Fusion
4100 SE Division St.
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-6950

A Celebratory Dinner:
We recently went out for a celebratory dinner. I got a new job (yay!) and if that was not enough, my old company pretty much laid everyone off, starting with my department (Content Development) — on my last day there. Now, I don’t normally have bad luck but that is a crazy kind of lucky luck that typically doesn’t follow me around either. The occasion clearly called for a bottle of wine and tasty food!

We’ve been to Fusion a couple of times and I’ve really liked it each time. In fact, we’re going to take my mom there when she’s in town next month. I love the atmosphere. It’s comfortable, dark (but not too dark) and a little quirky, all with a varied menu. Oh, and there’s the housewares, glasses, and lamps for sale. Eating and shopping — what’s not to love?

Meal Choices:
We started the meal with a bottle of Tyee Pinot Noir and split some prawns in garlicky, lemony butter. This dish also came with bread to dip up all the buttery goodness after the shrimp were gone. Other small plates include yucca fries (very good), salmon cakes (haven’t had) and a few others. You could probably make a meal out of just cocktails and appetizers!

After our shrimp, it was on to the main entrees. It’s weird, normally when we go out, I see one or two things on the menu that I want and then I have a tough time deciding between the two. At Fusion, there were at least four items I couldn’t decide between: seared scallops on spinach with spaetzel, a lamb and wine stew, salmon with a cucumber bell pepper slaw and chicken marsala. There was also a chicken curry and an Asian prawn dish. Oh, and an ahi tuna special. Needless to say, my choice took awhile — I wanted to try them all! Finally, I went with the salmon and jwa went back and forth between a seared tuna special and the hamburger. In one of his trademark last minute switch decisions, he ended up going with something completely different — the lamb stew.

The salmon was very good, with a spicy crust on the bottom — the cool, crispy cucumbers and peppers provided a great contrast in textures and taste. jwa really liked his stew as well. In the end, our delicious meal was capped off with Spanish coffees and the chocolate hazelnut tart. Mmmm!

To Recap:
Atmosphere: Dark, candle-lit and a little bit funky. Twelve or so scatted tables about the room with a bar near the door. Shelves line the back wall, packed with antiques, vases, cups, saucers and other interesting knick-knacks for sale.

Food: Everything we’ve ever had here has been very good. Nice presentation, good use of spices, a lot of choices on the menu and a full bar. Excellent.

Service: Very friendly and attentive all of the times we’ve been there. Getting there around 7:30 pm on a Thursday, we were able to be seated right away. We stayed until a little after 9:15 (they close at 9:00) and we never felt rushed. When we left, there were still a couple of tables occupied, one sipping coffee and eating desserts, the other just finishing up their entrees.

Overall: Fusion is one of those places I wish we remembered to go to more often, because I really enjoy a meal there. I love the funky atmosphere, as well as the food and I like looking at all of the stuff for sale.

Fusion gets 3.5 candles out of four.

Bread & Ink Cafe
3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214-5144
(503) 239-4756

Recently, my friend Patty came down from Camas to spend the morning shopping on Hawthorne. Whenever we do these excursions, we typically find someplace to have breakfast or lunch, depending on the time of day. On this occasion, I suggested Bread & Ink, a restaurant that jwa and I head out to quite frequently.

A Saturday morning, around 10:00-ish
When we arrived, they were busy, but we got seated right away as there were a couple of tables open. Coffee came quickly and we gave our orders. It’s funny, occasionally I will get a special they have on the board but my old standby seems to be the Smoked Trout Scramble. Eggs, cheese, smoked trout, pepper bacon and red onions with a generous dollop of horseradish sour cream — yum! Patty ended up getting the same thing and liked hers as well. Oh, and I can not say enough about the catsup that they have…I really love it on the breakfast potatoes!

Speaking of which, I am a big fan of the aforementioned herbed breakfast potatoes. And that being said, my favorite item, I think, is the bread. I love Bread & Ink bread — this applies to the baguettes and the bagels and well, whatever other kind I am forgetting about. For a while, you could get their Bread at Zupan’s, but I’m not sure this is still the case. I should go check that out soon.

The breakfast menu itself contains a lot of scramble dishes, black bean cakes, sometimes salmon cakes, pancakes, assorted egg dishes and Yiddish favorites like bagels with lox, onions and eggs. They offer mimosas and now that they have a full bar, I’m guessing bloody marys as well. I usually stick the scrambles and have always left quite happy with my choice and this last time was no exception.

