A Return to Screen Door

There is a fantastic southern comfort food restaurant on East Burnside called Screen Door. I wrote about it way back at the beginning of this blog, but a short while ago we made a return trip that was a long time coming - and we took pictures!

We weren't necessarily planning to go here and we had Misaki with us, so we parked about a block away and made a call to the restaurant. We knew they had outdoor seating, but didn't know if that meant it was okay for mild-mannered little puppies like her. Apparently it is!

The below pictures if of the front door area, on Burnside. The outdoor seating is to the right here (Screen Door is on a corner) and consists of some full size picnic tables and a few more two-seater tables. Misaki laid down under the picnic table and was generally a model little Shiba. Our server also brought a little dish of water, which Misaki appreciated because it was a warm day and we had been out walking a bit.

So what did we order? We started with the praline bacon. It's a house-made bacon they pralined (I think that's a verb - pretty sure) and is pretty damn yummy. The first time we visited Screen Door I meant to order it but forgot when we actually ordered, then didn't rectify it because we ended up with a ton of food. This time we made a point of getting it.

Sweet, crunchy, bacony goodness. I wasn't sure about nuts on my bacon, but it was fantastic. I'm not sure if it's better than the bacon at The Country Cat - it's different - but I recommend this.

I ordered the traditional eggs benedict for my main course, with a side of grits:

I'd never had grits before and neither had Wifey, so I figured what the heck, why not? You always hear grits mentioned somewhat derisively like it's a throwaway dish (at least I have, spending my entire life in the Northwest), but these were actually really, really good. The menu didn't say, but I swear I tasted a little bit of cheesiness to them and the texture was nice. I'd go back and order one of their grit dishes as a main course.

The eggs benedict were very good. The Hollandaise sauce was much thicker than I've been able to manage at home (that is to say, normal, while mine is runny), the eggs were cooked just right so they spread in a puddle when cut into, and the grilled ham and English muffin was very good.

Wifey ordered something called Fried Chicken Cathead Biscuit Sandwich with sausage gravy and a side of roasted potatoes. Does that sound odd to you? Did to us. We had to ask the server what that meant before ordering, and she assured us that all it meant was that the dish was bigger than a cat's head. Southern people are weird. Here's what it looks like:

I didn't have a cat around to measure, but that certainly looks bigger than a cat's head to me. Or two cats heads. I love the knife stabbed in there holding the whole thing together.

The gravy was very good with a creamy texture and sausagey-yummy flavor, the fried chicken very moist and crunchy, the biscuit amazing, and the potatoes were also pretty tasty and well-seasoned. All in all this dish hit all the marks as far as taste and comfort. What more could you ask for? If anything we wished the potatoes were cut just a little bit smaller so there was a little more crunch, but that's a personal preference.

I believe our total bill was less than $30, but that also included an extra order of sausage gravy to go with our leftovers. That might seem a tad steep for a brunch, but considering we got five servings out of the food it's really not.

Just for fun, I decided to take some pictures at home with an actual cat's head (still attached, of course) to truly test Screen Door's claim about the dish. Below is one of the leftover servings - the only difference from what was originally served is a little of the extra sausage gravy and a fried egg.

Lilo graciously volunteered for the cat's head test. Actually, I lie - she didn't volunteer at all, but she's the one without claws and a little more calm when being held, so we can get her to do a lot of things we can't with the other two.

As you can see, the leftover chunk of chicken in this dish could possibly be the size of Lilo's head:

Or something.

Admittedly she is the smallest cat we have, and probably a tad smaller than average, but again, this was the leftovers and only about a quarter of the actual chicken.

So not only did we have another fine meal at a decent price, but Misaki also enjoyed the outdoor dining and we also learned that yes, indeed, the Fried Chicken Cathead Biscuit Sandwich is really, truly, bigger than a cat's head.

No cat heads were harmed in the production of this blog post.

Summer Foodie Roundup

Sometimes things just don't merit their own post, and despite what I have claimed I would do in the past and post more, smaller things, it's just not going to happen. Not in my writing nature - I like to write, so things get longer. Over the summer Wifey and I have tried all sorts of things, so here's a quick rundown of recommendations and thoughts.

