Blue Palate

I was in a car accident the other day. Not major, but my first and enough to warrant a trip to the ER for whiplash. I’m glad to only have had a few days of neck and back pain and nothing more serious, except the hassle of a totaled car. To celebrate my survival, I cooked up the perfect remedy: steak.

Saturday’s menu started with a Camembert cheese plate with apples and sparkling wine. For dinner I made pan-seared sirloin fillets with caramelized onions and red-wine pan sauce, green salad with lemon and oil dressing, garlic Parmesan bread, all complemented with a fruity, velvety Washington cabernet. Warm cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Lots of love and attention from husband. Wounds healed.

And it’s always empowering to prepare a fall-off-your-seat meal for a quarter of the restaurant price. A couple of friends recently spent $300 at a popular Portland steakhouse and left feeling undernourished. I spent less than $50 and was healed head to toe.

While I don’t believe eating is the best method of dealing with one’s emotions, a little comfort food can go a long way to heal temporary wounds. It’s not so much the food, but the power restored to my body and mind knowing I still have the ability to create something spectacular.

A bowl of pho a day may keep the doctor away. (Image by androog)

Pho was one of those dishes I was always a little afraid to try. Mostly because I didn’t know anything about it. I knew it was soup and many versions contained tripe. Not a fan of animal intestines, I steered clear.

Given my fear of pho, I wasn’t sure what compelled me one afternoon to walk into Pho Hung, a popular and oddly located restaurant off SE Powell and 47th. (Pho Hung is a small chain and has a few locations in the Portland area and a couple in Texas, strangely enough). As soon as I opened the menu, my apprehension subsided. Pho Hung makes things very easy for the pho phobic. Options are categorized into Adventurer’s Choice (think lots of tripe and tendons), Everyday Favorites (still somewhat tripe-y) and For Beginners (completely tripeless).

Just to be on the very safe side I ordered the chicken noodle soup. The waiter brought a little dish of bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, and hot peppers, which I had watched other patrons add to their steaming bowls. The broth was salty, rich, tart from the lime and slightly sweet. It had an exotic herbal flavor and aroma I couldn’t pinpoint. The noodles were soft and plentiful, the fresh garnished added texture and bright flavors, and the chicken was tender breast meat. No intestines in sight.

The pho at Pho Hung is a fantastic deal at $6.50 for a large, definitely enough soup and noodles to feel satisfied if not stuffed. Those not in the mood for soup can choose from other entrees like bun (vermicelli noodle bowls), rice dishes and other specialties. Even the most expensive dish is under $10.

Since my first bowl at Pho Hung, pho has become one of my favorite budget meals. Pho phobic? Pho Hung is a perfect place to break yourself in.

He could save 20% on his food budget. (Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar)

The other day my sister Caitlan asked me if I thought $350 was an excessive monthly food budget for one person. I said I thought it was, but eventually changed my mind. Those of us who are conscious about what we buy and put in our bodies can easily spend $12 a day on groceries. In our current food system, whole foods like lean meats, fresh produce, whole grains and unprocessed sugars are generally more expensive than refined foods made with cheap fructose. Cost rise considerably for those who choose organic over conventionally grown foods.

It’s a dilemma I share with my sister. How do we feed ourselves well, have less impact on the planet, and spend less than $50 per week per person? I decided to experiment by cutting one of the most expensive items from my food budget this week: meat.

My husband and I cook meat at home about 4-5 times per week. Even though it’s not an every day occurrence, meat accounts for approximately 20% - 30% of our weekly food budget. Trim that off the bill and we’ll have met our goal of less than $50 per week per person. But will we feel satisfied? Will we get enough protein? Without possessing the convictions behind vegetarianism, will it be difficult to stick to a truly meatless diet? And do we really have to eat tofu?

Today we started with a meatless breakfast burrito and plan to have leftover veggie pizza for lunch. Dinner will be a cauliflower and pea curry with brown rice. So far so good. I’ll blog over the next week about our experimentation with vegetarianism. Stay tuned.

image credit: Aubrey Arenas

Traveling on a tight budget can be tricky, especially in winter months when camping isn’t an easy option for those light on gear. After the costs of airfare or gas, hotel, and sightseeing add up, often there’s little leftover for fine wining and dining.

The gastronomic experience in a new city or town is as important to many as the museums, events, sports, shopping or hiking. Also, part of being on vacation is a holiday from the kitchen and monotony of everyday cooking. How do we eat well on the road and have money leftover to buy groceries when we get home?

Having taken many trips with limited funding, I’ve devised a few strategies for sticking to a budget and enjoying the culinary aspects of tourism.

