Tábor
Downtown at SW 5th and Stark
503-997-5467

Mmmmmmm…schnitzelwich
Before I even tried Tábor, I thought it was the lunch cart with the most personality. The colorful Eastern European cottage facade, the music from the outdoor speakers … cute! After reading the little write up in Portland Magazine I finally managed to stop by for lunch and now I am in love with the schnitzelwich.

Breaded pork loin or chicken breast in a Ciabatta roll with lettuce, paprika spread, sautéed onion and horseradish $5.00.

It is, first of all, huge. H-U-G-E. I eat half for lunch, wait an hour or so, then eat the rest because I loved the first half so much. Crispy chicken, caramelized onions and horseradish, you say? Fabulous. Sign me up.

I need to try a few of the other items on the menu — the potato pancakes and chicken paprika are especially calling to me — but it’s hard to not order the sandwich. They have all sorts of authentic Czech food including goulash, soups, dumplings and sausages. They also cater and (their web site says) will offer cooking classes. Fun! I try to go there once every couple of weeks, as I know my desire for hot, crispy, big sandwiches will leave me once the weather gets warm. Stupid summer.

When I visited during the snow storm yesterday, before getting to go home early, the owners were telling me how they got in early that day, before all the snow and now they were stuck at work. Bad for them but good for me. I got my schnitzelwich.

Schnitzelwich. Schnitzelwich. So much fun to say too.

I had no idea that it was supposed to snow today, Neither, apparently, did Trimet. It started out as a nice walk in the snow at 7:20 AM, down to the bus stop at 34th & Hawthorne.

Once there, I only had to wait about 5 minutes before a bus came. It was packed but I got a spot right in the front, standing just a hair behind the yellow line. Good for me but bad for everyone at stops past 30th, as we had no room and he didn’t make any other stops.

Once we hit Madison though, it was all backup and no bus lane. So, I decided to get off at Grand and walk the rest of the way into work. So did a lot of other people. I even beat the bus across the bridge by walking it.

Got to work at 8:20 so it took me about 60 minutes. It usually takes 30 minutes so not too bad.

Another bridge picture.

View from my office window.

Around 11:10 I decide to go out and forage for lunch, walk around and take a few pics.

Snow covered octopus outside Greek Cusina.

Snow outside Tabor Cafe where I grabbed some lunch

Art-y snow pic back by office, across the street from Mother’s.

The awesomeness of the Schnitzelwich — more on that tomorrow.

Get back to work and find out we all get to leave at noon. Yay! Eat half of lovely schnitzelwich and tasty sobe green tea and check the Trimet page for bus tracking. It said there was a Hawthorne bus due at the corner of SW 2nd and Alder in 10 minutes. I’m somewhat skeptical, though, as it had said this for the last hour. Got my stuff and started out anyway.

When I get there, it’s chaos. There’s 25 or so people standing about and a Trimet dude trying to help people with the new bus stops downtown. I asked him if the transit tracker was lying when it says there was a 14 coming in 10 minutes. Two ladies waiting for the 15 laughed. They had been waiting for the Belmont bus already at this stop for 1 1/2 hours. They had not seen a 14 come by in all that time. In fact, no buses had been by at all. I start walking home.

Called jwa and informed him of my new (and improved?) transit plans. He said he’d leave the house now (he had a full, work-from-home snow day), and that we’d meet on Hawthorne and walk back home together. How sweet.

Looking back at downtown.

We met up around SE 18th and stopped in Starbucks so that my legs could warm up, as they were frozen by this point. Got a green tea latte, defrosted a bit and headed back out. Further up Hawthorne, around 25th, a bus has wiped out and was blocking the right, east-bound lane. Now it just sat there, deserted, stuck and forlorn.

Boo.

We got home around 1:30 and now I am going to curl up on the couch with a book, Tim Powers, Three Days to Never, which I highly recommend.

Hmmmm, wonder if tomorrow will be a snow day too?

Not a lunch cart but it’s lunch, alright!