To Recap:
Atmosphere:
Bright and open. Big flower arrangements on the front counter. Two mid-sized seating areas. White walls with interesting, changing art work. I think it’s comfy and inviting.

Food: Brunches are really good. The potatoes are well seasoned and usually, a bit crispy. Amazing catsup and very tasty bread products. One other thing that struck me about this last visit is that the food was very, very hot (heat-wise). Not that it’s usually not, but when it got to our table it had obviously not sat around for even a second. That was very nice. They also serve lunch and dinner, both of which we’ve had before and enjoyed. Oh, and incidentally, the lavender lemon drop I had there a while ago at a dinner was really, really good!

Service:
We had prompt and pleasant service. We even asked another passing server to ask our server to bring us our bread pre-meal and miraculously it arrived a couple of minutes later. No problems at all. I know service is sometimes an issue at Bread & Ink for some people, but honestly, we’ve never had bad service there over the last five years we’ve been going. Once, there was a mis-communication about an after dinner espresso, but that’s about it — nothing major. Perhaps we have just been lucky, but that’s been our experience.

Overall: I like Bread & Ink a lot. It’s comfortable. It’s in the neighborhood (for us). We walk there, have a nice meal and walk home. We’ve had a dinner there two Valentine’s Days in a row — both of which were good. We’ve taken visiting family and out of town guests there. All in all, it’s probably one of our favorite places to go for a casual meal out. So, give it a chance if you haven’t yet and maybe if you’ve had a so-so experience, give it another try.

Bread & Ink gets three baguettes out of four.

Sub Rosa
2601 SE Clinton St
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-1955

Last Thursday, we had a very nice meal at Sub Rosa on SE Clinton. I usually drive past it on my way home from work during the week and I’ve been curious about it for a while, so I’m very glad we finally tried it. Yeah, I know, it’s been open for months — but this is extremely quick for us! Although, we hit Lauro Kitchen the first week it was open. Ha!

Er, but back to Sub Rosa. After you sit, the first item that greets you is a plate of bread with olive oil and (if you order one) a glass of wine. Armed with these at your disposal, perusing the menu while you people watch on Clinton can be very pleasant.

The menu is on the limited side with just a couple of salads, a soup of the day, a few lighter plates and then pasta and pizza for the main dishes. There is an additional pasta and a pizza special each night. When we were there, these included a mushroom pizza and a roasted vegetable lasagna.

A more detailed listing of the menu because I sneakily took a picture of it while we were there:
Starters include two salads — a House Salad (”mixed greens w/ spicy walnuts, blue cheese, cranberries & vinaigrette”) and a Caesar Salad (”traditional Caesar w/ parmesan & garlic croutons”). Both of the salads come in small and large sizes for $4 and $7 respectively. The Cheese Plate, Olive Plate and Rustic Pizza Bread round out the smaller dishes along with the previously mentioned soup of the day — tomato on our visit.

The pastas run $8 - $9 with Spaghetti with Marinara, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Fettuccini Alfredo, Penne with Pesto and a Penne with Rosa Sauce (a creamy tomato sauce), completing the line-up. The pizza choices consist of Cheese ($10), Pepperoni ($12), a Margherita (garlic-infused olive oil, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil — $14), and a Vegetable (tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives & feta — $14). I would be interested in seeing the pizza size and if they are two-person splitable or more of a one person/one pizza type of arrangement.

The two desserts on the menu are Ice Cream with Homemade Chocolate Sauce and a Cookie Plate. Simple yet tempting, but we were actually quite full after the roasted vegetable lasagna and pasta with rosa sauce so we skipped these offerings. But — with the check came two little extremely good chocolates. No. These were really, really good little truffle-like chocolates. I hope they have those all the time and it wasn’t just a special occurrence.

Wines go for about $4 a glass or $20 a bottle. We both got a glass of the house red (I wasn’t fast enough to catch what she was pouring) and it was perfectly fine. In fact, the whole meal was just that — comfortable, pleasant and friendly. I would definitely go back there again and hope to do so soon. Are you reading this, you-know-who? Good.

To Recap:
Atmosphere: Open, bright and airy with very colorful artwork on the walls and a large table in the middle of the room. Smaller tables surround it and there are about four tables outside. I thought it was really comfortable and pleasing — a great place for a relaxing dinner after work.

