce and into my bowl and it was not fun to chew on.  Next time, I'm keeping the lemongrass in stalks so they can be fished out at the end.

Your basics.  I found these mini cans of coconut milk.  Perfect for making a serving of curry like this.  For most recipes, a mini can like this may short change you on the called for amount of coconut milk, but I'd rather have a less coconutty curry than half a can of coconut milk that will slowly mold in the back corner of my fridge.  I randomly picked this curry powder.  It's pretty darn spicy.

First you gotta marinate your meat.  I like to keep my meat in semi-large pieces so that they end up being fall apart tender after a while.  Unfortunately, it takes longer to cook that way.

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101 Noodle Express (Lu Wei Ju)

We all know Irvine is missing a solid dumpling and noodle house.  A&J makes a decent attempt, but it still leaves a big void.  I mean, if I knew how to make awesome dumplings, I would totally open up a joint in Irvine because I knew it would win big.  I'm talking lines out the door folks!!  Let's step outside my imagination for now, and talk about Irvine's newest dumpling and noodle house, 101 Noodle Express.

101 Noodle Express' original location in Alhambra has been on the SGV dumpling scene for a long time.  Unfortunately, Dumpling Man and I were not particularly impressed with anything there when we tried it many moons ago.  Somehow, transplanting the restaurant to Irvine has changed my opinion.  Maybe because there's just not many options in Irvine when it comes to noodles and dumplings.

Cold Mix of Cucumbers
We all know I love a good pickled vegetable, and cucumbers are no exception.  These were a tad on the sugary side but it was refreshing for a warm summer lunch. 

De Zhou Chicken
Apparently this dish is quite special at 101 Noodle Express.  De Zhou chicken is a special dish from the Shandong region of China.  The bird is first deep fried before it is braised in spices, soy sauce, and sugar.  The dish here was served cold with a soy dipping sauce.  It was pretty darn flavorful and moist.  Surely something I would order again.

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