• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

Every so often a publisher sends me a book I’m sure will be lousy, but it turns out to be an enjoyable read. Such is the case with “Restaurant Man” by Joe Bastianich, long time business partner of Mario Batali. It is a combination of homage to food and wine, and tutelage on owning and managing restaurants.

Bastianich grew up in a restaurant family in Queens, back in the days when a plate of spaghetti and meatballs could pass as Italian cooking. He cut his teeth working in his parent’s restaurant, doing his homework in the back, and absorbing the business from his father, a self-proclaimed “restaurant man”. It was during these years that he learned every facet of the small business, from washing dishes, to sitting in the back of his father’s truck where he was “practically waterboarded with bloody chicken juice”.

From here the book meanders a bit, beginning with his parents opening Felidia restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, his education at Boston College, and a brief stint as an investment manager on Wall Street. From there he took his year-end bonus, and headed to Italy to learn about the food, eating and working his way through restaurants and vineyards.

“I was tasting flavors that would last a lifetime. Flavors I would bring with me into everything that worked later, like what ‘real’ grilled calamari tasted like. You have to burn it just right, until there are freckles of black blistered char. It was sweet – caramelized and tender, and doused in this angry, bitter olive oil, laced with unbelievably stinky garlic, and hit with chopped parsley, and shot into outer space with this lemon that was so sweet and tart, it made you screw up your face. “

When Bastianich returned to New York, he met Mario Batali. The two decided to open a restaurant together, and Babbo was Born.

Bastianich was more of a restaurant traditionalist, and at first working with Batali panicked him. When they were opening the restaurant they got a quick education on each other’s personalities. “… he was coming up with these beef cheek ravioli, and the calamari Sicilian lifeguard style. There was no f’ing Sicilian lifeguards. He was just like, “hey, how do you suppose a Sicilian lifeguard would make calamari?” And then he did it. I didn’t quite know what to make of it all; I was panicked, because right in the moment of pressure, and being out in the public eye, I was kind of reverting, to what I knew, which was traditional Italian food. Mario was spinning that food and tradition into something new. He was right of course, and it launched our complete revolution of ideas. We never accepted anything just because that was the way it was done.”

From there the book chronicles the close partnership between Joe and Mario and their adventures in both Italy and the U.S. as they opened a long list of restaurants. As their empire expanded economy of scale played into everything they do. When they needed a good house wine, Joe went to Italy and opened two wineries. When they couldn’t find enough good fish to supply the restaurants, they became a fish wholesaler, even selling to competitors. Olive oil? Italian tomatoes? They now own shipping containers to bring the products they buy directly from Italy into the United States. Even the gasoline for their vehicles is made from the waste oil of their restaurants.

Focusing mostly on the front of the house, Restaurant Man is an unapologetic accounting of the highs and lows of Joe and Mario’s experiences as their empire continued to grow. The philosophy of each restaurant is detailed from concept to opening and beyond, replete with stories about Mario, restaurant employees and their customers.

The f’bomb is dropped constantly, and his writing style is brash, not hesitating to criticize people they met along the way, other vendors, and even employees. It is far from politically correct, Bastianich has some scores to settle – “And then you have a withering douche-bag like Pinot Longo. For five minutes about a thousand years ago, he was able to convince New York that he was some kind of a Tuscan cook. But frankly, I think he was always full of shit.” Of Le Cirque, “When I think of who ate there, it’s Barbara Walters, Walter Cronkite, Nixon and Kissinger — his customers are all dead or dying. Le Cirque never appealed to a younger audience, it never evolved to accommodate the next generation of restaurant-goers. It was always dominated by Sirio, and he never let his kids perform in the center ring.” The latter was especially interesting to me, as I had just finished watching “Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven”, which left me with some strong opinions too. He also blows the doors off of restaurant secrets – Desserts are almost pure profit, no bottle of wine costs more than five dollars to make, and some restaurants dilute expensive Parmesan cheese with other, cheaper varieties.

Bastianich also has a self-congratulatory tone that gets annoying at times but it is difficult to dismiss because he’s such a successful businessman. I suppose that being overly confident is one of the ingredients needed to make such an entrepreneur, but at times it gets tiresome.

