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I’ve been really bad about writing recently, mainly due to laziness, not lack of material. Today, as both an intellectual excercise and because it’ll help me decide what to have for luch, I thought I’d come up with a list of some of my favorite chain restaurants. Not fancy, not expesive, but tasty, quick, and reliable. And sometimes that’s all you can ask for! So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Burgerville:
Mmm…black forest shakes…and since I only eat vegetarian-feed beef (no mad cow for me!) it’s one of the few burger joints that still go to.

2. Bugatti’s in Cedar Hills:
More expensive than fast food, but still pretty reasonable, with a great happy hour menu including $3.99 Painted Hills beef burgers and $2.99 pizzas big enough for 2 people. Even if you miss happy hour, most of the pizzas are under $10.oo and are big enough to share. And they give you foccacia bread with garlicky olive oil dip as soon as you sit down. Can’t argue with that.

3. Noodlin’
I really wanted to hate this place. It’s a knock off of Noodles & Company, which was one of my favorites when I lived back in WI. But despite the fact that Noodlin’s mac and cheese doesn’t hold a candle to Noodles & Company’s cheesy goodness, the rest of the food is better. And it doesn’t require a plane ticket to get there. Noodlin’ is owned by the Burgerville people, so they also use Oregon Country beef, which is a definate bonus, although I usually get somthing with chicken anyways.

4. Bandito Taco
I don’t think that this place is a chain, but it’s fast food, so I thought I’d include it. Bandito Taco is one of my husband’s favorite restuarants. The food is always fresh and yummy, nine times out of ten it’s the owner that takes your order, and they have 55 cent tacos on Sundays. And as an added bonus, it’s next to a bubble tea place, so I can satisfy my craving for coconut bubble tea while Jon eats super nachos.

5. Big Town Hero
I’m not a huge sub sandwich eater, but when I have a craving for a cream cheese, cheddar, cucumber, lettuce and mayo sub (I know it sounds wierd, but it’s good) I hit Big Town Hero. The only drawback to Big Town Hero is that the closeset one is a 20 min drive, and Jon’s not really a fan.

6. Cha! Cha! Cha!
One of my friends introduced me to this place, and I’m so glad they did. The food is cheap, filling, and good, everything Mexican food should be. Lately I’ve been into making my own Mexican stuff at home, but when I lack the ambition and time, Cha Cha’s is a nice alternative.

Well I’m sure there are places I’m missing, but for now, that’ll have to do, since it’s time for lunch.

Earlier in the week, one of my friends and I went to a little restaurant in Hillsdale called Capitol Coffee House & Bistro for lunch. After perusing the menu, I decided on the special: Four-cheese ravioli in a white wine cream sauce. And I’m so glad I did. They were probably some of the best ravioli that I’ve ever had. The only complaint I had was that there weren’t enough of them…they were so tasty I could’ve eaten about 10 more. Dessert was a flourless chocolate torte with a really yummy mixed berry sauce that tasted mostly like blueberries. I’m generally not a big blueberry fan, and I wouldn’t think to pair them with chocolate, but this combo really worked.

My positive experience with the ravioli prompted me to ask the waitress exactly what four cheeses were used in the filling. She told me they were Taleggio, Mahon, Provolone, and Mozzerella. With this in mind, I thought back to the pasta sheets I’d noticed last time I went to Pastaworks, and started to plan when I’d try to duplicate the ravioli in my own kitchen.

Between one thing and another, I didn’t get an opportunity to try my hand at ravioli making until this afternoon. I called around, and found that New Seasons in Orenco had all of the required cheeses. I figured that since they carry fresh pasta from Pastaworks there, I’d be able to get the sheets with no problem. However, I was mistaken. Apparently, Pastaworks doesn’t sell the sheets to stores, they only carry them in their retail outlet, which is a 45 min drive from our house. So despite a disasterous first attempt at fresh pasta-making about 5 years ago, I decided to steel myself for another attempt. I bought all the cheeses, with the addition of whole milk ricotta, and headed next door to Kitchen Kaboodle to buy one of those nifty pasta roller attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. One hundred dollars and 10 minutes later, I emerged, bag in hand, ready to try my hand at ravioli-making.