Veganopolis Cafeteria
412 SW Fourth Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204
503-226-3400

Soup of the Day
Green Split Pea Soup with Carrots, Potatoes, Vegan Bacon and Wasabi. Adaptation of a recipe by the great chef Jacques Pepin.

Bowl with Grilled Baguette $4.50
Solo Cup with Crackers $2.50
Discount Cup alongside Your Sandwich Order $1.95

***

Special Sandwich Today
Spanish Style Vegan Chikn Sandwich with Marinated Chikn Nuggets, Roasted Red Peppers, Spinach, Kalamata Olives and Vegan Saffron Garlic Aioli on Special Grilled Bianca Roll.
Sandwich Comes with Your Choice of Kettle Chips or Slaw for $6.95

This is what I had the last time I got lunch from Veganopolis. How fitting that it is also the special today, November 2, when I’m posting this. Coincidence? I think not. Okay, maybe it is a coincidence.

Veganopolis is about three blocks from my office, so it’s pretty convenient. I just call it in and pick it up. The interior is very nice though, so it also seems like it would be a good place to bring your laptop and hang out (they have free wifi). Stark and minimal with shiny bamboo floors.

Oh, yeah and I should probably mention (if the name of the place didn’t tip you off), that it’s all vegan.

I would probably go there more often but it’s a little expensive. My first experience was a bit underwhelming (I can’t even remember what the soup/sandwich was) but I tell you, this is the daily special to get. The split pea soup soup is hot and chunky with potatoes and carrots and perfect for cold Fall weather and the sandwich is just…awesome. At $8.90 ($8.55 if you don’t get chips with your sandwich too) the sandwich/soup combo is a little high but I think it’s worth for an occasional splurge on a tasty, healthy lunch — especially the split pea soup and Spanish style chikn!

They also have a buffet special each day (today it’s Louisiana Tofu Etouffee, Cajun Dirty Rice and Fresh Organic Local Brussels Sprouts for $6.95/pound), and a Potatoes of the Day item for $2.95 a bowl. But my experience (so far) has been limited to the soup and sandwich.

Speaking of which — if they made the cup of soup/sandwich of the day a better bargain price — say $7.00 - $7.50 for both, I’d go there much more often. Are you listening, er…reading, Veganopolis?

Hmmmm???

Lemongrass Chicken

Thai Basil
Corner of SW Oak & 2nd Ave
Portland, OR
503-330-1010

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a new job downtown and one of the nice benefits of that is the lunch choices. My last position was up on Skyline and my lunch option was…Pizzicato. I mean, that was good, but that was it. That was the only choice nearby.

But now…the possibilities are endless! So, I thought I would start a little review of lunch carts in downtown Portland. The first is Thai Basil, which is right across the street from my office building. How convenient!

Thai Basil Menu
Chicken or Tofu Curry — a red curry, green curry and a yellow curry
Chicken or Tofu Stir Fries — ginger, garlic, veggie lovers, spicy basil and cashew versions
Chicken or Tofu Noodle Dishes — pad thai and two other varieties
Chicken or Tofu Fried Rices — comes in pineapple, spicy basil and with extra chilis

They also have specials. These include Lemongrass Chicken, Pumpkin Curry with Chicken or Tofu, Spicy Mango Curry and Stir Fried Asparagus with Chicken or Tofu.

All of these menu items come with a salad roll and dipping sauce, and a drink (Thai ice tea or water) for $5.00. Oh and a weird little wrapped candy that I’m not crazy about (tastes like lemony caramel).

Yeah, all of this for $5.00!

I have had the pumpkin curry with chicken (excellent and spicy) and I just recently tried the lemongrass chicken, which is my favorite so far. The lemon grass gives it a subtle, Thai-ish flavor and it comes with a spicy peanut sauce, chili sauce and a heavy, molassesy soy sauce. So, so good. I was in dipping heaven. The vegetables with this dish include carrots, broccoli and bok choy (I think or maye some kind of cabbage).

