I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I just got a chance to browse through Willamette Week’s Devour – A Hungry Shopper’s Guide to Portland. It features over 80 places to shop that you might not know about in the categories greengrocers, general groceries, butchers, fishmongers, ethnic markets, etc.
I found quite a few places I didn’t know about, especially in the ethnic foods section. You can see it here.
Meryl Streep is playing Julia Child in a movie about the cooking legend’s life. According to USA Today,
Streep juggles pots, pans and pâté in what promises to be a deliciously rich portrait of Julia Child during the decade-long span when she evolved into America’s queen of French cuisine in Julie & Julia. Joining her is Amy Adams, her nun sidekick from Doubt, as blogger Julie Powell, who spent a year toiling over all 524 recipes in Child’s classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
The New York magazine ran an article on Stumptown’s foray into NYC called “The Messiah Hails From Portland”. It is an interesting portrait of Duane Sorenson, who didn’t do himself any favors by allowing this interview. I’m told he doesn’t censor himself no matter who he’s talking to. Judging by the comments, he would have been better off keeping his mouth shut. It didn’t help being called “The Messiah” by the them.
Twitter, Facebook, social networking is all the rage. Another article in The New York Times has an article about a woman that sends “twitters” of entire recipes. This may not sound difficult until you realize that she is limited to 140 characters. Thus she ends up with recipes like
Honeyed Tagine: brwn lb/500g yam or lamb/T oil&butter/t tumeric&ging&s+p&cinn; +c onion&carrot9m; +c broth/3T honey/9prune. Cvr~h@400F/205C.
Biscotti: mix 1/3c sug/3T oil/egg/t anise flavr; +c flour/t bkgpwdr. Roll log to fit bkgpan; pat down. 30m@375/190C. Slice~14; brwn+6m/side.
Look closely. These are awesome acts of compression. Ingredients, actions, quantities, times and temperatures – both Fahrenheit and Celsius – boiled down to utmost richness, density and clarity. A dish, a meal, a trip to deliciousness magically packed into the tiniest carry-on bag.
The amazing thing is that people are making these dishes, and are happy with the results. Here is a link to the article.
You can follow me on Twitter too, but I tend towards much more mundane things like, “I have the flu… ugh!” which I do. Ugh. twitter.com/pdxFoodDude
A few weeks ago I linked to a 60 Minutes piece on Alice Waters. Now The National Review has written a rather scathing piece about her head-in-the-clouds view of the world. Interesting reading. It’s called “Alice in Wonderland – The gushing of waters is all Wet”
Her condescension is typical of a food culture that is increasingly withdrawn from mainstream America – a food culture that increasingly preaches to the average American consumer that eating non-organic food is bad for you. The truth is, organic food is an expensive luxury item, something bought by those who have the resources. Those who can afford it and want it should have it, but organic food is not a panacea for the world’s ills.
FYI, the Duane Sorenson piece was in New York Magazine, not the NY Times. The “messiah” thing still didn’t help, though.
Fixed. Thanks
Stumptown does not deserve their reputation. Good coffee? Yes. But Duane has bullied around his accounts in Portland for some time. You should hear how he’s treated cafes who have decided to stop serving his brand. It usually involves making up a story about them.
Plus, there are two Duanes. The Duane who kisses the ass of the media, and Duane the businessman who is far less pleasant. He definitely elevated the quality of coffee in this city, but he’s also worked as hard as possible to make Stumptown a monopoly. He’s our little Howard Shultz.
This is completely judgmental, i know, but it’s so awesome that Duane is living like a college student, rooming with his employees in NYC trying to expand his little empire while his ex raises their kids back here. At least he has his priorities straight.
I sometimes think I may be the only person in Portland who doesn’t think that Stumptown is the best thing in the entire world.
Did anyone else read extramsg’s comments about WW’s Devour? A bit self-serving, but he mentioned some other places that WW didn’t have included – in case anyone wants more leads.
Organic food is an expensive, luxury item? It can be, but it can also be at least as cheap as the other stuff. Especially if you grow it yourself. Instead of deciding that people like Alice Waters are out of touch elitists, I would hope that people would see the larger picture and try to make that the mainstream. Anyone who reads about Monsanto should be very afraid of the future of mainstream agriculture.
Food Dude – hope it’s not swine flu! yikes.
“Stumpbucks” has helped boost the coffee industry in Portland. They raised the bar on taste, and their business practices helped open the door for roasters like Courier and Nossa Familia to jump in and find success.
mzwong: You’re not the only one. Most of his accounts are afraid to speak out. With all the new good coffee roasters in Portland (Cellar, Cherry, Courier, Spella, etc.), he won’t have a monopoly forever. I’d love to see Intellentsia, Vita, Counter Culture and others come to Portland and take a piece of the Stumptown pie. It would at least make the coffee world a lot more interesting. Personally, I’m sick of Stumptown everyone where I go. Fresh Pot: Stumptown. Coffeehouse NW: Stumptown. Albina Press: Stumptown.