Restaurant Man serves as an education to anyone wanting to enter the restaurant business. Along the way it talks about managing employees and vendors, staging a scene by letting in just the right mix of customers, and the need to have a balance between making art and making a living. “Most people who open restaurants will fail, because they lack the fundamental understanding of restaurant math. Either they think they’re superstar cooks or they think they’re superstar hosts. They do it for ego, and they don’t realize that without making money it’s nothing but bullshit,” writes Bastianich. “If you think you’re some sort of glorified dinner host or some artistic cook, you’re not going to last a week.”

Overall, I liked the book. If you are in or going into the restaurant business, read it. Most people interested in food or restaurants in general will enjoy it too.

Restaurant Man by Joe Bastianich.

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

THE VOTING HAS CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who participated! The winner is Dave for:

to err is human
and to forgive is divine
I served red with fish

Honorable mention to Amber:

Wine filled our glasses,
Lingered on your lips, so I
Drank too much of both.

Dave – please email me your contact information so that we can arrange to get the tickets to you.

• 1. Wine filled our glasses,…(29%, 23 Votes)
• 2. Pour, shuck, sip then slurp… (1%, 1 Votes)
• 3. today it rains hard… (1%, 1 Votes)
• 4. Red raspberries pop…(1%, 1 Votes)
• 5. I make chicken soup…(3%, 2 Votes)
• 6. Can’t pronounce this cheese!… (5%, 4 Votes)
• 7. to err is human… (53%, 41 Votes)
• 8. Hug this tree for luck…(7%, 5 Votes)

The judges are all over the place on their favorite haiku this year, so I’m throwing it out to you. If you could take the time to look over the top haiku below and vote in the poll on the right side of the page, I would appreciate it. One vote per person, please! Voting will end on Sunday evening.

The winner will receive two general-admission tickets for the event on Tuesday May 8th (a $170 value). Tickets will be mailed to winner before the event.

“Taste of the Nation Portland will raise critical funds needed to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in Oregon and across the nation.” You can read more information about the event at www.portlandtaste.org. If you planning to attend, you might want to read our “Taste of the Nation: a Battle Plan” here.

1. Amber says:
Wine filled our glasses,
Lingered on your lips, so I
Drank too much of both.

2. Tom says:
Pour, shuck, sip then slurp
Bubbles, oysters; what a pair
Life without a care

3. Dave says:
today it rains hard
tomorrow there will be sun
pinot noir comes soon

4. Calabrese says:
Red raspberries pop
Fragrant tartness into lips
Open for their kiss

5. Frieda Lighthouse says:
I make chicken soup
Memories of grandmother
Recalling her smile

6. Amber Says:
Can’t pronounce this cheese!
Cow or sheep? Quick – Google it!
Here comes our waiter!

7. Dave says:
to err is human
and to forgive is divine
I served red with fish

8. Brian Wilbur says:
Hug this tree for luck
Says my son before we rake.
Glorious truffles.

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

This contest is now closed! Thanks to everyone who participated! I think this year has some of the best entries ever.

Presenting the 2012 “fooku”, Portland Food and Drink’s annual food haiku contest. Once again I have partnered with Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation at JELD-WEN Field. The winner will receive two general-admission tickets for the event on Tuesday May 8th (a $170 value). Tickets will be mailed to winner before the event.

“Taste of the Nation Portland will raise critical funds needed to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in Oregon and across the nation.” You can read more information about the event at www.portlandtaste.org. If you planning to attend, you might want to read our “Taste of the Nation: a Battle Plan” here.

Sharpen your pencils and wax poetic! You can read  some of the winning entries from the past below; they are wonderful!

The rules are pretty simple. Your entry must be in haiku format. The ancient art of haiku requires precision: a five syllable first line; seven syllable second line; and five syllable third line. Many haiku features a last line that works like a friendly elbow in the ribs. We only ask that your entry be about food or wine.

[A syllable is a part of a word capable of being pronounced by a single impulse of the voice.  I’m sure someone can explain this more simply than me, but it’s the way the word rolls off of the tongue. “Cat” is one syllable. “Be-cause” is two. “Syl-la-ble” is three.]

Check out the winning entries from earlier years below for ideas and to get the feel of haiku. Have fun! Please leave your entries in the comment section of this post, one entry per comment. Entries will close on Tuesday April 17th at 9am.

