Table d'hôte

San Francisco, February 7, 2017—

THE CURRENT FASHION hereabouts in the restaurant business seems to be table d'hôte : a fixed menu with perhaps alternative courses at a set price.

Tonight we stopped in at a newish place that's had good reviews. Here's this week's menu:

Wedge Salad or Celery Root Bisque
* Lamb Pappardelle or Uni Risotto *
Red Snapper or New York Strip Steak
Grapefruit Panna Cotta or Double Chocolate Sundae

prix fixe: $45 (*pasta course, $10 extra)

I had the salad and steak, and pappardelle too. There was a lot to like here, but it didn't start right away — the Iceberg lettuce, which I don't mind as a general rule, seemed stale; it tasted of the refrigerator. (We ate late in the evening, and perhaps that's the reason.) The buttermilk ranch dressing was bland and a little gloppy; the blue cheese crumbles not really top-flight.

But the pappardelle! What a nice dish: scraps of lamb, beautifully made and cooked pasta, little slices of Castelvetrano green olives, baby fennel. The irrelevant tomato added color but little more, but that's easily set aside. The lamb and pasta reminded me of eating in Rome, and that's a compliment.

The steak course wasn't as integrated, as pointed. My fault maybe: I'm not fond of parsnips, turnips, or rutabaga, and all three figured on this plate. But the steak, thin-sliced and barely medium rare, tasted very nicce, and the watercress reminded me of Paris evenings.

Panna cotta: can't resist it. I'm not supposed to eat grapefruit, but one or two sections can't hurt, right?

Petit sirah, Preston of Dry Creek, 2014: an old favorite

•Trestle, 531 Jackson Street, San Francisco; +1 (415) 772-0922

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

Savory

Eastside Road, February 6, 2017—

WHAT I SEEM TO CRAVE most on these longish drives — say six hours or so — is salt. There may be a physiological reason for this: I haven't looked into it. There's a limit to the amount of self-directed analysis is good for you, is my view. In any case I like to keep a bag of salt peanuts in the glove compartment, just in case; and tonight, after a typical day's drive and its concomitant diet, something savory seemed in order.

The concomitant diet: at the hotel's price-included breakfast, a glass of orange juice, a short cup of American coffee with milk, two odd pancakes from a pancake extruder, with butter and marmalade.

The real breakfast: our usual Ashland one: a croissant and a cappuccino (Stumptown) at Mix.

•Mix Bakeshop, 57 North Main Street, Ashland, Oregon; +1 (541) 488-9885

Lunch: a ham on thyme-buttered baguette, also from Mix. This is your perfect Parisien jambon-beurre; the thyme elevates it even beyond. A can of Snappy Tom, bought at the gas station.

And dinner, finally, after ten days away, at home. Cook had asked our daughter for the recipe for her savory "Dutch Baby," a name I really dislike but an item I quite like: a sort of baked soufflée combining flour, eggs, milk, and in this case savories: oregano and thyme, I'm guessing, from our garden; salt of course; Parmesanl, baked in the black iron skillet. It was definitely satisfying.

Afterward, green salad, a tangerine, some cookies.

Cheap white wine, nv, Italy

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

Ashland again

Ashland, Oregon, February 5, 2017—

A LONG LATE MINIMAL breakfast: cappuccinos; toast.

No lunch; just a couple of handfuls of peanuts from the bag we keep in the glove compartment on these driving days.

A quick dinner at a new favorite: a hamburger; French fries. The hamburgers here are local grass-fed beef, not terribly high-fat but succulent; and not too damn big. Cooked with them: grilled sliced onion, a pickle chip or two, a bit of lettuce. Mustard, of course — the catsup's on the table, for them as want it.

The bun is brioche, as it should be, house-made at this joint's sister operation, where we will breakfast tomorrow, as we always do in this town.

Pinot noir, Underwood, nv, from a 375 ml can.

•Flip, 92 N Main Strkeet, Ashland; open every day 11-9

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

Polenta

Portland,Oregon, February 4, 2017—

NOW HERE'S A GREAT idea: a bed of soft white somewhat grainy polenta, a steam-"poached" pullet's egg, a couple of slices of warmed apple, a good spoonful of zingy harissa, and a few leaves of soft, garden-fresh lettuce. A marvelous pit stop on an afternoon of bookstore trawling, before stopping in at a nearby bar for Saturday night Martinis and bar food.