Kenny and Zuke's - Pastrami Burger - Co-owner of Kenny and Zuke's Nick Zukin (hence, Zuke), recently completed a personal journey through Portland, trying and rating over 70 "bistro burgers." You can read the results of his odyssey at Willamette Week with the top ten and on his own blog for numbers 21-25, 16-20, and 11-15. It's a very well done set of reviews and I'd like to at some point try them all.

But Nick didn't rate the K&Z burger, for obvious conflict of interest reasons. He has on multiple occasions talked about the K&Z pastrami burger and mentioned how it should rate before though, so I asked him on Twitter where he though that would rank on his list, if he could be objective. Nick hit me about right back and said he'd put it between 4 and 7 on his list, but wasn't promising he could be objective. That was objective enough for me, not doubting it was good and nice to see he didn't just put it #1 (didn't think he would, he seems very honest when talking about food.)

So I tried it out on my last lunch there. It's a very good burger, cooked well with good flavors, and topped with pastrami and Swiss cheese. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone. I was a little surprised by it's size; almost everything at K&Z is huge and I eat half at the meal, taking the rest home for later, but this was actually just the right size for a meal. Not a detriment to be sure, but simply an observation. After trying burgers at Gruner and Le Pigeon (2 and 6 on his final list) I think Nick's placement of the K&Z burger was pretty accurate, though probably closer to 7 then 4. Good stuff.

Broder - Aebleskiver, bacon/tomato/blue cheese baked scramble - After reading a lot of positives we hit Broder, a Swedish place, up for breakfast one day. The aebleskiver came with lingonberry jam and fresh lemon curd for dipping and were moist, almost melt in your mouth. Excellent. Loved the jam and the curd as well. The scramble was interesting - we both thought the tomato threw off the flavor a bit. It's an interesting dish. Would I recommend Broder? Not sure yet. It was solid, but not fantastic. We want to go back for lunch and try out more dishes.

Tasty and Sons - Breakfast board (chicken liver mousse, bacon, beef jerky, yogurt, pickled beets, blackberries, bread), bacon wrapped date, peaches and cream with telema cheese and honey, fuhgeddaboutit (Italian sausage omelette), French toast - Tasty continues to be one of our favorite places. We hadn't ordered the breakfast board before but foodies seem to love it every time, so this time we did. I had never had chicken liver mousse before and had no idea what to expect, but it was borderline excellent. Not sure I would order it given multiple choices of dishes, but I'm definitely not unsure about it anymore Everything on the board, actually, was excellent. The French toast was amazing as usual and the sausage in the omelette couldn't have been seasoned any better. The peaches and cream was something neither of us had had before, but both liked. The cheese on top really made the dish for me.

As before, if you haven't been here yet you need to get here.

Ken's Artisan Bakery - Valhrona chocolate chip cookie, salted caramel macaroon - We've been to Ken's a number of times and always enjoy it, but this cookie fell a little short. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't better than we make at home. In fact, I will be bold and say it's not AS good. There, I said it.

The macaroon was interesting. The flavors were very good though not quite as good as the one from Pix Patisserie, but it was also as big as my hand. All other macaroons I've had before have been about bitesize, but not this one. Shrug.

Northwest Sweets - Marshmallow, caramels - If you didn't heed my earlier comments about this place and go there, you need to do so. Immediately. Fall is coming and that means football and cooler weather, the perfect combination for making hot chocolate or drinking chocolate. And when you do, you need a marshmallow, and these are the best in town. The fresh licorice on the counter almost convinced me...but Wifey doesn't like it and I'd have to eat the whole thing myself, so I didn't get it. Who am I kidding? Next time I'm buying it.

Sterling Coffee - vanilla caramel latte, Cluizel mocha - As usual, drinks from Sterling were, well, sterling. Both the vanilla and caramel come from Two Tarts and we'd never combined the two in the latte before, so we asked the barista if that sounded like a good idea. After he said they were excellent in combo, we ordered and have to agree.

On a side note, Two Tarts does not sell that caramel to the public - we tried. We wanted to use it in ice cream, but were told they currently only do commercial accounts. It sounded like it would be for sale in their store at some point in the future, but that date is yet to be determined. Until then, Sterling and Coffeehouse Northwest are the only places we know it can be found in a drink.