And hallelujah! It was a success! The dough, which was just 3 eggs, two cups of flour, and about a tablespoon of water, came together and rolled out beautifully. The filling turned out really well; I basically just grated and mixed all the hard cheeses together, added in the taleggio and ricotta, mixed in some garlic and parsley, and bound it together with an egg. I made a cream sauce with some white wine, parmesean, and heavy cream, and tossed the cooked ravioli in it. As an afterthought, I added some finely chopped chives from the pot growing on our front porch (the only thing I haven’t managed to kill) for color. I’m glad I did, the flavor of the chives added a nice contrast to the creamy sauce.

I brought the ravioli over to our neighbor’s house for dinner, along with a spinach salad with oranges and almonds and some ciabatta bread. I’d made a chocolate-almond cake on Tuesday, so I pulled it out of the freezer and made some ganache to glaze it with for dessert.

I’m sooo full. And proud of myself. I consider myself pretty fearless when it comes to baking, but I find savory cooking to be a lot more intimidating. It was really cool to make something at home that was on par with something I’d order in a restaurant. I can’t wait to play around more with the pasta maker. Hmmm…linguine con pesto…or lasagne…the wheels are turning…

A few weeks ago at work (Reo’s Ribs) I was perusing the magazine pile during a break, and I came across a flyer for a new dessert restaurant and bar opening in Beaverton. Needless to say, I was interested, as I myself am a baker, and love the idea of a fancy-schmancy dessert place relatively close to the house. The flyer said that the restaurant was opening in January, and when I called, I found out opening night was January 29th. Unfortunately, the same day, I was flying to Milwaukee to spend obscene amounts of time in bridal shops with my engaged friend. So when I returned from the trip, I decided we would go to Dessert Noir for dinner that very night. When we arrived at about 6:00 on Saturday eve, the place was relatively busy, with about three-quarters of the tables filled. We were seated almost immediately, and commenced to perusing the menu. Jon decided on a house salad with a lemon vinegrette and pears, and a bowl of roasted tomato soup with horseradish cream and chives. I had the smoked chicken and taleggio risotto with crispy salami. We split an order of calamari with jalapeno-lemon aioli as an appetizer. I wanted a mojito (my favorite drink of all time) but they regretfully informed me that they were out of mint. The bartender suggested a banana daquiri and I went with that instead.

Overall, the food was excellent. Jon ended up getting a spinach salad with oranges and pecans instead of the house salad that he’d ordered, but it looked so good he decided to keep it. The calamari was good, a little rubbery but perfectly seasoned and crispy. I’m not a jalapeno fan, so I pretty much left the sauce untouched. The risotto was also very good, nice and cheesy, with big chunks of chicken. Jon’s soup was excellent as well, although he said it could have been a little more brothy; it had the consistency of salsa rather than soup. The menu listed the savory items under the heading Petits Plats, but the servings were very generous. They were definitely meal-sized, rather than small plate sized. This was good, since the prices were a little high.

Since the focus of the restaurant is dessert, of course I had to order some. After about 10 minutes of hemming and hawing, I decided on a Valhrona Chocolate torte with a Earl Grey creme anglaise and blood orange compote. Yum. It was excellent. I was unsure about the sauce, I’m not a big bergamot fan, but it was incredible with the oranges and chocolate. The plating was very minimalist, which I really liked…it seemed like the focus was on the actual dessert, rather than a whole plateful of sauces of contrasting colors. Anyways, I can’t wait to try the other desserts on the menu.

The bill (including tip) for a salad, a soup, and appetizer, two drinks, one entree, two coffees and one dessert was $70.21. Not cheap, but very good. Since Dessert Noir is right by the Cedar Hills movie theater, it would be a perfect spot to have coffee and dessert after a movie date.

In general, I’ve been disappointed by most of the bakery I’ve eaten in Portland. It just seems like a lot of the bakeries around here take a lot of shortcuts with their products. However, in the interests of research, I’m always up for trying out a new bakery. I’d heard good things about Criollo (4727 N.E. Fremont St) and the other day one of my friends and I went to try it out.

