The Mighty Gastropolis: Portland: A Journey Through the Center of America's New Food Revolution

297 Pages·2012·15.23 MB·English

by  Karen Brooks

THE MIGHTY GASTROPOLIS
PORTLAND
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CENTER OF AMERICA’S NEW FOOD
REVOLUTION
Karen Brooks with Gideon Bosker and Teri Gelber
Photographs by Gideon Bosker and Karen Brooks
THE MIGHTY GASTROPOLIS: PORTLAND
Acknowledgments
It took a village of visionaries, provocateurs, family heroes, daredevil cooks, and outrageously generous
friends to bring The Mighty Gastropolis to life. My everlasting thanks to:
Gideon Bosker, my longtime collaborator, who brainstormed with me from Day One and animated
Portland’s food scene through his strange and wonderful photographic vision.
Teri Gelber, cook extraordinaire and my trusted sidekick, for bringing her exacting standards to recipe
testing.
The Chronicle Books team, especially our fantastic editor Sarah Billingsley, the all-around wonder woman
who championed this project, and Richard Pine, our longtime friend and agent.
My posse at Portland Monthly magazine, a deep well of support and inspiration. With love and gratitude to
owner Nicole Vogel, irreplaceable editors Randy Gragg and Rachel Ritchie, esteemed comrade Zach
Dundas, my best pal and photo assistant Ben Tepler, and the rest of my office family.
Sandy Rowe and the Oregonian, for years of journalism support.
The grand pals who scratched through drafts and shared culinary philosophy: Mike Thelin, Thomas
Lauderdale, Philip Iosca, Susan Orlean, Billy Galperin, Matt Kramer, Miriam Seger, Robert Reynolds,
Shawn Levy, Barry Johnson, Martha Holmberg, Carrie Welch, Trink Morimitsu, DK Holm, and Lena
Lencek. Peter Leitner, ally, “brother,” the catalyst for this project, thank you!
To stellar friends and master cheerleaders: Victoria Frey, Julien Leitner, Joan Strouse, Rabbi Gary
Schoenberg, Shirley Kishiyama, Edward Taub, Tracy and Dan Oseran, Paul and Lauren Schneider, Susan
Hoffman, Josie Mosely, Marty Hughley, Jeff Conti, Paige Powell, Joe Soprani, Iris Wolf, Carol Conrades,
and Michael Sills. Jon Gramsted, you are a prince. Brett, Jodi and Gavin Fleishman, I love you. Big thanks
to Tanya Supina and Christopher and Theo Gelber. We miss you, Dorka.
Finally, to all the Portland cooks and food creatives who generously shared untold stories and the recipes
that changed everything.
For Mom, who doggedly chewed over every word, and my brother, Craig,
massive in every way, unrelenting in generosity. From my deepest
corners, with love and thanks for always believing in me.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Dispatches from the Culinary Renegade Zone
CHAPTER 1
BEASTIE BOYS
A band of meat slayers carve out a world of pure, audacious delights. Welcome
to Porklandia.
GABRIEL RUCKER / LE PIGEON + LITTLE BIRD
• Arugula and Plum Salad with Pecorino Dressing
• BBQ Pigeon and Dirty Potato Salad
• Grilled Steak with Bacon-Roasted Mushrooms and Black Trumpet Butter
• Foie Gras Butter
• Bird BBQ Sauce
• Le Pigeon’s Foie Gras Profiteroles
TOMMY HABETZ / BUNK SANDWICHES + BUNK BAR
• Bunk’s Pork Belly Cubano
• Tagliatelle with Uncle Margaret’s Chicken Liver Ragu
• Tommy’s Milk-Braised Pork Shoulder
• Bunk’s Milk-Braised Pork and Wilted Mustard Greens Sandwich
THE BUTCHER BOYS / TORO BRAVO + TASTY N SONS +
LAURELHURST MARKET + SIMPATICA
• Roasted Sauvie Island Parsnips with Orange-Sage Gremolata
• Laurelhurst Market’s Mac ’n’ Cheese with Potato Chip Crust
• Tasty n Sons’ Cheddar-Baked Apples with Bacon Lardons and Spiced Maple
Syrup
• Tasty Beef Jerky
• Tasty Bloody Mary
DAVID BRIGGS / XOCOLATL DE DAVID
• Chorizo Xocolatl Sandwich
CHAPTER 2
LOCAL HEROES
Four chefs reset the homegrown table with strange beauty and extreme
pleasures.
JOHN TABOADA / NAVARRE
• Heirloom Tomatoes and Peaches
• Roasted Beet Greens with Gruyère
• Polenta with Candied Beets, Fresh Cherries, and Pickled Porcini
• Navarre’s Pickled Porcini
• Halibut Baked with Aïoli
MATT LIGHTNER / CASTAGNA
• Salsify Impersonating Forest Logs
• Scallops in Parsley-Root Milk with Frozen Pear Ice
KEVIN GIBSON / EVOE
• Evoe’s Seasonal Squash Salad (Two Variations)
• Kevin’s Cauliflower Soup with Five Variations
MARK DOXTADER / TASTEBUD
• Whole Lemon and Raw Asparagus Pesto
• Tastebud’s Original Berry Cobbler
