More Favorites From 2008
Since yesterday’s Oregonian Food Day section included a piece about favorite new techniques the staff had learned in 08, I decided it is not too late to continue with a short list of favorite dining experiences in the year that passed. Scott’s summer birthday meal with our wonderful friends and business partners, Cameron and Suzy, at Park Kitchen was a restaurant highlight of the year. All of my meals there over the years have been delicious and exciting. Park Kitchen and chef/owner Scott Dolich will always be at the upper end or very top of my list of favorite places in Portland. Even before he opened his own place, I loved the food when he was cooking at Ricardo Segura’s Tapeo on NW Thurman. Scott’s birthday meal began with the hard-to-resist Fried Green Beans and Bacon with Tarragon Aioli (delicious, just don’t fill up; too much great food to come), an intriguing Chilled Cucumber Soup with Almonds, Chilies and Shrimp, and a Flank Steak Salad with Blue Cheese and Sherried Onions. I ate Sliced Duck with Squash Gratin. Cameron’s Salmon with Green Bean and Sea Bean Ragout was so enticing I had to take a picture. 
Alas, I can’t even remember what the birthday boy had but I know he was happy. For dessert we had one of everything. You’re very likely to run into Scott Dolich at the Portland Farmer’s Market and he’s incredibly active and generous with organizations that feed the hungry and promote locally grown and produced foods.
Another summer highlight was a meal shared at Le Pigeon with our friends/Burgundy producers, the Millot’s from Vosne-Romanée and the Hubers from Volnay. The meal more than passed muster with them. They were impressed…with the foie gras, the lobster salad (pictured), the Painted Hills beef burger and more. 
In 2008, we ate at Naomi Pomeroy’s Beast for the first time. I won’t describe the whole meal, but I remember thinking that the charcuterie plate was one of the prettiest, most artful things I’ve seen in a restaurant without being silly and remaining wholly appetizing. It included a foie-gras bon-bon with sauternes gelée, a steak tartare and quail egg toast, a duck and pork liver with cracked olive paté, a chicken liver mousse, a house-made cracker and artisanal salami.
In October of this year, I had a very memorable food moment when, at the world-class Audubon Institute Insectarium, I ate a fried dragonfly with portobello mushroom and dijon mustard soy butter. (I just had to ask her and yes, Pirrie remembered the exact make-up and description of this dish). That same trip, I relished a plate of fried-chicken from Willie Mae’s Scotch House, in New Orleans, not too far from the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward. And I lapped up the buttery goodness of my friend Kate’s home-cooked barbequed shrimp with some great New Orleans French bread.
I’ve already written about our meals with friends in Burgundy this summer. I will treasure those. Glad I took notes. I am also happy with some new skills and recipes acquired in 08. I jammed, I canned, I gardened…I worked with puff pastry, and stirred a roux until it was the color of dark chocolate.
After all the meals and memories and kitchen adventures in 2008, there was still one thing to do…purge. Purge the cupboards, that is. Scott and I carted huge bags to the Thrift Shop. I’m not a pack-rat but was stunned by the excess of unused gadgets, unmatched cake pans and the like.
With the clutter cleared, I’m looking forward to more new skills and adventures in 2009! We start tonight by eating at Sel Gris in Portland for the first time, a place that has been on our list. Happy birthday Meri Kemp!
