So, being on the road, traveling to show our film "a woman like that" - we are also trying to make the time to explore the different cities we find ourselves in, particularly their food culture - specifically restaurants and markets. Melissa is adroit at sourcing out the best food.
We drove 3 hours in a dark downpour to get from Seattle to Portland. We had arranged to have dinner with Professor Jesse Locker and his wife Laura at a restaurant called Bar Avignon.
The food was delicious and probably half the price from what it would cost to eat similar food in NYC. I'm sorry I don't have photos of the food.
Some of the things we had were: arugula salad, fuyu persimmon, spanish cheese (mandolined persimmon slices have since become my favorite addition to salad), autumn vegetables with chanterelles & fig-walnut salsa, cassoulet: duck, pork belly, shell beans, kale, bread crumbs and dry aged new york steak, potato-celery root gratin, chicories.
I'm probably forgetting something - but it was all delicious. We did share a dessert but I think we roundly agreed it did not rise to the level of the other courses.
One of the reasons for driving that rainy night was so we could get to the Portland Saturday Market, which Melissa had assured me I was going to find totally to my liking. So bright and early, (of course after hitting the gym and having some coffee) we trotted over there.
And of course Melissa was right - it was fantastic!
Mushrooms, for the second time we found local Northwest truffles. I had no idea - they are definitely milder than the Italian ones but also a fraction of the cost.
A plethora of apples, many varieties that were new to me - including these with red interiors. Wow - they would make a beautiful apple strudel.
Enormous rutabagas and the largest leaves I have ever seen (I know this photo provides no perspective but you'll have to take my word for how big they were.
Different from our home town farmer's market in Union Square, Portland's market has amazing prepared foods - from ice cream to sandwiches, tamales to biscuits. Here's Melissa in front of Pine State Biscuits. I'm told it is famous - this picture is for Melissa's son Alex,
who likes their biscuits. We ended up sharing a breakfast egg on biscuit sandwich - it was pretty good.
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