Here are winning haiku from past years:

2011

By Kassie Halpin Robinson:
Fresh, raw, exquisite:
Salmon’s salt, tang, rests on pearls
Wasabi bursts through

By What’s for supper?:
The comfort of food
Shared with family and friends
Saved me this hard year.

By AmandaAngelaMarjorie:
sips bubbly and cooks
sizzling greens in garlic cloves
low spring moon hangs full

2009

By Mark:
Morning coffee brews
Melting butter on warm toast
The furnace kicks in

By Maria W.
Give me some pasta
forkfuls of love and ruin.
The wine’s nearly gone.

By Maria W:
Farmers Market says
“no dogs this year.” May I bring
Spot, my truffle pig?

2008

By MySwanDive:
inhale swirls of cab
palate warmed, bask in the fire
newly lit like me

By Zac Stafford:
He cooked with passion.
The real reason we broke up?
Knives in dishwasher

2007

By CookForHire:
sound of meat browning
feel of knife through vegetable:
a true cook’s reward

By Womby:
at last, no jacket
instead, i grab sunglasses
soon come the favas

By Truth:
airy is the crumb
earthy, this crust of Pearl
heavenly, the smell

2006

By Fathom:
Now forego the fork
Hold close this slice of heaven
Perfect on a crust

By Pam:
Champagne, strawberries
and you, here in my warm bed.
Who cares if it rains?

By Witzend:
How bad could it be?
Real bad. Think Hung Far Low bad.
Ok, fine! YOU choose.

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

In a recent meeting with the PortlandFoodandDrink.com editors, we noticed a continuing trend. It doesn’t matter where a chef is cooking, if they are lousy at one restaurant, chances are, they will be lousy at the next… and the next… and the next; this is Portland, after all.

In order to save our dwindling dollars, we will be reviewing all restaurants based on our past experience with the chef. To facilitate this process, we have written a computer algorithm which will pick restaurants based on Facebook and Twitter comments. From there, our servers will search the web to find a menu, and will automatically write a review.

We’ve built plenty of descriptive terms into the software, to make the reviews interesting and engaging to read:

• … nice juxtaposition but the three items seemed to be on an island on the plate.
• … executed with a rare degree of excellence.
• … load of excellent fries!!
• … a piggish rejoinder!!
• … the supporting players steal the show from the seafood supposedly starring in it

Based on our algorithms, we will be able to complete a thorough review the day a restaurant opens, and even before it opens if the menu is posted in advance!!

Expect our first review soon! We are excited to bring you this new system!!

(This is, of course, and April Fools joke)

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

One of our faithful sleuths turned us on to this story, and it’s a PortlandFoodandDrink.com exclusive! Brace yourself; Post Grape-Nuts cereal contains “whole grain wheat flour, malted barley flour, salt and dried yeast”. Hello? What’s missing here? Grapes! There are no grapes in Grape-Nuts cereal. Further investigation reveals the cereal also does not contain nuts. Not a trace of them! Calls to Post for comment have not been returned.

What’s next? No shamrocks in McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes?

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

(This was, of course, and April Fools Joke)

This town is dense with dining establishments and packed with foodies. For anyone with restaurateur ambitions, it’s a tough market to squeeze into and an even tougher crowd to please. While they may not be your dream themes, here’s a rundown of the four most out-there restaurants about to open for business in Portland:

Drive-Thru Sushi

The preparation and quality control of sushi makes it seem like it could never be done. But drive-thru sushi may just be crazy enough to work. In fact, Momijii Japanese Crepes and Sushi down in Salem has been successfully pulling it off for almost two years. A limited selection of menu options with a variety of flavor would go a long way toward ensuring customer satisfaction, just like any other “fast-food” type restaurant.  Look for “Drive-Thru Sushi” to make its debut downtown sometime in late June.

The Time Capsule

In-case-of-disaster food is made to last and has been for years. During the Cold War both sides obsessed over long term food storage in case of nuclear conflict, which never happened. The result has been an abundance of emergency food sitting in warehouses around the world. The owners of this will-be dining establishment are currently in the final rounds of clearance from the Health Department, and expect final approval to sell their suvival food options any day now.

