Jaded

http://www.jadeteahouse.com

Nah, I would be "jaded" if I avoided the first obvious blog post title that presented itself.

I enjoyed my experience at this place so much last night, that I'm resurrecting my weblog. Next step: finding and charging my camera, taking pictures of things that I cook again, etc.

THIS PLACE ROCKS. Now. Disclaimer. Part of the reason that it rocks so strongly is because it's like the proprietors designed it with Carrina's dream restaurant in mind from start to finish. Adorable but unpretentious exterior? Yup. Sunny, laid-back, high-ceiling interior? Indeed. Oh, yes - the food. Menu with Vietnamese baguette sandwiches (banh mi, right? All that pickled crunchy daikon goodness) in the center, but splayed out in all directions, from sticky fish sauce wings (yes) to pho (YES) to spicy rice noodles of varied shapes and sizes (YES!).

But wait. You call yourself a "Teahouse and Patisserie." Meaning that I could sip on what sound to be satisfying teas and enjoy the free wi-fi or board games that are hanging out in that casual section toward the back? I won't, because this place is far, far from my neighborhood - but I COULD, which edges this place towards its third Carrinalin star.

And... what's that - patisserie? I'm sorry, in addition to baking your own fantastic baguettes for the sandwiches, you also have a cornucopia of baked, puffed, and/or filled goods? As we were walking out, I saw someone being served a layered, moussy, cross-section invention in pale green - some sort of matcha tiramisu? There were also multi-colored sandwich macaroons, a broiled s'more cookie (Mike liked it) and, and, AND - an amazing chewy sesame ball* (think cream puff or beignet except the texture is fifty times better) with pureed and fluffed angels' wings inside. Oh, I'm told that was actually some sort of combination of sweet bean paste and coconut. Served with a caramel dipping sauce. And the caramel dipping sauce officially gets Jade to its fourth star.

Mike had the sandwich with the barbecued pork. He couldn't eat a lot of it because he didn't pay attention to the cilantro advisory, but I sampled quite a bit and can tell you that it was everything wonderful. The daikon slices were as thick as maybe three pieces of copier paper. Carrot, cilantro, cilantro mayo, a little marination magic on the veggies, and barbecued pork - BOOM. Magic. And magic bread that holds up through it all.

I had the sticky fish sauce wings and rice. I've heard people talk about them at Pok Pok but have a bit of a chip on my shoulder for that place. I'm not a wings person, but I had to try them and was glad I did - crispy, sticky, SALTY, sweet. Good meat. Cilantro sprigs on top. Some cucumber, tomato, and plenty of wing-y juice to entertain me while I waited for my molten wings to cool down. They weren't braised wings drowned in sauce, which is what I have on occasion observed when I see others eat wings. Each individual wing was a crackling little treat. The coating reminded me in some weird way of a candy store at the coast - but if that creeps you out, don't listen to me, because all you need to know is that they were awesome.

In summary - I am now a fangirl. Now if only this restaurant-in-a-house could take a Dorothy-like journey up the river to St. Johns - I would be SET!

*appears in the left-hand corner of the picture

Spumoni! (from Staccato Gelato)

Now granted, the only spumoni experience I have for comparison is that sweet spumoni that comes in the metal mini-goblet thing at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I even found a picture through Google Images confirming that my fond childhood memories of the "metal mini-goblet thing" are accurate. Behold:

"Old Spaghetti Factory: We treat you like mafia royalty."

Photo from blogtown.portlandmercury.com, 3/2008 review of the Old Spaghetti Factory's lunch menu - direct link to the review was taking five minutes to pull up, so I have given up on it. I will try back later to see if I can cite my source properly.

Anyway, I always loved the Spaghetti Factory's spumoni, and I still do. I'm so glad that my parents never told me (or that I never listened when they told me) that the three members of that alluring tri-color swirl were chocolate, cherry, and pistachios. Pistachios - most definitely a member of the nut family, and I declared war on that family around age 12 (Mom?) Pistachios got a brief early childhood exemption from this war because my cool aunt and uncle always had them hanging around, but eventually I lumped them in with all the other nuts I hated. Even now, I won't seek them out although I have no problem with them. But in spumoni, they're another story...

We used our Staccato Gelato 2-for-1 Chinook Book coupon yesterday. I can think of many sweets that I prefer to ice cream/gelato/sorbet, simply because ice cream is cold and hurts my teeth unless I eat it sideways. Staccato Gelato, however, has different flavors every time we go there, which means that while Mike goes to get his ice cream fix, I go to try out new flavors (past winners: Honey Lavender, Mojito, Rose Petal, Thai Iced Tea - yes, I am partial to the girlie foodie flavors. Check out their full list of flavors here, although you'll notice Spumoni isn't even listed, which implies that there may be other sleeper flavors that don't make it onto the official list).

We each got the second-smallest size, which still gets you up to three flavors if you so choose. Mike got Cherry Chocolate Chip, Creamsicle (tasted exactly like an Orange Julius if you ask me - not that I'm complaining), and something else. I got Spumoni, Spumoni, and Spumoni. And since I am writing this post about it, you already know that I loved it. The chocolate - oh so chocolatey - and not too sweet. The cherry - sweet and light, with little candied cherries mixed in every so often. And the pistachio - meaty and delicious.

The picture below is all melty, since we drove home with our gelato. Next time, I'll try to bring the camera along.

YUM! That is all.

Classic. I'm not going to say that I "forgot the attachment" (in the mental health world they say "I have an attachment disorder" - har, har), but one way or another, the adorable Dunkin' Donuts picture didn't make it up here on the first try. Let's give this another go.

Oh, and since I've already received a couple of comments on facebook re: the glove element to this shot: the gloves are not supposed to indicate that this coffee is a corrosive substance (any more than coffee already is). I just invested in a sweet new pair of Casabella water-stop gloves, and as the coffee, gloves, and thirty other pieces of clutter were hanging out together on the kitchen counter, I noticed that the gloves made the DD packaging look even purtier. So, I got them to pose for a picture together.

Not great, not bad, just... coffee. But, oh! the packaging!

Six to eight weeks ago, I stumbled upon the world of online free samples and sent my future self some tasty treats. The first free sample arrived last night: Dunkin' Donuts original blend coffee - medium roast. I brewed it up this morning, and I'm here to tell you that it's not bad, but I don't get what everyone raves about. When I opened up the packet I thought I smelled a little cinnamon - Mexican, not cassia - but the aroma didn't transfer to my cup o' joe. If the free sample box had come with a doughnut hole for me to set afloat in my coffee cup - like those hot chocolate packets that come with mini-marshmallows - that might have changed things. Does this coffee get attention because people are used to consuming it in between bites of frosted treats? A kind of publicly traded comfort food?

Anyway, I don't anticipate publishing many free-sample reviews in the future; but frankly, I love the colors of the accompanying picture and thought they might look nice against my blue background - I'm still having fun with all the formatting decisions I have to make. And posting this review gets me to post #3, which will be a charm! Tomorrow, I'm calling a re-match on a chili recipe that I tried last week, but essentially ruined (along with my husband's and my respective digestive tracts) by using an obscene amount of "El Pato" hot sauce to compensate for the fact that I had run out of chili powder.