Liver, coffee, baseball

Portland, April 4, 2010—

WE CELEBRATED EASTER SUNDAY our own way here, beginning with chocolate bunnies left at the breakfast table by a mysterious overnight visitor, going on to fegato venexiano for lunch, then out to a café for coffee and pastries, then home to a hot dog dinner to accompany the opening game of the season.

I cooked the liver the usual way, forgetting only a couple of points — I'm a little rusty, and then the liver, bought frozen yesterday at the farmers market, thawed very wet, making salting difficult. Oh well: butter and olive oil in the black iron skillet, slowly cook a red onion sliced very thin, remove the onions and sauté the liver cut into strips, deglaze the pan with red wine and a drop or two of Balsamic vinegar, serve with polenta and fresh-ground black pepper. One of the Hundred Plates.

Rocaberdi (Catalunya), 2008

The café was new to me. Gibassier and canalés baked by Broken Frame, the gibassier nearly as good as Pearl Bakery; the canalé different in style from Ken's Artisan Bakery, a little damp inside, but good. My espresso was a single-origin Indonesian bean, beautifully roasted, fruity and spicy and expertly drawn.


Giovanna made cole slaw and potato salad; we had hot dogs from Laurelhurst Meat Market on buns from Pearl Bakery, fresh-made mustard, sauerkraut of course, onions both fried and raw. With it, one of my favorite beers, Peter's Beer from Trader Joe. And the Sox beat the Yankees, 9-7, in a tight game.

Coffeehouse Northwest, 1951 W. Burnside Blvd., Portland; tel. (503) 248-2133