Straight Edge Life

Ok. So the appropriate time for eating Chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce is on canadian bacon and pineapple pizza. Discovered this last week when I ran out of regular flavor Tabasco with a hot pizza on my lap. To My surprise, the chipotle flavor stuff is better. I know, seems impossible, right? But it’s true! The combination of the pineapple, the salty cheese and pizza sauce with that low down smoky flavor of tabasco chipotle is just amazing. The vinegar flavor of regular tabasco is a bit to acute when put on canadian bacon and pineapple pizza. It’s still good on mushroom and olive pizza. But I’m betting that once you try Chipotle on the canadian bacon stuff you won’t be able to go back.

Chipotle Tabasco is also pretty damn good on grilled burgers.

The blood of my life. You would never think that such a simple mixture of pepper, salt, and vinegar could be so stunningly pleasurable. The taste, of the taste… it’s to die for. I can barely go a day without two Tabasco soaked quesadillas. Pizza, Tabasco. Burritos, Tabasco. Chips, bagels, you name it. Every thing is better with Tabasco. If there is any food on this planet that deserves a 10 out of 10 rating, it is Tabasco, the Original Flavor.

Abou Karim - Authentic Lebanese Cuisine in Portland is fast becoming my favorite restaurant. I put it to the test this weekend by sending myself and two parties on two separate nights to give it a run for the money.

The verdict; in short, perfection. The food is delicious, served promptly, well-prepared and presented. The service is astonishingly friendly and warm. You’ll feel like family the second you walk through the door. It’s small, comfortable, entertaining (live music certain nights of the week) and refreshing to dine here.

They serve a solid range of Lebanese dishes along side a number of Mediterranean standards done in Lebanese style. And with the diversity of dishes I sampled this weekend, there isn’t an item on the menu that I wouldn’t have again. In fact, your biggest disagreement with this restaurant might be your own fit on indecision while wrestling between kabobs, a meal made of appetizers, the daily special (whatever it may be), or one of their delicious lamb entrees. And I’m not a coffee drinker, but my father, who introduced me to Abou Karim, and is an authority in these matters, says their turkish coffee is quite fine indeed.

This place gets the stamp of approval from my immediate friends, friends of friends and family: Ann, Mike, Dorothy, Donia, Paul, Steve, and Daniel. I give it a hearty 10 out of 10.

You can find Abou Karim at 221 SW Pine in Portland. They’re not open on Sundays (if I remember correctly), and they sell some of their food here in Eugene at Wild Oats and PC Market of Choice. They cater. They satisfy the tummy. They rock. 503-223-5058

This place is fun. It’s on 13th near the U of O bookstore and it’s open relatively late (for Eugene). They’ve got a selection of typical lunch sandwiches and bagels and that stuff, but the real attraction is their colorful array of Taiwanese Bubble Tea. You can score milk tea, black tea, or green tea with flavor additives (everything from honeydew melon to chocolate) and fun tapioca balls for an extra 50 cents.

If you go, expect to hear a lot of Cantonese and see pretty much the entire population of Chinese students who got stuck on campus this summer. It’s really quite a fun place and the tea is very very tasty.

You have to protect what you love. Whether it’s your sense of place, your home, your family, or your passions…

There’s a woman with an s+m collar on at the counter talking to the dreadlocked barrista dude on the other side. There’s a mexican guy sitting at the table next to me reading the paper and a small green book. I just watched two gorgeous young women talk and laugh gracefully with each other for 15 minutes across the way. There’s a guy with a greasy adidas hat, hooded sweatshirt, hammer-loop jeans, and rings on his fingers eating a burrito like it was the first thing he’s eaten in three days. His watch, it’s distractingly shiny. There’s a guy with an iBook sitting in the corner watching it all go by around him. His knees are popping up and down with the beat of the music on his headphones. “I Will Survive” remake by cake. I can here it from here. There’s an array of watercolor paintings by a local artist on the walls. There’s a guy that looks like Paul Bunyon who I see dancing to reggae at the WOW hall buying coffee, talking to a lady with some seriously impressive mountain boots on. A woman with a worn face and hooded sweatshirt walks by a few feet outside the window. Our eyes meet for a split second. Near the window the air is cold and the music is bad. There’s a sense of privacy here. There’s a sense of place here as well.

This is Eugene. Come here a few days in a row and you’ll see familiar faces everywhere. The guy with the adidas hat, with the very tailored gas station attendant look, he’s been in here before. I’ve seen him around. Never anywhere but here, but it still counts. I’ve run into more friends here, had more time all alone, and enjoyed meeting new people more here than any other single place in Eugene.

The patrons of Allan Brothers are from this town, they aren’t passing through and they aren’t about to invite anyone to come live here either. Oregonians. They know what they like and they keep it damn well to themselves. Even I, a californian / import to the moss-on-all-sides-of-the-tree state, I’m not about to tell people how cool this place is. Anyone I invite to Oregon, I invite during the winter or spring; when it rains the most. When you have everything you need it pays to be active about keeping it that way. This place, Eugene, Allan Brothers, Oregon, it’s not about efficiency. It’s not about profit and growth. It’s about taking the time to do it your way, to do it right. So don’t you dare come to a place like Allan Brothers in Oregon and rush through. Spend some time. Sit down and watch the people around you. Meet someone new. Wait until you see someone more than once. That’s when Allan Brother’s it at it’s best. I can’t speak for the coffee, I don’t drink it. But the cocoa is good and the atmosphere is 100% Eugene. There are a number of places like this in Eugene. Maybe someday I’ll tell you about the others. Then again, maybe not. Maybe you’ll have to find the for yourself.

