PDX Quick Bites: Genoa; Foster Burger

You think I've been starving and haven't had anything worth writing about? Think again. The real reason is I've been so busy eating that my hands have been covered with bacon fat and butter and my fingers keep slipping off the keyboard! Well, my hands are freshly scrubbed, I've put down the pork belly, and it's time to share a few choice bites around town....
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GENOA
The reinvention of Genoa was, along with the revamped Castagna, the most anticipated opening of the past year in Portland. With new owners who were promising to remake the tired, fusty interior and revamp its somewhat played menu I had been very anxious to see what happened. The opportunity came a couple of weeks ago when my sister and I were invited to be guests of Genoa for dinner. (disclaimer time: they paid for our dinner, but based on what I saw going to tables across the dining room I don't think they were putting any extra effort into our dinner). Since we didn't pay, I'm not making this a review, more of my impressions of what turned out to be a very impressive dinner.

The first thing you notice when you walk in the doors at Genoa is that this, to me, is a beautifully laid out dining room. With warm, soft lighting and tables just close enough together to provide an intimate sophisticated hum this doesn't feel like a Portland restaurant dining space. More New York-ish, and I really liked it. The menu offers a five course dinner for $55, which turns out to be quite a deal. Obviously not an everyday experience for most of us, but not quite in the splurge category either. You can also opt, as we did, for their wine pairing for an additional $35 (if they want to buy my dinner it seemed rude not to take advantage of their hospitality). For those who are wine pairing averse I took a look through the rather complete wine list and was surprised to see, along with the requisite high roller bottles for those who need to stroke their egos, an impressive selection of bottles priced at $35 or less, something you don't see too often at a restaurant that aspires to the heights Genoa is reaching for. With those decisions made, the plates started rolling out of new chef David Anderson's Italian kitchen. The highlights.....
- For starters an incredibly fresh crab bruschetta was delicious, especially good paired with the offered Loire valley sauvignon blanc.
- A second course of pasta. I chose the duck tortelli which was savory and satisfying. My sis made the better choice of an amazingly flavored wild mushroom fettucine, which is one of the best versions of this dish I've ever had. The earthy mushrooms were truly a revelation.
- After a decent salad course (unfortunately paired with a very tired 2005 Arneis white from Italy, a wine which is always meant to be consumed with the first year or two of life), entrées of Cattail Creek lamb riblets and a black cod fillets with mussels in a saffron broth were both supremely satisfying. The lamb was perfectly medium rare, succulent, and thankfully paired with a sensuous sweet potato sformato. The cod was moist and tender, and the whole dish came together beautifully.
- Dessert included a panna cotta, which so many places in Portland have ruined for me, that was light, perfectly set up with a topping of chopped pistachios. Also eaten with much enjoyment was a chocolate and hazelnut Cimabue, a palate pleasing mouthful of chantilly cream custard, meringue, and cocoa goodness. I also liked the offered sips of three different dessert wines which were part of the wine pairing.

All in all this was an excellent and auspicious dinner. Even at $55 a pop I would look forward to going back as often as my wallet would allow. Obviously David Anderson shed his Indian roots he planted at Vindalho and has slipped seamlessly into the Italian vernacular, which speaks volumes about his skill set. This is a place that we need to keep our eye on and is a welcome addition to PDX's Italian food scene.

