Postcards from Sisters, Oregon

After lunch at Pok Pok Noi in Portland, we drove south and west to Sisters, Oregon. We spent one night on our way to Bend, in the little town just north of Bend.


Our little cabin at Five Pine.

We're big believers in the restorative value of spending some quiet cabin time, preferably in off-the-grid locations. The more remote the better. So heavily populated resorts are not usually our thing. But I have to say that we were impressed by Five Pine Resort's little cabins and the privacy they afforded nestled among the trees side by side. Five Pine is a relatively new resort and they have given a lot of thought to detail. Our cabin was beautiful, luxurious, sparkling clean, and the perfect antidote to a day of thousands of miles of travel. The cabins are beautifully decorated in Craftsman-style furniture. There's a fireplace (did I mention that temps were in the 40s at night??), a patio with a view of the woods, one of most comfortable beds we've ever slept in, and a spa bathroom that included a deep, deep soaking tub. Best bath ever!! The property is covered in wildflowers and the sounds of a little stream that runs through the buildings.


The inside of our Five Pine cabin.

Five Pine offers a free breakfast buffet which included yogurt, granola, muffins, and gluten-free safe items like fruit and boiled eggs. This made for the perfect light breakfast before we headed to Five Pine's Shibui Spa for massages — a surprise treat from my husband. Five Pine also has an athletic club with indoor pool and hot tub that guests can access for free, it's own movie theater, and a couple of restaurants. We tried the casual Three Creeks Brewing Company for dinner. The gluten-free items on their menu were clearly marked, making ordering easy for me. The food was very fresh and perfectly prepared. We tried the spinach salad, and a steak with veggies and mashed potatoes. The restaurant was packed with families waiting in line, but the two of us were seated right away. Five Pine also has a higher-end restaurant, Thyme, which we didn't get a chance to try.


The counter at Angeline's Bakery in Sisters.


A gluten-free treat from Angeline's Bakery: marionberry coffeecake.

After our massages, we took a few minutes to walk through Sisters and have lunch at Angeline's Bakery. They have vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free items, including the marionberry coffee cake that I tried. I don't get to indulge in baked goods very much anymore, unless I make them myself, so this was a real treat. I love marionberries — a kind of blackberry that is larger, juicier and sweeter than ordinary blackberries. The cake was rich and dense but not too sweet, a good vehicle for the marionberries.



Next up, more photos and adventures from Bend.

Five Pine Lodge and Resort
Angeline's Bakery
Three Creeks Brewing Company
Shibui Spa

Thai Food at Pok Pok Noi in Portland

Our trip to Oregon last week landed us in Portland. We've spent time in Portland before, and wanted to focus on exploring Central Oregon and particulary, Bend, this time. But it took steely determination not to get distracted by all the food carts, restaurants, and groovy shops that Portland has to offer. We did take time for lunch, though, on our way in. On our last trip, I'd read about the Thai restaurant Pok Pok, but we didn't get to try it. So this time, we went to Pok Pok's little sister restaurant, Pok Pok Noi.

Chef Andy Ricker, winner of this year's James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Northwest award, started the original Pok Pok at his own house. His focus on Thai grilling and street food led to lines around the block. Now there are several restaurants, including Pok Pok Noi, where we ate lunch.* This outpost of the Ricker empire is a little neighborhood joint with a few seats at the counter and a patio out back, complete with heaters at every table. (The staff offered to turn on the heater at our table and we politely declined. Just off the plane from Austin, we were still radiating heat and enjoying the cool breezes.)



I was eager to try everything on the menu, but apprehensive that there might not be many gluten-free offerings. But I shouldn't have worried. I asked about gluten-free options and was offered a special list noting the dishes that used common allergen ingredients, including gluten. Their menu also includes vegetarian options. Here's what we tried:



•  Kai Yaang (half bird): game hen rotisserie-roasted over charcoal; stuffed with lemongrass, garlic, pepper and cilantro; served with sweet and sour sauce and tamarind sauce. This is one of Pok Pok's signature dishes. The half bird was the perfect amount for the two of us to share. The meat was juicy and very tasty. We really like it dipped in the sweet tamarind sauce.



• Neua Naam Tok: salad of spicy flank steak with shallots, lemongrass, mint, cilantro, toasted rice powder, and fish sauce, lime and chili powder dressing. Get your mouth ready. This one will blow your taste buds away. It's hot and spicy from the chili, earthy and pungent from the garlic and fish sauce. Loved the texture of the toasted rice powder. Big flavor!