Service: Friendly and attentive. At one point, our server took about five minutes to bring me another glass of wine — she apologized for taking so long and gave it to me for free. It was very nice of her but it was really no big deal but it’s good to know that they are proactive about comping things.

Food: If you’re in the mood for pasta or pizza it’s really quite good. I got the Caesar and jwa got the house salad — both were tasty. Lots of crounchy croutons of the Caesar and , which I like. The pasta came in a big bowl and the lasagna in its own individual baking dish.

Overall: We liked it. It’s not super fancy or anything and it doesn’t offer a ton of menu variety but what they do have is satisfying and the atmosphere is very nice. Two people can eat well (salads, wine, pasta) for about $35. You probably wouldn’t take someone there to impress but if you just wanted to sit down and have a nice, unrushed, pasta meal and talk — Sub Rosa would be a great option in the Southeast.

Sub Rosa gets three out of four pasta forks.

Jam on Hawthorne
2239 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 234-4790
Open Tuesday - Sunday for Breakfast & Lunch

Let me set the scene: Last Sunday. Late morning. Much discussion around the house about breakfast (or the lack of breakfast).

me: We should really go out to eat.
jwa: No we shouldn’t.
me: Yes we should. I need to review something — I haven’t for a while.
jwa: The blogosphere will be in an upheaval without your review?
me: Exactly!
jwa: *sighs sarcastically*
me: Ty’s Big Breakfast….
jwa: Let’s go!
me: (thinking to self: wow…he’s easy)

***
Jam on Hawthorne is a nice place to stop by for breakfast. We’ve been there a number of times over the past few years, our first visit being when it was still Cafe Lena. We usually go on Saturday, when it’s a little less crowded and a little more laid back. I would imagine during the week, this is even more so. Sunday, it was a bit busy, but we were still able to walk in a little after 12:00 and grab the last table. Whew!

Being a fan of more savory (rather than sweet) breakfasts, I have tried a number of the different egg scramble breakfasts at Jam. Since I can’t quite remember the offical names, I will call them The Brie One, The Salmon One, The Italian One, The Mexican One and the Daily Special One. Last Sunday’s daily special had goat cheese, onions and mushrooms. This is what I ordered and it was quite tasty (as are typically all of the scrambles)!

The egg dishes come with toast and hash browns. While I am generally more a fan of roasted, herbed breakfast potatoes, the hash browns at Jam are typically well-seasoned and crispy on the outside.

As could probably be guessed from the introductory conversation, jwa is quite fond of a dish called, “Ty’s Big Breakfast”. This is a large plate consisting of a split, toasted english muffin topped with vegetarian sausage patties and eggs, slathered with vegetarian gravy. On the side is a healthy portion of crispy hash browns. It’s huge and judging by the number of times the waitress brought a plate of this out — very popular.

In addition to the scrambles and big breakfasts of the Ty variety, they also have a vegetarian breakfast wrap, as well as one deemed The Other One. I have gotten this before. It’s a wrap with bacon, eggs, cheese and hash browns and it’s very good. Additionally on the menu is an egg and muffin sandwich — very popular with the Jammites last Sunday. There are also pancakes and French toast and assorted sweet breakfast fare available.

The restaurant also boasts homemade jams. I’ve only ever tried the berry one (on the table and available for your breakfast jam needs) but they typically have other jams that can be purchased to take home by the jar (and probably order to go with your food).

The coffee is Stumptown, which is always a plus.

***
To Recap:

Atmosphere: It’s inviting and a little hippie-ish in decor. Bright orange-yellow walls with artwork and concert art on display. Booths line the far wall, smaller tables are down the middle and along the windows.

Service: Typically friendly. When it’s busy it’s a little less attentive but certainly adequate.

Food: Hearty breakfasts and lunches, which typically consist of sandwiches, salads and soups (we’ve never been for lunch but itt looks good). Large portions. It can be a bit noisy when it’s busy.

Overall: We tend to rotate Jam with Bread and Ink for our brunch needs and are typically very pleased and full after a meal at Jam. Sundays tend to be crowded but it’s worth it if you can get a table!

Three out of four toasters for Jam!

Penzey’s Spices
11322 SE 82nd Ave
Portland, OR 97266
(503) 653-7779

I ventured to Penzeys last weekend, eager to see what I could see (and smell). I manage to do a TJ Maxx/Ross/Pier 1 run every so often, so this was a nice addition to that typical shopping experience.

