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Portland, Oregon food blog with over seven years worth of recipes, restaurant features and food photos. Dig in!

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La Fête du Fromage: Robusto!

cheese

A blog I love and have just recently discovered, Chez Loulou, hosts a wonderful event called “La Fête du Fromage” and I am super happy to participate in this one. This is the ninth one and although I didn’t post in the eight previous ones, I was certainly there in spirit. At least I hope I am participating in this one, as posts are due today and I have no idea how the Portland to France time difference thing is going to play out. *fingers crossed*

cheese

Anyway, the cheese I chose is Robusto, which is one of my most favorite cheeses ever. It was a happy accident — I was walking around the Whole Foods by work about a year ago and they had some Robusto pieces out to sample and I tried one (two. okay, four.). Oh my god, I loved the cheese! It’s kind of sharp and mild all at the same time. Kind of like if Gouda and Parmesan had a tasty, delicious love child.

cheese

The texture is a little hard, with a little crystallization like you can get on Parmesan, but the interior yields nicely to a knife. . . . → Read More: La Fête du Fromage: Robusto!

Halibut with Carrot-Shiitake-Miso Broth & Udon Noodles

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Okay, this is where I try to reverse-engineer a meal from out at a restaurant. How did I do? Pretty well! This is from wonderful meal that we had at the Aquarius restaurant in Santa Cruz last month, with jwa’s parents.

That amazingly tasty dish: California white bass with udon noodles, lychee glaze and miso-truffle broth. So, yeah, mine was similiar, but a little different. Swapped bass for halibut, guava for lychee, no truffles in broth and added veggies! I basically used the flavorings for the broth that I’ve used before making a miso soup (ginger, garlic, soy sauce, mirin). It worked well here.

Oh, I loved this. I want to make it again. I’d say the glaze is probably optional, and when I make it again, I might just skip it, but it was fun to try and come up with a replacement for the lychee glaze. Doesn’t even need it though, imho.

There are a lot of steps, but stuff is do-able ahead of time. You could easily make the glaze and the miso broth earlier in the day or even a day before.

Halibut with Carrot-Shiitake-Miso Broth & Udon Noodles
1/2 cup guava juice
1 tbsp jalapeno jello ha! . . . → Read More: Halibut with Carrot-Shiitake-Miso Broth & Udon Noodles

Nehalem River Inn (and the River)

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This is the time of year, before the HUGE fall cooking season, when I’m always in a bit of a posting slump. This means it’s a perfect time to post pictures of a meal out!

Nehalam River Inn
34910 Highway 53
Nehalem, OR 97131
Closed: 8/12

restaurant

We finally (finally!) went to the Nehalem River Inn for dinner. The occasion? To celebrate jwa’s 38th birthday! We had a very nice meal and, although we didn’t stay there (they had a 2-night minimum, even on a Sunday night), we found a very nice room at the Wheeler on the Bay Lodge & Marina which was about a mile away.

Wheeler Bay
The Garden Room at the Lodge

But first, back to the food.

We got there a few minutes early for our reservation (we were hungry!) but got seated right away. After perusing the menu for a few minutes, we had a plan. To start, I had the Arugula Salad with Israeli Couscous, Currants, Pepitas, Cherry Tomatoes and Tarragon Aioli. It was very good!

salad

For his first course, jwa decided to have a tasting of both the White Corn Soup with Truffle Oil and the Heirloom Tomato Salad . . . → Read More: Nehalem River Inn (and the River)