Another nice thing about Thai Basil is that the portions are huge! I spend $5.00 and I have lunch that day, take my leftovers home add some coconut milk (in the case of my leftover pumpkin curry — that one I even had enough to split it with jwa and we both had some) and have a lunch to bring back to work a day or two later.

Chicken Pumpkin Curry

Thai Basil gets 3.3 bowls of rice out of 4.

Coming soon in the “What’s For Lunch?” series: a selection of lunch carts on SW 5th Avenue. Also, here’s a neat little lunch cart map of downtown Portland by Audrey.

***

Je Mange la Ville is going on vacation next week. I’ll get my SHF post up next Friday but that’s probably about it, as we’ll be in Montana most of the week, celebrating my mom’s birthday.

The other day I got an e-mail from the Western Culinary Institute containing a press release about their upcoming Bastille Day celebration. This made me happy because — 1. the lunch sounds really good and I totally want to go and 2. someone at WCI reads my blog and thought to send me a press release. Yay! So, I will pass this on for any Portland area people, as it sounds great and the price certainly cannot be beat.

***

This year, Western Culinary Institute’s Restaurant Bleu, located at 921 S.W. Morrison, invites Portland to celebrate Bastille Day from July 11-14, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with a special three-course menu including: Chicken Vol au Vent, Halibut a la Nage and Lavender Infused Pot de Crème. Priced at $17.89 for two, in honor of the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution, meals are affordable for royalty and peasants alike.

On July 14 at 12:00 p.m., the Blue Chippers – Western Culinary Institute’s award-winning ice sculptors – will present an Eiffel Tower carved out of raw ice, demonstrating some of the coolest culinary arts skills in town. In addition, Restaurant Bleu will feature photographs of Paris by Portland artist, Randy Cole.

Allons manger! (Let’s eat!) For reservations, please call Restaurant Bleu at 503-294-9770.

***

Also, remember to make a cake or something cake-like if you would like to participate in next week’s Anniversary Cake-athon! Whee!

Art Bar
SW Broadway and Main
Portland, OR 97205
503-432-2905

Last weekend we went downtown to Portland Center Stage to see Drunk Puppet Night at the Winningstad Theatre. It was very entertaining and a nice evening out. There were big puppets, little puppets, a whole alien/ufo/puppet/mini-series and an odd yet very humorous performance art piece involving rubber chickens, a hula skirt, a George W. Bush mask, sex toys and a big inflatable globe (I bet you can guess kind of how that went…) Anyway, before all that wackiness ensued — there were the salad rolls.

First off, I love the image with the woman and the martini and the little animated bubbles here. So much fun. While at the Art Bar, I had a couple of cosmopolitans and although I had no little animated bubbles in mine, I enjoyed it.

The menu is small with just a few appetizers: Thai Salad Roll, Garlic Hummus with warm pita and Bruschetta. We split the salad rolls.

The image above is after we had eaten about two of them — is was quite a full plate, not bad for $7. And they were tasty. There are also some salads on the menu and just a few entrees:

Antipasto Platter
Proscuitto, Cappocollo, Salami, assorted cheeses, greek olives, roasted vegetables, sun dried tomato pesto.

Smoked Salmon Fettuccini
With vodka cream sauce, fresh herbs, shaved Asiago.

Fettuccini Ilissio
Smoked tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, peppers and pine nuts tossed with basil infused oil and fresh herbs.

Grilled Prawn & Andouille Sausage Brochettes
Mesclun greens, sweet chili sauce, red pepper coulis.

ArtBar Burger
1/2 pound ground sirloin on ciabatta roll, blue cheese aioli, white balsamic glazed red onions, butter lettuce, tomatoes and crisp fries.

They also have a Happy Hour Menu from 4-6 that has a lot of assorted snacks on it.

At $14, the smoked salmon pasta is the most expensive thing on the menu — that’s what I got and I really liked it. It reminded me of this smoked salmon and wasabi cream pasta I used to make when we lived in Sunnyvale. Hmmm, I should look for the recipe, I think it was from Sunset Magazine. Oh, okay, I’m digressing here. jwa got the Fettuccini Ilissio and he seemed to enjoy his meal quite a bit.