Kill-Your-Own Fowl

We have all heard about restaurants where the chickens are killed on location, ensuring the freshest poultry possible. This so-far unnamed restaurant filling the space of a former taco Bell in north Portland plans on handing off the chicken head-chopping responsibility to the customer. While certainly not for everyone and surely destined to be a citywide controversy, a kill-your-own restaurant will help people make a stronger connection between the food on their plate and the place where it comes from, right?

Freeganomics

While another idea that is likely to get a red flag from the Health Department first, plans are currently in the works to turn a former chop suey joint into an establishment that only serves found free food. A consistent menu will be close to impossible, but there’d probably be plenty of local growers who for the chance to show off their crops and support your cause would give you a steady supply of produce. The ever-changing nature of the selection will prove exciting as well as alluring, as well as a philosophy where the customers only pay what they felt the meal and service was worth.

The Portland restaurant scene is a tough one to get into for those just starting out. In order to get the customers you need, you apparently have to grab their attention with a gimmick while ensuring that the grub is equally as enticing. Even if the aforementioned ideas don’t sound like anything you’d want to introduce to Stumptown, they’re sure to catch plenty of peoples’ attention when they finally open their doors.

Amanda Green is a guest writer and a big time foodie. She has written on other subjects in the past but food is always nearest and dearest to her heart.

This original post is by Amada Green, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

By Charley Michaels

God, I love and hate eating out in Portland. Would hate to run a restaurant even more. A Yelp review (names withheld):

Upon entering the ambience was warm welcoming, and lively, but once we were seated it was evident that the noise level was too loud for comfort. Next set back: service was slow. Finally we ordered our wine, and then sat for quite a while with it  before food orders even taken or bread offered.The concept here is small plates meets bistro style meets localvore. Waiter recommended we order three plates each, but at  +/- $12 per that’s pricey. We ordered four between the two of us. At long last food arrived. High concept composed large plates. Food is  tasty, but portions are tiny. It seems money is being spent on  extraneous items like the extra large plates (why wash so many per serving!!!) and cotton towels in the wc…… a hot air drier is  cheaper and more sanitary! I’d rather pay for good food than  pretentious extras. Hope they get it right.

Which got me to thinking.  To succeed in the Portland restaurant world, you must meet at least these five requirements:

1.  Place must be very quiet, no matter how many seats or customers in those seats.  Otherwise, your place will be too noisy and, therefore, uncomfortable for the locals.  You should be able to hear your neighbor’s conversation.  Music is OK, but it should be bland enough to go unnoticed except by the occasional techno, jazz or easy listening devotee.

2.  Serve lots of bread–and never charge for it.  Bring out a big heaping basket as soon as your West Hills customers are seated.

Liberally refill.  Charging for bread is considered gouging in Portland, never mind that you don’t get it for free yourself.

3.  Service must be lightning fast.  As soon as the bread is dropped, get drink orders, and dinner orders too if requested.  Drinks should be served no more than 2.5 minutes later.  First course should come out within 7.5 minutes thereafter.  Entire meal–exclusive of dessert and coffee which most will not order anyway–should be served and cleared within 45 minutes.  On the other hand, diners should never be rushed to depart, even if hanging around for an hour or more after finishing the last morsel of food or sip of coffee and even if there are lots of others waiting.  If there’s one thing Portlanders hate, it’s being rushed.  If there’s another thing, it’s waiting.  Hmmm…

4.  A full-course meal should never cost >$25 lest your restaurant be labeled “pricey” by the self-proclaimed “foodie” hordes and relegated to special occasions (i.e., when someone else is buying).

5.  “Frills” of any sort are not permitted lest your restaurant be labeled “pretentious” by the self-proclaimed “foodie” hordes and shunned unless The Oregonian or your favorite blogger says the airs can safely be overlooked.  Frills do not include comfortable chairs which are required to accommodate a leisurely evening of camping at your table.

This original post is by Guest Writer, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

The How to Cook Everything iPhone/Ipad application, is based on the best-selling book by Mark Bittman. I’ve seen it advertised on Culinate.com for ages, but haven’t gotten a chance to try it until recently. From the opening screen, I was impressed.