The decor at the taste of India on Hilyard in Eugene is a lot of fun. You probably have to go there to understand what I mean. The entire open dining area is set under a forest of faux trees. It’s a remnant of a previous restaurant in the same location but it works really well in an Indian restaurant.

There aren’t any other indian restaurants in Eugene to use as a comparison, but I can use my life in Boston as a great reference point when examining Taste of India. Taste of India is good. The menu is broad, with all your favorite dishes, and everything I’ve had has been excellent. This is also the case with everyone I’ve taken there. And I’ve taken quite a few people to Taste of India. They have a number of vegetarian dishes and their rice is pefectly cooked.

I can’t afford to go there very often, as the prices are a little high, but for my money this is about as good as it gets in Eugene. They have a lunch time buffet that is at a reduced price, and that’s a good thing. I just never wake up early enough to eat lunch.

Cheap, accessible, friendly. I’m not overly fond of most of the food on their menu, but there are enough single items that it doesn’t stop me from coming back. The tomato cheese soup is excellent. I like the jelly they provide when they give you toast. Their burgers are consistantly good. The burritos are generally overstuffed and horrible. Far too many undercooked ingredients in the burritos. The wrong kind of beans. Their omlettes are hit and miss. Occassionaly excellent. Sometimes not. Their breakfasts are generally good. The hot chocolate, I like.

I’m not entirely sure what I should say about the Glenwood. I mean, what do you say about a place that you consider a staple in your diet? It’s like cereal for me. At least once a week I’m there chilling with friends or enjoying a bit of student watching (are they people yet?) or just grabbing a quick salad as I run around town. 6 out of 10 because their food is unpredicable. But it’s cheap and well-tuned to locals who know the menu.

It was about 10 years ago when Andy Nelson, famed Register Guard photographer, took me out to lunch at Burrito Boy. I was almost instantly hooked on their spicy green sauce. The place has strong memories for me so this review will be biased, completely.

The Burrito Boy francise has grown rapidly over the last few years. What was once one small taqueria on Franklin is now a five or six location chain with catering (or mobile anyway) services spread across Eugene and Springfield.

For $5.00 you can get a killer wet veggie burrito that will fill your stomach for a good 18-24 hours. Add .50 and you can get beef or chicken. Make no mistake, Burrito Boy is about eating. It’s the kind of place where the limited menu doesn’t bug you at all. You come, you eat, you leave. The food is good. It’s the same every time, no surpises. There’s often a line of people waiting, jamming the entrance. Customers watch for open tables like lazy yuppies in SUVs looking for parking spots near Nordstroms. The service is fast and normally very nice. Sometimes even cute. Almost too cute at times. But I digress… Iit’s quite common to see native spanish speaking families dining at all times of the day in any given Burrito Boy. That’s a good sign. Where the general tasteless population needs a tangible measure of authenticity to tell them whether their food is good or not it’s a good sign. For those of us who grew up with Mexican food it’s not so important.

Burrito boy does the job and does it well. Their rapid growth hasn’t affected the quality of their food or service. They still offer the same excellent burritos, tacos and tasty green sauce as they did nearly a decade ago.

Went to the Sushi Station on 5th Street with my friend Rachel the other night. The atmosphere and food seemed authentic enough although I’m no authority or huge fan of Japanese food. Occasionally I get an uncontrollable urge for sushi that must be satisfied.
There’s another sushi joint in town, Sushi Domo, which is excellent, and preferred by my blue-haired ex-co worker, Zach. But Domo is expensive and I’ve been on a budget lately. Sushi Station charges by the plate. No, let me correct that, Sushi Station charges by the color of the plate. Sit at the bar and you make your selection from a conveyor belt of multi-colored plates where you can tell the price easily enough, but the actual sushi rolls may or may not be identifiable. I recommend simply picking what you can afford and figuring out whether you like it or not later. That’s what I did and it worked out well.

I’ve always sort of looked at sushi as a bit of a novelty. That’s not any kind of remark on Japanese cuisine in general, but the idea of eating rice and raw fish wrapped in seaweed is still new to me. So I will admit that I don’t take it all that seriously. I’m more interested in whether or not it’s delivered on a conveyor belt than if it’s flavor is refined. In fact, oh the horror, I don’t even like wasabi. I know, it’s a sushi sin, but to me it’s just amped up horseradish, and I don’t like horseradish. So take this review with a grain of salt.

The Sushi Station has good lighting, comfortable chairs, a nice floor plan and layout, attentive service and good prices. As for the quality of the food, I can’t say all that much, but it tasted pretty good to me, and Rachel didn’t complain. I give it a 7 out of 10. It probably deserves more. I don’t really know.