Engineer’s Attempt at Writing

I tore my ACL and MCL, and it is hard to go out to eat because I can’t drive right now – anyone want to go out and eat? I went to one of my favorite market, Zupan, and got myself a game hen, some celery, and carrot. I was planning to make some chicken noodle soup originally but then I change my mind at the last minute. I tend to change my mind a lot.

I remembered the celery salad at the beast and thought that I can do the same. I slice the celery very thinly into small pieces. I then added some salt, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and rooster sauce for dressing. I added the celery to some baby romaine lettuce and avocado to create my salad.

I cut the game hen along the breast and seasoned it with kosher salt, paprika, and garlic powder. I let the seasoning sit for 30 minutes and then I just the chicken on the grill and let it cook until it was done.

The celery salad was actually very good with the rooster sauce adding a little spice to it. The chicken was good but the meat did was not seasoned very well. However, the skin was nice and crispy and slightly burnt.

I went to Otto’s on my day off to get a sausage. Otto is pretty cool with a lot of different type of sausages that you can buy and grill on your own. I bought 3 different type of sausage but I have not had a chance to grill them yet. However, I did end up getting a pork sausage link for lunch there and the the pork sausage was good. It was grilled which is how I like it, but unfortunately it was served on a regular hot dog bun. What happened to the French bun? Otto does have a really good Jalapeno mustard that is very nice. I think the Jalapeno mustard is better than the spicy mustard that you can get at Top Dog.

I will have to try the other sausages at Otto before I can decide whether they can be my Top Dog of Portland.

I decided to check out the Asian Station to get some Xiao Long Bao for lunch. However, I could not find the food cart – wonder if it is closed? I needed something for lunch and so I decided to check out SuperDog since I saw it on some website that it was a nice place to get good sausage.

I was pretty excited about this place because I had such fond memory of TopDog back at Berkeley. I walked to the place and I saw only a couple of customers. I thought to myself that since it was a Saturday, maybe there are just not that many people eating there. I looked at the menu and I was a little bit surprise by the price – every type of sausage cost $4.50. I guess that since I am no longer a starving graduate student, I should stop complaining about the price.

I was hoping to get a lemon chicken but unfortunately SuerpDog did not have that so I just got a Bratwurst. I was a little surprised that the Bratwurst was already done – boiled and ready to serve. I like my Bratwurst grilled and butterflied. The Bratwurst was serve in a normal hot dog bun. You do get sauerkraut, onion, relish, and quite a few choices of mustard. But the condiments just does not make up for the boiled Bratwurst and hot dog bun. I need my Brat grilled and butterflied served on a sesame seed french roll just like how they do it at TopDog.

I am not sure how the other sausages are. But I just can’t recommend this place to anyone else. I will not go back there.

I went to Beast last Friday with my friend and it was definitely a good experience for me. I have never had a fix course meal and I have to say that I like it because I do not have to decide what I want to order. Beast is a small restaurant with two tables and it is communal seating. At first I thought communal seating will be a little awkward but it turned out to be very interesting. We got a chance to talk to other people at the table and found out about Farm to Fork in the Willamette Valley.

I should have taken pictures of all the dishes but I am just starting this whole review thing and sometimes I forget to take the pictures.

The first course was a cream of wild mushroom soup with shaved truffles. The soup did not impress me that much – it was a little too creamy for me. I think the soup that they sell at the PSU farmer’s market is actually better.

The second item was Charcuterie Plate with Foie-Gras on a cracker, salami, steak tartare & quail egg toast, chicken liver mousse, pickled carrot, and some other stuff. The Foi-Gras was not bad, but I personally like my Foie-Gras to be lightly pan fried on both sides. The chicken liver mousse was also not bad but not great. I wish they had put some more seasoning in it. My favorite item was the steak tartare. I believe my friend also like this the most out of the entire charcuterie plate. I don’t really know how to write in words why the tartare was my favorite but trust me on it.

The third course was a lamb chop with endive gratin. The lamb chop was delicious with just the right amount of fat on it cooked to a medium rare. The meat was tender and the endive gratin with the parmesan together was amazing. I think this may have been the first time I had endive and I am wondering to myself why I have never had that before. The only disappointing party of this course was the cutlery. I swear that they gave us all a butter knife to cut the lamb chop. Everyone, all of 8 of us, at the table had a difficult time cutting the lamb chop. GIVE US A REAL STEAK KNIFE!!!

The fourth course was a fennel salad with mint, citrus, and olive. I don’t normally like fennel but this combination really worked well together. Although there was just a small amount of mint but it made the whole salad a success. The mint gives a nice refreshing feel to your mouth. I think I am going to try to make this next time and see if I can reproduce it.

The fifth course was a cheese plate with honey, almonds, and a champagne poached apricot. I don’t remember the exact type of cheese that we had but there were a total of 3. I just remember that the goat cheese was really good if dab it with a little bit of the honey. The sweetness of the honey and the sharpness of the cheese (it was not that sharp) just creates a nice combination. But the poached apricot was so good. I will try to make this once I know what it means to poach something.

By now I am super full and was actually quite tired. The desert was good – but the chocolate cookie (or whatever it is) that held the vanilla cream was delicious. It was crunchy and buttery. Yup butter definitely makes everything better. We thought we were done, but Beast surprised us with another treat of chocolate covered bacon. I was so full by then but I just had to eat it. How can you ever pass up bacon or chocolate?

I like the restaurant overall. I would go back again but I will probably skip out on the wine pairing next time. I think the wine took up space in my stomach that could’ve been used to hold more food.