Renewed Purpose

I made a dreadful mistake this morning. I overslept and, as a result, ran out the door without my lunch. My tasty, tasty, homemade chicken stirfry over rice.


So when the lunch hour came around I checked my wallet for cash (No Fish / Go Fish only accepts cash) and found none. Limited to places that take plastic I considered my options. I could run across the street to Qdoba or Carl's Jr, but they're a bit out of my price range. Just a little farther is Big Town Hero, Portlandia Cafe, and Pioneer Place Mall... But a look at the foul weather outside decided it for me.


Down to the basement for the Outtakes Cafe. Today's special was chicken teryaki. Never my favorite. But nothing else looked at all appealing, so I bit the bullet and went for it.


I got what was coming to me. Greasy noodles, overly sweet teryaki sauce, and rubbery chicken. I'm left with a wierd taste in my mouth... Like they used white pepper somewhere. The steamed vegetables were a joke, chunks of barely cooked carrot, onion, and celery the size of my thumb claimed the life of my first fork (luckily I keep spares at my desk).


That wasn't a meal, that was a chore. And a punishment that my stomach did not deserve. I'll have to make something really tasty for dinner....

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery

I woke up yesterday (Sunday) morning** and remembered that BellaBabe had plans. Flipping through my netflix and hulu queue I searched for my standby favorite food shows. After an episode and a half of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" I had enough. I wanted food, and nothing in my kitchen was appealing.


So I got dressed and took off down Sandy Blvd in search of breakfast. The first "Open" sign I saw was at the Laurelwood Public House and Brewery. BellaBabe has been telling me that the Laurelwood has one of the best burgers in town, but the only time we've attempted it we stood at the host's stand for 15 minutes without even a "Be right with you" from passing waitstaff.


But I was hungry, and they were open. So I decided to give their brunch menu a try.


With my stomach growling I pulled into the parking lot and headed inside. I was promptly greeted and allowed to pick a seat. I ordered coffee and it was delivered so quickly I didn't even have a chance to look at the whole menu. When I did find the beverages section I was a little vexed at being charged $2.00 for a 6 oz cup of coffee but not all coffee cups can be the 20 oz miniature flowerpots I have at home. The coffee didn't last long and I set the empty mug on the edge of the table to indicate a need for refills.


And there it sat. For 25 freaking minutes while my waiter passed the table 4 times. When I finally flagged him down and was able to place my order and ask for a refill.


I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and asked for a breakfast reccomendation as I was torn between the Eggs Benedict (my eternal favorite when its right) with smoked salmon and the Breakfast Burrito (I've been on a spicy kick lately) with chips and salsa. I was told that the breakfast burrito was "The best!" and ordered it with House sausage added (for an extra $1.50).


30 minutes later this plate was placed before me. Heaped with stale tortilla chips and sans the promised salsa. One good thing, the guacamole was fabulous! Bright, vibrant, cooling, slightly chunky without being a difficult dip.

But. Big, big but. That House Sausage that I paid extra for? Flavorless and rubbery. While there did seem to be a decent amount of it, it was completely forgettable. There was twice as much tortilla as there was filling and the filling itself was overpowered by the black beans. I missed the flavors of the egg, potato, and sausage that should have been sharing the stage.


All in all I was not impressed. But I'll try it again, maybe it was an off day?

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery
5115 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR 97213
tel: 503-282-0622


**I apologize for the late post, but mobile blogger wasn't working and after typing this entire thing out on my cellphone, by George I'm going to post it!

A tragedy is discovered!

I’ve wanted to write a food blog for quite some time now. I even started one, but then two years of unemployment slammed the coffin lid on that attempt. I can’t even find it now, and the computer I used to write it up is currently clinging to life support.

But now I’m getting back on track, have a job that’s helping me catch up, and I’ve found that splurging occasionally helps keep me sane. So I’ve decided to try again.

Why start now? Well to put it simply I live in Portland Oregon, one of the restaurant capitals of the North West. Yet when I go out… I find myself at a chain restaurant or a fast food joint… This seems wrong to me.

For instance, last weekend I woke up with an urge for breakfast. This is rare as I’ve never really cared for the typical breakfast fare. (I was horribly spoiled as a child by my father who would make me anything I wanted for breakfast, no matter what day of the week it was!) So I waited patiently for my sister, BellaBabe, to wake up so I could offer to take her out with me. At least, I tried to wait patiently. After about 30 minutes I resorted to starting a pot of coffee, turning on the TV at a medium-high volume and then finally calling her cell phone to get her up.

After letting her absorb her first cup of coffee, waiting for her brain to wake up and realize that she was conscious, I mentioned the offer of breakfast. Good timing on my part as she was contemplating my doom for dragging her out of a warm bed. So she agreed to leaving a touch earlier than planned and attempting breakfast.

Except, where to go? Neither of us could think of any sit down breakfast restaurants in our area. Please remember that neither of us are big on breakfast foods and will usually forgo the meal to take advantage of an extra hour or two of sleep. I am shamed to admit that the only breakfast places I could think of were “Old Wives Tales” (a bit spendy and I didn’t enjoy my last visit) and Home Town Buffet at Mall205.  So off we went from the Hollywood district to Mall205 to attempt breakfast.

I repeat, from the HOLLYWOOD district we drove all the way to Mall205 for breakfast. There are (at a vague guess) 6 churches within the Hollywood district of Portland. By all rights there should be a large number of brunch places if not actual breakfast. So why didn’t we know of any?

The answer to that question is unknown to me, but I intend to remedy that situation. My quest is for a reasonably priced breakfast restaurant near my house with fabulous food and excellent service. Is that too much to ask?

I don’t think so.