CHAPTER 3
THE ASIAN STREET FOOD GANG
From ramen shops to animated whiskey lounges, Portland rethinks hawker
cuisine for a new generation.
ANDY RICKER / POK POK + PING + WHISKEY SODA LOUNGE
• Pok Pok’s Grilled Corn with Salty Coconut Cream and Limes
• Ping’s Grilled Pork Collar with Spicy Isaan Dipping Sauce
• Whiskey Soda Lounge’s Skewered Chicken Butts
• Kopitiam Toast with Kaya (Coconut Jam)
• Tamarind Whiskey Sour
PATRICK FLEMING / BOKE BOWL
• Hot Boke Sauce
• Miso-Butterscotch Twinkies
NONG POONSUKWATTNA / NONG’S KHAO MAN GAI
• Nong’s Thai Pickled-Garlic Omelet
CHAPTER 4
SUPPER CLUB RENEGADES
Communal tables are never-ending dinner parties with some of the best food to
be found: boisterous, bountiful, and barely legal.
NAOMI POMEROY / BEAST
• Maple-Sugared Pork Belly on Toast with Fava Beans and Pickled Green
Strawberries
COURTNEY SPROULE / DIN DIN SUPPER CLUB
• Green Garlic Soup with Savory Pain Perdu and Steamed Mussels
• Lamb Chops with Merguez Sausage and Pickled Blueberries
• Hazelnut Panna Cotta with Pinot Noir Strawberries
YIANNI DOULIS / WILD GOOSE FARM
• Wild Goose Fromage Blanc
• Balsamic-Roasted Cherries
CHAPTER 5
FOOD-CART REBELS
Portland’s pavement gourmets create food malls and town squares of the future.
• The Big Egg’s Arbor Lodge Fried-Egg Sandwich
• The Sugar Cube’s Chocolate Caramel Potato Chip Cupcakes
• The Sugar Cube’s Banana What What Shakes
• The Sugar Cube’s Candied Maple Bacon
CHAPTER 6
THE NEW PIONEERS
Small-batch coffee roasters, salumi fanatics, and daring entrepreneurs detour
away from corporate models to blaze fresh trails.
ADAM McGOVERN & ARIC MILLER / COFFEEHOUSE
NORTHWEST + STERLING COFFEE ROASTERS
• Da’ Sterling Bombs (Espresso Ganache-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies)
ELIAS CAIRO & NATE TILDEN / OLYMPIC PROVISIONS
• Savory Chorizo Doughnuts
• Salt & Straw’s Melon and Prosciutto Ice Cream
KURT HUFFMAN / CHEFSTABLE + GRUNER + ST. JACK +
WAFU + OVEN & SHAKER + OX
• The Mighty Gastropolis Cocktail
INDEX
THE MIGHTY 100
COPYRIGHT
INTRODUCTION
DISPATCHES FROM THE
CULINARY RENEGADE ZONE
Two years before he became the poster boy for Portland’s rise to the national
food stage, Le Pigeon’s Gabriel Rucker struck the scene like a lightning storm.
He was twenty-five and a virtual unknown, a fast-rapping hired gun with a flock
of tattooed birds swooping up his arm, brought in to reinvent a failing cult
restaurant on a forgotten street.
Almost overnight, he defined the playful attitude and affordable artisan
cuisine that firmly planted a place called “Stumptown” on the gastronomic map.
Rucker’s burger set the tone, served with an elegant bistro knife plunged through
the heart of its tall-boy bun. Soon, food lovers and discerning critics from the
New York Times were drooling over other creations: brazen beef cheek
bourguignon and foie gras profiteroles, a swaggering plate of foie gras ice
cream, foie gras caramel, and foie gras powdered sugar. Escoffier mon dieu!
With its nonconformist cooking and punk-rock vibes, Le Pigeon embodies
what Time magazine’s Josh Ozersky calls “America’s New Food Eden,” a
hotbed of locavorism, food-truck living, high/low eating, and animal fever. But
Le Pigeon is only the beginning.
Across town, veteran backpacker Andy Ricker is mining his twenty-year
journey as a Thai food savant at Pok Pok. The signature charcoal-blasted
chicken dish arrives on a bare plate, with a wad of sticky rice sheathed in plastic
wrap; real-deal khao soi kai noodles—hotter than brimstone fire—exit a take-out
window. From afar, this indoor/outdoor village of Cambodian rock music and
Asian “drinking foods” looks like outcast cuisine, dining on the fringe. But
Ricker’s powerful cooking and strange vision, plopped in a front yard on a local
speedway, shows just how far obsession and a do-it-yourself mentality can take
you: Ricker’s humble eatery has been lauded as “America’s best Thai
restaurant,” as followers liken his chicken wings to “crack cocaine.” Now Pok
Pok has invaded New York, the fooderati are tracking every move, and Ricker is
a wing king, indeed.
Portland diners are leaping into action. At St. Jack, a local restaurant
collective tucked into a bike-centric neighborhood, the cooking team riffs on
France’s jolly, offal-loving dens of informality, the bouchons of Lyon. Boys