Next door to Genoa is their more casual off shoot Accanto, which is a small plates style restaurant that I have only had a drink at. I thought the space itself was a little blah, and would be helped immensely by the removal of the jarring painting of a pipe-smoking woman that assaults your sense of good taste as soon as you walk in the door. I'm no art critic but...eeesh!
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FOSTER BURGER
As much as I lamented the passing of the cozy Cava spot on SE Foster Road, I have been salivating at the possibilities offered by the just opened Foster Burger (5339 SE Foster Road) which Sel Gris chef Daniel Mondok, Pok Pok honcho Andy Ricker, and Kurt Huffman have partnered to open. This burger bar (which may be PDX's answer to NY restaurateur Danny Meyer's ever expanding Shake Shack empire) opened last week, so of course w and I had to make our way over. We went last Saturday night, annxious to check out the offerings. The interior is somewhat changed from the Cava incarnation, and we hope that there are plans to put some warmth up on the very barren walls. When we sat in our booth we were informed that their temporary liquor license had expired, so no alcohol was on offer. Usually I would be traumatized by this sort of news but I was anxious to try their milkshakes. The burgers are hand formed from house ground beef (click here to see their menu) and were perfectly cooked & served atop a sesame bun made by the An Xuyen Vietnamese bakery next door. Loved that soft white bread bun, too! I had the housemade bacon and aged cheddar addition. w thought the "Foster Sauce" served on the bun was a little thick, but I liked its old school flavor and somewhat mess-inspiring effect. We both had the hand cut fries which were also excellent. Oh, before all this we started with their "The Wedge" salad. Be forewarned: this soon to be legendary salad is easily enough for 3, maybe 4, and consists of three quarter-wedges of iceberg lettuce with Gorgonzola, olive oil poached tomatoes, egg, croutons, Green goddess dressing and topped by a strip of fabulous house cured tesa, which is a pork belly-like slice of happiness and beats the hell out of Bacos! My chocolate shake was also done as I would expect, although w's malt was way too light on the "malt" flavor (almost non-existent). An easily corrected oversight, though. I loved the possibilities offered by F.B., am most happy it is a 5-minute drive from my house, and live in fear that there will soon be hordes of burger frenzied diners keeping me from my new addiction.

Genoa Returns

The much anticipated reopening of Genoa is happening December 1st, according to a press release I just received. The space is in the finishing stages. Executive Chef David Anderson spent a month traveling through Italy to gain inspiration, which in layman's terms means eating and drinking as much as he possibly could. The following is what was listed as a sample winter menu. A five course prix-fixe menu will be $55, which sounds like a more than reasonable price. From the looks of it I am going to be very happy Genoa is less than a five minute drive from my house!
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Bagna cauda – For many years, Genoa’s most popular antipasto. A fondue of cream, anchovies and garlic served hot with crisp seasonal vegetables and house made grissini for dipping.

Pasta Course: A choice of one of the following:
Agnolotti alla Piemontese – small pasta envelopes stuffed with a mixture of beef, chicken, pork and escarole served in a rich meat broth with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.

Rotolo di pasta – fresh pasta filled with spinach, house-made ricotta and parmesan, rolled, then poached and sliced. Baked and served over a savory tomato sauce.

Salad Course
Insalata de patate e tartufi – a salad of sliced Yukon gold potatoes tossed with mâche, shallots, red wine vinegar, black truffles and extra virgin olive oil.

Main Course: A choice of one of the following:
Salmone con lenticchie- fillet of line-caught Alaskan King Salmon grilled and served over green lentils that have simmered in chicken stock, and battuto -- finely chopped carrots, celery, onions, pancetta and thyme. The dish is finished with a sauce of crème fraiche flavored with a touch of horseradish.

Quaglie ripiene con funghi- pan-roasted quail wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with a mixture of wild and cultivated mushrooms, shallots, butter and fresh bread crumbs. Accompanied by sautéed Brussels sprout leaves, the bird is served over creamy polenta with a complex reduction sauce flamed with gin.

Filetto al vino rosso- beef tenderloin fillet, seared, sliced and served with a rich red wine sauce flavored with shallots, parsley, chives, demi glace and poached beef marrow. Accompanied by a variety of roasted root vegetables, including sweet - and mild – cipollini onions.

Dessert Course – A choice of one of the following:
Dolci
Tiramisu - ladyfinger sponges soaked in brewed espresso and layered with Marsala-mascarpone filling.

Torta di Cimabue - a true classic Genoa dessert; chocolate meringue with toasted hazelnuts layered with chantilly cream.
Pear Tart Tatin - caramelized pear on puff pastry served with lemon panna cotta and caramel sauce.
Bittersweet Grand Marnier Torte - rich chocolate budino cake assembled with bittersweet Grand Marnier cream and cocoa genoise.
Formaggio- a selection of domestic and imported artisanal cheeses with fresh fruit, nuts and house made preserves and condiments.

