Portland LOVE

Been spending a lot of my time on the East side this trip. And it's been a food extravaganza.

Wednesday my brother, his girlfriend Leah and I were supposed to go to the Timberwolves game, but it was sold out. No skin off my teeth. As a substitute we headed to the Baghdad theatre--a first for me--to see Hot Tub Time Machine and drink Rubinator--again, a first. I'm not a particular fan of any of the McMenamins establishments, because their food is a big barf-fest, but they might as well stick around just for the Rubinator combo and that theatre, which is an architectural fantasmic from the outside and a visual orgasm on the inside.

Thursday found me on NE Alberta, exploring the shops and having my first vegan experience. I'm not particularly wont to be  a vegan, despite how responsible it is both for my well being and the planet--I just love shellfish and butter so much. But I made a baby step with Back to Eden's chai made with a hazelnut milk. Sweeter than I was hoping, but still damn tasty.

Having a few hours to kill before dinner at Accanto on SE Belmont & 29th, I found myself on Hawthorne visiting Pastaworks (where Dan and I could wander for hours) and stocking up on chocolate! I gleaned some fantastic new combinations from their shelves:

• Dagoba:
• beaucoup berries: vanilla, cranberry, cherry with 72% cacao
• lavender bluberry: lavender essence, wild blueberry & 52% cacao
• roseberry: rose hips, raspberry & 59% cacao
• chai: chai tea spices, crystallized ginger & 37% cacao

• Theo:
• Coconut curry with 40% cacao (a favorite!)
• fig fennel & almond with 70% cacao

• Vosges:
• black pearl: wasabi, ginger & cardamom with 70% cacao
• mo's chocolate: applewood smoked bacon, applewood smoked sea salt, milk chocolate

The Vosges chocolate is a recent find at Intelligentsia coffeehouse on Sunset Blvd and it's pretty damned good. It better be, for $6.75 + tax. I have yet to sample any of the above except for the black pearl and the Dagoba chai, both of which were excellent. I've had a revelation on chocolate in recent years: it shouldn't be cheap. Chocolate is a reasonably rare commodity and nothing else you eat is quite like it. Moreover, much of the cacao in this world is harvested by slaves. I'm not making that up, so it's important to know that you're buying it from companies that don't tacitly endorse slavery. I'm willing to pay well for fair, well made, clean chocolate, since I don't eat a whole lot of it these days.

And so I found myself at Accanto with colleague Jillian. We supped on fritto misto, a sampling of fried prawns, lemons, olives, fennel and calamari. Delicate and refreshing. This we followed with a spring salad with shaved carrot and radish, tossed in a sherry vinaigrette--a peppery sweet delight. My main course was garganelli pasta with morels, large fresh peas, prosciutto de parma, wilted arugula and butter. It was one of those experiences where I needed to stop eating about halfway through and I just couldn't bring myself to send any of it away. That's right. I force-fed and loved every second.

Jillian and I commented throughout our lazy dining experience that this one meal will help get us through the next year, until we can return to our homeland. Lord knows there's nothing of this caliber in the immediate area where we live. Though, I suppose LA probably could pull it off. If I cared to venture much within to find it.

I still have about another week here before I head out to Seattle for more foodie fun and it's tempting me to renege on my plan to be assigned to a rotation site in Corvallis in lieu of being placed in Milwaukie so I might be in close proximity to such culinary wonders. It also tempts me to blow off all other options for an internal med residency placement at OHSU, so that I might live just across the Ross Island in a food wonderland.