Ristretto Roasters - mocha - I really like Ristretto's mochas. When we ordered this I was very pleased...but then ended up getting one at Sterling a short time later. Night and day Sterling wins hands down. After commenting that the Ristretto one now tasted like crap, Wifey disagreed and she's right. The Ristretto mocha is probably one of Portland's best, but it's just not in the Sterling/Barista/Coffeehouse category. As long as you aren't drinking them side by side, you'll enjoy it just fine.

Part of this could be we always order the dark chocolate (Cluizel at Sterling and Coffeehouse, Valhrona at Barista), which makes a huge difference. Ristretto just needs to add some decadence to their menu.

Nostrana - tossed insalata caprese/rotisserie chicken/rose, gnocchi with morel cream sauce, capuccino, vanilla bean gelato, Pizzeria Mozza butterscotch budino - Add Nostrana to my favorite restaurants list - I have never had anything bad here and routinely the service and food is top notch (though this time the server was obviously new, not just to the restaurant but it also seemed to Italian food in general). The salad/chicken/rose was a complete meal and all of it was excellent. We took one pic of the salad, then forgot for the rest of the food because we were hungry. This may have been the best part of the meal, which would be saying a lot.

The budino is an interesting dessert. Here's a pic of it from the This Is Pizza blog (which I highly recommend it you like pizza):

It's quite the interesting set of flavors, and good stuff.

Nostrana also allows dogs on the outdoor patio, so we took advantage of that and brought Misaki for lunch. She just laid under the table while we had lunch, letting everyone who walked by comment on her cuteness. She also received a bowl of water from the waitress, which was nice of them.

Alma Chocolates - Vanilla bean custard, salted caramel sauce - After missing out on joining Alma's CSI program (Community Supported Ice Cream, where members put up money for a ice cream maker in exchange for a boatload of finished product), we had to check out the results. Especially after making our own. And you know what? Ours is pretty damn good... The caramel sauce we used in our own batch of vanilla bean frozen custard and it may just be the best thing ever.

Ruby Jewell - salted caramel ice cream, peanut butter dream - Portlanders seem to love this place, but after giving it two chances I'm really not sure why. We picked up an ice cream sandwich at Whole Foods once and just couldn't get over how weak in flavor and quality the cookie part was. The ice cream seemed fine, but it was overpowered by the bland cookie. When the new shop opened on N. Mississippi, we decided to try out just the ice cream. It was, well, okay. Nothing special, honestly. You want good ice cream? Walk up the street a few blocks to Lovely's Fifty Fifty. Their salted caramel is about ten times better for the same price.

Piece of Cake - Fantasy cake, orange/chocolate cupcake, peanut butter chocolate cupcake - This might just be the best cake in the city, the fantasy cake. We used to get it at Zupan's in Beaverton, but that store closed a year ago and we haven't had the cake since. Or was it New seasons? Either way, haven't seen it there either. We were in Sellwood at Sellwood Dog Supply (Misaki and the cats recommend this place) getting a few things and decided to go here, just a few doors down, to see if they had the cake available. They did, and it was even better than we remember. One layer chocolate cake, one layer cheesecake, it's pure goodness. The cupcakes were pretty good, the peanut butter one being the better. The orange frosting tasted faintly of orange, but was too much in quantity and relatively little overall flavor. The other had a layer of actual peanut butter topped with chocolate ganache. Does that sound awesome or what? It is.

Lovely's Fifty-Fifty - Mint stracciatella ice cream - Wifey had been wanting to try this, so we maanged to order ice cream without getting the salted caramel - not sure how we pulled that off. As always, the ice cream part was excellent, and the chocolate was also good - it held it's own. The mint, though, is not the mint you grew up with - it's actual fresh mint. And it's strong. Very strong. It was a bit too much for us, but others who really like that flavor will love it.

Some things, on the other hand, DO merit their own post. Here are some places we hit up over the summer:

Beast | Creme de la Creme | Wet Hot Beef | Gruner | Du Kuh Bee 

Plus a nibbling tour through Seattle...and we made some borscht!

Creme de la Creme

A few weeks back Wifey emailed me this post on Food Carts Portland about a new cart specializing in French food called Creme de la Creme. It sounded pretty dang good, so last week Wifey, Misaki, and I headed out to SE 43rd and Belmont to the new Good Food Here pod of food carts to check it out for lunch.

One nice thing about this pod? They have parking spots! Can't say that for Cartopia on SE 12th and Hawthorne or Mississippi Marketplace on N. Mississippi.