• Pork braised in soy sauce and sugar served over coconut rice with a salad of long beans, tomatoes, peanuts, Chinese celery, cilantro, dried shrimp, garlic, lime, palm sugar and fish sauce. This was our favorite dish and the one we want to try replicating at home. It was the perfect contrast to the stronger flavors of the beef salad. This one was softer and rounder. The pork was addictive. It was smooth, softly sweet and comforting, with the coconut in the rice adding another layer of flavor. The salad added a bright zing and crunch to the softer textures of the braised pork and rice.

• sticky rice (in the little baskets)

• Thai tea with lime (instead of sweetened condensed milk; it was incredibly flavorful and refreshing)

Pok Pok has been the object of much hype and discussion and it's a hot spot. So I was curious if the food would live up to its billing. And it did. It was such a gift to be able to indulge in the flavors of Thai food again without worrying about the gluten in soy sauce making every dish on the menu off limits for me. The flavors were big and bold and powerful. Next time we're in Portland, we'll be back. Until then, I want to experiment with that pork dish at home.

Pok Pok Noi
1469 NE Prescott Street, Portland
503.287.4149

*Note: I just noticed on their web site that starting Aug. 1, Pok Pok Noi will no longer be serving lunch. Get dinner there 5pm-midnight, 7 days a week.

Stay tuned. More from our trip to Bend coming up.

Salumi and more Seattle

I have to share a few more bits and bites from our explorations of Seattle...



Don't miss Armandino Batali's (yes, Mario's dad) Salumi in Pioneer Square. Artisan cured meats. That's all my husband needed to hear and this stop went to the top of his list.



We made the pilgramage. We stood in line. We squeezed into the tiny shop. The gods of porcine pleasure were looking out for us and we even scored a table to sit down and eat our otherworldly meaty wonders. Our only heartbreak — the porcetta sandwich sold out. Get there early!


He had a sandwich piled with porky goodness.


I had the lamb ragu: pure comfort.



Of course, we also explored Pike Place Market. It was torture not to have enough time to shop and cook and fully experience what Seattle had to offer by cooking for ourselves.



Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop was our favorite stop here. Their cheddar is just so much more than any other I've ever had.



Do not, I repeat do not, miss their mac and cheese. It took great effort on my husband's part to pause long enough for a photo once it was in his hands. And it lived up to the hype of being the world's best. (Recipe here - but be sure to make it with their cheese. In Austin, look for it at Central Market.)


Belltown graffiti

Seattle is a visual and taste paradise. A couple of other places I have to mention: Branzino Italian restaurant in Belltown. It was too dark for photos but the food was very well prepared. We had lamb sausage, spinach-mushroom-walnut ravioli and an asparagus, arugula and kumquat salad. And last, Uwajimaya Asian Market for everything from ceramics to sauces to fresh rice noodles to an incredible array of Asian produce. I'd be shopping here every week if I could.



Salumi
309 Third Avenue South, Seattle (Pioneer Square)
206.621.8772
Tuesday - Friday 11am - 4pm

Beecher's Handmade Cheese
1600 Pike Place, Seattle (Pike Place Market)
206.956.1964
daily 9am-6pm
Order online here.

Branzino
2429 Second Avenue, Seattle, (Belltown)
206.728.5181

Uwajimaya
600 5th Avenue South, Seattle (SoDo)
206.624.6248

Vancouver's Granville Island

Friends who had honeymooned in Vancouver told us before our trip that we must, must, must go to Granville Island to the public market. And they were so right. (Thanks for the tip, J&K!) We spent our first full day there exploring this foodie mecca.

Vancouver's Granville Island has a long and storied history. Sandbars in a tidal flat in False Creek eventually formed Granville Island in the late 1880s. Local First Nation peoples used the sandbar for fishing. Years later, False Creek was dredged to form a island for the mining, construction, forest and shipping industries. The Depression shuttered operations there, turning Granville into a shantytown until World War II, when it had another industrial heydey. But after the war, the industrial output declined again, and False Creek had become polluted. In the late '70s, Granville was reclaimed and cleaned up. The Island is still home to a concrete plant, but otherwise has transformed the industrial spaces into a public food market, artisans shops and galleries, a kids market, performance spaces, the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, a maritime market, and kayak and ferry rentals. (Learn more about Granville's history here.)

Here's a little sample of our explorations at Granville.



We started our exploration at the public market, taking in the overwhelming arrays of produce, seafood, baked goods, any food item you could think of is on offer here.



