Brunches of the Pacific Northwest
So my sister and I went to Portland and Seattle for more than a week. The ostensible excuse was a cousin's wedding. I saw a lot of friends and saw a Mariners game, but from the outside you could be forgiven for thinking that I was there mostly to eat brunch, as I had a delicious brunch every single day of the trip. Here's the breakdown.
Note: For those places that are local chains, Yelp links are hopefully for the correct location, but I make no guarantees.
Monday 8/25 - We meet Ashley for brunch at Cafe Vios, which was a nifty little bookstore / cafe with a Greek twist near her house. I had a omelet wrapped in pita with tzatziki with my hot chocolate. I also had some gelato, because hey, I was on vacation. The bookstore was also very good.
Tuesday 8/26 - We crashed with dmw7 in Seattle. This morning she took us out the Brown Bag. As I was with my sister I invoked the "I can only have biscuits and gravy when I'm with my sister" rule. It was good, but not fantastic. I also got a cinnamon roll which we cut up for everybody to share. And hot chocolate, of course.
Wednesday 8/27 - We met some of tigerlily_blue's friends at Portage Bay Cafe. I didn't eat very much beyond a English muffin, some bacon, and the obligatory hot chocolate because I had lunch plans with some of my friends a scant hour later. This was my loss, because everything smelled utterly delicious and they have an entire breakfast bar laden with topping for the pancakes. In retrospect I should have eaten here and then dialed it back at lunch.
Thursday 8/28 - We woke up at rishu73's house in Portland. His wife G is a professional chef who worked for many years at the noted Portland brunch spot Tasty & Sons. She fed us. Oh my god. We had french toast (dipped in melted vanilla ice cream, apparently an old trick that I will be appropriating) and omelets with fresh mushrooms. This was the best meal of the trip by a pretty fair margin.
Friday 8/29 - G and rishu73 took me out to get dim sum at (I think) Wongs. The dim sum was quite good, although no better than I can get in Cleveland. We ate a LOT.
Saturday 8/30 - The night before I went clubbing with Davis. This naturally led to me waking up on his living room floor in somewhat less than tip top shape. While he watched his daughter, I and his friends J and C walked down the block to get takeout from Cameo. I was feeling a little tender so I got a bunch of grease. If I were to go there again I'd try the pancakes, which came sized as Acres, 1/2 Acres and 1/4 Acres and looked really good. They also had some interesting Korean-esque options, like kimchi omelets.
Sunday 8/31 - There was for the wedding guests at the restaurant attached to the hotel, which was called The Original. This meal was only mediocre in comparison to the copious non-buffet options I'd eaten that week.
Monday 9/01 - My old roommate Micah made me breakfast at his house. It was a shakshuka, which is a Middle Eastern tomato based stew with poached eggs. When I asked for the recipe he said he had ad-libbed it, but he did send me a link to an example on tigerlily_blue's favorite blog.
Shakshuka
Serves 4-6. Or 2, if I'm one of the two.
1/4 cup olive oil
5 Anaheim chiles or 3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (I used some fresh peppers with a slight kick I found at the market)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pitas, for serving
1. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. 3. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.
4. Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands.
5. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.
6. Season sauce with salt.
7. Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface.
8. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes.
9. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. I didn't know what this meant, so I just scooped the eggs up with lot of sauce in a ladle.
10. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping. I used a nice crusty bread, as did Micah.
I made it this morning for a girl and we both really liked it. Yes, the same girl from before. Apaprently reports of the demise of our relationship were greatly exaggerated.
Note: For those places that are local chains, Yelp links are hopefully for the correct location, but I make no guarantees.
Monday 8/25 - We meet Ashley for brunch at Cafe Vios, which was a nifty little bookstore / cafe with a Greek twist near her house. I had a omelet wrapped in pita with tzatziki with my hot chocolate. I also had some gelato, because hey, I was on vacation. The bookstore was also very good.
Tuesday 8/26 - We crashed with dmw7 in Seattle. This morning she took us out the Brown Bag. As I was with my sister I invoked the "I can only have biscuits and gravy when I'm with my sister" rule. It was good, but not fantastic. I also got a cinnamon roll which we cut up for everybody to share. And hot chocolate, of course.
Wednesday 8/27 - We met some of tigerlily_blue's friends at Portage Bay Cafe. I didn't eat very much beyond a English muffin, some bacon, and the obligatory hot chocolate because I had lunch plans with some of my friends a scant hour later. This was my loss, because everything smelled utterly delicious and they have an entire breakfast bar laden with topping for the pancakes. In retrospect I should have eaten here and then dialed it back at lunch.
Thursday 8/28 - We woke up at rishu73's house in Portland. His wife G is a professional chef who worked for many years at the noted Portland brunch spot Tasty & Sons. She fed us. Oh my god. We had french toast (dipped in melted vanilla ice cream, apparently an old trick that I will be appropriating) and omelets with fresh mushrooms. This was the best meal of the trip by a pretty fair margin.
Friday 8/29 - G and rishu73 took me out to get dim sum at (I think) Wongs. The dim sum was quite good, although no better than I can get in Cleveland. We ate a LOT.
Saturday 8/30 - The night before I went clubbing with Davis. This naturally led to me waking up on his living room floor in somewhat less than tip top shape. While he watched his daughter, I and his friends J and C walked down the block to get takeout from Cameo. I was feeling a little tender so I got a bunch of grease. If I were to go there again I'd try the pancakes, which came sized as Acres, 1/2 Acres and 1/4 Acres and looked really good. They also had some interesting Korean-esque options, like kimchi omelets.
Sunday 8/31 - There was for the wedding guests at the restaurant attached to the hotel, which was called The Original. This meal was only mediocre in comparison to the copious non-buffet options I'd eaten that week.
Monday 9/01 - My old roommate Micah made me breakfast at his house. It was a shakshuka, which is a Middle Eastern tomato based stew with poached eggs. When I asked for the recipe he said he had ad-libbed it, but he did send me a link to an example on tigerlily_blue's favorite blog.
Shakshuka
Serves 4-6. Or 2, if I'm one of the two.
1/4 cup olive oil
5 Anaheim chiles or 3 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (I used some fresh peppers with a slight kick I found at the market)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pitas, for serving
1. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. 3. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.
4. Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands.
5. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.
6. Season sauce with salt.
7. Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface.
8. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes.
9. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. I didn't know what this meant, so I just scooped the eggs up with lot of sauce in a ladle.
10. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping. I used a nice crusty bread, as did Micah.
I made it this morning for a girl and we both really liked it. Yes, the same girl from before. Apaprently reports of the demise of our relationship were greatly exaggerated.