• Book a hotel room with a small kitchenette. Cook most meals, especially breakfast and lunch, and splurge on a couple of nice meals. Grocery shopping in a new city can be as fun as dining out!
• Drink in your hotel room and save your money for meals. Alcohol can be the most expensive part of dining out. Buy a couple of your favorite bottles of wine or some cocktail makings and have a drink and appetizer (like some healthy nuts) on your balcony rather than the bar. At the restaurant, hold the alcohol or just order a glass instead of a whole bottle.
• Research restaurants before you go. Often, if we are unfamiliar with a city, we find ourselves hungry, desperate and eating in over-priced, underwhelming tourist-trap restaurants recommended by the concierge. Read up on a city or town’s top-rated restaurants, which aren’t always the most expensive, especially in local entertainment guides or weeklies. Websites like Yelp and TripAdvisor are useful too. (Read the customer reviews!)
• Be adventurous. The fun of traveling to a new place is trying new cuisine, the best food is often the local food. Eat where the locals eat. Venture from the downtown. Visit an international neighborhood or a college campus. You’ll likely find yourself paying less and having a more intriguing experience than if you ate at the fancy bistro across the street from your hotel.
• Splurge on one or two great meals. If you can’t have a vacation without visiting a five-star restaurant, pick one or two to visit for lunch (cheaper) or dinner, and eat frugally for the other meals.

Are you a seasoned budget traveler? Share your tips for vacation dining with fewer finds.

A Yuctatan breakfast (photo credit: joiseyshowaa)

I’m definitely a savory breakfast person.  I’ll take hashbrowns over pancakes any day, and biscuits call out to me more than any version of danish or muffin. When I traveled to England and Ireland and ate my first fry up, I discovered the joys of beans for breakfast, and have been trying to conjure ways to serve them with eggs ever since.

With a big pot of leftover black beans needing inspiration this morning, I decided to make the “full breakfast” of the Americas: huevos rancheros. However, after a little research, I discovered my version of this popular Mexican breakfast is actually a closer cousin to huevos motulenos, the classic breakfast of the Yucatan Peninsula. While rancheros call for tortillas, eggs and the eponymous ranchero sauce, motulenos always incorporate black beans, the star of my Saturday morning.

I decided to use some bagged spinach for extra nutrients. The result: a healthy, inexpensive savory breakfast and enough protein to sustain my frosty morning run.

Saturday Morning Quick Huevos Motulenos
Heat 2-4 servings of leftover or canned beans in a large skillet. Add veggies, such as chopped spinach, frozen corn, diced bell pepper, etc, if desired. Crack desired number of eggs onto beans and cover. Turn heat to medium-low and cook until eggs poach to desired firmness. Serve beans on or aside heated tortillas. Serve with optional toppings, such as salsa (I used Trader Joe’s chipotle salsa) or picante, grated cheese, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, etc.

Photo credit: jmacphoto.com

A Dutch friend of mine once said he was appalled that Americans eat corn on-the-cob. “That’s what pigs eat,” he said. If that’s true, Dutch pigs must be happy pigs, because there’s nothing tastier ear of sweet summer corn slathered in butter and salt. Oink, oink.

Summer means sweet corn and cheap corn. My parents would buy it by the bushels in August and my dad would boil it, cut it from the cob, and freeze it. We ate like it was summer until November, about the time my Dad would announce we were eating the last bag. We savored the buttery sweetness, knowing we wouldn’t experience it for another nine months.

Feeling like I haven’t had my corn fix this summer, I bought three ears for a dollar and remixed a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for Black Bean and Corn Salad. Cook’s warned not to even attempt to use frozen or canned corn, as only fresh would do. Amen. Here’s my version:

Black Bean, Avocado and Corn Salad

3 ears of sweet corn
1 can of black beans
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes or 4-5 small tomatoes sliced into wedges
1 cup diced onion or scallion
2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapeno or 1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 avocado, chopped

Dressing:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, diced or pressed
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper to taste
juice from 1/2 lime

Boil the corn for 5 to 7 minutes. Cool and cut kernels from the cob. Drain and rinse beans. Whisk dressing ingredients and toss beans and corn with dressing and remaining ingredients. Serve over romaine or alone with warm quesadilla or corn tortillas, or with tortilla chips as an appetizer.

Pepe's in Santa Rosa, CA

Burritos are just about the perfect meal. They are cheap and filling and usually represent the major food groups. Put together with the right ingredients they are delicious. Only a handful of restaurants and food carts in Portland serve perfection in a tortilla, perhaps because we’re far from the border or because most the really good places have yet to become mainstream (I suspect the latter). Given the perfect burrito is hard to find in the state I now call home, any Blue Palate visit to California must include a stop at a taqueria. I always find time to lunch at Pepe’s off Stony Point Rd. in Santa Rosa, CA.

