4 posts tagged “portland farmer's market”

It is unfortunate that will be out of season in August... because look how gorgeous these are! I picked these up from the Portland Farmer's market yesterday for $10. Big, beautiful, but soft and sweet!

I can't wait to go to the Portland Farmer's market again come Saturday. Although I'm a little surprised out by some bread and meat offerings (which I still purchased and ate anyway) that I've seen. Examples? A lamb sausage from the wood-fire baked oven bagel vendors Tastebud (the bread was great, the meat was too chewy and hard).

Or the mysterious meat muffin (the muffin and meat were both dry, but the muffin so dry I actually was wishing the meat was greasier to help me out), I am still always a sucker for bread at a farmer's market. Also, being to say "I'll take a meat muffin".

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I think I mentioned before some great seedy cheese bread that I had there that made a nice Sunday breakfast the first time I had it. I bought it again the other week so I could have it for breakfast on Sunday and I had it at work on Monday. And I want it again.

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Also visited another brewery, this time Rogue Distillery & Public House (PDX). The beer was great- I liked the selection better than all the others, and I didn't even get a sampler tasting. Gotta respect a place that offers you a leather bound book akin to what you would usually see a wine list presented in and say "this is our beer album". Each page was dedicated to the story of a beer they brew. This location actually is a distillery as well and it sounded interesting, but more then I could handle for a Sunday brunch/lunch.

But, the bread here (what's with the breweries having such great house-made bread here?) was really great: a fresh warm loaf of bread baked with Hazelnut Brown Nectar Ale. The bread and the beer were so delicious, we overlooked the salty hummus and dry Kobe Bleu Balls (ok, I ordered it just to say it. Meatballs stuffed with Rogue Creamery Oregon Bleu cheese). And the fries were nice and crispy, just how I love them. Seriously, look at that bread for that sandwich. It was soft and warm and fresh.

We took our favorites, the smokey ale (which really was super smokey- like enjoying the charcoal you've been barbecuing on during a summer Sunday afternoon. Would be good with so much food) and rich chocolate stout, to go. Sitting where we could see the bathrooms, we also enjoyed observing what other patrons would decide was the correct door.This place is a bit divier than the other breweries in the neighborhood (Deschutes and Bridgeport) since it's not fancied up with beautiful wood or a loft-style interior- just benches, booths, and good beer.

The Farmer's Market on Saturday is even closer than the Wednesday one- it's on the most south part of the South Park Blocks, so I don't have to go to the other side of the South Park blocks. And, it is many times bigger. At one of the vendors, Tastebud, I had wood fire baked brick oven bagels. I think I showed the picture of the brick oven ported to the market on Wednesday, but on Saturday they didn't have the oven, just the bagels... and they make bagel sandwiches, and pizzas. Although I was tempted by the lamb sandwich with roast leg of lamb, pesto, tomato, and arugula, I knew this was only the first few stands of the market. So, I got just a simple tomato sandwich. The bagel was smoky and chewy. I think this coming Saturday, since I have now walked the whole market and had all the samples, I can go get my lamb! I also won't let F hold onto the raspberry lemon soda because it was all gone before I could even taste it. And he didn't even offer to get me another one! :(

Another thing I really want to go back to the market for is some bread. I already had purchased a loaf of bread earlier in the week to make peanut butter sandwiches (with crunchy and roasted organic peanut butter of course) and cheese sandwiches for lunch. But, as soon as I finish my loaf, I want some of Dave's Killer Bread! Not only does the guy actually look sorta like the illustration which I think is awesome, but the 21 whole grains bread was really good! I don't think I've had bread that good since high school. I also think the sprouted seed peace bread would be great with a little butter (say my honey pecan or black truffle butter from Zupan's that I got the other day) alongside some wine for a picnic. :D

