Foodlandia: Broder

BRODER

2508 SE Clinton St.

Portland, OR

Breakfast – Lunch: Everyday 9AM-3PM
Dinner: Thursday-Saturday 6PM-10PM

Oh Broder. How I love thee. This place frickin' rocks. The whole menu is glorious. The food is glorious. By far, one of the best breakfasts I've ever had in my life. Yes. It's that damn good.

I mean, c'mon, you can't win my heart over any more by having roasted acorn squash with fried sage leaves as a vegetable side dish. And having humungous cardamom sweet rolls bigger than the size of my face. Over-easy eggs cooked to perfection with funny yolks and sweet apple sausage. Not to mention the hidden apple pancakes below the eggs, mixed in with the luscious sour cream and maple syrup. By far, my dream breakfast. Better than my dream breakfast. Holy crap.

Hipster, casual kitschy Scandinavian decor, cute ceramic dishes, this place is five stars, hands down. I can't wait to try their aebleskivers. I can't wait to try out their dinner! Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam? Yes, please! As Portlander M.Ward would say, "oh, take me back and try me one more time". Oh boy, it would be more than one more time.

Yes, indeed.

Additional pics: here and here.

Cake Inspiration, New Music, & Lovely Things

After taking a cake decorating class last Spring, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into something like this even more...

The Royal Wedding Cake

Crazy, eh?

And even more gorgeous cakes...

These inspire me to further my cake decorating education/skill.

This lovely-sounding Elderflower Lemon Cake, spotted on the Kitchn. I'm in love with elderflower anything and this seems fitting with a hot cup of tea on a Spring afternoon. Here's also a recipe for Elderflower Jam Tassies (meaning "small cup" in Scottish). Looks like I need to purchase some of this sometime soon...

YUM!

The Great Food Series.

"Throughout the history of civilization, food has been more than simple necessity. In countless cultures, it has been livelihood, status symbol, entertainment - and passion. In the GREAT FOOD series, Penguin brings you the finest food writing from the last 400 years, and opens the door to the wonders of every kitchen."

I would like to collect and read all of these, please. Thanks.

The cover artist is a genius. So in love with her reinvention of covers for classics. Gorgeous!

(She's the woman that's been making these also, if they look familiar to you...)

A few are already available on Amazon but some will take awhile to be printed here as they are from the UK.

A few I'm particularly excited for:

Buffalo Cake & Indian Pudding

The Well-Kept Kitchen

Everlasting Syllabub and the Art of Carving

Love in a Dish and Other Pieces

The Campaign for Domestic Happiness

Ahh I'm dying to read them all!

Also now lusting after this F. Scott Fitzgerald collection:

Music I'm really enjoying lately...

Ok, back to studying for midterms.

More Portland food porn soon.

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

Sweet and savory.

Salty and spicy.

Cheesy and pumpkin-y.

Yes. You heard that right. Pumpkin. IN APRIL. Go ahead and shoot me.

This is my dream muffin.

But really, pumpkin in spring time for me, is that really such a surprise? If I could have it my way, I would make it autumn every day. Autumn every day is my idea of a utopia. Baking something with pumpkin in it every day is my idea of a utopia. Combining pumpkin with cheddar cheese, cayenne, black pepper, and brown sugar is my idea of a utopia (muffin).

In my defense, at least 8 lonely, neglected cans of pureed pumpkin have been in my stockpile since last fall, and they called my name.

My father called me out on the can of pumpkin puree sitting on the kitchen counter this evening as I was gathering my ingredients to make these. "Yeah, so?" "It's not Halloween!", he exclaimed. "Hah, dad, you should know me by now. I'm the pumpkin queen! Is it really that much of a surprise?" Didn't think so.

Um, so, yeah, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito have done it again. I'm quite impressed. You make any recipe out of a bakery baking book and it's pretty much bound to be bomb. I can't wait to make these again and again and again. K, thanks guys.

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins

adapted from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented

makes 12 muffins

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin puree

3 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 1/4 cups (about 4 oz) grated sharp cheddar

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly spray each cup of a standard 12-cup muffin pan with a little bit of vegetable spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and yogurt. Add the eggs and butter and whisk until combined.

In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, and brown sugar. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well, and fold until just combined. Fold in three-quarters of the cheese.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and pumpkin seeds on top of the muffins. Bake them for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let the muffin pan cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the muffins. Serve them warm or reheat later!

