Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Photo by Kara Howland, via Flickr

It’s an annual tradition: When the (Gregorian) calendar turns to a new year, Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden celebrates with Great Eight Free Days (Jan. 5-12, 2013).

From 10 a.m.-5 p.m. each of these eight days, you can visit the lovely urban oasis at no cost (general admission is regularly $9.50). Explore the pathways, buildings and bridges, then duck into the authentic, two-story teahouse for warm drinks and snacks. And don’t miss the display of Chinese New Year gifts, laid out in anticipation of the beginning of the Year of the Snake on Feb. 10.

Every year, Santa’s got his list and you’ve got yours. But from gift-gathering to rounding up all your holiday trimmings, your to-do list might not leave much time for fun. Of course the season of hope has a solution: Holidate, which lets you shop and celebrate at the same time.

Downtown Portland’s weekly roundup of  special in-store events and merry-making restaurant deals, Holidate runs every Thursday evening in December, 4-7 p.m., ideal for the fresh-from-the-office crowd or suburban working folks who want to enjoy some holiday spirit in the city. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Portland Walking Tours

Long before food cart fever spread all over town, Portland already had a reputation of being daring when it comes to dining. Now, with curbside innovation rolling into almost every spare parking lot, the head spins at the edible options available. With well over 400 mobile eateries within city limits, you’ll a need a guide to undertake a culinary adventure this vast — luckily, Portland has two such tours.

Brett Burmeister has been chronicling the city’s street eats since 2008, and offers daily lunchtime tours by appointment through Food Carts Portland. Covering the history of the carts, the economic and political conditions that helped them thrive, and, of course, some tasty samples, the tour is full of stories and local flavor.

Meanwhile, Portland Walking Tours’ Flavor Street boasts the inside scoop on everything from savory pies to pork sandwiches, with resident experts sharing their secrets Wednesday through Saturday at 1 p.m. Walk-ups are welcome for the two-hour tour that strolls about a mile, but group size is limited, so advance tickets are recommended. Both tours begin downtown, an ideal starting point for visitors looking to get a taste of some of the most exciting, innovative eats on Portland’s streets.

In Portland, it’s an annual tradition to complain about how late summer is. What can I say? It takes a lot of clouds to make the rain that keeps our trees green and our flowers abloom, so by July, we’re all more than ready for a long string of warm, sunny days. Luckily, summer always comes, and when it does, it’s glorious.

Maybe that pent-up desire for summer explains our skill at making the most of the long days and warm nights with outdoor concerts. Get to as many as you can, and be sure to check out the smiles of gratitude on the faces all around you. We’ve been waiting a long time for this!

Noon Tunes
July 10 through Aug. 16, noon-1 p.m.

Downtown’s Pioneer Courthouse Square hosts free lunchtime concerts every Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesdays by Twilight, photo by Scott Steele

Tuesdays by Twilight
July 10 through Aug. 7, 7:30 p.m.

These ticketed performances include the unparalleled perk of evening admission to Lan Su Chinese Garden. Beer, wine and dinner boxes are for sale (and you can pre-order dinner).

Portland Festival Symphony
July 28 through Aug. 19, 6 p.m.

Free weekend concerts, performed by a full symphony orchestra, in a half-dozen of Portland’s most gorgeous parks.

Music on Main Street
July 11 through Aug. 29, 5-7 p.m.

Free Wednesday-evening concerts in the plaza next to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Food and drink for sale; limited seating available.

Sundown at Ecotrust
July 5-26, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Every Thursday evening in July,  head to the rooftop of the Ecotrust building in the Pearl District for a free concert — plus local pizza and beer for sale, and environmentally themed displays.

Pickin’ on Sundays at Doug Fir
July 1-Aug. 26, 3-7 p.m.

These free patio concerts (see the lineup) on the patio at Doug Fir Lounge feature fun local bands and great food and drink deals.

Image courtesy of Sauvie Island Farms

Though there are four seasons of fun to be had on Sauvie Island, a rural paradise just north of Portland, you couldn’t pick a better time to visit than summer. That’s when local growers like Sauvie Island Farms and Kruger’s Farm throw open their gates and let families pick their own berries by the bushel — a truly sweet way to spend a summer day. About the size of Manhattan, Sauvie is one of the largest river islands in the U.S., and in addition to being a hot spot for fruits and veggies, it’s also a paradise for bird-watchers, beach-goers, bicyclists and kayakers.

