When in Portland, do as the Portlander’s do!

It’s no secret that Portland locals have been embraced biking as a way of life, and there’s truly no better way for visitors to experience this unique aspect of the city than by hopping on two wheels. It’s been three years since we worked with the Hotel Monaco Portland to create the Carless Vacation Package – a hotel package that frees guests of the need for a car – and since the hotel has started building their fleet of complimentary guest bikes.

Now three years later, the Hotel Monaco Portland is not only one of the city’s leading green hotels (Silver Tier Green Seal certified), but it continues to give visitors a memorable and lasting experience… the chance to bike Portland.

This month, National Geographic Traveler features the Hotel Monaco Portland in their March 2010 issue on “Great Bike-Friendly Cities.”

Goodbye  fresh hop beers, and hello holiday ales!

Wow, it’s great to experience the Pacific Northwest’s beer seasons, and the transition from fall to winter is one of our favorites. One reason is that holiday ales pair so well with the hearty cuisine of this season. A side note… if you’re interested in pairing beer with food, I highly recommend checking out this month’s Mix Magazine, which features a full fall beer pairing menu with recipes, created by beer writer Lucy Burningham and Cafe Nell executive chef Andrew Garrett.

Whether planning a pairing dinner or just looking to quench your thirst, the crew at Watershed has done the dirty work of tasting through an abundance of Pacific Northwest seasonal ales for you. This two part tasting process included an in-house tasting of Oregon beers, provided by the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, and a broader Northwest tasting at Seattle’s holiday ale festival. From these two tastings, we’ve put together a palette of earthy, spicey and delicious beers to recommend. Here are our tasting notes!

OREGON ALES:

McMenamins Nutbrown Seasonal

Deschutes Jubelale

Slight peppermint,  sweet, roasty & toasty

Widmer Bros Black IPA (preview – director’s cut)

Big hops on the nose, smooth palate, IPA in black clothing

Deschutes Jubelale

Malty, dark caramel, citrus, floral, layered

Full Sail Wreck The Halls

Tobacco and cigar box, bitter, orange peel

Widmer Brrr...

Full Sail Wassail

Mild, vegetal, stout without the chocolate

Widmer Brrr… (Staff Pick)

Hoppy, malty, balanced, full, like a meal, complete, the all-around favorite!

SEATTLE ALES: (These were the two favorites at the festival)

Beacon Hill Brewing Saison du Bekon

Spearmint, refreshing, big nose, full flavor, light yellow in color, a true stand-out at the festival

Silver City Fat Woody Scotch Ale

Coconut, chocolate and nuts (an Almond Joy!), smooth, addictively delicious

Beacon Hill Brewer Colin Lenfesty & Crew

Calling all frugal foodies!

I’ve just made a great discovery that I must share with you…

Yes, the waning economy may have taken its toll on your pocketbook, but the good news is that it’s never been less expensive to indulge in what used to be a very exclusive culinary tradition – pairing dinners.

Wine dinners are no longer only for people with six digit incomes, and with the growing interest in spirit and beer pairings the wine dinner stigma of hob-nobbing with starch-shirt wine collectors has been distorted beyond recognition. What is gradually taking its place is an emphasis on education, discovery and approachability. The lovely result of this – and the “great discovery” I mentioned earlier – is that these intimate dinners are no longer only once a year and $150 a seat. They’re weekly and they’re $60 a seat!

This epiphany hit last night while pondering my first course (fried squash blossom

Cafe Nell's Squash Blossom

stuffed with crab mousse and drizzled with a balsamic reduction) at Café Nell’s new weekly summer wine dinner – this one featuring Sokol Blosser wines. Each week throughout the summer months, Executive Chef Andrew Garrett will prepare a 5-course wine pairing dinner for the astounding affordable price of $55, wine included.

My words of advice… Don’t wait for the economy to improve to indulge in a pairing dinner. Seize the moment, grab a friend and head to one of the many dinners taking place at restaurants everywhere. I guarantee you’ll spend less than ordering dishes a la carte.

Title: Outstanding In The Field Dinner
Location: Square Peg Farm
Link out: Click here
Description: Chef Troy Maclarty whips up a 5 course menu from fresh ingredients at Square Peg Farm
Start Time: 4:00 pm
Date: 2009-07-09
End Time: 8:00 pm

Title: Outstanding In The Field Dinner
Location: Ford Farm
Link out: Click here
Description: Outdoor dinner at Ford Farm featuring 5 course meal from Chefs Jason French and Ben Meyer of Ned Ludd.
Start Time: 4:00 pm
Date: 2009-07-11
End Time: 8:00 pm

The Banks Vernonia Rails To Trails – One of Oregon’s best kept secrets…

Biking Oregon’s Rails To Trails is a summer must-do.