Start screen

The layout is logical and beautiful. The front page always has new featured recipes, along with a quote from Mark’s book. For instance, today the quote is “In most of my recipes, I assume that a pound of meat serves three to four people rather than the two or three it did not long ago”. Pretty basic, yes, but this is an application for all levels of an amateur cook’s skill. Inexplicably, that section has a play button so you can listen to Bittman’s tips. I didn’t notice any other audible areas in “How to Cook Everything“. Also, though they take a lot of memory, I find it strange that no videos are included. Some of the technique sections could really benefit from such a feature.

First layer

On the side, the menu lists Browse Recipes, Kitchen Basics, Bittman’s Picks, Most Popular, Holiday Menus, How-To and Search. The app is regularly updated with latest featured recipes, menus, etc. For instance, I’m writing this in December, and the Holiday section is full of recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah.

The Browse Recipes section opens a series of sub-menus, which allow you to quickly navigate your way through the program. For instance, touching “Browse Recipes” takes you to “Sauces, Condiments, and Seasonings.” From there touching “Butter Sauces” takes you to the recipe selection: “Brown Butter”, “Béchamel”, “Holindase”, “Béarnaise” etc. Recipes show the number of positive votes from other readers – though I can’t find a way to give a thumbs down. The recipe section includes “Variations” and “Related Content” which, with the help of drawings, explains the various steps related to your recipe. There is also an area where you can add your own notes; a nice touch. Every recipe is coded for the time it takes to make it, whether it can be made ahead, if it’s vegetarian, and if it is considered “an essential.” This is nice, but the buttons are so small I can hardly read them with my glasses on.

Recipe Page

As you run through the steps of a recipe, you’ll see little timer buttons. Press one, and a timer which is preset for that step pops up. This makes it very easy when you are cooking multiple dishes at once. You can switch between different timers with the touch of a button.

A shopping list function is included. All the ingredients of a recipe can be added at the touch of a button and then printed, or emailed. Making multiple lists is a snap, and the software will even separate ingredients into basic grocery store aisles to make shopping easy. As items are purchased, they can be marked off with a quick touch, a method you could also use for ingredients you already have at home. Of course you can set metric or US measurements

A great search function is fully integrated, which lets you narrow down what you can cook based on items you happen to have in your pantry, such as a “bacon” or “tomatoes”. It is even possible to limit your browsing by cooking techniques, such as steaming or broiling. Carrying it even further is the ability to search by flavors, such as African or crunchy; I didn’t know the latter was a flavor either.

Techniques

Some of the other functions include Top 102 Essential Recipes, Top 100 Fast Recipes, Top 100 Make-Ahead Recipes and Top 100 Vegetarian Recipes. These selections are based on user ratings. Of course all the recipes can be printed, emailed – though you are limited to ten per month, or with one touch, added to your iPad calendar for easy weekly menu planning.

This application is so inclusive, I’ve skipped over lots of features. Little touches like a “constant on button” so your screen doesn’t go dark while your hands are wet or greasy, show that a lot of thought was put into its development. Even with all the different recipes and tutorials, navigation is logical and easy to follow. Limited integration to Twitter and Facebook is built-in, so you can share what you are cooking with friends.

This application is not perfect, but my only issues are with the user interface. Even with the font-size at the largest setting, some people may find text difficult to read. Using the application in portrait mode makes it much easier. You cannot pinch and zoom sections to enlarge them, a feature that could mitigate the small type.

Multiple versions are available: one for $9.99 which works on both the iPad and iPhone, $4.99 for an iPhone only version, and one that is free, though somewhat limited, for the iPhone. An all vegetarian application is also available. For many of us who are used to paying a dollar or two for a program, this is a lot of money. Is it worth it? Yes. For the beginning to intermediate cook, I highly recommend How to Cook Everything for iPhones/iPads.

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

The Professional Chef, from The Culinary Institute of America,  is a classic kitchen reference. You can find any basic cooking technique within its pages. As I started working, it was one of the first cookbooks I purchased.

Along with better layout, the new ninth edition of the book features more detailed techniques for novice cooks, and lots more photographs. With over 1200 pages, you’ll find just about anything you are looking for here, though the recipes can be somewhat basic .