It was a lot brighter inside than I thought it would be (I don’t know why — for some reason I was expecting some kind of dark, cluttered, spice cave) and there was a very helpful and friendly staff on hand to answer questions and encourage sniffing. While I was browsing, an interesting event occured — a man ran in, practically breathless, announcing that there was an emergency at his house — they were out of cinnamon! It reminded me of what happens around our house when we are out of garlic.

I’m really looking forward to experimenting with all the different curries that I purchased. I am convinced that I can find some kind of combination of jarred curries, along with other spices (ginger, cumin, chilies, etc) that I can make really good curry at home with — CONVINCED, I tell you! So, that will be fun and perhaps a post soon.

Then I went to TJ Maxx and found a cute, black purse. Yay!

PastaWorks
3735 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland Oregon 97214
503-232-1010

This post is heavy on the visuals because tomatoes and pasta just photograph so pretty!

It’s somewhat surprising to me that I’ve had this blog for a little over a month now and I haven’t posted about PastaWorks yet. One of my favorite things to do on Hawthorne, is to wander in and check out all the different kinds of olive oils, vinegars, fancy beer, wines and other assorted tasty things. Oh, right, and the pasta.

While often tempted by the raviolis and tortellinis and other stuffed goodies, I must admit, I think my all-time favorite Pasta Works pasta is the bagged rigatoni. It’s just so good whether its served with a pesto, red sauce, cheesy alfredo or just good olive oil.

That being said, one of the ways I like best to have the above-mentioned rigatoni (especially in the summer) is simply tossed with some olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, basil, cheese and assorted fresh veggies.

How fortunate it was that while at PastaWorks, I came across a petit basket of cherry and other small, little tomatoes. Aren’t they cute? I am a sucker for tasty things in little baskets.

Eventually, I made it home with the tomatoes, pasta, some parmesan, a bottle of red wine, blackberry sorbet and two chocolate chunk cookies — all the makings of an indulgently delicious summer meal. I sliced and tossed the little tomatoes with the olive oil, balsamic, fresh basil, kalamata olives, red pepper flakes and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Mmmm!

Pre-Pasta:

After adding the cooked pasta (an important step), I added some toasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan on top to round it out.

Post-Pasta:

Pasta Guilt — must add a salad

Of course, there’s something about a big bowl of pasta makes me feel like I need a salad too. Not that it’s a bad thing to add a salad, because I like salad but it also serves to give the illusion of healthier eating when paired with a big bowl of pasta (and all the extra parmesan cheese that is always added to the pasta). After being prodded slightly, jwa went outside to pick some butter lettuce from the garden and we had a nice green salad with our meal.

For the dressing, I just used a simple tarragon-mustard vinaigrette. Oh and this was fun (and really, what with cheese isn’t?), I took some goat cheese, formed it into a little ball and then rolled that in chopped walnuts and placed atop each salad.

As a marginally-related aside — and perhaps this is interesting to nobody except me — but there was a great pasta place in Flagstaff, AZ called Pasta Works, that jwa and I would go to a lot. Great pasta, uninspired ambiance (I Love Lucy posters on the wall) but we really liked it. They had a dish with angel hair, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and basil. We would go through the whole shaker of parmesan cheese while we ate this — good times. Of course, Pasta Works isn’t there anymore as an Olive Garden opened up a few blocks away and took away a lot of their business — something that I still don’t understand.

In closing, when the opportunity presents itself, be sure to have a nice pasta meal with someone you love (and then go sit on the couch and watch the Scrubs dvd) or something like that.

Chopsticks Southeast Asian Gourmet
3616 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 231-9898

Our initial journey to Chopsticks occurred when it had just opened — what is that now — a couple of years ago? I think so. Anyway, we both had ice teas and curries and were pleasantly pleased. Since then, I’ve probably been here a handful of times, each visit happy with my food and the environment. (The Broccoli Beef isn’t my favorite, but the appetizer plate that night more than made up for it).

The atmosphere is comfortable and pleasing. Dark red walls, attentive service and a large menu featuring stir-frys, noodles, curries and noodle bowls from all over the Southeast Asia geographic area (hence the name).