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Other great finds was a stand that just had roasted peppers. The roasted peppers were sold in ziploc bags with numbers to indicate how spicy they peppers were... and freshly roasted in what you see below. The bags were still steamy and warm. Along with the rainbow of tomatoes at another stand and a pickle stand, you could come up with quite a cold plate! I did get some of the peppers, which was only $5 for a pound of blackened peppers. It took me 3 days to eat them though since I was eating them by myself and there were only like 5 peppers in it for one person to eat, and one of them was supersize. We passed on the tomatoes and pickle, and I was able to convince myself to not get more greens since I already had asparagus and spinach at home, though they looked great. But I finally was too tempted by the various baked good stands to not get something (I got a cheese and sunflower seed bread which was amazing- the first time I walked around there were like half a dozen, but the second time I circled to make purchases and got the very last one!). F was the one that got us to get the Sol Pop which I had successfully resisted the first time around- I got the basil lemon and he got raspberry nectarine. Mine was better because of the tartness. The cart guy was happy the sun had come out (it was cloudy and cool for quite a while- many people had sweatshirts, sweaters, and coats on), telling us it was easier to sell the pops with sun. :)

For dinner that night, I had some of the roasted peppers, since they were so fresh. I also made asparagus which I shook in a ziploc bag with olive oil, and then drizzled with a bit of truffle infused oil and then sprinkled with roasted hazelnuts.  A couple nights later we made our own broccoli pizza on wheat dough. I like the baby broccoli trees. So far, the pizza is the only thing we have eaten together besides the Sol pops.

All that food were really good. I still have a lot of hazelnuts left, but I am going to try to save them for the pancakes. F brought this over to me at the Fred Meyer and we laughed at it... and then I wanted it just to try and see what would happen. He's been mocking me about it ever since, asking when I'm going to make pancakes. I just want to say for the record that he started it though- I don't even know where he got it from and I had probably walked right by it. And I laughed at the pre-made pb&j sandwiches before with him- but I wasn't the fool who lifted it off the shelf and brought it to the cart like he did.

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I live just across the expressway bridge from Portland State University (PSU), which means every time I take the 20 minute walk to the downtown area, I walk through the campus. Inevitably I have been comparing it to the Harvard campus, which is the most recent campus I walked on when I was visiting Lynn in Boston 2 weeks ago, and also Northwestern and University of Chicago's. All of these schools are much prettier than PSU in terms of buildings. But, PSU is also by the South Park Blocks, which is a promenade of tall trees and statues and memorials or art (Roosevelt and Lincoln are there) that goes on for several long blocks (I only walk half of it, the entire south park blocks are 12 blocks, and there also exists the North Park Blocks on the other side of town). As I walk east and then north to the downtown area, although I can make turns to walk through the Cultural District instead, I prefer walking through the shady trees of the park unless I am thwarted by a crowd of construction workers. They are working on some building which I'm not sure whether it is a museum (there is a history and art museum already here) or a building for the school or what, but twice there have been several dozen of them taking up a park block on their own across from the construction site. Each block is supposed to have some sort of "art" piece, but besides Lincoln and the fountain at the most north block of the South Park blocks, I actually like the "living art" of the visual of a gaggle of 20-30 vested hard hatted guys milling around a single block. It reminds me of a scene you would see made of Tonka toys or Legos.

On Wednesday and Saturdays the Portland Farmer's Market visits the PSU/South Park Blocks area. I went to visit the market on Wednesday since all my boxes were successfully delivered on Monday and Tuesday and I had no more deliveries expected until Friday. I should have thought to bring my own bags to the market, as almost everyone else had their cloth tote with them. I mainly had one vendor in mind - the mushroom stand. I did get very tempted by the dahlias that the three flower vendors were offering though- you really get a huge bouquet for less than $20, better than any florist or grocery store so far that I've seen. I really liked the white dahlias, but I got rid of all my vases in Chicago so that held me back. I think I will wait until F buys me an arrangement, which inevitably will come with a vase because he never just buys bouquets on their own (that's how I amassed such a collection in Chicago). Look at the size of the arrangements thouigh!

