Northwest tour

We stayed last weekend with our good friends Gary and Terry, who live in a beautiful big house in the woods across the river from Portland. Gary and Terry have four adventuring kids who normally reside in assorted far-flung regions of the planet. As it happened, though, Greg had just returned from the Philippines on Thursday. And then we learned that Julia would reach Medford Friday night on her way north from Mexico, and so it was arranged that we would have the pleasure of her company (and her kitten “B”’s company) in our car for the last leg of her journey home. At the house we met Axel, the Mexican exchange student living with our friends this year. And to bump up the festive reunion atmosphere still further, Terry invited mutual family friends Torrey and her boyfriend Alex to round out the party of ten for Sunday brunch. It was great to see everyone, and we even got to wear our jammies.

After a walking tour of downtown Vancouver to window-shop the gorgeous old houses for sale - if I had $375,000 I would buy this one right now - we headed back into Portland for our Powell’s fix. We also stopped in at Voodoo Donuts as promised for a little something to tide us over until dinner. So many to choose from! The Bacon Maple Bars looked good but when it came down to it I sprang for the Mango Filled, with lots of sticky sweet mango filling and a sort of marshmallow topping with citrus dust. Alekka picked the Bubble Gum, a raised donut with white frosting and bubblegum sprinkles topped with a piece of bubblegum. And because we were headed to Eugene next to see Alice, we thought we’d treat her to the oreo and caramel goodness of an Old Dirty Bastard, to go.

We met up with Alice at Soriah, a white-tableclothed cafe we have patronized occasionally for around fifteen years. The food is Mediterranean/Middle Eastern, with a combination of standard and newer dishes featuring the ingredients and spices of that large region. We started with an appetizer of fried calamari, made with just a light dusting of flour and topped with an interesting caper sauce – very nice. For the main course, Alekka picked lamb chops, I had duck breast stuffed with cheese and fennel, Andreas chose a chicken and artichoke dish (sans rice because he’s doing low carb) and Alice ordered the steak Diane that a friend had recommended. Everything was prepared to the doneness requested, flavorful and attractively presented. The kitchen is definitely competent, although I wouldn’t call it inspired. The accompanying vegetables were the same for most of the dishes, which communicates to me that there are too many mains on the menu for real attention to detail. I would say the food is consistently good, but predictable.

Dessert is shown on a tray rather than from a menu – Alekka chose an above-average chocolate mousse, dense and not too sweet, and flavored with grand marnier; Alice and I shared a pumpkin crème brulee that was quite nice (you can always count on an interesting crème brulee at this restaurant – one of my favorites was a lavender one I had here several years ago). My main quibble with the cafe on this visit was our rather peculiar waiter, who seemed to lack people skills. A bossy fellow, he and Andreas had a power struggle over a fork that was oddly amusing but not the sort of thing you usually see in a restaurant. We had a good laugh about it, and decided he must be related to the owner.

After dinner we took Alice to Trader Joes. On the way, my cry of anguish nearly caused Andreas to drive off the road when Alice shared that the only reason to make a roast chicken is because all you have to do is throw it in a pan and stick it in the oven. Aaargh!!!

Like Julia, Alice has new kittens. Meet Geoffrey and Colin (with Alekka, who would like to move to Eugene so she can kitty-sit).