Catching up

I hate to do this, but I must. I feel pretty terrible about it- each day of our trip to Portland, Oregon and Washington state deserves its own blog entry, but I've gotten way too far behind, and if I'm ever going to get caught up, I have to cram this stuff in. Sorry, Portland!

On our second day, we drove to Mount St. Helens in Washington, and it was a really educational and amazing trip. I had heard of the eruption before, but never really thought too deeply about it or its impact on the region and its aftermath's wealth of research material for scientists.

In the Johnston Ridge observatory, there's a visitor's center with an awesome short film about the eruption and a lot of information about Mt. St. Helens. The tree above was snapped like a twig seconds after the side of the volcano collapsed.

Behind me is a river that was filled with ash from the cloud in a matter of minutes. On the scenic drive to the volcano, giant trees are scattered everywhere like toothpicks, and the new growth is starting to get a foothold after three decades.

And there she is, ominous, impressive, her cratered face a grim reminder of the sheer power of the earth's natural creative forces.

We also visited Astoria, Oregon, which was a charming place with a neat maritime museum. Go there for the salmon... the reddest, juiciest salmon you'll ever have! There's also a place in town that smokes salmon, scallops, sturgeon... you name it. I forgot to upload a picture for you, (this blog program is a bit tricky when it comes to uploads- if I forget to do it at the beginning I'm S.O.L.) but just know that it's a great place to visit.

Portland is teeming with excellent food, whether it be from one of the hundreds of varied street carts or from her finer dining establishments. One of the meals we had that really stood out (though every meal we had was pretty damn spectacular) was at Red Star Tavern, a roast house with a giant spit and wood oven.

Candy beet carpaccio with watercress, aoli, and toasted pistachios. Excellent earthy flavor, colorful presentation.

A superb Kobe beef brisket, with demi glace, caramelized onions, and sauteed Swiss chard with chorizo. It was sublimely crusted on the outside, and buttery tender in the center. I could have kept eating this forever. Actually, I feel pretty sad that I'm not eating it right now!

Amazingly delicious grits with ham hock, "Red Star" gravy, melted cheese and wild mushrooms. This could have been an entree unto itself, with no qualms from any of us!

Part of Portland's charm is its ability to embrace the counter culture and make it acceptable and even encouraged. One of its most popular joints is Voodoo donuts, which has a line half a block long from its door every morning.

They have charming little (okay, huge) fresh donuts, such as the namesake Voodoo Doll pictured above- he's got raspberry filling and a little pretzel "pin" through his heart, very tasty, but what I really wanted was...

A maple BACON donut!!!! So, so very wrong, and at the same time, sinfully right. It tasted... exactly like you think a maple BACON donut would... like awesome. It tasted like pure awesome.

My Dad wanted to return to Mama Mia's Trattoria, a restaurant he loved last time he visited Portland, and with good reason. They make great pastas and pizzas from scratch, without pretension, and just have damn good food. The lasagna above was excellent, layers of herbs, home made mozzarella, home made sausage, home made pasta... I guess you get the gist. There's no way the food could not be great there, it's oozing with love!

On our way to the Columbia River Gorge, we stopped for lunch at a hippie estate (trust me, it's a good thing) called McMinnamin's. They make their own wine... and beer, and spirits, and they have a restaurant, pool hall, bar, hotel... they do everything, and they do it damn well. The beer was good, but...

The home made (there's a theme going here, Oregon...) beef and blue cheese sausages with fresh-ground mustard and warm potato salad my Dad had for lunch were very memorable. This is another recipe I'm going to try to recreate at home...

The Columbia River Gorge is absolutely breathtaking, pictures really do it no justice. It's huge, too; an intimidating piece of nature.

And on the scenic highway that runs beside the gorge, there's waterfalls. Lots of them, and they're all spectacular.

Oregon stole my heart. Every day I spent there, I fell a little bit more in love with it, but the waterfalls really sealed the deal. I mean, how can you get better than great food and awe-inspiring waterfalls?

I mean, I guess you could show me a 400lb, 10 foot long, 70 year old sturgeon named Herman, just to make me gasp. Prehistoric show-off!

Back to the food. Metro Vino was a bit loud for my parents, (they're getting old, poor dears!) but they had good food. Above is a glazed pork chop with hazelnuts, cauliflower, and sauteed polenta. Very tender, very nice.

Oh, Portland, you and your beautiful clean streets, outdoor sculptures, and resourceful public transit. I guess your amazing art museum doesn't hurt either. And the rose garden, Japanese garden, zoo...

And trompe l'oil murals. You're breaking my heart, Portland.

Hrm, I know! We'll test you by stopping in to a random restaurant on a side street, see if you can still impress me when you're not prepared, no reading of reviews, no Internet searches of menus... Higgins! We'll try that...

Oh, house-cured charcuterie? Lardo? Taratelli? A pork-centric menu? Attentive, knowledgeable service, tattooed waitstaff...
And an incredible beer list? Well... fine. You win, Portland.

Among many, many things I learned in Portland, was a new perspective on food. every meal we had, whether it was from a cart or white-tablecloth establishment, was good. The ingredients were very fresh, local, and the preparation exuded pride.

The food was honest. It didn't pretend towards finery, it didn't try too hard. Good product, and an obvious commitment towards preparation on the part of the cooks and chefs. There's a lot going for Portland, and I feel really great to have gotten the opportunity to indulge myself so well in such an amazing city.

The whole vacation with my parents was a great way to come back to the States. Everything we did was fun, delicious, and educational. It felt really nice to explore a new place with them, and I feel nothing but overwhelming gratitude that they decided I could tag along. I really got a lot out of it.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything! You'll never know how much I really do appreciate it.

I spent a couple of days in San Francisco, which will be the subject of my next entry, though I'm not sure if I will be able to write it over the weekend or if it will have to wait until Monday. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to L.A. to visit my brother and his wife, and possibly a couple of friends of mine, so I'll try to come up with something about that as well.

Ciao!