Happy Hour at PING, Portland, Oregon

On my first day in Portland, Matt and I went to happy hour at PING, a restaurant featuring a blend of Asian snacks and bar food.
I started with a glass of yuzu beer, a drink consisting of Sapporo draft beer with yuzu extract & sugar. It reminded me of a shandy- very light and refreshing.
At Ping, they also have drinking vinegars made from their sister restaurant Pok Pok. I tried a the tart tamarind vinegar with soda. It was also excellent.








We ordered some snacks to tide us over until dinner time.
First up was a Chinese tea egg, a hard boiled egg made in black tea, soy sauce, ginger, star anise and cinnamon. It was a straightforward and faithful version of this snack.

My favorite item was the baby octopus skewer. They were marinated in lime, chilies, garlic, fish sauce, and cilantro. The flavor was a fantastic mix of sour, spicy, and savory.

On special that day, they offered duck liver skewers. They came with a spicy dipping sauce.

I finished off with ju pa bao, a dish from Macau, that was simply a fried pork chop seasoned with salt, pepper & garlic served in a bun that's similar to a torta. It was simple and tasty.





102 Northwest 4th Avenue
Portland, OR
(503)229-7464

Jose Andrés' é in Las Vegas (Diner #651)

Last week I was in Vegas for a wedding, so I took advantage of the trip to have a ridiculous 3 days of eating around town. Things started a couple hours after I arrived. I headed straight to the new Cosmopolitan Hotel because I scored a seat at é, a dining experience inside Jose Andrés' Jaleo restaurant that is part show and part meal. The concept of the restaurant is a journey through Jose Andrés' past and experiences. When you enter é, the room, decorated by the chef, is surrounded by what looks like card catalog drawers filled with chotchkies from his life including records, dolls, fans, a corset, oranges, an old typewriter, and more.
Seating is arranged for up to 8 people at a counter in a semicircle so everyone can watch the chefs prep each plate. It's an open setup to promote interaction with the chefs, and I felt welcome to ask questions and talk with chefs and my fellow diners.
Course 1: Frozen Sangria, Grilled Strawberries
The chefs used liquid nitrogen to make a sorbet of sangria in front of us. We were instructed to eat the hot grilled strawberries and then take a bit of the frozen sangria. The warm and frozen texture mixed in an interesting way with the sweet and sour flavors. It was a fun whimsical starter.
Course 2: Spanish "Clavel"
The chefs then told us that the next set of plates were "snacks". These were paired with La Cigarrera Manzanilla Sherry, a dry tasting, light drink.
A clavel is a kind of carnation, and this was beautifully presented on a plate molded from Jose Andrés' hand. I'm not sure it it was fried or baked, but the flower had the consistency of a light potato chip.
Course 3: Caramelized Pork Rinds
Honey glazed housemade pork rinds. 'Nuff said.
Course 4: Beet Jewelry
This was served in a box that looked like a book. The beet is dried out into a ring and sprinkled with gold. I did not look for the gold later.

Course 5: Apple "Brazo de Gitano"
My first thought when I say this was Ho-Hos. The "cake" was an apple merigue, and it was filled with a blue cheese espuma, then topped with a walnut praline butter. It was so incredibly light.
Here endeth the "snack" portion of the meal.
Course 6: Crispy Chicken Skin in Escabeche
This dish was a new addition to the menu. It was a piece of fried chicken skin topped with chicken "oysters" and espuma. The head chef of Jaleo was in the room when this was prepped to taste it as well.
Course 7, part 1: Jose Taco
This courses consisted of two tastes highlighted by Caviar de Riofrio. First was a "taco" of caviar, where instead of a tortilla, we were given a slice of the decadently fatty jamón ibérico de bellota.
Course 7, part 2: Artichoke with Caviar
The second part of the course was a fried artichoke topped with the sturgeon caviar. However, inside the artichoke was a wonderful quail egg that burst with yolky goodness when you bit down. This one was the winner between the two.
Course 8: Bocata de "Calamares"
We were told this course hearkened back to the childhood of chef Andrés and the sandwiches he would have at the Spanish shore. The bread was a light fried brioche, and inside was very simple: calamari, aioli, cucumber and scallion. It was such a wonderful course in it's simplicity and purity of flavors.

Course 9: Ajo Blanco
Ajo Blanco is a white "gazpacho", or cold soup, made primarily with bread, garlic, oil, water, vinegar, and almonds. The version at é was deconstructed. Initially, the bowl contained the various ingredients on their own, including granita, gelatinized vinegar, and almonds. We were first instructed to try each of these components on their own.

Afterwards, they poured a marcona almond milk onto the plate, and you mixed the ingredients all together. It was marvelous tasting how each component combined to create an altogether different taste experience.

