Eating Around Portland: Part 1

    ...Continued from yesterday
    I arrived in Portland last Thursday right around lunch time.  Which was, of course, a most auspicious time to arrive, as it meant I could jump right into the varied and yummy cuisine to be found in the eateries in Romaine's Sunnyside neighborhood.
    I requested that for lunch we go to a restaurant called Laughing Planet on Belmont Street near where Romaine lives.  It's a really cute little place with wooden tables and benches covered with colorful pillows  and the decor is artwork and toy dinosurs.  They serve a burrito there that I'd been jonesing for during most of my flight from Columbus to Portland.
    But then as we were walking from Romaine's house to the Laughing Planet Romaine reminded me that last time I was here how much I'd liked the Kale Caesar Burger Bowl  at Dick's Kitchen, the restaurant next door to the Laughing Planet.      
    As soon as I heard the words "Kale Caesar Burger Bowl"  I was hit with a mental image:  the ribbon-chopped kale topped with shredded parmesan, the flavorful Caesar dressing, the juicy, exquisitely tasty burger!
       Yes, I had indeed forgotten how much I'd liked that Kale Caesar Burger Bowl!  So much so that  after I'd returned home from my last trip to Portland I'd been obsessed with trying to replicate the dish on my own, but had never quite succeeded.    I immediately forgot about my fixation on the Happy Planet burrito and decided that the Kale Caesar Burger Bowl from Dick's Kitchen it must be!
    So we passed by Laughing Planet and went next door to Dick's Kitchen, a plain but cute little restaurant that specializes in the Paleo diet, which involves mostly meat and plants.

Dick's Kitchen:

   
   So Romaine and I both ordered the $11.50  Kale Caesar Burger bowl :

   
    Was the it as good as I remembered it?
    Well, I walked out of the restaurant inspired and  renewed in my determination to recreate a kale caesar buger bowl worthy of comparison to Dick's Kitchen.
    We spent the rest of the day running errands, walking around and kicking around until it was once again time to eat.
    As the food truck phenomenon rolls its way across the country, some cities are starting to have food trucks;  Portland, Oregon has food truck parks!  Food truck parks are like trailer parks except with food trucks instead of house trailers and they're all around the city.
    Romaine and I decided that we'd sample some of the wares during my visit.
    So on Thursday night we walked to the closest  food truck park, about a mile from Romaine's house. 
    There were probably a dozen different varieties of food to choose from, Thai, Hawaiian, Italian, Hispanic, vegetarian and vegan among them.  There were also lots of picnic benches and a nice covered shelter strung with lights. 

    Romaine had heard from a friend that the Greek truck at this park had the best lamb in Portland, so we decided to go with the Greek.  Romaine had the $8.00 Lamb Greek Salad, which was a mound of deliciously seasoned lamb piled on top of  a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and olives topped with tzatziki sauce. 
    I ultimately by-passed the lamb but went for the Chicken Greek Salad, which was the same as the lamb but with chicken instead. 
    The Chicken Greek salad was delicious.  I asked Romaine if hers was in fact the best lamb in Portland.  She replied that the lamb was tender,tasty, excellent, awesome, really, but she hadn't had enough lamb experience to say whether it was in fact the bests lamb in Portland.  But we figured it must be close enough.
    The next day was Friday and Romaine had to go into work, so I spent my day walking around Sunnyside, seeing the sights, snapping the flora and fauna,

   

    And watching the people.

  
    For dinner that night we decided to walk to another of the local food truck parks, this one about
1 1/2 miles from Romaine's house in the opposite direction of the one we'd gone to the night before.
    This food truck park likewise offered a varied fare. 

  
   
    Romaine found a truck that sold Indian spinach and paneer over french fries:

    I wonder if those french fries were some kind of fusion thing?


    While I saw this Egyptian eatery and was intrigued:

    As I'd never had Egyptian food and had no idea what it involved, I decided to try some.  I had the $8.50 Falafel Supreme, which was a gyro with falafel (which I believe is deep-fried hummus, though I'm not 100% sure), cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, olives, tzatziki sauce and...french fries?

    So, are the french fries an Egyptian touch or does this particular food truck park just get a special deal on french fries??
    Anyway, mine was good and so was Romaine's so I guess that's all that counts, right?
   