Oregon is full of old railroad tracks. With logging drying up, the lines that once carried massive old growth trees from small timber towns to  shipping hubs like Portland are now rusting and rotting away. That is unless it’s an old line that gets picked up by the national Rails To Trails program, in which case they paves the way for future tourism and massive outdoor enjoyment. That’s where the Banks Vernonia trail comes in…

Here’s the elevator pitch for this newish rails to trails path: 20 miles of an easy grade, paved path with a flanking equestrian mulch trail, and the best part (drum roll please)… train trestles! Yes, there are at least two of these imposing wood structures towering 80 feet above the ground, one of which you can ride, run or gallop over.

Bike over or under the trestle!

Only a 45 minute drive outside of Portland, by the time you near Vernonia you feel like you’re a world away. Vernonia is a small Oregon logging town that still has a functioning timber industry and a thriving downtown, a combination that is rare to find.

Welcome To Vernonia

A perfect itinerary for biking the Banks Vernonia trail, is to head out in the morning from Portland, stop in for breakfast at one of the many diners on Vernonia’s main street, then head off to one of several trail entrances. A leisurely ride will take most of the day, but serious riders can get through it in a few hours. The trail goes from grassy plains to rich forest and will leave an impression you that is sure to bring you back for more.

40 wineries in one day, how to pick and choose which to taste? Twitter, of course!

Unable to make it to the festival this weekend, but curious which wines will get big buzz? Twitter’s, the answer!

This weekend, the Portland Indie Wine Festival will be a tweeter’s dream. Join the conversation or just follow along to discover Oregon’s best small production, hard to find, wines. It’s gonna be a tweet fest like no other!

Follow the fun at #PIWF09 .

Here’s the scenario… It’s been 2 weeks since you’ve been grocery shopping. Your pantry is bare except for some dried pasta and a few onions. Your fridge is empty, except that last cup of yogurt and some hard cheese. Voila!

You’ve got the essentials for a delicious and inexpensive meal that will blow your mind with simplicity and flavor.

This pasta dish came about when Nostrana Chef and Owner Cathy Whims had an abundance of Nancy’s Yogurt sitting in the fridge, and leave it to the James Beard nominated chef to create a dish that sings to the heavens out of a few humble ingredients. The tanginess of the Nancy’s cultured yogurt, contrasted with the sweet carmalized onion, is then bridged together with a hard cheese like parmesan and freshened up with the spring flavor of chives.

Our local back-to-basics, food and farm publication, Edible Portland, loved Whims’ recipe just as much as we did. And after they published it in their Spring issue, blogs like bread & honey discovered how much they loved it too! This is a recipe that once you’ve tried, you will return to it time and time again.

Edible Portland

Many might consider a sandwich to be simple food, something akin to a one-pot meal. But, in my opinion elemental dishes like that can be more satisfying than a complicated plate of cerebral food pairings. And in the hands of meat-loving Tommy Habetz the lowly sandwich is elevated to a sloppy, abundant meal full of flavor and calories – a masterpiece for the tastebuds, not the brain.

Sausage Po' Boy

I stopped by Habetz’s Bunk Sandwiches a few days ago, and I have to admit… it was my first time. That’s because Bunk is on the EAST side, which is basically a four letter lunch word for those of us who work downtown. But I vow right now, “Thou shalt never let the river keep me from a Sausage Po’ Boy ever again. Never.”

I’ll follow that with another vow, “During my next visit to Bunk, thou shalt order the Meatball Hero.” You’d be making the same vow if you were sitting at the bar and witnessed these melted mozzarella monsters pulled from the oven. I promise.

View from the sandwich bar

For those of us who were not invited to Obama’s inauguration party, we’ll have to be satisfied with our celebration. Next Tuesday, I’ll be gathering a few friends to toast in the new president with a menu that pays homage to our new “worldly” President. I’m still considering the menu, and I want a dish from each influential place our presidentelect has lived. Anyone have a Kenyan recipe?

Here’s what I have so far…

Chicago: Chicago Dogs, of course!

Indonesia: Pisang Goreng, basically fried bananas

Hawaii: Blue Hawaiians (I’m going to try to find a way to make these delicious, a challenge for sure)

New York: New York style pizza

Los Angeles: Avocados w/ finishing salt

As much as I love decorating for the holidays, it’s hard for me to feel good about buying more “stuff” that gets used only once a year, and sits in a basement the rest of the time. So making ornaments from recycled materials last night just felt… good! The Hotel Monaco Portland and SCRAP (School & Community Reuse Action Project) came together for a DIY eco-ornament night during the hotel’s nightly wine hour – though last night we also imbibed on local beer from MacTarnahans (Snow Cap Ale – Yummmm).

Katie and I cut, glued, pasted and laughed the evening away, and ended up with some very cool danglies for our trees. The favorite materials ended up being used CDs – they really shine on the trees and are a perfect surface to work on. Plus they have this kind of 80’s 90’s retro coolness to them. In fact, I’m thinking of doing an entire tree of them next year, all with pop culture clippings pasted on.

I highly recommend doing some of your own! Once you get started it’s addictive, but the best inspiration to get going is to look at what other people have done.

BTW – You can buy eco-ornaments made by SCRAP that have DIY kits inside them for $5 at the Monaco. All proceeds go to the non-profit SCRAP.