PDX Quick Bites: Wy'east Pizza; Good Taste Noodle House; & tidbits

Besides stuffing my face with leftover Halloween candy....damn my newfound love of $100Grand bars!!...I've had a couple of worth-mentioning eating experiences here in Portland that you should take note of....
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WY'EAST PIZZA
Imagine the most unlikely place you would think of to get a great pizza in Portland. If a darkened parking lot on a lonely stretch of SE 50th Av just north of Powell Blvd. didn't enter your mind, join the club. But at just such a parking lot, lit only by the cheery lights strung outside the trailer that houses Wy'east Pizza, you will find some of the best pie in PDX! I'd driven by many times, only to be foiled by their limited hours of Tuesday-Saturday, 4-8pm. Not their fault, mind you, it just seemed I was always too early or too late. But last Wednesday w and I decided to make a point to sample the goods, so on my way home from the wine shack I pulled into the lot next to the trailer. You do three things when you walk to the open trailer window. The first thing you do is check out the menu (probably after a very welcoming "hello" from co-owner Red); the second thing you do is think to yourself "this is too cheap to be good", with 12" pies going for $11 to $14. But after I ordered our pies...one margherita and one pepperoni (made with pepperoni from Otto's Deli on SE Woodstock)...and watched other owner Squish toss and stretch their homemade dough out on the tiny prep space on the counter and carefully place toppings on it before sliding it into their propane oven, while having a conversation with both he and Red (I learned their names when I was leaving. I asked them, and they said "Red and Squish" They asked me mine, and I was almost embarrassed that I didn't have a cool name. "Um, I'm Bruce....sorry about that....") the word that popped into my head was "earnest". These two work the cart by themselves, source as much of their ingredients as they can locally, make all the dough by hand, only make 22 pies a night, and do it all with the conviction of people who not only care about what they make, but the people who eat it. Pretty cool. Oh, and the pies? Freaking delicious! With their slightly thick crust that gets nicely crisped and slightly blackened in their 800* oven (and yes, I also wondered about the sanity of having an 800* oven in a tiny trailer) yet still retains a good chew and nice flavor, the pies have plenty of heft. Generously topped especially the pepperoni with that smoky Otto's sausage, and with a pretty fabulous tomato sauce, the pies were satisfying in every way. And at $12 a pop, ridiculously affordable.

That's Squish performing some sort of pizza making incantation over my pie.
Whatever witchcraft he's practicing, it works!

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GOOD TASTE NOODLE HOUSE
These guys have three spots around town. If the other two are as good as their strip mall outpost at SE 82nd & Harrison, then you probably have one near you, which also means you have some of the best noodles in town at your beck and call. For whatever reason, even after hearing many of our friends mention how good Good Taste Noodle House is, we hadn't made it out. Sunday, after a brisk morning hike, we made sure to correct that oversight. With that, here is a the pictorial review (and keep in mind that everything here is exceedingly affordable, running $7-$8.50)...

Roasted pork, which I loved in various Hong Kong versions last year, seems to be most elusive. The Good Taste effort, while appropriately crackly and salty on the skin side, was a bit dry and not quite fatty enough. Also served somewhat cool. Close, but not quite there. Next time I'll order the roast duck, which I saw go by our table on a couple of plates and looked delicious.

Five Spice Beef Brisket Pot was excellent. The meat was super tender, with tendon still attached to give it a nice chew. The sauce was really spectacular, deeply colored and richly flavored, not too salty, with a complex back flavor. Very impressive.

Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup had an excellent broth, perfectly done noodles, and very tasty wontons, although w thought they were a bit too big, with the wrong ratio of wrapper to filling. Also the filling could have been more shrimpy and less porky, but it was still a pretty tasty bowl of noodles.

And today I came back for the Shrimp Chow Mein with pan fried noodles. I saw it on the menu yesterday, but we already had too much on the table. I couldn't shake it though, so today made it a Sunday/Monday Good Taste doubleheader. And boy, am I glad I did! This was an exceptionally satisfying plate of noodles. Lots of tender shrimp with piles of crispy veggies, all on top of spot on pan fried noodles with just the right amount of crisp tender texture. I loved this, probably the best version I've had since our China trip!

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Just read in this article in our local fishwrap about the new café to be attached to the soon-to-reopen Genoa, which will be called Bar Accanto. offering bar bite small plates and downsized entrée portions, this should be an opportunity for chef David Anderson to experiment with things that might find their way on to the Genoa menu, and provide a much needed more affordable and casual dining experience. Both Genoa and Accanto hope to open by the end of November in what will definitely be one of the most anticipated restaurant moments of the year.
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: Hong Kong views

Ha and Vl: Noodle heaven! + Genoa r.i.p?: Another view.