The CIA has now released the book as an iPad application, complete with over 100 high-quality videos from CIA instructors demonstrating various techniques, 850 recipes and 700 photographs. Professional Chef also includes quizzes, a glossary, reference links, the ability to share notes with other students, etc. At $49 for the application, it is a significant investment, but for a paper book that lists for $75, it is a viable alternative, especially when you take into account the decent videos and easy search functions. The iPad interface is full-featured, but after a quick tutorial, is easy to use. If you download the “Inkling” application instead, you can buy each chapter for $2.99, and get the “soup” chapter for free.

You can see the application here.

If you just want to purchase a chapter, you can do so here. Don’t click the first link unless you want the whole bloody thing!

(I thought I was going to have a stroke when I accidently clicked on the “buy now” button, and it immediately went to download. Fear not, it just installs the application, and not the content. 450 megs worth!)

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.

• PortlandOregonWine.com
• Monteaux Restaurant
• Cork Wineshop
• Ristretto Roasters
• NorthwestFoodandWineGuide.com
• Anne Amie Vineyards
• Storyteller Wine Company
• Tapalaya Restaurant
• Coppia Restaurant
• Boedecker Cellars

Here are the results!

Katherine 1 vote
Meimoya 8 votes
Cary 3 votes
Meredith Robertson 30 votes
Amy Houchen 3 votes.

Congratulations Meredith!

Thanks to the good folks who took time to enter our Fall food writing contest, as well as the business who sponsored the awards!

• A $25 gift certificate to Olivers at the Camas hotel in Washington, one of Food & Wine Magazine’s three Best New Suburban Restaurants for 2011.
• A $25 bottle of wine from Portland Oregon Wine.com
• A $25 gift certificate from Las Primas, a Peruvian street food restaurant opening this fall on N. Williams.

Here are the entries in the order received. You will find a voting box in the sidebar of this post on the site.

1. Katherine says:

   September 22, 2011 at 5:31 pm

   Fall will always mean back to school to me, even though now I’m officially out of the academic world. In college, I lived in a tiny duplex (the kitchen counter was about the size of one plate, depth and width).

   With the arrival of my second year of college, so too arrived my first excitement for cooking. I had always loved eating, restaurants, and food, but my Italian Babbo was far too much of a brilliant garlic artist to let me near the kitchen growing up. Yet, college, specifically my boyfriend in college, made me realize I wanted to be good at cooking, for both myself, and him.

   So I managed to rustle up a pork chops and applesauce recipe and head to my tiny kitchen. Oil splattered from the pan as I watched the chops transform from pink to caramel on the edges. I jumped back, scared, but was excited when I discovered how easy it was to make a homemade applesauce. Suddenly, the Granny Smiths I’d attempted to chop, along with cider, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon and raisins was a fragrant, chunky sauce. I was proud, and shocked that I’d spent all those years eating baby food-like Motts.

   That night, my boyfriend and I sat on the carpet around the coffee table, and as he knifed into his chop and took a bite, I held my breath. I prayed it was cooked through-I didn’t have a meat thermometer yet-and if it was cooked, that it was edible. He swallowed, and then I took a bite of my own, and I knew I was in love-not with him, but with the applesauce, and cooking as well.

2. meimoya says:

   September 23, 2011 at 10:59 pm

   My mother, the recipe enthusiast, has a box in her kitchen full of, well, recipes, clipped from Sunset magazine, the local newspaper, and who knows where-all. Conversely, she only has a few cookbooks hanging around, and most of them date back to the 1970s. Outdated though they may be, these cookbooks do have a few absolute gems up their sleeves. I walked into her kitchen this morning and was hit smack dab in the face with the ultimate smell of childhood autumn: German Apple Pancake.

   This recipe occupies a sacred place in our family lore. It’s from The Vegetarian Epicure. Yes, Mom and Dad were once what they call “plainclothes hippies,” vegetarians, gardeners, in touch with the planet and all. Their copy of the cookbook consistently falls open to the German Apple Pancake page. For a decade now the binding has been broken there, and there are little droplets staining the paper, souvenirs from pancakes past. My dad used to make this recipe for weekend breakfast once the good apples started to appear in the stores. No Red Delicious ever got near this recipe! We’s apple snobs in Washington.

   We experimented with all kinds of varieties for the pancake topping…Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, Jonagold, and in later years, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady. The original recipe suggests Pippens, a varietal that seems to have gone the way of shag carpeting.

