651344 Wed Sep 09 22:03:51 -0700 2009 2 4 Pacific Northwest 0 5018365 Part 1 here http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/650761 Portland to California border We left Seattle on a Saturday and didn’t get to Portland until the afternoon and Bunk Sandwiches just closed. With them closed also on Sunday, meant that I would miss them this trip, too bad. A Seattle friend had told us about Le Pigeon’s foie gras profiteroles and we were so intrigued by it and wanted to try it. After just missing Bunk sandwiches, since we were in the neighborhood, we just hung out in the Lower Burnside shops until Le Pigeon opened. . We split the foie gras and avocado terrine to start and had our own order each of the profiteroles. We were seated at the bar right in front of Gabriel and I think he was amused that we only ordered two foie dishes for our meal. The terrine, I liked the buttery richness of the avocado mixing with the organ rich meatiness of the foie. The profiteroles were just freaking amazing. My tongue was having issues figuring out what was going on. The creamy filling looked sweet but had the great foie taste. Texture was firm butter filling. Very happy our friend told us about it and we managed to stop in. Gabriel chatted with us a bit and we told him we were in town just trying different foods. He directed us to Sel Gris and told us to see his friend Daniel and to try the sweetbread dish there. By this time, even clueless me figured out that Gabriel was the owner chef and Daniel would be the owner chef of Sel Gris. Getting directions from Gabriel and firing up google maps on my phone, we decided what the heck and walked to Sel Gris. Longer walk than expected but it was neat to check out the neighborhood. As a side note, I really liked the mix of business and residential in the Lower Burnside area. Walking into Sel Gris, we managed to weasel our way to the only two seats left at the bar overlooking the open kitchen even though the hostess told us it was usually held for reservations. We promised her that we would only order a couple of dishes and would be gone by the time the next reservations was due in a little over an hour at 8. We split an order of the mussels with chorizo and each got our own order of the sweet bread. The order of mussels was huge with plenty of ground chorizo all over. The classic pairing of sausage with steamed shellfish worked really well here with the chorizo. The rich meatiness of the chorizo was matched by the plump succulence of the mussels. Lesser mussels would have failed against the strong chorizo. Chorizo also wasn’t super oily like it can be sometimes. The sauce was decadent and we were sopping it up with the bread as we anxiously watched Daniel prepare the sweet bread. The sweetbread dish is definitely not for anyone afraid of fat and butter. This dish is also served with an abelskiver on top. First, the chef takes a huge handful of butter to pan fry the sweetbreads. Then he takes another big handful and tosses it into the well of the abelskiver pan. When the butter is foaming, the batter is poured in. About halfway through the process, he pokes a hole and cracks an egg into it. Smooths the batter back to cover it up then flips the ball over to evenly cook it. He then takes the pan of sweetbreads and repeatedly spoons the excess butter on top of the cooking abelskiver to brown it. Overall, I’d say he must have used over a stick of butter just to both dishes. We were drooling in anticipation. Three large pieces of sweetbread sitting in tomato coulis with the ableskiver in the middle. Cutting open the abelskiver caused the egg yolk to spill out. It was absolutely decadent eating a piece of sweetbread and egg soaked abelskiver. We chatted with Daniel a little bit when he saw how much we enjoyed the food and we told him about our Le Pigeon experience and Gabriel directing us over. When he found out we were off to drink beers the rest of the evening, he directed us to the Green Dragon. Seeing as we had good luck so far following chef suggestions, we thanked him and set off walking towards the Green Dragon. Walking down Hawthorne at the corner of 12th, we encountered a group of food trucks. Even though we were quite full, I couldn’t resist the Belgian frites truck since I love Belgian frites. They looked good, frying up fresh batches and a huge selection of sauces. Sadly, I wish I had passed it by. The fries were not crisp and undersalted. Just an absolute crime when it comes to fried potatoes. I ended up dumping most of it and we continued walking through the cool neighborhood and spent the rest of the evening drinking at Green Dragon. The next day, Sunday, we checked out and headed over to the infamous Voodoo Donuts. We were shocked at how long the line was. It took us almost an hour to get our order. We got a large assortment including the noted maple bacon. Overall, I liked it and am glad I tried it but I’m not sure if an hour wait was worth the donuts. Consensus was the raised donuts were much better than the cake ones. All flavors of the cake ones seemed on the dry side and crumbly in not a good way. We headed out of town on our way to San Francisco. I was disappointed that we timed our trip wrong and being in Portland on a Sunday meant many of the carts and other places were closed. I definitely want to return and spend more time exploring. As a warning to anyone using this post for research in the future, when travelling through Oregon on a Sunday down the 5, you have very limited options. I had noted three places as possibilities for casual and easy meal stops. All three were closed. For the record, they were: Kona Café in Creswell Tina’s Taco’s in Roseburg Kalypsso in Grant’s Pass We finally drove all the way to Medford and stopped at Porter’s. We were there in time for their happy hour and settled in for a couple hours to relax and watch some sports. We tried a couple of the micro brews. The happy hour menu was exceptionally well priced. They actually cook the burger to order. The garlic fries could have used a lot more garlic but they were cooked well. The pizza was more of a flatbread but good sausage and cheese on it and the sauce not overly sweet. All the happy hour menu items ranged from $3.50-4.50 which was a great deal. Solid food quality and value all around. And that pretty much concluded our trip through the Pacific Northwest. We crossed over into the California border later that evening. Thanks again to everyone who helped in my original query. The Pacific Northwest is extremely beautiful and I can’t wait to revisit and spend a lot more time exploring the great food in Seattle and Portland. Wed Sep 09 22:03:51 -0700 2009 10746 Jase 1 5019245 Yes, Jase, Sunday in rural Oregon, even along the I-5, is tricky. For the thread, I suggest: Pedotti's in Sutherlin (solid, southern Italian-American) or Los Dos Amigos Downtown in Roseburg (pretty darn good Mexican IMHO). Thu Sep 10 09:08:17 -0700 2009 5018365 237143 oregoncook 1 5020873 Glad you ate well in PDX, good choices all... Thanks for reporting back! Thu Sep 10 18:45:34 -0700 2009 5018365 11210 JillO