Health knowledge made personal
|
Anyways, we kicked off the weekend with a trip to Irving Street Kitchen down in the Pearl District!  Irving St. Kitchen is a soulful New American restaurant anchored in slow cooking and deep flavors.The restaurant opened in Portland's Pearl District in May 2010 by Doug Washington and brothers Steven and Mitch Rosenthal. They also own and operate Town Hall, Anchor & Hope and Salt House in San Francisco.  Zoe got all dressed up for the occassion and was super excited to go out to eat.  We pretty much loved this restaurant the minute we stepped inside. I loved the earthy, mod decor and the use of bookcases to partition off seating. The bookcases are filled with wonderful old and interesting cookbooks and were fun to look at in between courses. The meal began with Ken's Artisan Bakery bread and you have to check out the huge rustic loafs in the above picture. Bread really is a work of art and it also happens to be one of our favorite bakeries in town so all the better. I should preface upfront that we were celebrating so some of the food that you are about to see may not be for the faint of heart. My motto is "everything in moderation" so keep that in mind when previewing the fabulous meals we had!  I started off with the most beautiful Spring Pea Soup topped with a crunchy Radish Salad.Wow! This was not only beautiful but super fresh, creamy and tasty. I loved it!! Steve ordered the table Fried Okra with Jalapeno Aioli  Along with a side of Smoked Tasso Jambalaya.Zoe loved the Jambalaya. She said it had a smokey BBQ taste to it and she is my BBQ girl.  Emmet started things off with a bang by ordering the "Angels on Horseback"- Bacon Wrapped Oysters. He cracks me up because he really does love oysters and pretty much anything wrapped in bacon is going to be good.  One of the specialties at Irving Street Kitchen is their Draper Valley Fried Chicken, Smashed Potatoes, Collard Greens and Country Gravy. Zoe immediately said she wanted to order the Fried Chicken but with everything else on the side. She is a kid after all. Zoe loved the fried chicken and actually said it tasted slightly sweet. Emmet and Steve also gave it a try and gave it the thumbs up! The side of smashed potatoes, collard greens and country gravy.  I order the Green Garlic Sous Vide Halibut, Roasted Root Vegetables, Meyer Lemon Confit, Pistou.This dish was again, beautiful, delicate and perfect.  Emmet ordered the Seared Sea Scallops, 12 hour Pork Belly, Black-Eyed Peas and Sweet Bourbon Jus.Emmet loved this dish! He did not eat the Pork Belly but loved the Sear Scallops and Black-Eyed Peas.  The waiter highly recommended the Johnston Country Ham, Buttermilk Biscuits with Red Pepper Jelly and Steve proclaimed that this might just be his favorite dish of evening. Simple but amazing! So of course we had to have dessert, or I should say that, of course I had to have dessert! Dessert is my favorite part of the meal and I sometimes wish we could just skip the meal part and go straight to dessert. Their signature dessert is Butterscotch Pudding topped with Roasted Banana Caramel Sauce, Creme Fraiche served with Pecan Sandies.  Isn't this cute plating? You can also order the pudding to go! Steve and Zoe shared this dessert but let me have a bite and it was simply amazing. I had to pause and say OMG that is freaking good!  Emmet and I shared an order of the warm Rhubarb Apple Crisp with Olive Oil Ice Cream.  This pretty much made the whole meal for me. I loved the presentation and the Rhubarb crisp was amazing. Warm, buttery, tangy and slightly sweet topped with Olive Oil Ice Cream.... oh my.  Simply Perfect. After dinner we wandered over to Powell's Book Store and walked around the Pearl to wear off a few of the calories we ingested. Worth everyone of them. We will definitely be going back to Irving Street Kitchen.  A good time was had by all. So that was just the beginning of our eating adventures this past weekend. Saturday we had a soccer game and guitar lessons to attend but managed to fit in a trip to Got Pho? Vietnamese food. My handy dandy camera was no where to be found so I don't have pictures but can tell you that we ordered: GỎI CUỐN CHAY Vegetarian salad rolls (2) w/ house peanut dipping sauce CHÍN, NẠM Soup Bowl- Slices of well-done lean brisket & flank PHỎ GÀ KHÔNG BÁNH Chicken broth served w/chicken breast, broccoli, carrot & cabbageGinger Chicken Stir-Fry We live just around the corner from Got Pho love it! The Pho is super fresh and Zoe and I like to share the salad rolls and Pho Ga. Emmet is my soup boy and loves the traditional Pho and Steve says the Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry is great. We missed our local Farmers Market on Saturday so we ended up heading over to the Hillsdale Farmers Market that is open on Sunday. We picked up some beautiful bok choy, kale and swiss chard as well as apples, pears and RHUBARB!! I am going to be making my own Rhubarb crisp...possibly even today. I had heard a rumor that the Baker & Spice Bakery made the best PB&J's in town and the bakery happened to be around the corner from the Farmers Market so I had to check it out.  My husband laughs at me when I order PB& J's at restaurants but I had to see what all the hoopla was about regarding the sandwich.  Baker & Spice is passionate about sharing simple and fulfilling food of the highest quality with our friends and neighbors. Since 1998, we've been part of the vibrant Portland and Hillsdale farmers markets. In recent years, our much-loved market stand has evolved into its current form: a warm and bustling neighborhood bakery featuring traditional and seasonal bread and pastry. Throughout the day in our Hillsdale shop, we bake everything from scratch in small batches. We use our own recipes, traditional methods and the highest quality ingredients: European-style butter, Belgian chocolate and seasonal produce from local, organic farms. This care and these ingredients make Baker & Spice pastry, cakes and bread fantastically good. We hope you'll drop by our shop often! So here it is..... Baker & Spice Chunky Peanut Butter & Raspberry Preserves on Harvest Sandwich Bread  Yum! I must admit that this is a pretty darn good PB& J! The eating out continues this evening with a trip to Pok Pok with one of Steve's work friends. I made sure to work out extra hard this morning with a trip to Body Pump followed by a short run. I have exciting news on the job front and will share it with you tomorrow once I officially sign the papers. I did not get offered the kitchen assistant position at Sur La Table but know there is some culinary nitch for me out in this big, wide world..... just not sure where! I am off to work but hope you all have a great rest of your Monday! |
Write a comment:
|
We had a great weekend and definitely ate our way through Portland this weekend! We were celebrating my husband's survival of 1L (1st year of law school). I can't tell you how happy he is and he has a whole crop of gray hair to show his accomplishment as well. Ha!