    We started Saturday off with breakfast at Utopia, another plain but cozy little local spot  - tables, chairs, and a counter -  also on Belmont street two doors down from Dick's Kitchen.         

    Utopia is known for serving up a really good breakfast, though it seems that whenever I  go out for breakfast no matter what offerings are available on the menu all that ever really calls to me is a stack of pancakes or french toast smothered in butter and syrup but which I never ever allow myself to order anymore.  I always order instead two sunny-side up eggs,  fried potatoes and toast. Then I set the eggs on top of the potatoes and break the yolk, which does something wonderful for the potatoes.   Anyway, Utopia’s fried potatoes are among the very best on the planet, red skin-on potatoes, chunky-cut and deliciously seasoned and herbed. 
     Romaine ordered a mushroom, cheese and sausage omelet with potato pancakes on the side to which she likewise gave an unqualified two thumbs up.
    After our utopian Utopia breakfast we set sail for a day of shopping at the Lloyd Center, Southeast Portland’s shopping mall – funny thing about malls:  no matter what city you’re in, when you’re at the mall you always feel like you’re back home, right?
    Anyway, in spite of my substantial breakfast after a few hours of cruising the mall I felt the need for more sustenance - just a little snack to hold me over, really -  so we meandered over to the food court where  I found a Greek food counter and refueled on a snack of Greek cheese pie -  I had never heard of Greek cheese pie before but it was very good: a warm, soft, pizza-like crust folded over a tasty cheese filling -  and a couple of meat-stuffed grape leaves with  tzatziki sauce, also very good;  in fact, suprisingly good for mall food.

   

    After returning home from the mall it was yet again time for another snack to hold us over until dinner, so we pulled from Romaine’s refrigerator the tub of Toby’s Tofu Dip that we had picked up on the afternoon of my arrival from Fred Meyer’s – the Kroger’s affiliate in Portland – for just such an occasion as was now presenting itself, and we dug into the dip with a mess of blue corn chips.

   

          I love Toby’s Tofu Dip so much that I’m thankful it can only be found in Portland (though believe me, after the first time I tried it in Portland I returned home and scoured our Columbus Kroger’s stores in search of it) because it’s one of those things that,  once I start eating it I can’t stop until the carton is empty.  So if I could buy in it Columbus I’d have to never allow myself to buy it anyway.  It’s the same way I feel about cottage cheese.  So, much as I love cottage cheese, I never buy it.  It would be the same with Toby’s Tofu Dip if I could buy it in Columbus.
    But I do allow myself to indulge in Toby's Tofu Dip while in Portland.
    On Saturday evening we met Romaine’s dear (and awesome!) friend Michael for dinner downtown at a German restaurant called Gruener.

                                                        Michael                                                             

    We had a wonderful time talking. laughing, and, of course, eating our way through dinner.
    We started with appetizers.  Michael had a fruit salad that was so lovely it looked like a piece of art.  Romaine and I ordered and shared a plate of German dumplings mixed with vegetables and a bowl of meat-stuffed ravioli in broth.  Michael said his fruit salad was good, but I frankly found Romaine's and my dishes kind of tasteless.  And - do you believe this? - there was no salt on the table!  [I guess the chief has a pretty high opinion of him- or herself! ;) ].
    For our main courses Michael ordered salmon topped with cherries and Romaine and I both ordered bratwurst with saurkraut and potatoes.
    Michael again found his choice to be delicious.  Romaine thought the bratwurst dish was okay and I guess I'd say the same, though I can make better bratwurst and better potatoes than the ones we had at this restaurant.  The saurkraut was really good, though - the cabbage was cut thicker than in most saurkraut.
    So, though up until that point I was finding my  meal kind of mediocre,  my dessert was fantastic.  It was a plate of  4 berliners, or German doughnuts.   These doughnuts were sooooo good!  They were small sugar doughnuts that were kind of crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, served warm with a garnish of cherry sauce to dip them in - heavenly!
    Michael and Romaine both ordered blueberry almond cake with a ring of white chocolate icing around the bottom of the cake - they both agreed that it was  delicious.
    But next to the sublime sugar doughnuts my favorite thing about Gruener was how they presented the bill:  stuck inside a Hermann Hesse book!:

    Is that not a cool idea?!
   To be continued....