Course 10: Santa Barbara Spotted Prawns with Roses
I'm a fan of Santa Barbara prawns. They are large and delicious. I'm happy that the chefs let the prawn sing on it's own in this plate. The sauce made with lobster heads was good, but sometimes keeping it simple is a very good thing.
They paired the prawns with Estrella Damm Inedit with this course. It is a beer created with Ferran Adrià to go with food. It was really smooth and light with absolutely no aftertaste.
Course 11: Chickpea Stew with Iberico Ham
This dish showed off some molecular gastronomy in that the chickpeas were spherical chickpeas. When prepared this way, the outcome is very smooth and clean tasting.


Course 12: Catch of the Day - Roasted Turbot with Black Garlic
Our next wine was 2001 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia Crianza Blanco, Rioja DOCa.
The next course was a beautifully charcoal roasted turbot, a light flaky fish. It had a piece of black garlic accompanying it. The idea of black garlic came from Korean cuisine. The garlic turns black due to fermentation and pickling and it's flavor has a sweet and sour note.
Course 14: Whole Lobe of Foie Gras Baked in Salt
We were presented with the whole lobe of foie gras before service, but I missed the picture. It was too much fun already.
We were poured a glass of Guimaro Ribera Sacra 2008.
The foie was beautiful. On the plate was a streak of dark chocolate, and they poured orange juice on top. Both added a pleasant sweetness that complemented the wonderful fattiness of the foie.

Course 15: Secreto of Iberico Pork
I would say the next course might have been the most amazing piece of pork I have ever eaten. The pork is from the Iberian black footed pig. The cut is known as a secreto. The "secret" is that when farmers would bring the pigs to the butcher, the butcher would save this secret piece from under the shoulderblade for themselves.
Eating the pork was unbelievable. Imagine wagyu beef meets pork belly. It was heavenly, melting away in your mouth. I savored each bite with relish.

Course 16: Orange Pith Puree, La Sirena
The last wine served was a 1982 Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva.
With the end of the mains, we moved onto our cheese course, queso de La Sirena, a soft raw sheep cheese. The plate had a spiral of orange puree, candied pepitos, and a thin toast.






Course 17: Frozen Apricot Coulant
They told the group that the next dish was inspired by Michel Richard of Central in DC. A coulant that was a frozen apricot timbale, torched on top to create a hard shell with a cool apricot syrup inside.












Course 18: Apples & Red Wine, "Frédy Girardet"
The next dessert was vanilla ice cream with red wine poached apples and spherical apples. One of my tablemates was allergic to oranges, so she was served a beautiful crème caramel.






Course 19: 25 Second Bizcocho
The next course was prepared with a microwave in 25 seconds. They loaded a paper cone with batter, set the oven, and let it do it's thing. The result was a light cone of chocolate cake.
Course 20: Chocolates
The final course was a small book box of saffron milk chocolate and chocolate air topped with sea salt.

At the end of this fantastic meal, we all signed into a book to document our wonderful experience, and we said our goodbyes to the chefs and staff involved. I must say that the meal at é was truly unforgettable. The journey through all the flavors and tastes as well as the wonderful back and forth with my fellow diners and chefs made it all the more worthwhile.

The Atlas Room, DC

I had a really good pre-concert dinner at The Atlas Room, in the Atlas neighborhood of DC.
Their menu is unusual in that it is divided by (I hate to use this term) "proteins". For instance, under beef, they list several plates of increasing size so you are able to select a small starter, an appetizer to share, or a larger entree sized item.
I started with the grilled seafood salad which consisted of mussels, calamari, scallops, & shrimp on a bed of Israeli couscous. It was plated with droplets of basil & oil.
My second course was an order of their beef short rib ravioli served with onions, mushroom and an herbed demi-glace.
For my final course, I got one of the medium plates, the saddle of lamb with chickpea puree, fennel, tomato, olives ragout and parsley sauce. The lamb was cooked a perfect medium rare, and was just beautiful.
The restaurant also has a good selection of pre-prohibition style cocktails. I started dinner with a Clover Club made with Beefeater London Dry Gin, housemade Grenadine, lemon juice and egg white. It was sweet and pleasant.
For dessert, I opted to have a second cocktail, a La Rosa Flip. It was Cruzan Blackstrap rum, Java Head Stout, and an egg yolk topped with nutmeg. It was nice and creamy, reminding me of a coffee milkshake.
The Atlas Room makes simple, very well executed plates of food and great drinks. I would say it's probably the best restaurant in the Atlas district right now.