   The pancake itself is a light, airy wonder, with no leavening, just equal parts egg, flour, and milk, with a pinch of salt thrown in. It gets baked in the oven in a trusty cast-iron skillet, climbing up the sides of the skillet and emerging a golden pancake bowl that is crisp and airy on the sides and doughy and absorbent on the bottom. This delicacy is subsequently topped with peeled, thinly sliced apples sauteed in butter and brown sugar.

   Stop. Close your eyes. Really, you need to do this. Take a minute and just imagine all those smells…melted butter, eggy pancake, apple, caramelizing brown sugar, a bit of nutmeg…THAT is my smell of autumn.

   My role as a kid was always to help my dad peel the apples. I was in awe of his skill with an apple peeler. (This is how important this recipe is in my family. We don’t have potato peelers in our kitchen; we got apple peelers here.) He was able to create long, curling strips of peel. By the time I was finished peeling one apple, one round little blurb of peel at a time, he’d already powered through the other three.

   He taught me to time it just right, to start sauteing the apples just as I turned down the temperature on the oven so that both apples and pancake would be done at the same time. He taught me to hold back, be a bit patient before starting to eat, so that the juices would have time to soak into the pancake, sweetening it and adding depth to the eggy flavor.

   I learned on my own never to tamper with perfection:
   German Apple Pancake, as I remember it from The Vegetarian Epicure:
   Pancake:
   1 TB butter
   3 large eggs
   3/4 cup flour
   3/4 cup milk
   pinch of salt
   Topping:
   4 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
   1/4 cup butter
   1/4 cup packed brown sugar
   cinnamon and nutmet
   Method: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt the butter in a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, coating the bottom and sides. Mix the eggs, flour, milk, and salt in a bowl and pour into the skillet. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake ten minutes more.
   Sautee the apples in the remaining 1/4 cup of melted butter. When the apples are just soft, add the sugar and spices. Fill one half of the pancake bowl with apples, then fold the other half over on top.
   Wait a few minutes.
   Devour.

3. Cary says:

   September 30, 2011 at 2:32 pm

   Everyone has a favorite pizza. I stand loyal to my favorite pizza joint here in Portland, but my all time favorite hails from Buffalo, New York. Every summer or winter vacation that I visited my dad’s side of the family as a child, I always looked forward to two delicacies: 1) hot wings (never call them “Buffalo wings” in Buffalo, mind you) and 2) “Dino Pacciotti’s Bocce Club” pepperoni pizza – double pepperoni, double sliced. Our family never bothered to order anything other than that from Bocce Pizza because frankly nothing else was really worth it. Their vegetables weren’t of great quality and nothing else could quite measure up to that juicy, thick-sliced pepperoni.

   We usually ordered two extra large pies between about five adults and some kids, which usually left us with about half of one to snack on over the course of the next day. Ordering them double sliced provided for the pleasant illusion that we were eating more pizza. I always volunteered to ride shotgun to the pizza parlor to pick up the order with my Uncle Dave or cousin Dan so I could sneak myself in a piece of pepperoni as soon as possible. I could never be trusted to sit with two piping hot Bocce pizzas sitting on my lap. Opening that box let that dangerously tantalizing scent hotbox the entire car and I could not resist prematurely snagging a piece or two of that wonderful pepperoni.

   My birthday falls on October 9. One year, my family gathered at my dad’s house to celebrate my birthday. My parents divorced when I was 5 years old, but they remain close friends to this day. We still continued to gather all together for celebrations such as birthdays. That particular year, my mom brought me a delicious dark chocolate-raspberry cake that was too rich to enjoy in one sitting. This worked to my advantage as I could enjoy the rest of the cake over subsequent days. To my great delight, as we hurried to find refuge in my dad’s house on that blustery birthday, I found my nostrils filled with that distinct, mouth-watering aroma I had only experienced before from over 2,500 miles across the country! I had joked around before about Bocce Club pizza’s advertised offer to deliver a half-baked pizza anywhere nationwide via UPS, but I never thought that this dream would come true! As I popped that first hot little slice in my mouth, those copious, thick slices of pepperoni fell all over the plate.

   Every time I visit my dad’s house, that Bocce Club pizza box remains victoriously displayed above the mantel, taking me back to the glorious time that I ate my favorite pizza on my birthday.