Boring, boring, boring. It’s surprising that a town that loves variety in every other way wouldn’t have the same standard for coffee. Good coffee? Yes. But there are other great roasters out there too.
go to Barista. Billy Wilson regularly has Intelligentsia and Ecco in addition to the previous mentioned, evil Stumptown.
mzwong, and Flank Steak. I’m with you. Screw the PC thing that Stumptown is god. They’ve done a lot to elevate artisan quality of coffee in Portland on a mass level (or at least bigger than it used to be). And I do like their roasts (but no more so than Courrier, Vita, Spella, Ristretto and the other micro-roasters).
That said, it’s the lackluster customer service at their cafes and lack of quality control that gets my goat. I’ve had some crappy espresso drinks in the past couple of years at both the Stumptown locations and at some of their account locations. For a company that claims to be the best, they need to step up to the plate then, because frankly their quality has slipped tremendously.
about the snarky service – my funny experience was last summer when i ordered a decaf americano at the belmont stumptown. the barista actually asked the cashier if i was pregnant, looked down at my belly to see if i was (and i was, quite), then made the drink. what? if i wasn’t pregnant it wouldn’t be okay to order decaf? do you need a sonogram before making a decaf drink? i found it too shocking to be anything but hilarious.
that’s it for me today – no more grumpy comments – sorry and thank you!
Hey!!! We all agree about something! I’ve never encountered such elitist, snotty individuals as I have at Stumptown. It appears to be something they look for in the person, because I’ve met some of their employees outside of work—and yes, that same patronizing, hipper than thou attitude pervades.
Interesting about Duane, I’ve only met him once, at the time he was still married and playing happy families. He was perfectly pleasant for the 3 minute conversation we had, but I did notice even then he was visibly working the room for potential contacts (this was at a wedding, BTW).
Wasn’t Caffe Vita opening somewhere near Berbati’s? Is that still happening. I remember seeing sommething about it on this site.
vita breaks ground early may.
That will be a game changer in town.
I think this desire for variety is recognized by the new Barista coffee shop, Billy W’s place in the Pearl. While Hairbender is still served, there is more of a reason to go there with other rotating offerings from Intellegencia and other great roasters locally and nationally. Also, various brewing methods to choose. Nice concept.
As for Vita being a big game changer in PDX…I’ll wait and see. I see it as more of a nice addition if you are going out for an espresso. I love their coffees and company and they should succeed in this market. They will get and have gotten some accounts here in town already Gold Rush on MLK & amp on Killingsworth across from PCC.
FWIW… Nossa Familia is not a roaster. They are a farming family with a long rich history in coffee. I’d check out their website for information on it. Very respectable operation, but they are not a roaster of their coffees.
The next “Big Thing” I see coming is the equipment technology from Slayer Espresso in Seattle and La Marzocco next year. Pressure profiling espresso pours. That will be a big change in flavor extraction from coffee. I got a chance to play with these machines at a trade show and they will change the profile of any coffee for the better when used properly.
I admire the fact that they are trying to make the best coffee – and trying to educate people about(their idea of)the proper way to make it. But at some point, you have to realize that you are sending your product “out into the world” and there is no way to control that. In their Stumptown locations – not their outlets – I have had incredible coffee, as well as stuff that could have been from anywhere. And even my favorite coffee company in town has had bizarre customer service that makes people question my sanity for taking them there.
Portland’s quirkiness and independence (which is usually just camouflage) that people love to write about – especially if they don’t live here – means we are subject to the rainbow of human behavior. Good and bad.
Organic food is an expensive, luxury item? It can be, but it can also be at least as cheap as the other stuff. Especially if you grow it yourself. Instead of deciding that people like Alice Waters are out of touch elitists, I would hope that people would see the larger picture and try to make that the mainstream. Anyone who reads about Monsanto should be very afraid of the future of mainstream agriculture.
and anyone who hasn’t read H.R. 875 should check it out, you think Monsanto is scary you should check out the healthy food act they are trying to bang through congress
Listen, I’ve gotta interject here: Intelligentsia is only so-so. I moved to Chicago from Portland about a year and a half ago and was stunned at the pure mediocrity of the “other Stumptown.” I mean, I now keep Cafe Bustelo in my kitchen, and occasionally order/have my folks send me some of Portland’s finest (this honor belongs to Stumptown and Spella IMO).
I think Billy’s a good barista and all that, but from what it sounds like, Barista isn’t really giving the customer that significant a choice: beans from one of the two largest, most widely available indie roasters in the country? One of whom is only just OK? Why not feature Spella, or maybe Gimme from NY, or Blue Bottle from SF, or Vita or any number of smaller, more interesting, less-available coffees?
Reading these replies I felt compelled to point out that at any given time Stumptown offers more than 20 different origins, three blends, and a single-origin espresso, all of which change throughout the year. The Hairbender in particular changes dramatically from batch to batch (albeit around a target profile) and Steve and Aleco are constantly tinkering with components and proportions. I mean: the kind of roaster variety considered here is very nice where espresso blends are concerned, but beyond that variety is only of origin.
I concur with Joe. I moved to Chicago from Portland this year, and was so excited to try Intelligentsia. What a letdown. I’ve ordered Stumptown online, and there is simply no comparison. I’m going to check out Cafe Bustelo as well – thanks for the tip!