Very Festive, indeed…
What a spectacular day yesterday – sunny and warm, a nice breeze to keep it comfortable, and the best of an Oregon summer on offer. First, a stop at the Portland Farmer’s Market – it’s getting to be peak berry season, and Martha & Pirrie loaded up on some excellent raspberries, blackberries, and some killer cherries too. Pirrie wolfed down her market fave – the New Mexico breakfast burrito (spiced-up scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes, bacon – yum!)
We then headed uptown to the Bastille Day celebration in Jamison Square Park in the Pearl – great live music, tons of booths, games, food, a wine garden (featuring some of our Chavy & Gueguen whites), and of course the annual waiters race. I chowed on a sandwiche Merguez-frites from Fenouil, and the girls had a croque monsieur from Nuvrei Bakery and a salmon-confit salade niçoise from Metrovino – fabulous street-fare at its best!
Lots of fun stuff on stage – including this madame singing classic French café tunes -
The waiters race is a blast – with all the entrants taking four laps around the square with a bottle of Perrier and three full glasses on their trays – kudos to the winners (and all who had the guts to go for it!)
We then decided to head across the river for the Mississippi Street Fair, which was jam-packed and hugely festive. Food, bands, drink, and a throng of Portlandians of every stripe jamming the new hipster-strip for about a dozen blocks – big fun all around.
We were heading out to our Carlton cottage for the night, and on an impulse decided to stop into Farm to Fork – the exciting new resto on Rt. 99W in Dundee. That turned out to be the best decision of the day!
Chef Paul Bachand’s food was excellent across the board, and the setting is really well done -a great eye for detail and design, and simply a massively huge and welcome addition to the Willamette Valley wine country. (Not to mention their 20-room luxury Inn at Red Hills – which was already booked up and full, a great sign!)
For starters we had the divine duck & pork Rillettes, a richly flavorful almond soup, and the warm truffled goat cheese tart – each of which was totally delicious. In fact I think we were swooning. Then for the main course, Martha had the leg of Rabbit with truffled carrot puree, I did the 16oz grilled Rib-Eye with Arugula, and Pirrie had the Coulotte steak – and again every bite was right-on. We really enjoyed a bottle of 2007 Pinot from our friends Patrick Reuter & Leigh Bartholomew (our winemaking neighbors at the Carlton Winemakers Studio for a few years) and their Dominio IV brand. Their ’07 “The Red & The Black” pinot was brimming with rich, mouthfilling mid-palate fruit, very nicely balanced, and really lovely with the food. Bravo!
Both desserts were also swoon-worthy – the vanilla-bean & mascarpone cheesecake and the bittersweet chocolate timbale – extra miles will be run this week on their behalf!
In all, what a great day to be alive, a great day to spend with family, a great day to enjoy Oregon’s bounty. I am a lucky man, and life does not suck!