1015 H Street NE
Washington D.C.
(202)388-4020

Toki Underground, DC

Since I happened to be going to a show in DC Friday night, I decided to drop in to new ramen place, Toki Underground, which was having it's grand opening on H Street in the Atlas District.
They describe themselves as a Taiwanese ramen restaurant, but when you walk in, they greet you with "irasshaimase", the Japanese greeting. Ramen is originally a Chinese dish, and I do understand the distinction between native Taiwanese and Chinese, but a Japanese greeting in a Taiwanese place is a bit odd.
So I started with a cocktail from their fun sounding drink menu. I got the Toki Monster, made with Bulliet bourbon, pepper honey liqueur, Peat Monster scotch, and topped with a skewer of pork belly. It was a good mix pairing the warm salty fatty pork with the bourbon. They also serve Mr. Brown, a Taiwanese ice coffee, Ramune, Calpico, and Apple Sidra.
I started with an order of Taiwanese style cold tofu. It's covered with shaved bonito and a thick soy sauce. It was good. I wonder if the chef considered adding thousand year egg to the dish.
I tried a small side of their kimchee, which was actually pretty fresh. Not too bad either.
I knew I wanted to try some of their dumplings as they make them from scratch. You can order various fillings and there is the option of having them steamed, pan fried, or deep fried. I decided for the staple- steamed pork dumplings. You get 6 dumplings in a small bamboo steamer. The skins were good. I think I tasted ginger in the pork, and the whole group is covered with a tare sauce, which is a like a thick soy sauce. In a lot of Chinese places they have cabbage on the bottom of the steamer, but in this case, it was cheesecloth. Because they kept the place pretty dark, I almost ate this.
I would say my favorite dish was their ramen. I ordered their Toki Hakata classic ramen, which came with nori, sesame seeds, pickled ginger, char siu pork, and a sousvide egg. The broth, made with pork bones, was flavorful, and the noodles they use are quite good as well. The sousvide egg was pretty awesome, but I do like my pork a little more fatty.
For dessert, I had the milk & cookies. The chocolate chip cookies were baked fresh and were still warm. It was served with some ice cold milk.
I would say Toki is good, but I'm not sure if it's worth a long wait. With ramen & dumplings, I expect a quick turnaround for seating, but I heard wait times were up to 3 hours. Hopefully, over time, they will get into a groove.

Bacon Explosion Night at George's, Baltimore

Last night I went to George's on Mount Vernon Square for their semiannual Bacon Explosion night.
I started with a spicy Bacon Bloody Mary, served with so many chunks of bacon floating around, they would get stuck on the end of the straw when you drank. The olives were stuffed with blue cheese & bacon as well.
They offered two versions of the Bacon Explosion. The traditional (above) consisted of Italian sausage, bacon & BBQ sauce wrapped in a bacon lattice.

I opted for a variant also on the menu, called the Explosion Explosion. It had the sausage mixed with rib meat & BBQ sauce in the Tholian web of bacon. Topped with a delicious coleslaw, this might have been one of the best variants on the the Explosion idea I've had. Previous experiences resulted in salt bombs that made it very hard to finish. Not so with the "XX".
Oh, I should also note, all the plates came with bacon wrapped white asparagus and bacon mashed potatoes.
For dessert, they served warm brownies with vanilla ice cream topped with bacon. As one of my dinner companions noted, it was a perfect meeting of warm & cold, sweet & salty.

101 W. Monument St.
Baltimore, MD
(410)727-1314

Jade Island Restaurant, Staten Island, NY

Fougoo, Redneckhunter and I, inspired by the recent episode of No Reservations where Tony Bourdain went with David Johansen to a tiki bar in Staten Island, went to that very restaurant, Jade Island, over the Halloween weekend.
The place was in a massive strip mall that had a Pathmark. The decor was definitely old school. There were lit up paintings of Polynesian scenery all around, and the friendly waiters all wore Hawaiian shirts.
The Chinese food on the menu looked like it had not changed since the 60's or 70's- mostly items with either a brown sauce or a sweet and sour sauce. We even noticed that they still had Sanka on the menu.
Regardless, we were there for drinks with umbrellas and a flaming Pupu platter.
I got a Coconut Kiss, a very strong concoction of gin and coconut milk.

The Pupu platter was impressive, with a flaming centerpiece surrounded by delicious meats. The best item was a cumin beef kabob, and their spareribs were also good. I also liked a ravioli shaped item fried up that consisted of chicken.

We also tried a "Polynesian" steak dish that probably wasn't the best choice- brown sauce.
However, thanks to a wonderful buzz from the alcohol, a bellyful of meat, and the authentic Tikibar surroundings, it was great night out.

2845 Richmond Ave
Staten Island, NY 10314-5850
(718) 761-8080‎