And it was sooo worth the drive. I had a passionfruit pie (really more of a tart) filled with the most amazing passionfruit curd and covered with whipped cream. I’m not a big passionfruit fan in general, but this little pie changed my view of the fruit completely.

My friend had a slice of carrot cake that she assured me was really tasty as well.

I can’t wait to go back.

Since I went to school for baking and work as a baker at a restaurant, when I go out to eat I usually look at the dessert menu, both out of curiousity and just as inspiration for new ideas. In Portland, when restaurant desserts are mentioned, the name Papa Haydn invariably comes up. I’d never been there, but I’d heard that it was pretty good. We decided to go for my birthday, which was in November. I had an excellent cheeseburger and fries, and then it was time to peruse the dessert menu. The night we were there, there were about 10 different tortes, cakes, and cheesecakes, plus 4 or 5 other desserts, from which to choose. I decided on the banana cream pie, since sometimes the simplest, homiest desserts can be the most telling of a chef’s skill. And I was greatly disappointed. The bananas were rock hard, bordering on green, and the pastry cream was flavorless mush. I made much more satisfying banana cream pie at home when I was 10 years old. But I figured maybe it was a fluke, everyone has an off day once in a while.

Last night I was at a friend’s house, and she decided that she had a craving for cake, specifically coconut cake. Immediately I thought of Caprial’s Bistro since last time we were there, coconut cake was on the menu. But alas, it was Sunday, and they’re closed on Sundays and Mondays. So I thought why not give Papa Haydn another try. I know they’ll have something with coconut in it. And so off we went, hopes high, in search of coconutty goodness. When we arrived, this time at the East Location (on Milwaukie in Westmoreland) it was relatively quiet, and the kitchen didn’t seem too busy, so I decided to have dinner before getting down the the more important business of dessert. I had goat cheese and yukon gold potato ravioli in a cream sauce with bacon and caramelized onions. They were really good, especially since I’m not usually a huge goat cheese fan. Then I took my friend’s 9-year-old daughter with me up to the dessert case. After a serious debate on the relative merits of various cakes, cheesecakes, and tortes, I decided on a slice of lemon chiffon cake, my friend had a slice of german chocolate, and her daughter had chocolate mint truffle torte. After deconstructing the desserts (my friend is also a pastry chef), we were unimpressed. It should be impossible to have dry, crumbly chocolate cake layers in a german chocolate cake, due to the gooiness of the filling moistening them, but Papa Haydn managed it. The cake was hard (stale?) dry and crumbly. I had a similar problem with the lemon chiffon cake. The lemon curd filling was good, nice and tart, but the cake was really dense and crumbly. I don’t think that they use soaking syrup on the layers, and that simple (and relatively inexpensive) step would dramatically improve their cakes. The buttercream on the lemon cake was also mediocre; it had an off flavor and a slick mouthfeel, presumably due to the use of shortening along with the butter.

The main reason I’m so critical of Papa Haydn’s desserts is that there’s no excuse for those kinds of problems at that kind of establishment. They were charging $7-$8 for a slice of cake. With those kinds of prices, they should be able to use the best quality ingredients, and no skimping or shortcuts. I might go there again for a meal, but I’ll go somewhere else for dessert.

As a side note, another one of my friend’s calls Papa Haydn “Expensive Dessert,” hence the name of the entry.

For some reason all the planets were aligned in a “give Heather a hard time” configuration yesterday. It was ridiculous, I spent about 2 hours on the phone trying to get through to the Tualatin Hills Rec Department to register for a class with absolutely no success. More on that in my other blog. I got a chip in the windshield of the car I’ve only had for a WEEK. I bashed my toes on a headboard I’ve been meaning to put up. There were no movies playing I wanted to see. And my friend was supposed to call me so we could get together, but she didn’t. Plus various other annoying things. So I decided that the only way the day could possibly be redeemed was if I had a spactacularly marvelous dinner.

For various reasons, I decided on clarklewis, a restaurant in SE on Water. Being that it was a Saturday night, I couldn’t get an early reservation, and we ended up settling for a 9:30 slot. I’m glad we waited.

