Hounding in Portland, OR

a great interlude weekend in a hard run of travel.

food pix at http://flickr.com/photos/wilbanks/tags/riggsby/

portland pix at http://flickr.com/photos/wilbanks/tags/portland/

dinner at montage friday night. hipster heaven, tattooed wait staff with little training but spectacular attitude. leftovers are twisted into two-foot tall foil origami. everything is cheap, the lighting is dim, the atmosphere rowdy. nine kinds of mac and cheese, lots of rice and pasta dishes. spam and frog legs permeate the menu. i passed on the spam and spicy mac and went with the ham and smoked cheddar mac.

slept late for body time if not local time. walked into the little village of the neighborhood where ben and terri live in southwest portland for coffee and pastry. dogs everywhere, clean air, big fluffy clouds and intermittent sun. the trees are just starting to burst here, forsythia bright yellow and loud with spring. four coffeeshops in three blocks. came back and went to the grocery with ben - something about groceries in the suburbs compared to my grim stop and shop in southie always makes me a little wistful as a cook.

ben got the smoker started and dropped on the ten pounds of canadian bacon that represented the first part of the bbq day. ross and ben are starting a smokehouse business and this is one of many training runs. also on the smoker today is a 20-lb beef shoulder that will cook down to about 10lbs after the fat renders, and we're also going to make and hang sausage. should be ready to eat in a few months. the next practice run is prosciutto and saucisson sec.

i'm on appetizers and chop duty, so make salsa and guacamole.

terri takes me into portland for a two-hour tour mid-day after the clod hits the smoker. portland is the hippiest town i've even seen. if i need a tapestry or my aura read, i know exactly where to go. there are apparently twelve places within five minutes of ross's house where you can buy nag champa incense. the downtown area is clean, orderly. the city is bisected by a river and there are a lot of bridges. there's a weekend market with lots of carnival food (corn dogs and curly fries) as well as hippie food (heavy on the middle eastern vegan style). handmade pottery, stained glass, hemp clothing. we walk across one of the bridges to look at a skateboard park tucked under the bridge.

back to the house to begin cooking in earnest. ross and ben slice the bacon for vacuum packing. we prep the table and start drinking the amazing beer that can be bought here. the clod is perfect, crusty and peppery on the outside and tender on the inside. we serve it kreuz market style with jalapeno, cheese, onion, avocado, salsa. ben also makes yorkshire pudding cups, puffy pastry drizzled with the drippings from the clod. it's so good.

then it's time to start cooking again. ross and ben start on the sausage, blending together beef and pork and spices and the microbes you have to add to a dry hang sausage to keep it from spoiling. as they start running the mix into the casings i start working on the green chile sauce; we're having enchiladas tonight and i know that i won't want to go back into heavy cooking mode again. i got most of the way through: braised the poblanos, onions, garlic til melting tender, braised the chicken in the mix, pureed the veggie mix back into the stock and shredded the chicken back in. all i have to do tonight is add in the sour cream and assemble enchiladas.

we were going to head to the coast today and get oysters but ben's got the edge of a cold, and i'm not eager to spend four hours in the car. we're instead cooking some of the bacon we made yesterday, eggs and biscuits and juice and strong coffee. then heading into town to the legendary powell's bookstore - which i'm told has a magnificent philosophy of science section.