Flatiron Piemontese

Portland, November 27, 2010—

THE GIRLS PERFORMED so splendidly, and worked so hard, on the Thanksgiving feast, it seemed only right that I take the initiative today. Though to be truthful, it was a last-minute inspiration.

And it was owing to the splendid series of tasting experiences earlier in the day. Breakfast was our usual: buttered toast, the bread from Ken's Bakery; perhaps the best bread you can get in this country. And cappuccinos, of course; today's coffee being Black Cat Espresso from Intelligentsia, bought last Sunday in Pasadena.

Then a walk across the Broadway Bridge to the Pearl district, there to buy gibassiers at the Pearl Bakery; and then a walk down 9th Avenue a couple of blocks to Caffe Allora for another cappuccino, this one corretto with a drop or two of grappa, against the biting cold.

Then, after a light lunch on leftovers from Thanksgiving, to another great Portland institution, Alma Chocolate, where I had a bicerin and a huge slab of delicious chocolate cake. A bicerin is essentially a mocha — half espresso, half hot chocolate — flavored with a hint of hazelnut and bound with thick cream. We had them a few weeks ago at the eponymous Caffe Bicerin in Torino: this one today was twice as good and half as expensive, made with deep deep cocoa, beautifully roasted coffee, and tiny nibs of Oregon hazelnuts.

Italy is famously dedicated to coffee — importing, blending, roasting, grinding, and finally preparing the beverage with imagination, dedication, passion, and subtle discrimination. Two Italian houses, Caffè del Doge in the Veneto and Tazza d'Oro in Rome, are particularly fine; I never pass up an opportunity to enjoy them. But I have to say that Portland is shouldering Italy aside in this department. Every neighborhood seems to have its own coffee roaster, and many are on the level of the best Italy has to offer. Alma Chocolate uses Spella coffee: I haven't had Spella in any other context, but I can say that judging by the bicerin, Spella has to be an extraordinary coffee: pungent, vivacious, serious.

The bicerin so excited me that I determined to shop for and cook dinner, and nothing would do but a simple grilled steak, smothered with wilted arugula. I popped into the nearby Laurelhurst Market for three pounds of flatiron steak cut from local naturally raised Piemontese cattle, then a local Whole Foods for two bunches of arugula, five or six cipollini, and a nice firm head of radicchio.

Back home I fetched up the potatoes I'd dug from my own garden a week ago, not quite enough for the eight of us but they would have to do. The cipollini were sliced thin on the mandolin; some were sweated with the potatoes, in oil and water and salt; the others were cooked with the shredded radicchio. The arugula turned out to be spinach — I'd been so excited I bought them by the shelf-label and hadn't even looked at them closely. So I steamed it, while Pavel grilled the steaks which we'd salted and oiled. I sliced the steak and set it on a platter over the vegetables, garnished with the potatoes and triangles of Ken's bread. We all thought it delicious.

Coteaux du Languedoc, Bergerie l'Hortus, Pic Saint Loup, 2007

Ken's Artisan Bakery, 330 NW 21st Street, Portland
Laurelhurst Market, 2188 E. Burnside, Portland; tel. 503-206-3099
Caffe Allora, 504 NW 9th Avenue, Portland; tel. 503-445-4612
Alma Chocolate, 140 NE 28th Avenue, Portland