The building itself is pretty industrial, with interesting glass accents and an open kitchen. And by open I don’t mean one wall slightly shorter than the others. I mean it’s actually part of the dining room. You can see everything being prepared, from salads to desserts. My poor husband had to deal with me staring over his shoulder the whole meal as I watched the action.

One of the unique things about the menu is that you have three size options with every item: small (tapas-sized), large (normal entree sized), and family. We elected to get salads as our starter, and Jon had an amazing radicchio salad with pancetta and walnuts. The smoky/saltiness of the pancetta was perfect with the bitter greens and the walnuts were just the right amount of crunch. I had a butter lettuce salad with a citrus dressing and a parmesean-y type of cheese. I was expecting the dressing to be sweet, anything that says citrus usually is, but this wasn’t sweet at all. It was tangy and very citrus-y but not cloying in any way. Really good and refreshing. The only issue I had with the starters was that we had to pay for our bread. In my opinion, four dollars for a loaf of (admittedly good) bread is a little steep. I could understand if they baked it in-house, but according to the menu, it’s from Ken’s. The olive oil to dip it in was really good, fruity and peppery, but next time I’ll save a little cash and forgo the bread portion of the entertainment.

For the main event, I had hen and fontina ravioli (a little pretentious sounding, I thought…I would have just said chicken..) and the only complaint I had was that there weren’t enough of them. In all fairness, the waiter told me that they were labor-intensive to make and I’d only get five in the large-sized order. Next time I’ll order the family size, just for me The sauce was a really intense, chicken-y rich pan sauce, like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had condensed down to a slightly syrupy reduction. I used some of my four dollar bread to mop up what was left on my plate. Jon had risotto with chunks of salami and cheese. I’m used to my risottos being a little creamier, but the flavor was excellent. He also got the large size, which ended up being about a cup, maybe a little less, in the middle of a pretty generously-sized plate. Maybe it’s a psychological thing, if they put the large sized entrees on an smaller plate, they might actually seem a little more…well…large. But I don’t do this for a living (baking is totally different) and so maybe I’m wrong.

Desserts were a mixed bag. I had a Dagoba Chocolate Torte with caramelized bananas. It was extremely rich, very chocolatey and not too sweet. Just how I like my desserts. I couldn’t have done it better myself. Jon had a meyer lemon tart. I love lemon tarts. I made him order it just so I could try it. This one though, I could have happily pushed to the side to eat more expensive bread. Lemon tarts are supposed to be puckery, not astringent. It seemed like sugar was completely absent from the ingredient list. Jon said it reminded him of eating lemon-scented dish detergent. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it definately wasn’t to my taste. On a postive note, though, the crust was really good.

All in all, I would definately go back for more; some of the items we didn’t try looked really promising, and I’m hoping the lemon tart was just a fluke. Next time, though I’ll go during the week so we can snag an earlier table.

After some consideration and more than few visits to restaurants around Portland, I decided to create a separate blog for food-related musings. Mostly I’m envisioning restaurant reviews (and rants) with some pictures and some recipes if I come up with something truly worth sharing.

Last week I went to a restaurant on Division called Hedge House with one of my friends. We were really hungry and after discovering that Pix Pastisserie doesn’t do much in the way of a lunch menu, we ended up at Hedge House since it was next door. Upon reflection, I think we would have been better served to eat peanuts from the gas station down the street. In other words, it SUCKED. I had mac and cheese, which is pretty difficult to mess up. But they managed it. I don’t know what recipe they’re using , but I imagine it goes something like this:

Boil some noodles. Add some milk. Wave some cheese over the pot, but do not allow it to come into actual contact with the noodles. Add cayenne pepper, about 2 tablespoons per serving. Cover with stale bread crumbs, bake and plate. Garnish with lettuce that’s at least a week past its prime and serve. After service, do not under any circumstances check to see if the customer enjoyed their dish. Because you know that they didn’t.

Supposedly the sandwiches are good, and in all fairness they did look appealing. However, I’m not going to take the chance of being dissappointed in another meal. There are too many other good restaurants to explore in Portland.