Grub around Portland 8/10/10 - 8/14/10

I promise I'm still cooking. I copied George on Monday and made mushroom stroganoff because we needed to finish off mushrooms and yogurt. Lesson: yogurt and lemon juice is not the same as sour cream. And always remember to compensate for unsalted butter.

But this past week, I was in Portland, and thanks to a few tips from my fellow bloggers, I tried to eat the best I could find around. Here's what I hit.

Vegetarian warak enab (dolmas) from Al-Amir, a Lebanese place in downtown Portland. Strangely, the restaurant is in a very classic brick building, though with Lebanese decor, it sort of works. My Middle Eastern palate isn't too refined, but I enjoyed it even though I didn't think I liked dolmas before.

Rose garden panini from J Cafe. We went because it was close to the convention center, but it ended up being very good. I think I'm a sandwich guy, and that was a good panini sandwich, made with "gorgonzola, provolone, roma tomatoes, mixed greens, red onion and artichoke hearts." Beyond quality ingredients and good panini-ing, what made this sandwich really special was that each bite was slightly different. With so many different things in it, about the only constants were the crunchy bread and gooey provolone. I like homogenized food, but this sandwich was great.

Alligator jambalaya from Montage. Montage was out of our way, but the tip from our resident Portland expert Holly was spot on. Admittedly don't know much about Cajun food, especially being from Texas, but the jambalaya was good. It was spicy, but not too spicy: just enough to burn a little in the back of the throat. It was salty, but not too salty. And the alligator was interesting. I don't think I have ever eaten reptile before, but it worked.

And their tin foil work on leftovers is amazing.

"Old Dirty Bastard" from Voodoo Doughnut. An oreo and peanut butter donut tastes exactly like what you think it would. So it was pretty good.

Veggie and tofu pho from PHO PDX. Delicious. The noodles and broth were great, and I felt so done after finishing my bowl. About the only bad thing I can say about it was that I bit into a pepper I had just thrown into the soup, and I had to take a break from my meal until my mouth cooled down.

Chicken pizza of some sort from Rovente Pizzeria. I was pooped and wanted to get something fast, junky, and on the way back to our hotel. Big, greasy, New York-style pizza sold by the slice. It was nothing special, but it hit the spot.

Penne arrabbiata from Built to Grill, a food cart. Fairly simple as far as pastas go. The menu specified "roma tomatoes, fresh basil and parsley, red pepper chili flakes, marinara," and it was good. The portion was huge and ended up being enough for an afternoon snack as well. I often complain about Italian restaurants being overpriced, but this batch didn't bother me too much.

Rockfish from Southpark Seafood Grill and Wine Bar. The rockfish was cooked well, but I don't particularly enjoy super-ritzy restaurants with small portions and fine wines. Actually, the meal was somewhat bland, even though the fish was cooked well. Still, it ended up being a great dinner because of great company. A Canadian, American, Chinese, Japanese, and Belgian walk into a restaurant. It turns out that other countries have even more screwed up education systems.

Momo's plate from a Kathmandu Cafe at the Portland Saturday Market. It's described as "The MOMO Roasted Garlic-Ginger all spiced meat-filled dumpling's steamed and serve with rice, lentils and salad Grandma Chanchar's venerable recipe." Good stuff. Rice and lentils is always solid, and the dumplings were good as well.

Elephant ear with sugar and cinnamon, also from the Portland Saturday Market. I say a lot of foods taste like death, but this would be dying happy. Each bite is buttery, sugary, and cinnamony goodness. Even better, the thick parts are doughy and chewy, and the thin parts are crunchy. A fantastic topper to the taste of Portland.