Surprisingly I found these to be quite a delectable fare alongside a scoop of "old tyme" vanilla ice cream and some sliced strawberries. Just sayin'. That's what I ended up doing with mine and I thought it was the shit. They would also probably do pretty well alongside some creamy tomato bisque or something of that nature... this is better than that grilled cheese sandwich. A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER.

Foodlandia: Gold Dust Meridian

GOLD DUST MERIDIAN

Rosie Lee Cocktail, Canton Lemongrass Martini, Classic Mac n' Cheese, Lentil Soup Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Salad combo, Prawns in some saucy delicious bourbon sauce?

3267 SE Hawthorne Boulevard

Portland, OR

website

We came for happy hour and I have to say I left rather damn happy. Swanky little place on Hawthorne with a nice romantic ambiance and suitable, appetizing food. Very strong cocktails. I'm not much of a hard liquor fan, but every now and again some gin and vodka sets this girl straight, especially if you add some rose petal syrup or ginger liquor to the mix. Give me my own little individual serving of some of that mac n' cheese (pictured above) and I have no complaints. I used to think that no one could top the mac n' cheese my preschool teacher used to make. I dream about the day of somehow rediscovering the exact recipe that even slightly mirrors the same aroma that it used to bring about in the kitchen, and the happy song my taste buds would sing every time it was served.

This mac n' cheese brought me back to preschool.

At least pretty close to it.

(But I'm 22 now and am able to drink grown-up cocktails WITH my mac n' cheese so not really. I rather like this combination of events together better.)

All of the other food was pretty damn good, as well.

I would totally go here again. Great little place for drinks AND food that will make you happy.

Foodlandia: The Screen Door

After recently returning from my second excursion to Portland within the last four months, stuffing my face full of delicious and extraordinary top-notch cuisine, experiencing the best of some of the best there is, I've realized it might be wise to put all of that food photography to use and do some restaurant reviews. Somewhat of an overwhelming task, I have to admit, as I feel as though I've covered a lot of ground. But all the more to share with you!

I don't think I met one meal I didn't like. I swear, there must be something in the water up there. Chefs are held to a higher standard, perhaps? More creative and precise palates? All I know is that Portlandia = foodie paradise. And quite conceivably the number one reason as to why I want to plant my roots in such a place.

So here goes: I now present to you my foodie restaurant experiences from Portland, OR. Or, what I like to call, Foodlandia.

Enjoy.

THE SCREEN DOOR

2337 E Burnside St

Northeast Portland 'hood

Southern, Cajun/Creole

website

Oh goodness. The dear Screen Door. How I love thee. My first breaking the fast meal of my stay. And it definitely set the stage. Arriving around noon time for Sunday brunch, the one hour wait was pretty inevitable. Running on practically nothing and ready to eat a horse, I convinced myself it would be worth the wait. After looking at their sample menu online (brunch, veggies) multiple times before I arrived, I would not be discouraged. Talk about dream menu! Every single item on the veggie menu sounded completely GENIUS. Any restaurant that incorporates winter root veggies like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, or chard is a winner in my book. GIVE IT TO ME.

The atmosphere was lively, loud, and full of beautiful Portland people: young, tattooed hipster parents with their gorgeous well-behaved babies, groups of fixie-riding hungover friends nursing their Bloody Mary's, and couples so cute they make you wanna puke.

I knew I was in the right place.

Waitress with arms full of buttermilk fried chicken and sweet potato waffle dishes.

Delivering to a large group of hungover, 20-something year-old males.

They all ordered the same thing. And ate every last bite.

A side order of the sweet potato waffle and maple bacon.

Root vegetable hash with chard on a bed of parsnip puree.

Over-easy eggs.

Toast.

Heaven.

Alabama scramble? With grits.

Thankfully my eyes weren't much bigger than my stomach. I was happier than a pig in shit. Pretty much all of my favorite foods coming together in one awesome meal. Words cannot describe the degree of foodie contentment that came over me.

Most delicious comfort food ever.

One of the best breakfasts of my life.

I hope you're convinced now. What else do you want me to say? Here's more evidence, if you need it.

If you've never had a lesson in patience, this will teach you. The patience was worth it.

PS. The Portlandia television series filmed a scene in the kitchen of this restaurant, dubbing it as the "Porch Light" undercover. Can't fool me. I recognized that yellow building and blue sign in an instant! Apparently the grandiose gastronomical chef culture of Portlandia has gone to the heads of Armisen and Brownstein. And probably a few others.