No Dishes to Wash

So everyone is complaining about the economy.  I’m just really glad it hasn’t affected us too much, I think there were so many things that we do without already that now everyone else is just coming down to our level.  That and the fact that we haven’t bought a house recently means we have a lot more money to waste, I’m sure.  So anyway, everyone is turning to cheep eats, or great meals at home.  Actually, I think more people are thinking about great eats at home, so I might throw up a few new recipes when I try them out.  I love to cook ALMOST as much as I love to eat out.

So I know that  the economy has to have affected our budget because I realized I haven’t posted in a month.  Maybe because I was on vaca for a week, maybe because of my husbands new obsession with Portland City Grill (he probably goes there 2 or 3 times a week!) but whatever the case we have not been trying any new places lately.  But a great place where you can fill up the whole family for less than $10 a person is Pho Hung.  It’s pronounced fuh, like you are going to be saying a bad word and you stop yourself.  There are a lot of good pho places around, but I think the best one is Pho Hung on SE Powell, around 45th Ave.  I don’t mind the one on 82nd Ave either, but I swear (and it might be my imagination) that the broth tastes better at the one on Powell.  It’s a Vietnamese beef noodle soup, and the broth is onions, carrots, beef bones, ginger, and 5 spice, simmered for 5-8 hours.  Then add vermicelli noodles, and raw beef (flank steak, eye of round, tripe, tendon, brisket, fatty tendon, etc)  Only certain kinds of the beef are raw, I think it’s just the eye of round, and the broth is so hot it cooks it.  There is cilantro and green onion in the broth, and you add ming bean sprouts, jalepenos, basil leaves and lime wedges.  Also plum sauce and hot sauce (if you are brave!).  All my friends already know about pho… in fact, if you live in Portland and don’t know about pho, I don’t know what rock you’ve been hiding under, but it is time to come out!  Some other favorites there include the avacado shake, the jackfruit shake, and my personal favorite, egg soda.  (Everyone say EEEWWWW!)  It’s a raw egg, sweetened condensed milk, and sprite, all mixed up.  It is yummy and creamy!  One time I got really embarassed about ordering it… I found out by a coworker that egg drinks are for men, because they increase their, um, virility.  He couldn’t believe I ordered one.  Now I know why the waiter looks at me funny when I order them.  Try one, I think you’ll like it.  Pho Hung, 4717 SE Powell Blvd, open daily 9am-9pm.  Also located at 1919 SE 82nd Ave.

The more I blog, the more I realize a) how much I eat out (scary) and b) what nice places we have in P-town.  Laurelwood Brewing Company is a great home-town brewery that serves decent food.  I’ve only ever had the happy hour, and there are a few tips and tricks to that.  Nachos- great.  But they have a tendency to keep them under the heat lamp for a while until all your chips are brown.  Feel free to make them re-do them.  Garlic Fries - are weird IMO.  The garlic is funny tasting every time.  It’s like the crushed garlic out of a jar, and they put a LOT on with parsley… I think they may be trying to counteract the garlic breath with the parsley, not sure if it works though.  Pork sliders - don’t bother.  It’s dry pork smothered in BBQ sauce on a white bun.  Hummus plate - good.  Has marinated artichoke, eggplant, kalamata olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and pita bread.  Fish tacos - great.  Their beers are all hand crafted, I really enjoyed the seasonal they have right now called Imperial Hefeweizen.  Their most popular beer is their red ale called Free Range Red.  They also have won a few awards with a spinoff of that, called the Double Deranger.  All of the Laurelwood brewpubs are really kid friendly, which has made them really popular with our parent-friends.  On Monday nights, they have wings on special, and happy hour every night.  The original Laurelwood, at 40th and Sandy, is now a pizza joint…. have yet to try it.  Our server last time was Matt, and he was super friendly… even let me get a  kiddie fry instead of having to order the garlic fries.  I’ve had a few girls their, too, who are super sweet, always including the kids at our table.  Overall, this is a nice way to support local business without breaking the bank, because their prices are reasonable. The HH is $4 a pop… watch out, because as soon as you at meat to the nachos, they are $7.  Laurelwood also gives back to the community - for example, Sept 15th, 20% of all sales go to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a great cause.  So let’s all eat out Monday Sept 15th at Laurelwood!  Located at 5115 NE Sandy Blvd. Open M-F 11am-11pm, Sa-Su 9am-12am.  Brunch served weekends 9am-3pm, and HH 3pm-6pm and 9pm-cl every day.

