I was out of town for a week, but I still learned some stuff about food in Portland! Here’s my list.
I’ve craved Hat Yai’s fried chicken, roti, and curry. While I was up on the Olympic Peninsula I kept thinking back to the meal I had at Hat Yai that was a plate of fried chicken, fried roti, and a rich bowl of curry. It’s an incredible flavor bomb of a meal—my favorite of 2018 so far.
I finally had a drink at Wilf’s. When I got back into town Wednesday night, I stopped in at Wilf’s, next to the Amtrak station. I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised at the interior, which was moody in a kind of dark NYC lounge way. I sat at the bar and had a lovely cocktail—gin, St Germain, citrus, and champagne. I can see myself stopping in again, maybe to hear some live music next time.
Current lunch fave: Fleur de Lis’s Harvest Bowl. I’ve now had this twice and love it for lunch. It’s a base of farro topped with cubed roasted squash, roasted golden and red beets, red onion and kale. It comes with tahini dressing and a couple pieces of the bakery’s amazing rustic bread, and you can get it topped with chicken. Pro tip: add avocado to make it even better.
Excited about Kinn Kao’s happy hour. Andrea Damewood wrote a helpful article in the Merc about the happy hour at Kinn Kao, a Northern Thai bar downstairs from Sweet Basil Thai restaurant on NE Broadway (not far from Bridgetown Bites HQ). I’d been to the space when it was still Sweet Basil, celebrating their 17th birthday party with them last October; that was shortly before they changed it over to the Kinn Kao name. The happy hour sounds super tasty and I plan to stop by soon.