Pale ale, La Chouffe (Belgium)

•Maurice A Pastry Luncheonette, 921 SW Oak Street, Portland; +1 (503) 224-9921

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

Stamppot

Portland, Oregon, February 3, 2017—

PROBABLY ONE OF the Hundred Plates: Stamppot, which for too long I erroneously referred to as Boerkool, a very different thing. I think. This blog is rarely to be considered authoritative.

It came from the fridge, as leftovers, I think; I'm not sure, not having been involved in the procedure.Kale, potatoes, carrots, onions no doubt; a couple of good sausages sliced, like the carrots. Fine.

Cheap Primitivo (Puglia,nv)

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

An oddly mixed day

Portland, February 2, 2017—

OUR USUAL BREAKFAST; then a trip out to Ikea. I like to go there every couple of years, particularly if I'm feeling a little discouraged. The sight of so many young couples optimistically shopping for their first households never fails to renew my hope for continuity and future.

And, to tell the truth, I like the Swedish meatballs. They are served up cafeteria-style by (here, in Portland, today) a smiling, engaging, middle-aged Danish-looking lady with an endearingly rumpled face; I couldn't help telling her how much I liked looking at her. To her credit, she took what was meant as a compliment graciously.

With the meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and Brussels sprouts, and a spoonful of lingonberry jam. And I had a "wedge salad" on the side: a wedge of Iceberg lettuce with dubious whie gloppy dressing, tasty dry little lozenges of bacon, and a few tomatoes (one lurks in the upper left corner of the photo).

A can of apple cider

•Ikea Restaurant, 10280 NE Cascades Parkway, Portland; +1 (888) 888-4532

---

CHICKEN POT PIE this evening, at home — a little dry but in a nice crust, with mushrooms and carrots flavoring the rather meaty chicken. We'd bought the little pies from Provadore, an upscale, typically Portland grocery whose shelves have lots of Italian imports and whose in-house bakery and pastaficio is admirable.

•Providore Fine Foods, 2340 NE Sandy Boulevard, Portland; +1 (503) 232-1010

That was the first course. We went on to a nice duck soup, left-overs I suppose from something, with cabbage and carrots and a little celery for all I know, thick and hearty. Green salad afterward, and chocolates and cookies. A nice supper on a squally evening…

Bianco, Grifone, nv

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017

Spain

Portland, Oregon, February 1, 2017—

WHAT A DELICIOUS dinner, ending a day that began uncomfortably in the dentist's chair. We decided to eat out at a place new to us, not too far away; and we ate quite late, so had the place pretty well to ourselves toward the end of the meal, and could converse.

The cuisine is Spanish, and the rather small menu is divided into categories I mostly don't know: tapas, chesa, brasa, paellas… but our waiter was friendly and enlightening, and I was able to avoid the many dishes with crustacea and still build a very nice dinner indeed.

I began with papas bravas, of course: small twice-fried (I think) potatoes, served with a thick and flavorful ali-oli type sauce. I had to share this with my three table-mates, but was able to retaliate, spearing some of their porcini croquettes.

Next, I had the lion's share of a plate of Butifarra, pork sausage with garbanzo stew and pipars-shallot picada I have no idea what much of this means, but I'm here to tell you this is an incredibly savory dish, piquant, rich, balanced, and arresting, one of the best things I've tasted recently.

I shared that dish around, and was fairly generous with the next: lamb shank with celery-root purée and sherry-preserved onions. This was an Iberian version of Richard Olney's famous lamb shank recipe, the meat, on the bone, cooked for a long time, slowly, with herbs and wine. Alas the bone was innocent of marrow, or at least access to it: but the meat was succulent, falling away from the bone; its sauce reduced to a demi-glace deep and rich with flavor.

Still, there was room for dessert. I had Torta de Aceite: "cranberry compote, orange cream, black sesame tortas, honey buttermilk ice cream." This was one of the finest desserts I've had in years. The tortas were somewhat puffed up, two or three inches square, tasting of deep fry and cinnamon-sugar; the orange cream easily stood up to them; and the ice cream was superb.

This place is a real find; I hope we return to it regularly.

Fino, "Tio Pepe," Gonzalez Byass (Jerez), nv

•Chesa, 2218 NE Broadway, Portland; +1 (503) 477-9521

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017