Everytime I hear the full name of Sayler’s, I think about the Country Kitchen, one of those chain restaurants.  Let me emphasize, NOT EVEN REMOTELY the same place.  I’ve been frequenting the Happy Hour in the lounge for a long time… long enough to remember when the pepper steak bites were $1.95. (Which actually wasn’t that long ago.)  But I promised myself in this post I wouldn’t complain about HH prices going up.  Sayler’s is a family run business, with 2 locations, one Eastside, the other Westside.  They serve a good steak, but sometimes you feel like you are transported back to the late 70s, early 80s in their dining rooms.  The HH draw has always been their Pepper Steak Bites, which were the trimmings off all their hand cut steaks, marinated in a pepper sauce, and served, as I mentioned before, for $1.95.  Now they are $3.95 each, I believe, and the other HH menu items are $2.95, except for the cheeseburger, which is $4.95 (and not nearly as good as the McCormick and Schmick’s HH cheeseburger!)  They make decent drinks here, too, not too weak (although I have also had stronger.)  This is the type of place where everyone knows everyone, and back when I was a regular, the waitress even knew my name.  I had stopped going for a while, because the HH is only in the lounge, which can get extremely smoky. (Can’t wait for Jan 1st, 2009!!!!)  Also, the small video poker section (which is about 4 machines) can get a little irritating…. if you forget to sit on the other side of the lounge.  Which it seemed I was always doing.  They have a nice fireplace, and the lounge has a true “loungy” feeling to it, with overstuffed chairs that roll about, instead of restaurant tables and chairs.  Our server was Shannon, and these waitresses really know what they are doing, they have all been around for a while at Sayler’s.  I think they are a little too busy sometimes, if it’s a full night they should really have 3 cocktail waitresses, and I think they only do 2, but these girls make sure you have drinks in front of you all the time.  So after Jan 1st 2009, I think this place will be a regular for me again… ok, maybe give it until Feb 1st for all the old smoke to clear out.  Located at 10519 SE Stark St (just look for the huge rotating steak sign). Open M-Th 4pm-10pm, F 4pm-11pm, Sa 3pm-11pm Su 12pm-10pm.  Happy Hour is 3pm-6pm M-F and 9pm-close daily.

Alessandro’s bills itself as fine Italian food, and has the prices to match.  But the funny thing is, you just don’t feel it.  Caleb and I are wondering how they stay in business.  It’s at the bottom of Caleb’s parking garage downtown, and everytime we go by, there is NO ONE there.  So we took pity on them tonight and had dinner there.  It’s a little creepy to go into a restaurant that has only 2 other couples in it.  Maybe it’s the layout… maybe it’s the lack of hustle and bustle, but it just feels cold and empty inside.  By the time we left, there were about 8 tables filled, but still the same feeling persisted.  Caleb’s Caesar salad had bitter romaine,  but the starter of minestrone soup was good.  Rather brothy, but lots of fresh vegetables.  Our server, Elio, was very pleasant, and cracked a few one-liners, but still, this big, cold, empty room feeling pervaded.  The girl that filled my water was there about every 5 minutes (or maybe even less)… a little too often for me.  But what else are you going to do with only 3 tables filled at the restaurant?  I didn’t think the food was any better than a chain restaurant like Romano’s Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden, I had the fettuccine pesce, with shrimp, scallops, clams, and salmon.  The cream sauce that accompanied it was very rich, it made it hard to eat a lot (which is probably a good thing!)  Caleb had the tortellini with alfredo - I think he was in love with it.  He described it as

“Having one food in an Italian restaurant, and one foot in a soul food restaurant… It was a cross between an alfredo and a sausage gravy.”

Me? I think he was exaggerating a little bit.  Overall, this restaurant has fine food, but something is just not right… I mean, they would be a lot busier on a Friday night than 8 tables at 7 pm, if there wasn’t something off about the place.  Located at 301 SW Morrison St, open M-Th 11:30am-10pm, F 11:30am-11pm, Sa 12pm-3pm and 5pm-11pm.  There is a Happy Hour in the adjoining bar.  Oh, don’t let me forget the bread! It was the best thing.  The bread was a moist sourdough, fresh from the oven, and they had an olive oil with crushed garlic and chopped kalamata olives.  It was the only redeeming thing about dinner!