The other night I called in for take-out because I couldn’t find anything in the house that I wanted to make — let alone eat — and for some reason I was craving red meat. It’s funny, I used to be a vegetarian (from about ages 17 to 25) and since then I eat chicken and turkey a few times a week, fish probably once a week, but every four months or so I just really crave beef. Strange but true.

So, here I was, 7:30 pm and I wanted some kind of good-Asian-beefy-thing in the worst way. Enter the Dried Garlic Green Beans w/ Beef. The menu explains: Green beans caramelized with roasted garlic chunks. Oh, okay. Twist my arm, Chopsticks. So, so good! Kind of crunchy yet soft green beans, with the garlicky pieces and the tasty beef slices. Yum! jwa got the Vermicelli Noodles with the Grilled Combination (chicken, pork, beef & shrimp). He says he liked his a lot too and that everything seemed “very fresh.” There was also enough food, so that each of us could have a big mound of it that night and still have generous containers of leftovers to bring to work the next day for lunches.

Oh, but now for the Hot & Sour Soup. I love this soup. I could write sonnets about this soup — okay, maybe not, but I could try…uh, but I won’t, I suppose I’ll just talk about how I could. Moving on. The soup’s bright red and slightly spicy, with pieces of tofu, long slivers of carrots throughout and fresh basil floating on top. A single order is enough for two small bowls, so that with the main dishes it was perfect.

We also got an order of Vegetarian Spring Rolls, which seemed a bit too greasy that night, but still tasted good. I know I’ve had the Appetizer Platter with a friend before and I remember liking everything that time — maybe it was just an off-night for the spring rolls? Although, I might be tempted to skip them next time and maybe try the barbecued pork.

Speaking of the trying things thing, I also want to try the Green Papaya Salad sometime — that sounds really tasty. Papaya, chicken, hearts of romaine, cucumbers, celery, carrots, basil leaves, bean sprouts, roasted peanuts, cilantro, fried shallots & shrimp crackers in our garlic-chili vinaigrette. Mmmmmm…garlic-chili vinaigrette… Uh, okay, where was I? Oh, that’s right — the other night with the take-out and all. Our bill for the spring rolls, soup and two meals came to about $21 — not too bad!

To Recap:

Atmosphere & Service are kind of not applicable this time, as this was take-out. But, the atmosphere is generally very nice and the service has always been good in the past when I have dined in.

Food: Most everything we had was very, very appealing to the palate. Excellent hot & sour soup. Fresh tasting dishes. Beware of excess grease on the spring rolls.

Overall: We will definitely eat in and take out here again. If you have a hankerin’ for Asian food and you’re in the SE area, this is probably where you want to go.

Three Spoons (Out of a possible four).

Romo’s La Jara
5011 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97215
(503) 238-1456

It was indeed, a hot and sunny day. A hot day. Hot, I say, hot. We walked the twenty plus blocks to get to the restaurant and the air conditioning felt wonderful. The margaritas were very cold and icy. Absolutely perfect. I normally have two of them at a Mexican meal out but this night I had three. Procrastinating the walk home? Well, yeah, but they were good too.

The menu had tons of options; I think I had finished a margarita before we even read through everything and made our dinner choices. The descriptions on the menu are also very amusing and creative. I giggled over things numerous times (of course, the margarita I slurped down while perusing the menu probably did nothing to hinder my amusement).

Once we had decided, jwa ordered a burrito called The Kitchen Sink. Should it have surprised us that it was the size of a kitchen sink? Well, no, probably not, but I don’t think he could help muttering a Strong Bad style “oh holy crap”, when the waitress put the plate down in front of him. I got a two item combo with a chicken/green chile enchilada and a spinach/feta enchilada, which worked out nicely as one had red enchilada sauce and the other a yummy green chile sauce. The beans and rice were very good too and served as an excellent sauce fence between the red and the green.

The walk home was long and hot and we were full. Very full — but happy. And hot. And full. Hmmm…I think there’s a pattern here.

To Recap:

Atmosphere: Sparsely decorated. Lots of kids and families. A bad thing? Of course not, but probably not a great, romantic date spot. Everyone seemd to be having a wonderful meal, though!

Food: Very, very good. Huge portions. H-U-G-E. Spicy, gooey, cheese-covered Mexican fare. Did I mention the huge?

Service: Friendly and prompt.

Overall: We’ll definitely eat there again but perhaps in the Fall & Winter, when big-portion season (much like the phenomenon pancake weather) has begun anew.

Three Coppery Pans (out of a possible four)