« Ignore this post, please | Main | Retro cities »
September 28, 2007
Food food food food food
Finally tried Por Que No this week (on N. Mississippi). We wanted to celebrate getting our Oregonian driver's licenses. I'd walked by Por Que No a few times and it was hard to tell if I'd like it or not, because anytime I walked by, people had just finished eating. That's because the food is so good, it doesn't stay on the plate for long.
They have outdoor seating on the sidewalk and a smallish interior. The colors on the walls were awesome - in some ways, the decorations and colors reminded me of Jolly Bob's in Madison. Brian ordered a tamale and a taco, but they were out of tamales (it *was* Taco Tuesday, after all).
I ended up getting two pescado tacos and a veggie taco. I'm going to have a hard time changing that order after that - it was very very good. This fish is battered and then fried which is different from most fish tacos I've had. But yummmmmmmmm. They had Amnesia brewery's IPA on tap, which is cool because Amnesia is just down the street from their restaurant. I've read too that Por Que No's veggie taco changes seasonally because they use whatever is fresh locally (yay!).
Last night we revisited Le Bistro Montage. Phil, Cathy, Brian and I ate there in 2004 and really liked it (I can't remember what Cathy got, but Phil got the alligator jambalaya). It opens at 6 p.m., and Brian and I seem to manage to decide to go there consistently at 5 p.m. Last time, we went and hung out at the Rose and Raindrop which is very sadly no longer open.
Now, Montage has a lounge called La Merde, so Brian and I went and had a drink there first. I had a Willamette IPA, Brian had a gin and tonic to try the Aviation gin, which is a locally produced gin. Very good - I can't see drinking Aviation as a standard gin, but it was good in the gin and tonic. I liked La Merde - the bartender was friendly and I liked the atmosphere.
Montage's food though was as yummy as I remembered. I went in convinced I'd get the dessert after but ended up being too full to do it. I got Spold, which was a combination of the Old Mac (Macaroni noodles with garlic and parmesan) and the Spicy Mac (it involves diced jalepenos). Very awesome. I had P.O.G. to drink which is Pomegranite, Orange and Guava which started to make me giddy how much I liked it. I was even happier when I realized it was free refills too.
Brian had Bobo (biscuits and gravy) and really dug it. It's comfort food for him, so he's tried it in a lot of places and this was in the running for the best from what he said. Next time I am getting the rock shrimp jambalaya.
Service was impeccable, our waitress was really pleasant. The part that made me laugh a lot was a young lady named Edith who kept an eye on everyone's table to bring water or clear plates. In between, she'd sit sort of over by the bar reading the newspaper. Right before we left, she jumped up to refill our water glasses and Brian demurred, saying "no thanks, I'm good." She filled it anyways and said in a growly voice as she walked away "Drink it!!!" which sent me into a fit of giggles. Brian hadn't heard her because she kinda said it under her breath. She was awesome and on top of things and made the meal for me :)
It's hard to eat out sometimes when we have all sorts of fresh seafood and veggies we can get and prepare ourselves, but we might go try Sweet Basil tonight which is right by our house. They have two kinds of Crab Rangoon! mmmmmmmm
Posted by Heather at September 28, 2007 11:22 AM