There are also plenty of shops full of everything you could ever need for the kitchen from cookbooks and tools to specialty ingredients and packaged goods. South China Seas was one of my favorite stops. This little shop was crammed with all kinds of intriguing tidbits and a particularly well-curated collection of cookbooks. I got lost there for quite awhile and came away with several new Donna Hay Essentials cookbooks that I haven't been able to find in the U.S., and also some very tasty ginger-infused sea salt. Can't wait to try it on stir-fry. (See the Donna Hay books here, here, and here.)



Another shop that fascinated me was the Stock Market. They have everything you need to jump start a cooking project. If you're looking for a shortcut - don't have time to make your own lobster stock? – come here. They have everything from soups, broths, dressings, dips, marinades, and ready-to-eat dishes... all homemade. You can watch them chopping the veggies.



We also stopped at Maiwa Handprints. Maiwa Handprints started the Maiwa Foundation as a trust to help practicing and re-emerging artisans develop their skills in emerging nations. The foundation works to end poverty in rural villages by promoting self-sufficiency. Maiwa Handprints sells the works of these artisans from India — the semi-nomadic Banjara produce beautifully embroidered clothing, the Khatri community in Dhamadka and Ajrakpur produce Ajrakh blockprints, the Bagru village near Jaipur also produce blockprints, and the Regar Samaj community of Rhajastan do leatherwork. You can find incredibly beautiful handcrafted treasures here — from clothing to bedding to table linens to jewelry to leather goods. I was seduced by the table linens. You can learn more about the Maiwa Foundation here.

There is also a food court in the back of the public market with all kinds of offerings. There were lots of tasty offerings here, but the star of the show is the view from the patio...




Granville Island Public Market
open 7 days a week: 9am-7pm
map
directory
guide

South China Seas Trading Company
Granville Island Public Market
604.681.5402

The Stock Market
Granville Island Public Market
604.687.2433

Maiwa Handprints
Granville Island Net Loft

Seattle Sampler

And now, a taste of our trip...
We arrived late into Seattle on a Saturday night and made our to the groovy old Scully and Mulder-esque Moore Hotel. The hotel has been serving Seattle since 1907 and sits adjacent to the Moore Theatre, where sadly, we missed seeing Spoon's performance by just a few days.


The Moore Hotel

The hotel is basic, but fun and friendly, and just what we needed for single night's stopover in Seattle on our way to Vancouver. After taking the light rail from the airport, we dropped our bags, and followed the night clerk's suggestion of nearby sushi at Umi Sake House.



We were blown away by the quality of the fish, the creative flavor combinations and especially, the very reasonable prices. Umi serves izakaya-style, like the informal Japanese bars that serve more substantial food with their drinks rather than just bar snacks. Umi also presents an extensive list of both hot and chilled sakes by the glass or bottle.


Umi's Moonraker roll

It was after 10pm when we arrived, but the place was rocking. We tried the Moonraker roll (spicy yellowtail, cucumber, cilantro, topped with seared spicy snow crab and black tobiko with jalapeño-citrus sauce and truffle oil), the king crab tower (king crab, snow crab, avocado, and tomato salsa with jalapeño, yuzu aioli and cilantro), wild white king salmon nigiri, wild Copper River Sockeye nigiri, and sake kama. What a feast! (Please forgive the image quality above. I only had my iPhone with me.)


Breakfast at Macrina Bakery

The next morning we had breakfast at the much raved about Macrina Bakery. And I must say, it not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it. Macrina is well known for their freshly baked breads, muffins, pastries and luckily for us, their weekend brunch. We lucked into the last open table before a long line formed. I had a decadent fried egg topped with balsamic-pickled fiddleheads and a rich, creamy, melty cheese, roasted potatoes, some fresh greens and some of their fresh baked bread and jam. I managed to squeeze in three visits to Macrina during our trip and could have eaten every meal there.

Fueled up and ready to roll, we packed up, and headed for Fremont for a morning of strolling the market and a tour of Theo's chocolate factory before driving to Vancouver.

My husband, the chocolate fiend, was very keen on making the Theo chocolate factory tour, so we anchored our morning around it. We had just enough time to quickly explore the adjacent Fremont Sunday Market. With vendors selling everything from produce to collectibles to prepared foods to artisans offerings, we could have spent hours there.

Instead, we made our way back down the street to Theo for their tour.



Seattle's Theo Chocolate is the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate producer in the United States. They...

• use only sustainable ingredients and source locally when possible
• make sure that their growers earn a living wage and that their families have access to educational resources
• control every step of their manufacturing process
• use green energy sources to run their factory
• use only sustainable packaging and printing methods


Theo's chocolate roaster

I like supporting a company that does business like this. But how does it taste?



