Oblique Coffee Roasters: Confessions of a Portland Latte Drinker

I’m a latte girl. Now, I don’t sugar my coffee, and I can tell when a roast is burnt or simply crappy, but I’m so far outside of the coffee intelligentsia that I’m often intimidated by some of Portland’s “best” coffeehouses. You know the ones – the coffee bars serving up five different single-origin micro-roasts with the über-hip baristas offering six new ways to brew a cup - many of which use equipment you're more likely to find in my sister’s biochemical engineering lab at OHSU than in a neighborhood cafe. I may not be a true coffee connoisseur yet, but I drink a lot of coffee, and spend a lot of time in coffee shops. When you work from home and can go days without seeing a single person you don’t live with, the coffee shop visit becomes a much-needed social opportunity. I’m normally all for jumping into new flavors and experiences, and I love learning about and supporting local artisans of all stripes, but some of Portland’s noteworthy micro-roast spots fail to do the thing I think coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants can do best: create community. Most of my favorite neighborhood coffee shops serve up Stumptown, Ristretto, Portland Roasting, or even imported roasts, providing good food and comfy couches instead of focusing on perfecting their own signature beans. These spots are the kind of cozy rooms you want to spend time in, places to meet your neighbors and friends, a feeling I just don’t get from those ultra-modern roaster meccas. The obvious problem is that many of the latter admittedly often serve up a better latte. I know the only way to develop my palate is try try a bunch of really good cups, but if that means spending more of my time in places that don't make me feel comfortable, it's just not going to happen.

Stuck in Portlandia with a Serious Case of the Januaries

Dispatches from around the Northwest reveal a serious epidemic plaguing the cities of Portland, Seattle, and everywhere in between. Symptoms include whining about the mud in the streets, tiring of biking through drizzle, dreaming of booking last minute flights to the Southern Hemisphere, and writing two mopey blog posts in a row about the winter blues. While the show "Portlandia" is taking off as a humorous look at the unique quality of life in the Rose City, the real Portlandia is elbow-deep in grey days, drizzle, and muddy yards - and its making me want to hibernate for a few months. I like to imagine people in California, Texas, and Florida sitting down to watch the premier on IFC, and all of a sudden the broadcast splits into a double screen - one half showing "Portlandia" and the other half a live-cam feed of people moping in coffee shops and getting splashed by muddy water from buses driving by. Put a bird on THAT and call it art, Carrie Brownstein.

Portland in the Winter: Oregon Greys and Photography Blues

Things always slow down here on LemonBasil in the winter. That used to be due to most of the Portland farmers' markets being on hiatus until the spring, and the plethora of rather unphotogenic brown and greenish-brown things I eat during the colder months. While those things certainly still hold true, the biggest reason I haven't been posting much is that, I'm realizing, much of my photography relies on sunshine. This week I was compiling some of my favorite shots of Portland, her food and drink scene, places I've traveled, and the expressions people I've captured for my new photography website (check it out, let me know what you think!). At the risk of stating the obvious, the vast majority of my top picks were chosen because they show my life at its sunniest - literally. There's just something missing - dynamically - on a cloudy day, and it shows in my photography. So often I'm drawn to colors and strong lines in the shots that I make, and blue skies and dramatic clouds are consistently great sources of both.

Classic Holiday Cocktails: Booze and Brunch at Irving Street Kitchen

What: Booze and Brunch: Classic Holiday Cocktails

Where: Irving Street Kitchen's Extra-long bar at 701 NW 13th Street (at Irving Street) in the Pearl District

Who: Irving Street Kitchen's own Brandon Wise (Eater PDX's Shaker of the Year 2010) and Jacob Grier (of Metrovino) - Complete with tacky Christmas sweaters and Santa hats!

I had the amazing priveledge to sit with some of Portland's favorite booze enthusiasts this morning for the first of these fun events with Brandon and Jacob, two of the best shakers in town. We were treated to four holiday drinks along with some tricks of the trade, like the precise definition of a "ropey" drink texture or fact that egg whites are, in fact, located INSIDE of eggshells... All kidding aside, these were great cocktails, including a classic New Orleans Fizz, a Bols Genever Hot Cocoa, traditional holiday Wassail, and a Dutch 75 with Bols Genever, champagne, and lemon It was very fun to get tips for holiday mixing and watch our fellow diners wear out their arms trying their hand at shaking.

Medlar? What's a Medlar?

A few weeks ago I was at Park Kitchen chatting with Chef Scott Dolich about the sources of his produce and the reliability of local Portland farmers coming through year after year. Scott's a regular customer of Sheldon and Carol Laeity of Your Kitchen Garden in Canby, because they supply their "beyond organic" produce to the Portland restaurant scene almost year-round (all but January) and they provide some unique varieties of greens, veggies, and fruits that you just can't get anywhere else. Another favorite farmer of Scott's is Tremaine Arkley who owns land in Independance, Oregon (just north of Keizer). Tremaine is the source of some of Park Kitchen's more interesting menu items, including these homely little guys. These, my friends, are medlars. When Scott pulled out a canister of these wrinkly things from under his counter, he had this big grin on his face because he knew he was introducing me to something I had never heard of, much less seen.

New Year's Eve Specials in Portland: Ring in 2011 with a Full Stomach

If you're still searching for your New Year's Eve plans, let Eater PDX help you out. I've done the legwork for you with an overview of the best New Years Eve Parties for Foodies in Portland. I've listed restaurant specials, late-night dancing and DJ's, and stellar tasting menus all around Portland. Some of my favorite places, including Accanto, Gilt Club, Nostrana, Roost, and Bar Avignon (pictured above), are pulling out all the stops to end your year right. Many places have early seatings if you have somewhere better to be for the ball dropping. They say the way you spend New Year's foreshadows the year to come, so what better way to guarantee a good 2011 than by making sure the evening of December 31 is spent stuffing your face? Eat on, good friends. Eat on.

P.S. If you've got family in town for the holidays and need some recommendations for places it eat in Portland, let me know. Got a vegetarian niece? Parents that want to splurge on something fancy? An adventurous foodie brother? I've got tips for any family sitch. My parents are coming up next week, and I'm going to try my best to convince my dad to try somewhere other than the Screen Door. What can I say, the man knows what he likes, but three SD trips in a week gets a bit intense. If you'd like Portland holiday restaurant tips, email me at Lemonbasilpdx@gmail.com or leave a comment below!