48 Hours in Portland

After visiting Portland recently, I asked myself why I don’t go there more often. It’s less than a 6 hour drive from where I live, it is considered one of America’s newest food capitals, the number and variety of food carts there is insane, and you pay no taxes on your purchases!

We drove to Portland after work one evening and spent a total of 2 nights there. There culinary scene is outstanding.  I have read about so many fine restaurants in Portland in Bon Appetit magazine and have watched numerous travel shows on television about their superb food scene.  There will also be their famous 4 day food event called ‘Feast Portland’ later this year hosted by Bon Appetit where you can enjoy the amazing food and wine that Portland has to offer.

So 48 hours in Portland meant we really had to make the most of our time there. We tried out several restaurants that we had researched in advance to see what all the hype was about and we were not disappointed. Here are a few of our favorites:

1) Burrasca Food Truck

If there is one thing that stood out to me on this entire trip, it was the Pappa Al Pomodoro (tomato, bread, garlic, basil soup). It tasted so fresh, and there was an intense tomato flavor and it was topped off with a drizzle of good quality olive oil.  This is probably the best thing I ate when I was there. Several food bloggers and websites raved about this place and I can see why. The quality of food you get here matches some of the fine dining restaurants I went to in Italy.

Pappa Al Pomodoro

Pappardelle Al Cinghiale

2) Tails and Trotters

We stopped in for lunch here and picked up some goodies to take with us after buying some products from them a few years ago when they were at the Portland Farmers Market. They are known for their hazelnut finished pork.

As soon as you walk into their shop, you are greeted with this story which gives you some background about them.

The Grinder sandwich - house cured coppa and ham, iceburg lettuce, house relish, and provolone.

3) Andina - Novo Peruvian Tapas

A lot of times when we travel, we do a tapas crawl where we try a few dishes at a restaurant, and then go to the next place and do the same. We share everything and don’t order too much in one place so we are not too full for the next place. We ordered a glass of wine and a couple seafood dishes.

4) Ataula - Spanish Style Tapas

  

The next place we went to had jamon iberico bellota (I’ll write more about this later) but it’s essentially the top of the line jamon where the pigs are fed only acorns.  While enjoying my sangria, I munched on this wonderful jamon along with a few other tasty tapas dishes.

5) Nuvrei

We heard this place served the most amazing croissants. So flaky and buttery! When I got to the front of the line to place my croissant order to the order taker, she said that if I go downstairs to their basement, I can actually get one freshly out of the oven.  They said they make fresh croissants every hour on the hour.  It happened to be 11:05am so I happily went down a flight of stairs to the basement and the baker gave me my ‘just out of the oven’ croissant. It was so good that I ended up ordering 3 including a fresh chocolate croissant. Fresh-out-of-the oven croissants from Nuvrei is unmatched to any other croissant I’ve had before.

Look at all the flaky, buttery layers!

Warm, melted chocolate inside

Basement where they make their croissants

Display of macaroons in their basement

6) Nongs Khoa Man Gai

This place is mentioned everywhere! Magazines, newspapers, blogs, word of mouth, etc. Their menu is pretty much just chicken and rice and their famous garlic ginger sauce can also be purchased by the bottle.

7) Pine State Biscuits

This was our second time here after watching it on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. The sausage gravy is so tasty and the chicken is so tender you can cut through it with a butter knife. We ordered 'The Reggie', the most popular item on their menu and a good, old fashioned corn dog.

This trip was totally worthwhile and these are the restaurants I would recommend in Portland after my short stay there.   It was a great summer weekend getaway and I’m looking forward to my next trip out there again.