I'd enjoyed several of Theo's bars and especially, their Big Daddy peanut butter candies — peanut butter praline and vanilla caramel over a graham cracker and covered in chocolate and peanuts. But I'd never had the opportunity to try sample so many of their chocolates. On the tour, you not only get a mini-chocolate education, and a tour of factory and candy-making room, but you also get a chance to try almost every product they make. Seriously, it was an overwhelming amount of chocolate. And then, of course, we bought some more goodies to bring home with us. From caramels to "sipping chocolate" to a huge assortment of chocolate bars, they've got you covered.


Roasted cacao beans at Theo

Theo is open and offers tours daily. (Be sure to make a reservation, it fills up quickly on the weekends.) I highly recommend the tour and at their store for the ultimate Seattle souvenir. If you can't make it to Seattle right away, in Austin, you can find some of their products at Whole Foods. Find out who has Theo in your local area here.


The Moore Hotel
1926 2nd Avenue, Seattle
206.448.4851

Umi Sake House
2230 1st Avenue, Seattle
206.374.8717

Macrina Cafe & Bakery
multiple locations

Fremont Sunday Market
Phinney Ave. N. and N. 34th St., Freemont

Theo Chocolate
3400 Phinney Ave. N., Freemont
make a tour reservation by calling 206.632.5100

NXNW

We're leaving the spring sunshine of Austin to head NXNW to Seattle and Vancouver. (I'll finish my TechMunch wrap up when I return. Stay tuned.) Here are a few of the places we want to explore. Got any tips? Leave a comment!

Vancouver:

• Granville Island Public Market

• Tojo's restaurant

• Vij's and Vij's Rangoli Indian restaurants

• The Noodle Box

• Japa Dog

• Refuel restaurant

• Kintaro Ramen

• Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

• Stanley Park

• Capilano Suspension Bridge

• Ziptrek ziplines through the trees

• Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks


Seattle:

• Pike Place Market

• Freemont farmers market and public market

• Theo chocolate factory tour

• Macrina Bakery and Fresh Flours Bakery

• Uwajimaya Asian grocery

• Maximus/Minimus

• Delancey Pizza and Serious Pie pizza

• Boom Noodle

• Seattle Art Museum

• Skillet Street Food

• Molly Moon's Ice Cream

• Beecher's handmade cheese

• Salumi Cured Meats

• Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas' new library design

• The Center for Wooden Boats

• and I'll have a special food photography adventure to share with you when I return.

Boulette's Larder & Shortbread with Vanilla Salt

Another must stop in the Ferry Market in San Francisco is Boulette's Larder. Boulette's serves breakfast, lunch and Sunday brunch in their kitchen or on the patio. In the evenings, they close their doors and serve elegant dinners for small, private groups.



Boulette's also has a wide-ranging and exotic selection of "larder" provisions for sale. You can pick up delicious to go items to take home for dinner. But you can also find exotic sea salts and spices, homemade stocks, honeys, oils, vinegars, condiments, baking ingredients and grains. In their Japanese larder, you'll find things like bamboo charcoal, katsuobushi (smoke-dried tuna), yuzu, Japanese spices and even specialized Japanese sugars.

Boulette's is little jewel box of wonderful flavors to eat and explore. It is the kind of place that will inspire you to want to take away some exotic ingredient and then revel in choosing what to do with it.



We had a lovely breakfast there one morning. I had poached eggs on a bed of greens with a spoonful of their homemade yogurt and the best corn bread I've ever tasted. It was rough and coarse and crumbly. I want to track down some coarse ground corn meal and try replicating it at home. (Wish I'd asked for the recipe.) My friend, Kelley, ordered the European-style hot chocolate. She was hoping it would be as good as some she'd had in Europe recently and she wasn't disappointed. It was like pudding. So thick it left rings around the cup as she savored it. (Excuse the photo quality, it was from my iPhone.)



While there, we purchased some flavored salts — alderwood smoked sea salt and vanilla sea salt. The alderwood was for my hubby. It's going to be good on some roasted beast or even some roasted potatoes. I got the vanilla salt for me. I've been wanting to experiment with it for some time and just hadn't gotten around to ordering any. My first try with it is on these shortbreads dipped in chocolate. The vanilla salt adds a perfect little hit of flavor with the chocolate.

In case you're wondering, the cookie imprints were made with a new cookie cutter I saw online and ordered on eBay from Germany. It's called "Brigitte." After a bit of fussing with trimming each letter, you fit them into a little tray inside the cutter. They are a little time-consuming to use but make fun impressions. Be sure to flour the cutter before each cut and note that they work best with colder, firmer dough.



