Return of the vegetarians

After many dark years of watching who could find something new to put bacon on (and finding little reason to write for this blog), Portland restaurants appear to be rediscovering vegetarianism. The masses spoke at Portland Food and Drink, listing bacon as the ingredient most in need of retirement. Now, the venerated Genoa has announced a vegetarian tasting menu.

VegFest (uh, a little late...)

Where does the time go? Discovery: having a child on the way consumes free time. Just imagine what could happen _after_the_child_is_born_.

...

After that bombshell, you are probably barely able to sustain any more news. But good luck, this is old news. Back in mid-march, something called VegFest took place. This appears to have been the second annual event. Unfortunately, I only saw news of it in a Willamette Week ad...two days after it took place.

But in the interest of giving them a little early publicity for next year, I mention it here. With any luck, I'll make it next year. If vegetarians (and sympathizers--you know who you are) show up for these events, local chefs will believe there's a market for more veg dishes on their menus. Good, sí?

Regardless, the sponsors of VegFest were Northwest Veg, who dutifully report on VegFest on their home page, and membership information, newsletters and what have you. Check 'em out...

Vegan "fish" sauce

As I mentioned in my last post, those of you trying to get closer to the flavors you taste in Vietnamese & Thai restaurants will want to check out Longan Brand Dipping Sauce at Nam Phu'o'ng Market. Nam Phu'o'ng is located at 6834 NE Sandy Blvd.

Pho Hung

We went to Pho Hung on 82nd for supper last night, to meet some friends halfway. I had hopes when we saw the fairly nice decor as we entered. Three strikes: glacial service, no beer, and only 1 vegetarian choice. Pho Hung offers the standard Bun Cha Gio Chay, vegetarian spring rolls over rice vermicelli noodles. Which was fine, except that their sauce reeked of fish. Getting the Longan Tree Brand vegetarian dipping sauce available at the Vietnamese market on NE Sandy would be an improvement. Offering a few more dishes would give them a chance that I return. And for god's sake, don't restaurants make most of their money on alcohol sales? Where's the beer?

We could, perhaps, add Pho Hung to the growing trend of restaurants that seem to have spent more energy on decor than food: Fenouil, Balvo, and Rafael's among others.

I'll check the name of the market that carries that vegetarian "fish sauce" and post once I have it. It occurs to me that many people may not know of it. The market is on the South side of NE Sandy, in the Vietnamese area.

veg tv

A NY Times article on narrowcasting--creating a video-centric web site for a niche audience--includes reference to Veg TV I took a look at this site today, and it reminds me more of one of those celebrity gossip TV shows than anything useful about vegetarianism.

When the site loads, it automatically loads video of Pink expressing her doubts about receiving an award from PETA. So be warned, if you're at work. Most of the main page video clips offered seem to come from that same show. Clicking on the "Recipes" link offers video recipes for basics like Kung Pao Mock Chicken, but flog online vendors with infomercial-quality actors before getting to cooking.

I am glad to see this site appear and hope its success will lead to more sophisticated competitors. But perhaps I'm too snooty. Check it out for yourself and comment away...

Once you go vegan...

Tabla continues two traditions with their latest email: special vegan suppers and a bewildering black font on dark grey background. Stylistic concerns aside, the first dinner sold out, so call Tabla soon if you want a table. This one takes place Sunday, March 12th at 6pm, and features North African (!) cuisine. Four course meal, $35 per person. Don't blame me for the short notice, I just got their email last night. :-D

Mini-review: Fenouil

I hesitated to do this after all the controversy about service at this restaurant, but I went there before all that started, so... Actually, I went to Fenouil knowing little more than "chi chi new restaurant in the Pearl." My work group has a tradition of going out to eat for each person's birthday, and a birthday girl back in early Febraury chose Fenouil.

Wow, what can I say. My first impression walking in was "Arizona." Not that I've been, but the light colors and too-clever interior design struck me as everything that Portland isn't. While they get good initial marks for friendly hosts and having our table for 10 ready to go (why does a restaurant ever fail that test?), the experience started its steady slide toward mediocre soon after. First, with two vegetarians in the group, we had asked whether they had vegetarian offerings and were assured there were "many." Restaurants: I will say this succinctly: do NOT add your 4 salads to your mental list of veg entrées. Salads are nice, but is that how you want to compete for vegetarian business?

Ahem.

So we two vegetarians wound up having the risotto, which was fine, but nothing special. Point 2: anyone who can cook can make risotto. If you're going to offer that, do it well. The server offered up the possibility that the chef could make a pasta with vegetables, but point 3: pasta primavera? See point 1. But more relevantly, we order. The server does not know how to pronounce many of the wines. No bread arrives. Water arrives after perhaps 10 minutes. Our glasses of wine arrive perhaps 10 minutes after that. The food takes most of an hour to arrive. We are seated near the fireplace, I at the end of the table closest to the server bar. Which affords me steady opportunity to watch chaos ensue. Confused orders, the sous chef telling the server how to place orders next time, etc etc. The bread, from La Provence Bakery, was wonderful.

But out of all this, I had this sense that whatever they had focused on for this restaurant, it wasn't daily operations. I note, months into their life, that the Fenouil web site still says basically "coming soon." It lacks even basic information like days and hours open.

What I find, in many areas of life, is that where people are strongest, they place the most emphasis. I have a sense with Fenouil of a person who had a vision of making a (to his/her eyes) beautiful building and worried little about the restaurant within. I hope to find reason to go back with my wife, but have not heard that reason yet.

Tabla vegan meal review?

If anyone attended the Tabla vegan meal last night, please send me a link to your review or feel free to post your thoughts/review/menu in the comment section for this post. I was not able to attend, but I am plenty curious to hear how the evening was!