Tons of Great Food

Had a week of vacation and spent it enjoying lots of good food near home.

We had a wonderful meal at a brand new restaurant in McMinnville - Thistle. I think we were there on their third night. The owners are Emily and Eric, who also happen to be the only employees. Food was really impressive - I had the beet salad and flatiron steak. There's four or five appetizers and main courses plus a couple of desserts. The menu choices change every day.

We did a whole day in Portland during vacation. We had lunch at my favorite lunch place in Portland - Wildwood - a super consistent, high quality eatery with a great bar area and great lunch menu. Didn't even drink any wine, I went for an updated version of something my late father-in-law introduced me to about 27 years ago - the rye (usually Seagrams) and ginger ale. They made a version with raw ginger that was really refreshing.

Then we wandered around the Mississippi Street fair for a couple of hours (first time and would definitely go again), crossed back over the river to see the movie Away We Go and would up having dinner at one of my favorite dinner restaurants in Portland - the Veritable Quandry. They cooked some Alaskan wild salmon to perfection, but I was blown away by the handmade truffle that we had for dessert. It was simply unbelievable. It clearly highlighted the difference between something fresh and something you get out of box that was filled months ago. Just decadent with a stunning creamy texture.

We closed our vacation week with a experience that I would hesitate to make public if anyone was actually reading this blog. Nick's Italian Cafe in McMinnville - an institution in Wine Country - has started a family dinner on Sunday. It's one seating served family style. You can even bring your own wine. I won't even put the price in this blog - lets just say if it was twice as much no one at my dinner would even have blinked. There was wood-fired flat bread pizza with porcini mushrooms as one of the appetizers, and then huge plates of fettucine with mushrooms and peppers, followed by salad, then a sublime lamb stew, and finally Fred Flinstone sized piles of ribs. Ridiculously awesome, insane price and there was dessert too.