4. Meredith Robertson says:

   October 1, 2011 at 8:39 am

   Circa 1971, I’m just a little tyke walking home from school in late September. The leaves have changed colors and are starting to fall to the ground and there is a nip in the air. My mother is newly divorced and is struggling to find herself. Find new friends and to find a balance in life and true to her form, she throws her whole self in.

   Armed with a new cook book called Glorious Stew my mother sets out to make a basic brown stew. It’s the first recipe in the book and by golly she is going to master this stew if it’s the last thing she ever does. Several times a week as I walk through the front door I can smell the beef simmering lightly on the stove top and by the time Gilligan’s Island is over the mushrooms have been added and it’s getting close to dinner time. She throw’s in a loaf of crunchy French bread and severs us our stew in the brown ceramic pottery bowls with handles on the side that she got from the Shell gas station with every fill up. I dip my bread in to test the temperature and deeming it satisfactory; I gulp down my soup and run off to watch TV again. I’m sure we never provided the right kind of feedback that she was looking for unless cleaning our plate’s counts.

   In order to get the right kind of feedback, she needed to test it out on friends. But…this is “just” a basic brown stew, time to pull out the big guns and really test her skills. Boeuf Bourguignon, ahhh that very rich French stew. Glorious Stew says, “The name should really be a la Bourguingnonne- in the style of a Burgundy housewife…” now we are getting somewhere. My mother master’s this stew to perfection and I’m in love! But it’s a very short lived love. I only get to enjoy this brown velvety concoction with its sweet round onions and firm mushrooms a couple of times. It’s too expensive for a single mother to make as an everyday meal, so she saves it for a Saturday afternoon in late October to have with close friends and several bottles of red wine.

   By the time November arrives her thoughts’ turn to Thanksgiving and Christmas. She, again true to form throws herself into learning and perfecting something new to wow her friends with. It will be a whole year before I get beef stew again. Jump to 1988, after I graduated from culinary school my mother presented me with my own cookbook of Glorious Stew that she had found in a second hand store. She loving copied her notes from the edges and put them in my book to read. My book is well read and used as is hers. There are stains everywhere and reminders of past meals with close friends. I still find that there is nothing better than a warm bowl of stew in fall with leaves turning red.

5. Amy Houchen says:

   October 3, 2011 at 8:57 pm

   The Scents of September

   When I was a child arriving home during the first week or so of school, I was likely to be greeted by one of two scents.

   One was ripe Bartlett pears. My mother canned dozens of jars of fruit for our family of seven, and early September was time for pears, which were my favorite. When I got old enough, I was pressed into service peeling, halving, and coring. The easiest way to core a pear half is with a round or oval quarter-teaspoon measure: run the edge of the bowl from the stem end just under the core, scoop out the seed cavity, and then scoop once again—more shallowly—to remove the blossom end.

   The other scent was of dill pickles ripening in the crock. I loved that pungent combination of vinegar and dill, even though I never ate any pickles. My mother also made sweet and bread-and-butter pickles, but I didn’t like those, either. I remember the mustard seeds in the bread-and-butter liquid, and I only ate sweet pickles when diced and suitably disguised in tuna and ground meat sandwiches. (This “ground meat” wasn’t hamburger. It was leftover pot roast run through the meat grinder with the medium attachment, and we mixed it with a little diced sweet pickle and mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, just as we did tuna.) It wasn’t until I was an adult that I developed a taste for sweet pickle relish—but only on hot dogs or hamburgers.

   The back door I entered each afternoon led into the pantry. It was there that the pickle crock sat. And after the pickles and pears had been put in jars and processed in the big white-flecked dark blue canning kettle, it was there that they (and all the other canned fruit, and the jams and jellies) waited, on slatted shelves, to disappear through the winter.

   After I left home, I never canned again (although I have been known to freeze vegetables, fruits, and tomato sauce). But some of my happiest moments each year are in September, when I prepare food while the sun slants in through my kitchen’s west windows, just as it did in the kitchen in which I grew up. Proust had his madeleines, but I have a couple of battered aluminum quarter teaspoons that I used for coring pears all those decades ago.

This original post is by Food Dude, and it came from Portland Oregon Food and Drink.