But in the family-owned fields of Sauvie Island Farms, it’s all about the crops — from peaches to peonies. Open Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., this a great place to pick up some of nature’s candy. Right now, strawberry season is winding down, with blueberries and raspberries on their way.

Kruger’s Farm also lets visitors select sweet eats, with Marion berries, boysenberries and blackberries among their most popular hauls. The farm, which is open daily from 9 a.m. to sunset, also celebrates with events like farm-to-plate dinners and Thursday night concerts, which feature beer and food vendors, so you can order a hamburger or sausage, in case you’ve had enough of the farm’s fruits and vegetables — as if that could ever happen!

Portland Dining Month is back for its third year! Almost 70 area restaurants are featuring $25 three-course dinners every day of the week in June.  Enjoy shrimp cocktail fritters at Besaw’s, tajarin pasta with truffle butter at Tabla, or stout cake with toffee and spiced apples at Aviary. A list of participating restaurants and their menus is available at www.PortlandDiningMonth.com.

You can also take the guesswork out of where to go and enter to win dinner for a year by spinning the Wheel of Deliciousness at www.facebook.com/DowntownPortland.

Hungry yet? I thought so. Now, go out and there and EAT!

Visitors need all the help they can get navigating the more than 600 registered food carts dishing out all sorts of tasty vittles in Portland. Fortunately, the dedicated folks at FoodCartsPortland.com (who have been diligently tracking and cataloging the carts since 2007) have introduced an iPhone app that’s sure to help.

The 99-cent Food Carts Portland Mobile app allows users to search by vendor location, type of cuisine or hours and create a step-by-step route to the food carts. It also lists all of the food cart pods — areas where several carts congregate permanently — and profiles the carts with photos, sample menus and contact information.

Visitors without iPhones can still benefit from the exhaustive catalog at FoodCartsPortland.com’s mobile website, though they will miss out on the mapping features.

Hungry Heart Cupcakes (photo by Viva Barrows, bePortland)

Last Saturday, I — along with 3,000 other folks — indulged in the annual Portland food cart festival known as Eat Mobile. Three thousand people + 52 carts = lots of lines. But each wait was rewarded with a delicious sample. I focused on trying out new-to-me carts and came away with several favorites:

Fuego de Lotus

This cart served up Venezuelan arepas (corn cakes) with green chili chicken or pork belly in a spicy red chili maple sauce. Both were delicious, but the pork belly ranked as one of the best things I’ve eaten in recent memory. Besides discovering a new food, I found out that this cart is within walking distance of my house … and then I ate lunch there on Sunday.

PDX 671

The samples could have been bigger, but my first little tastes of Guamanian food convinced me that I’ll be back for more! Luckily, this cart — which took home the Eat Mobile judges’ award — is also at the D-Street Noshery on Southeast Division, right next to Fuego De Lotus.

Hungry Heart Cupcakes

Anyone who thinks cupcakes are a trend that’s run its course needs to try a “Dark and Dusty”: dark chocolate and cacao nib cake topped with dulce de leche frosting and Maldon sea salt. (more…)

Ramen. Most of us know it as that stuff we survived on in college. I’m here to tell you that we’ve been wronged by that stuff and I have proof.

Lunch at The Ramen Truck

Meet The Ramen Truck. Located on S.E. 33rd  off of Hawthorne, you’ll find this pale yellow truck tucked away in an alley. They make their own noodles (yes, it’s true!) and broth. The three-step process to order is outlined on the truck:

1. Choose your broth — white or garlic. Be forewarned, their broth contains chashu (pork).

2. Order your size — small or regular.

3. Choose your add-ons. This includes a hard-boiled egg, corn, kim chi, extra green onions, extra nori and extra pork (chashu).

That’s it! Your order is prepared and brought out to you on a cute vintage tray. It was a lovely day when I visited, so I took advantage of the outdoor table and took the time to really enjoy my ramen. This was so much better than that other stuff, and very reasonably priced. Baseline price is $5-7, not including add-ons. Now go and discover what ramen is really all about!

We’re entering the final weeks of our winter hotel special, which invites visitors to enjoy a different kind of getaway (filled with one-of-a-kind Portland experiences such as Powell’s, Voodoo Doughnut, food carts and tax-free shopping) and a different kind of discount ($72 off your second night).

Based on our math, these savings will go a long ways. So, how would you spend your $72?