Portland booster “Sloop” is quite upset with me:
In Portland, we have many good things, but we also have excessive homeless folks, questionable cell phone service, and belligerent bicyclists. What gets me is people who move here and then brag about how much they dislike it so much (see the comments here). Portland’s population has grown a lot in the past 10-15 years, mostly due to people moving here from out of state. So, as a native Portlander, I have little tolerance for a Californian who comes here, helps to congest traffic and inflate home prices, and then posts 3 times on a blog about how he doesn’t like it here, nor does he like Portlanders.
Free speech isn’t a Portland virtue, apparently.
But let me clear this up once and for all: I like Portland. It’s a cute little town. I just want a good meal every once in a while, without driving to Seattle.
Is that too much to ask?
Thanks for the link. And don’t miss the scorn here, either: http://bojack.org/mt-arc/002203.html
Link acknowledged. Response blog to follow.
It’s true that Portland’s no Boston or Toronto, or even a Seattle or San Diego, but there are great restaurants in Portland:
Genoa
Wildwood
Typhoon!
Pambiche
Taqueria Nueve
Noble Rot
Taqueria Nueve is for sure a good place.
Have you been to any of the others? Or do you have any other suggestions? There’s a great Italian place on NW 21st, but I can’t for the life of me remember its name. I had the best lasagna there once.
Wildwood is pretty good, and so is Karam, the Middle-Eastern place downtown; Curry Leaf in Beaverton is also excelllent, although some say it’s slipping. It seems the rule is you have to avoid the Pearl. I hear Genoa is over-priced and mediocre, but I haven’t eaten there.
But you’re totally right, I hate free speech.
Have you been to Curry Leaf recently? I still haven’t been out there but am craving GOOD Indian.
Typoon! is overpriced and underspiced. In keeping with local tastes the food is far too sweet.
I haven’t been to Curry Leaf in a few months, but I probably will fairly soon.
BTW, I also like LOW BBQ and Apizza Scholls. They both could do with some improvement, but each is certainly a quite acceptable example of its genre.
LOW runs out of pork ribs too early in the evening, and Scholls burns the overly-dry crust of their pizza (they should put olive oil on it), but neither is a hanging offense.
FoodDude, I think Curry Leaf has gone downhill. Two attempts after I heard reports and it’s totally average. I still hope they’ll get their act back together because it was indeed excellent for a while.
Richard, Apizza Scholls “burns” their crust like that on purpose. I ask them to “burn” it more.
Feaverish, I think Portland actually kicks San Diego’s ass on food. SD is a totally disappointing food town. It’s saving grace is that it’s so close to Mexico.
I haven’t done food exploring in Boston or Toronto, but Portland does indeed lack great high end dining that you can find in the other Pacific cities from Vancouver to Seattle to SF to LA. But Paley’s, Wildwood, Hurley’s, and others aren’t far off and are generally cheaper. So that’s something. And we have our moments, just not in haute cuisine.
Of course they do it on purpose, that’s why it’s so retarded. If you sprinkle some olive oil on the dough you can get a nice crispy crust without burning it to ashes.
Did you have the Karaikuddy Chicken?