The atmosphere is a little dark and candlelit. White tablecloths, mirrors. There’s also bar seating out under the rotunda.

Granted the convenience of eating there before the show might be the main reason we gave Art Bar a try, but I really enjoyed it! I’ll definitely want to go again the next time we see a play. Maybe even if we’re just walking around downtown and I suddenly feel the need for a cosmo — which could certainly happen.

Art Bar get three weird little puppets out of four.

Oba Restaurant
555 NW 12th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 228-6161

The evening came about as jwa’s employer gave him an Oba! giftcard a few months ago for doing some extra work. The giftcard has actually just sat around the last couple of months in the dining room until I heard about this Argyle Wine Dinner. So, that was convenient and gave us about 55% off the total of the dinner.

In the beginning…
I don’t have a picture of how the evening started, but I can say tell you that it was Dungeness Crab Crostini with house made black raspberry conserves. This was very tasty and was served with Argyle Knudsen Vineyard Blanc de Noirs 1998, a white sparkling wine. We had a couple of glasses of that one — it was good.

Going into the dinner, I was a little apprehensive of a group setting as jwa and I both like to keep to ourselves in social situations. Upon arriving, we noticed that there were, in fact, four big tables.

As it turned out, it was just fine. A minute or two after we sat down a couple sat across from us, L & J, and we ended up talking with them all night. It was fun. Alcohol — such a great ice breaker!

First Course:
Smithfield Ham -Wrapped Asparagus Spears with Apricot-Serrano butter. Served with Argyle Riesling 2004.

This was very good too. The ham was super salty and went well with the sweetness of the Riesling.

In between courses, Rollin would speak about the wine we were starting to drink and about the winery in general. He would start each with the introduction of clanging a knife against a glass and announcing, “This is a winemaker’s dinner and I am the winemaker…” This intro proved more and more helpful as the night (and the wine) wore on. These talks were also delivered in a Texas drawl, accented by the frequent use of the word “knucklehead”.

There was also an interesting sort of rivalry between different factions of Texas at this meal. It had something to do with sports teams and with Rollin and Scott Neuman, the chef, who later opened his chef jacket and revealed his team on a t-shirt.

Second Course:
Seared day-boat scallops, creamy polenta and tropical salsa paired with Argyle Nuthouse Chardonnay 2001.

I loved the scallops. And the salsa was fabulous. The chardonnay was very buttery and is produced in a converted nut house. There was something about Chardonnay clones and stuff but I don’t remember what exactly. Hey — this was after about five glasses of wine.

Here, I’ll go check the Web site.

Nuthouse Chardonnay and Spirithouse Chardonnay are single vineyard wines, made in small quantities and are very limited in quantity…Starting with the 1995 vintage, Argyle Winery prestige Chardonnays are 100% Dijon clone. At 40 acres, Argyle Winery has the largest plantings of small cluster, Dijon chardonnay clones in Oregon.

In any case, I want to get a bottle of this now. jwa thought it tasted like butter too.

Third Course:
Roasted Lamb Chops with mashed Cuban sweet potato and guajillo chili demi-glaze. Served with Argyle Pinot Noir Reserve 2003.

This might have been my favorite course of all. I love lamb and these chops were amazing, as was the chili demi-glaze.

Chef Neuman came out and talked about a couple of courses before we ate them. Mainly, how he approached pairing a food with each wine and why. This was fairly interesting, even if I don’t remember most of the details now.

Finally, Dessert:
Coconut Angel Cake with almonds, rose water and raspberry coulis paired with another sparkling wine, Argyle Brut Rose 2003.

This was probably my least favorite, as it seemed a little denser than I expected. But hey, there was some stiff competition here. I would probably pick the the lamb as my favorite course, followed by the scallops, then the ham, then crostini, then cake. jwa, however, picked up an interesting combination between the cake and the wine and really liked it!