FRIED EGG SMOKED PORK

Fried egg and smoked pork loin sandwich
with fontal, whole grain mustard aioli, and twenty greens.

Blue Hour
250 NW 13th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
503 226 3394

Stopped into Blue Hour, a local favorite, for dinner tonight.

Decided to try the fried egg and smoked pork loin sandwich from the bar menu. Quite an interesting combination. Apologies for the terrible photo though.

CHIMAY CHIMAY CHEESE

Chimay Burger: House ground fillet, roasted onions, chimay cheese on a brioche bun.

Jo's Bar and Rotisserie
701 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97201

Chimay cheese comes from the Chimay brewery, a brewery in Belgium that has been around since 1863. Though they obviously specialize in beer, they began to also produce cheese in 1876. Currently, the brewery makes four different kinds of cheeses - Chimay with beer (whose rind is soaked in Chimay beer), Chimay Grand Classic (semi-hard pressed), Chimay Grand Cru (made from pasteurised milk and matured for six weeks) and Old Chimay (hard cheese matured for six months).

I'm not sure which of the four cheeses was used in the burger, but I don't remember tasting any hint of beer in it. Either way, it was pretty good. I always love brioche buns. It was served with a side of sweet potato chips, which I didn't even get around to since the burger filled me up.

I'd order it again. But it couldn't touch my favorite burger in Portland, Doug Fir's Fir Burger.

RAMEN NAKAMURA

Sorry for the lack of posts. I moved to Los Angeles which so far has had significantly less interesting food. I know this is supposed to just be documentation, but still... the presence of quality eating I suppose inspired me to make this blog in the first place.

Anyhow, a few months ago we went to Hawaii. Here's a guest review from my brother, of a ramen restaurant we went to.


Kim Chee Miso Ramen

Ramen Nakamura
2141 Kalakaua Ave # 1
Honolulu, HI 96815
808-922-7960

A good bowl of ramen is hard to find in America. This dish, although a favorite in Japan, has become synonymous with the Maruchan top ramen here in the U.S. Not Hawaii. With a large Japanese population, decent ramen became a necessity. I visited a small ramen shop in Waikiki named Ramen Nakamura. A large collection of obscure Japanese celebrity’s autographs adorned the walls and we were greeted by a frail but tough looking obaachan helping me forget I was in the U.S. I ended up ordering the Kim Chee Miso Ramen and after a short wait the obaachan came out with our food. The yellow slippery noodles were the perfect consistency and the thin pork slices were filled with flavor from marinating in the broth. As usual I avoided the bean sprouts; those noodle imposters are perfect for ruining a good slurp. There weren’t as many noodles as I would have liked, a slight disappointment; but in all the Kim Chee Miso Ramen helped me escape to Japan for a dinner and had me thinking, “That ramen was raw man…”
-Keenan Jay

AGLIOLIOLIOLIO

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio: Sauteed garlic and olive oil, fresh basil, red pepper flakes and parmesan.

Pastini Pastaria
1506 NW 23rd Ave
Portland, OR 97210
(503) 595-1205

Pastini is a local Portland Italian chain. It's cheap, simple dining, like Italian fast food. Except a tad classier. It's always pretty good though for a hearty no nonsense meal.

BERRY GOOD

Blueberry Pancakes

Fuller's Coffee Shop
136 NW 9th
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 222-5608

I'm by far more of a waffle man (Belgian especially), but once in a while I crave a good stack of pancakes. Especially if there are blueberries in them.

POLLO

Seared chicken wrapped in prosciutto, over parmesan polenta & mushroom jus.

FRATELLI
1230 NW Hoyt St
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-8800
www.fratellicucina.com

This was my first time dining at Fratelli. The service was really slow, but the waitress nice enough, apologizing for the wait and eventually even not charging us for the wine.

I love proscuitto, and that was the main draw for me to try this dish. Sure enough, the prosciutto ended up being my favorite part of it. It was baked, so unlike your traditional antipasti prosciutto, this was crispy. You definitely wanna try to get a balance of all the elements here in each bite - chicken, a piece of the prosciutto, a little glob of polenta, all rolled around in the mushroom jus.

INTRODUCTION

Hi I'm Matt.

I love food.

Here is a photographic journal of stuff I eat.

Sometimes I'll write a little bit about the meal, sometimes I wont.

"Oishii" = Japanese for "delicious".

Mmmmmmmm!