Always on the lookout for new and delicious ways to get my food fix here in PDX, last Monday I went to the food mecca that is SE 82nd Avenue......wait, food mecca AND 82nd Avenue?? Maybe, if you want to eat your Big Mac in the used car you just bought off one of the innumerable car dealers with the hooker you just picked up on the street. At least that is the shared perception. But as in most cities, where suburbanites fear to tread are where food cognoscenti know to find some of the best places to nosh on authentic Asian food. Where the rents are cheap is where the newly minted communities set up their shops, serving their native foods to others who miss that taste of home. I had read about Ha and Vl on the website of our local fishwrap The Oregonian, where Karen Brooks raved about their hand crafted bowls of noodle soup. Tasting is believing, so Monday morning found me pulling into the parking lot of the charmingly named Wing Ming Square, a mini-mini mall of all things Asian and entering through the portal of Ha and Vl. There's something exceedingly satisfying knowing that at 9:30 in the morning, when most office workers are wiping the powdered sugar off their shirts from that donut they just pounded, I'm sitting down for what turned out to be perhaps the best bowl of soup I've had in town. The room itself is fairly small, with brightly painted walls, and a TV in the corner that on this morning was playing a Steven Seagal blow-'em-up movie. Perhaps the perfect backdrop to the flavor explosions that were going on in my mouth from my bowl of Bun Rieu, a shrimp paste based broth with loads of noodles and pieces of pork, soft tofu, peppers, onion, and tomato with just the right chili bite to slap the last of the morning funk out of my head. Incredibly fresh, you can taste the care that goes into each bowl. Every day they do one soup (two on Sundays) that is usually sold out by noon. At $7 for a very large bowl, this is about as good as breakfast can get! Also don't miss their perfect Vietnamese coffee. I ordered it in "strong" mode. Like Steven Seagal, if I'm going in, I'm going in hard! Also Tanya (Tonia? Tonya?), who is the daughter of owners Owners Ha Luu and William Voung H. (the "ha" and "Vl" of the name) was SO nice. I've also got my eye on their exceedingly affordable bahn mi sandwiches. This is the real deal, and worth the trip to the badlands of east Portland. And for all you B&T'ers who travel in trepidation, don't worry, the hookers usually don't hit the streets until the afternoon...um, so I've heard.
Ha and Vl, 2738 S.E. 82nd Ave., 503-772-0103, 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
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In Portland Genoa Restaurant for over three decades was a Portland institution, a temple of Italian food that garnered loads of national press for it's authentic, usually impeccably prepared food. It was also the incubator for several of Portland's current top chefs, including Kevin Gibson of Castagna and Evoe, Cathy Whims at Nostrana, and John Taboada of Navarre among many others. There's been much hand-wringing over it's recent closure, with everyone saying what a loss it is and how could this happen. Yes, it was one of the first restaurants in town that showed how good serious restaurant dining can be. But I have to take issue with owner Kerry DeBuse's explanation that the current economic downturn had been lethal to his restaurant: "I've seen serious recessions over the decades at Genoa," DeBuse told The Oregonian, "but nothing to compare to the economic meltdown in which we now find ourselves. We cannot continue as an economically viable business." Gee, does that sound familiar? Like the auto moguls on view in the District this week, Mr. DeBuse seemingly wasn't willing to change with the times. His contention that "it all changed 180 degrees within a week of the recent (Wall Street) crash" isn't exactly a mea culpa. These things don't happen overnight. Stubbornly clinging on to his expensive, fixed-price, special occasion only menu like Ford clinging to its SUV hegemony, rather than offering ala carte options to make it more accessible to the masses, he saw customers leaving for the less expensive options in town when they wanted that "night out" experience. His corner location was also a prime spot, and I could never figure out how they wouldn't open it up to the street, drawing people in by making them curious as to what was happening inside, instead keeping the windows facing SE Belmont covered in a tired, frankly unattractive dull reddish wrap. The restaurant business is like any other be it cars, newspapers, my wine business, what have you. Like the dinosaurs found out, those who fail to adapt to changing times become pieces of history.