I walked around the market in a circle before finishing up at the mushroom vendor. Last time I had been here I had tasted some of the cheese from the cheese stands, and purchased a croissant from one of the two bakery vendors, and I didn't notice that they had anything different so I passed them by. I noticed the cute cookies at another bakery vendor which had a small crowd in front of it, and the huge wood burning oven where you can order warm pita sandwiches and get bagels. Besides the wood burning brick oven vendor, there is also an Italian sausage vendor with a big grill as well as a tamale stand. F was the one who suggested I try the tamale stand, saying it was known for beig good. PersonallyI didn't think the tamales were as good as the ones at Santa Monica's farmer's market, or Canby Farm's spicy asparagus tamales from the Bite of Portland. They are very popular though- when I walked through the market, it had just opened around 10am and no one was there. When F and I tried it during my interview week, we went a little closer to lunch, and only had a few people ahead of us in line. When I looked up after finishing my tamale with F, I suddenly saw a line of a dozen people. Same thing this Wednesday too- when I walked through later today on my way home after exploring a bit more of the Shopping District around 12:30, there was a line for the tamales that went around the booths down the sidewalk a bit.

Already though there was already a line for the berry vendor. The strawberries were very sweet, and good thing she brought so many of them, they were going like hotcakes bundled with her raspberry and blueberry offerings which can be grouped together as you like for your very own berry box mix. All the women in front of me took the boxes of strawberries I was eyeing though, so I went for a walk while she was replenishing her table and got distracted by fresh apple cider. I think he was surprised when he offered me a little sample and I just gulped it down without sipping it for taste. But, it was good- reminded me of the apple cider my mom used to get at a farmstand on the way home from school sometimes when we lived in South Holland. I got a gallon even though I knew I would have to lug it all the way home. He told me it would only last a few weeks, which I laughed at because it will be gone by next week.

Last time I visited Portland, I was very tempted to buy a bag of mushrooms to make pasta- they had it wrapped up in a bag with pasta and a recipe already. This time, there was nothing packaged so you had to fill your brown paper bag on your own. But, of the little 3 corner tables they had making up their corner, there was one whole table with recipes to select from.

I picked up some for the Matsukake rice for Friday for when my rice would show up (my rice cooker at least had made it already) but she also had these weird mushrooms that I had never seen before. I asked her about it, and she told me they had a light lobster flavor and was something new she was trying to offer to see if there was any interest. She only had two of them- a large one and a little one, with the smallest one being the size of my palm, and the larger one the size of both of my hands put together. She told me she likes to eat them just sauteed in butter and garlic and put with pasta, which sounded pretty good to me. I also wondered whether it could really have that kind of flavor, and if I could get F to eat it. So I got the large one! I wish I remembered what was the name of the mushroom.

F was very disturbed when he saw the mushroom before I prepared it by slicing them. He said it looked like a tribble. He was willing to poke it, but not eat it.

After I took these photos, I wiped it clean with a damp towel, sliced them up, and then sauteed them with butter, minced garlic, and then added that on top of rotini (my favorite pasta shape) and then some crunchy basil, red pepper flakes, and sprinklings of romano cheese. The previously slightly furry/hairy mushroom pieces ended up looking like fish pieces in the cooking process. I think I cut some of them too small because when I actually did eat it, I liked the bigger chunks better because they held on to their firmness better. The texture and taste I thought was very similar to whitefish, and some of the bigger pieces were more like a very the texture of a fish but the taste of a soft piece of lobster. I also realized I didn't like the butter I bought with F- although my intentions were good with the Challenge butter product being all organic and a green company and such, the taste of the unsalsted stick butter was not to my liking. It just didn't taste like much at all. I went out to Zupan's and bought Vermont butter, honey pecan butter, and black truffle butter the next day.

I plan to stop by the farmer's market again this Saturday. On the Saturday market, they have a demostration trying to highlight an unappreciated item from the farmer's market, and this week it's mushrooms!