Portland, Oregon, December 30, 2013
DINNER AT HOME tonight, with Lindsey at the stove. She made her buttered barley, a dense, toothy pilaf of pearl barley flavored with butter and scallions, a dish I always enjoy. Green salad afterward, tonight with a lemon-juice vinaigrette.
Bottle ends: white; red
Portland, December 29, 2013—
A QUICK DINNER tonight, sandwiched between a long afternoon movie and a drink date with friends, and the intended spot was packed to the rafters. Nothing for it but try a nearby place the Internet promised had an open table, so we wound up at a modest but rather proud little neighborhood French restaurant.
I had this duck breast, gamy and delicious, quite rare as you see but to my taste, on a bed of white beans, with salsify, roasted mushrooms, and braised greens. Very nice.
Macon white; Côtes du Rhône
• Cocotte, 2930 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, Oregon; (503) 227-2669
Portland, December 28, 2013—
LUNCH AT AN EXCELLENT Mexican joint today: two tacos: chorizo, quite nice; barbacoan, phenomenal. A little bowl of guacamole afterward; a Margarita with. Delicious. Truly a first-rate Mexican restaurant.
• ¿Por Que No?, 3524 N Mississippi Ave. Portland, Oregon; (503) 467-4149
Sauvignon blanc, Patricia Green Cellars, 2011: crisp, good varietal, slightly grassy
Portland, December 28, 2013—
WELL, ONE DOESN'T continue eating roast beef every day. Boxing Day we were content with two salads, starting with the next instalment of Pavel's Memory, whose recipe is good enough to share:
Dice fine: raw red bell pepper, celery root, onion, dill pickles, carrot
Dice less fine: apple, boiled potato
Combine, adding salt to taste and dressing (binding) with mayonnaise
The second salad was the usual green salad. With these,
Gavi, Picollo, 2012
THEN, YESTERDAY, we were content with take-out pizza:
I thought the roasted yukon gold potatoes with taleggio, caramelized onions & pancetta was a bit on the bland side, but the one in the photo — lacinato kale with calabrian chilies, provolone picante, lemon & garlic — was truly delicious, the very judicious lemon finishing a marvelous combination. Interestingly, the thin crust was faintly sourdough, another nice touch.
Pinot noir, Willamette Valley, 2010
•Lovelys 50/50, 4039 N. Mississippi Ave. #101, Portland, Oregon; 503-281-4060
Portland, Oregon, December 25, 2013—
CHRISTMAS DINNER in the gracious Craftsman home of friends, and it doesn't hurt that they're friends from the food business. Let's see: we had smoked salmon with thin- sliced onions on rye bread, and Blue Point and Kumimoto oysters on the half shell, with a glass or two of Champagne, and then moved to the dining table.
There this fine platter of sliced rib roast waswaiting for us, and beets, and mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. Dinner rolls; horseradish cream. Green salad afterward, and bûche de Noël, and a formidable array of cookies, and why not a glass of Armagnac? Comes but once a year…
Côte-Rôtie, Benjamin et David Duclaux, "La Germine," 2009; serious and delicious.
Portland, Oregon, December 24, 2013—
WE'LL HAVE MEAT enough tomorrow: tonight we make do with fish. But what a fine meal it was, beginning with a raw apple that, halved, showed the Christmas five-pointed star at its center, promising a good new year to come. (I'm told that on rare occasions the seeds make the sign of a cross instead, suggesting sorrows ahead.)
Then we had ice-cold vodka, and smoked salmon on buttered rye bread, and a handsome potato salad with apple and celery and onion carefully diced in; and tea and cookies, and games and disputation — all the fortes and faiblesses characteristic of these Zivny-Shere gatherings, for we were seven at table, none giving an inch, but all vivacious and engaged. And tomorrow we'll do it all again, this time at feast.
Gavi, 2012
Talent, Oregon, December 22, 2013—
THIS IS THE SOUP that continued our dinner with friends who own one of our favorite restaurants. The photo doesn't do it justice, of course. We'd started with a perfectly delicious little piroshki, ground lamb in pastry, with beautifully flavored crisp grated beets, and then came this marvelous soup, Sibley Squasy with smoky bacom and pork belly, with sage and a few other intelligently chosen flavors.
That's the thing about Charlene's cooking: she has this deep knowledge and memory of flavors, not only the tops of the flavors but their depths as well: she can valibrate their interplays, always keeping an integrated, balanced end result in mind while she adds this, then that.
Then came the main course: sliced beefsteak duck breast, with a fine setting of vegetables — leeks, potatoes, carrot, kale, onion. And, interestingly, duck gizzards. A resourceful dish, drawing on the pantry and the garden; a sort of fast braise, a solid soup.
Dessert was an experiment in an Indian direction, involving milk, saffron, ginger, nuts, sugar, pineapple, and paneer. I liked it: it was a little exotic but nicely flavored , a counterpart to the soup that had opened the meal. We know how lucky we are to have friends like this, full of stories from interesting lives, connected to us through mutual friends and enthusiasms reaching back forty years. Everyday eating connects us all.
Vouvray pétillante, Huet, brut 2009; Moulin à Vent, vielles vignes, Hubert Lapierre, 2012
