Polaroid Week, day 1.
Bar cats are awesome. Photobooths are awesome. Taking a bar cat into a photobooth? Really awesome.
What I ate yesterday:
-French toast from Orangette
-Coca Cola brined fried chicken with garlic pickle relish and green beans via Esquire
-Smitten Kitchen’s roasted pears with vanilla bean sugar, lemon and butter
Little Big Burger.
Last night Dave and I headed to the Pearl to feast at Micah Camden’s new joint, Little Big Burger. It didn’t disappoint. If you aren’t familiar with Camden’s name and you live in Portland, let me familiarize you. In the last few years he’s opened the Japanese influenced Yakuza*, Italian eatery DOC and British pub inspired Fats. He also opened Beast with Naomi Pomeroy. All of these restaurants are conveniently located on the same block. If he’s not the king of NE 30th and Killingworth, he damn well should be.
After announcing what seemed like a hundred opening dates, Little Big Burger finally opened last Friday. The menu is small. So small, in fact, that it can fit on the sandwich board displayed outside the place. After some excited air grabs on my part (some of you know what I’m talking about), Dave and I both decided on the cheese burger with Rouge chévre. (You have Tillamook cheddar or Swiss, Rouge chévre and Oregon blue to choose from). If you really wanted to make a food baby, you could easily devour two or more of these burgers, but we were saving ourselves for ice cream and a marathon Firefly session later in the evening so we stuck with one. (I had Snoqualmie Cascade Mt. Blackberry in case you were wondering). We also both ordered fries – Yukon golds with truffle oil to be exact. Throw in a fountain soda and house made catsup with honey and Sriracha and you’ve got yourself one tasty meal.
Thankfully, Little Big Burger is only a short walk away from my work. I see to-go orders in my future.
*My friend Anna once told me eating the burger at Yakuza made her “close her eyes in orgasmic delight.” Kobe beef, brioche bun, truffle oil, goat cheese, shoelace fried potatoes… yes please! When I finally tried said burger, I discovered Anna wasn’t kidding. There may have even been a moan involved. Dave’s parents were with us though, so I had to keep it tame.
His and Hers
A collaboration between my boyfriend Dave and I. Dave’s polaroid is on the left, mine on the right.
Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce is my favorite. It’s perfect for a rainy (almost) fall evening. I added a parmesan romano rind tonight for a little extra flavor.
Mom was thrilled when Dad took it down from the family room wall and moved it to the barn, until she realized it was only to make room for a much larger elk head.
(by whitney johnson)
A window in the machine shop in my parents barn. I don’t ever remember those bottles not being there.
(by whitney johnson)