Creme de la Creme is housed in a converted school bus - with lots of bright colors - at one end of the pod. There are plenty of spots to sit down, at picnic tables under some trees on the periphery of the pod and spots with umbrellas within.

The "cart" - colorful, clear menu, friendly people.

Simple French food is the carts specialty, with sandwiches, soups, salads, and a couple basic desserts. We opted for the French Onion soup and a Croque Monsieur sandwich.

French Onion soup

The soup came with a piece of bread roughly the same size as the bowl, topped with melted gruyere. All elements of this soup were simply pretty dang perfect. The bread, despite soaking in the soup, still kept it's shape and the gruyere added a great additional flavor the normal soup flavors. The onions were well cooked, the broth rich, and we'd absolutely get this again.

Next up was the Croque Monsier, a toasted sandwich with black forest ham and gruyere inside, then topped with more gruyere. I love gruyere...

Croque Monsieur

We had eaten half the sandwich before I remembered to click a picture, so imagine two of those halves. The sandwich was good. The bread was crunchy, the flavors melded well, and I'd order it again - or maybe go the Croque Madame route next time and get it with an egg. It came with the small side salad topped with a fresh vinaigrette.

One of my favorite things about eating at food carts is we can always take Misaki with us. She wasn't the only dog there at the time, but everyone was properly respectful of personal space, a trait Misaki prizes.

She also, apparently, wanted to try some French food.

Misaki working her Shiba Mind Control

Sorry pups, not on your diet.

Creme de la Creme was a great meal and we will return at some point. If you are in the mood for something quick and French, this has to be at the top of your list.

Climbing the Alps - Gruner

There isn't much in Portland like Gruner, an "alpine" restaurant on SW 12th and Alder in downtown Portland. It takes inspiration from the mountain nations of Europe, like Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania.

Predictably, the menu is a little bit different than most of what we've had before. As you can probably guess from the locales the dishes originate from, it's a meat and potatoes kind of place, but being in Portland and with an emphasis on sourcing locally, it has that influence as well.

When Gruner first opened many people really seemed to like it, but we couldn't necessarily get excited about the place. Plus, it was only open for dinner, which made it unlikely we'd be heading back into downtown after work. A couple months back Gruner made the decision to be open for lunch as well, with a highlight (for us anyway) being their burger was on the lunch menu. For dinner you have to sit at the bar to get the burger, and we aren't necessarily sit-at-the-bar people because we don't drink much or often.

Since that burger was recently named #2 in Portland by Nick Zukin in Willamette Week, Wifey knew what she was ordering. So I just had to find something else on the lunch menu.

After perusing I decided on the Tarte Flambee, which contrary to the name did not come out on fire - disappointing. But what is it? It's an Alsatian pizza, with a creme fraiche white sauce, grilled onions, and a hefty helping of bacon. (Pictures were taken with our cell phones, so they may not be quite up to snuff - forgot the camera.)

I have to say, we didn't know what to expect, but it was excellent. I'd recommend this in a heartbeat.

The burger was a nice chunk of meat, very well seasoned. The bun was very solid, but still soft, and those pickled onions were fantastic. The fried smashed potatoes were also very good. That bacon was excellent.

We did have one beef (no pun intended). We ordered the burger "medium" after being told by default it would be medium-rare. We even asked the waitress for Gruner's definition of medium and though it met ours - slightly pink in the middle but mostly cooked.

That's not what we got. Instead, we got mostly pink with a thin layer of cooked outside. In fact, there was a red puddle under the burger when it was cut...that's rare in our book, nothing close to medium.

Could we have sent it back? Perhaps...that's just not something we do though, for whatever reason. Seems like they should be able to get it right the first time, being pros and all.

I will say we were the first customers of the day. We got there right when it opened for lunch at 11:30am, thinking it might be busy. By the time we left an hour later, there was one other customer. Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking it may not be that cost-effective for them to be open for lunch, unless what we saw was a complete aberration. Did that factor into an undercooked burger? Was the grill not warm enough? I have no idea, but as Wifey and I agreed the cooks should be able to deal with that and adjust accordingly.

Again, both dishes tasted wonderful and we would probably go back, but I think we'd be a little more clear on the burger if we ordered that again.

Oh, and if you have a dog who wants to join you, there is outdoor seating with umbrellas and the waitress did tell us well-behaved canines were allowed.