I used my favorite shortbread recipe, which I've posted about before. Take a handful of chopped bittersweet chocolate and melt it in a bowl in the microwave with a tablespoon of butter (or cream). Stir it together well until it's completely melted. Dip the ends of your shortbread cookies into the chocolate and place on a silpat- or parchment-lined cookie sheet to cool and set up. While the chocolate is still warm, sprinkle with a tiny pinch of vanilla sea salt.

Boulette's Larder
Ferry Market, San Francisco
415.399.1155

Boccalone: Tasty Salted Pig Parts

The first shop we encountered as we entered San Francisco's Ferry Market was Boccalone. The tagline "tasty salted pig parts" on their sign grabbed me. My husband has taught me to appreciate "the king of meats." I knew there would be some tasty treats inside and certainly some gift opportunities. I was right on both counts.



Boccalone is a salumeria. They use sustainably-raised, heritage-breed pork and slow cold-curing techniques to produce incredible tasting cured meats and fresh sausages. My husband, who is a fan of any pork product save Spam, declared their salumi the best he'd ever tasted. I felt like I'd never tasted pork before. Their salumi is perfectly spiced, more subtle than you'd expect. We just tried the orange and fennel. I'm not a huge fennel enthusiast, but this was really just perfectly balanced. The primary word that came to mind as I savored each piece was "clean." Not the first word you'd expect to come to mind. But it tasted so pure, so perfectly what it should be. You really can taste the difference.

To learn more about Boccalone's process and products, check out their website.



Boccalone also offers some cooked specialties – ciccioli, coppa di testa, mortadella, porchetta, and prosciutto as well as hot and cold pannini and salumi cones. Unfortunately, I could only bring home the salumi to sample since I was traveling. Next time, I'll seriously consider taking a cooler.

My husband's going on a backpacking trip soon and is pretty excited to be taking a couple of these packages of salumi with him. That's gonna make for pretty fancy eating in the woods.



To serve, I tried an idea I'd seen from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. She serves slices of salumi with thin slices of fresh cucumber. The crisp, light, refreshing taste of the cucumber cuts the richer salumi for a nice balance. We also had some fresh grapes and crackers that made for a pretty indulgent snack. This isn't so much a recipe as a guideline. Just slice the salumi as thin as you can, on a bit of a bias looks pretty. Do the same with a cold hothouse cucumber. I like these because you don't need to peel them and the barely there seeds don't interfere.

Tasty salted pig parts, indeed!

Boccalone Salumeria
Ferry Market, Shop 21
San Francisco
415.433.6500

San Francisco's Mission District

San Francisco's Mission District is home to the Misión San Francisco de Asís (also known as Mission Delores), the oldest intact building in the city. It was founded in 1776 and named for St. Francis of Assisi.

Today, the Mission is home to a mix of the city's Mexican and Central American citizens as well as young professionals, artists, college students, activists and some really good food. Learn more about the Mission area in this guide from the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.







I only had one afternoon to spend exploring here but will definitely make more time next trip. I stood in line for a rich and savory ham, cheese and tomato open-faced "tartine" from Tartine Bakery for lunch. It was so huge, I could only eat half. (I had to save room for Bi-Rite Creamery's ice cream.) The place was packed and there was a line, so I didn't sample any of their sweet treats. But I look forward to trying some recipes from their cookbook soon.



Next, I explored the little jewel box of a neighborhood grocery store, Bi-Rite Market. Despite it's teeny, tiny size, I was awed by the amount of merchandise and the incredibly well-curated choices on their shelves. They even grow some of their own beautiful produce.



Bi-Rite's chocolate section alone blew my socks off. Another shopper saw me contemplating TCHO chocolate bars and enthusiastically recommended them. I came home with two of their bars for my husband, the resident chocolate fiend, to try, and I have to confess, we are BOTH enjoying them.



TCHO's factory is located in San Francisco on Pier 17 between the Wharf and the Ferry Building. TCHO is run by a former Space Shuttle technologist and a chocolate industry vet who have set up their own chocolate factory in SF. They use descriptors like "Chocolatey," "Nutty," "Fruity," and "Citrusy" to label their chocolate bars. You can learn more about them and order their chocolate bars, candies and drinking chocolate from their web site.

Misión Francisco de Asis
3321 16th Street, San Francisco

Tartine Bakery & Cafe
600 Guerrero, San Francisco

Bi-Rite Market
3639 18th Street, San Francisco

You can also read my separate post about Bi-Rite Creamery's ice cream shop, also located in the Mission.