Pepe’s is a tiny Mexican food shack on the corner of a busy intersection, on the edge of Santa Rosa’s largest Hispanic neighborhood, easy to miss among the mega food stores, fast food joints, and gas stations. Some out-of-towners might mistake it for just another hole in the wall. On the contrary, Pepe’s boasts “The Best Burrito in Town.” I don’t doubt it.

If you happen to find yourself at this farming community hot spot, be sure to try their carne asada burrito. The carnitas are tangy and crispy, the tortillas made by hand. My husband Peter and I did lunch Blue Palate style and shared a burrito and two tacos, and loaded up on salsas and marinated jalapenos from their plentiful salsa bar. Perfect food.

So, burrito lovers: Where do you find perfection?

Photo credit: Joe Pemberton

Interstate 5 from Oregon to California, which I’ve driven a dozen or so times in my life, is the quickest way to travel up and down the west. It’s scenic in parts, but mostly it’s just straight and quick. And if you’re trying to make it to San Francisco in less than ten hours, be prepared to sacrifice any grand culinary aspirations. The freeway is dotted with the typical fast food and truck stop options, easy on the wallet but not always the palate.

I have found a little gem among the Taco Bells and Iron Skillets in the little town of Yreka neat the California and Oregon border. It’s definitely a convenient pit stop town, the first after climbing and descending the precarious Siskiyou pass. Nature’s Kitchen on Yreka’s main drag is a tiny oasis among a sea of fast food and gas station food marts. You can sit down for a quick, healthy sandwich and fresh juice or grab an iced espresso and a homemade date bar (big enough for two!). Best of all, this tiny natural cafe/store provides a dimly lit, peaceful sanctuary from the freeway, complete with calming smells of cumin and sandalwood, kind, smiling shopkeepers, and chant or flute music that will surely take the edge off.

Jump back on the freeway, hit 70 mph, and enjoy the view of Mt. Shasta, thankful you successfully dodged the drive thru window.

I have mixed feelings about cheap beer. Beer is high in calories for a beverage and if I’m going to spend it I like to taste it. But a pint of Pabst Blue Ribbon or can of Hamm’s can be quite refreshing on a hot day and I can drink a couple and not feel heavy headed. And the best thing about cheap beer? It’s cheap. Here are a few of my favorite spots in Portland to drink cheap beer.

Photo credit: Whatknot

The Standard - At this Northeast hidden gem you can drink Rainier on Monday and Hamm’s on Wednesday for a buck a can. Yes folks, for one dollar you can sip an adult beverage, play shuffleboard, or lounge in their large patio. Save your remaining dollars for the county fair-esque photo booth.

Zach’s Shack - Known for their delicious dogs and late-night hours, Zach’s Shack on Hawthorne has one dynamite refrigeration system. Their cans of PBR are the coldest in town. During their extended happy hour (4 p.m. - 8 p.m. every day), you can chase away the heat for $1.25.

Captain Ankeny’s Well - Probably best known for their authentic deep dish pizza, Captain Ankeny’s has the most variety I’ve seen when it comes to happy hours. $1.25 on select pints some nights, $1.95 select small pitchers on others, sometimes only $0.50 off.  But if you land on the right night of the week between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., you can drink - and eat - for dollars.

Cheap beer is plentiful, even in the land of $5 microbrews. Where’s your favorite place to knock back a cold one for a buck or two?

Black beans are a true Blue Palate Special. They’re full of protein, folate, fiber, magnesium, iron and other wonderful nutrients. Black beans low in fat and can cost as low as $0.49 per can. And prepared my special way they can be quite delicious and served a variety of ways. This recipe takes about 15 minutes.The total cost for the recipe was around $3 and will feed 2-4 depending on how it’ s served.

Black Beans a l’Awesome

Chop one half of a yellow onion and one anaheim pepper. Saute in a little olive oil on medium heat until tender. Add 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp powdered chipotle or chili powder and 1 tsp salt. Saute for two minutes. Add one small can of diced tomatoes. Mix until tomatoes are coated and cook until aromatic, about 2 minutes. Drain two cans of black beans and add to mixture. Cook for 10 minutes on medium-low heat.

Ideas for serving:

Spoon beans atop baked russet or sweet potatoes or fresh-baked corn bread.
Serve with warm corn tortillas.
Serve with cooked brown rice and pico de gallo.
Add to a burrito, along with some lettuce, rice, cheese and salsa.
Served alone, topped with a little cheddar cheese, sour cream or avocado.