Friday, January 16, 2009

Bend Eating

It's been an adventure so far, since leaving Texas in the dark and stormy night, spending my 39th birthday in Vegas, and arriving in this strange, unknown land of Central Oregon with its cinders for snow control, woodsmoke, and pitch black nights. The first week and a half we ate out a lot since my mise en place consisted of two knives, two forks, two spoons, two bowls, two plates, a pot, some salt, and no food. So we've gotten to know some places already.
Chan's on 3rd: decent, especially awesome hot and sour soup, horrid fried rice in the same sense that Mexican rice is horrid in 90% of those places.
Szechuan on 3rd: dirty floors, luke-warm hot and sour soup, average entrees, okay if you like mediocre food and the entire front and back of the house staring at you while you eat, as if to say "when in HELL are you two going to leave already?"
Super Burrito: very good and very good atmospherics. Coming from Texas, I'm hesitant to go to these other Mexican places here, but this was nice and I want to try Hola as well.
McMeniman's (in the theatre): the husband had the ahi burger ("probably won't order that again") and I had a veggie pizza. Better than bar food, but may I recommend eating somewhere else first and just drink their beer. Humble opinion. Only here a few weeks. Don't yell at me. As a concept chain of bars, it excels. It's just such a delicious idea: turn historic properties around Oregon into atmospheric pubs with fireplaces, guest rooms, multiple drinking rooms, history lessons, antiques, festivals, live theatre, movie screens, fire pits, Turkish baths, cigar areas, and restaurants. Oh and host Scotch tastings for good measure.
Black Bear Diner: only realized it was a chain after reading the menu: whoops. But the Bacon Lettuce Avocado Swiss Tomato sandwich was yummy (the B.L.A.S.T.), as was the husband's meatloaf and mashers. Nice mashed red-skins with yum salty gravy. $2.50 for a Coke: is that normal? Oh, and good salads with red onions and romaine.
South Postal Unit Curry Stop: the woman there whips up a mean chicken curry. The meat is falling off the bones and those chicken legs are meaty. The jasmine rice is as flavorful as any high-falutin' Indian joint, and she adds pickled jalapenos and red onion on top (hurray!), all for under $5.00, plus you can get your Bulletin and take care of your postal needs in a warm, friendly environment full of Bend's south end folks.
Deschutes Brewery: Yum, yum, yum. Such a treat to eat there. I had the falafel salad the first night we rolled into town, with my head spinning from 10 hours on the road from California. Add only one pint of Mirror Pond to that and I nearly was passing out from stress, elevation, lack of sleep, punchiness, disbelief, and then, I guess, inebriation. This is where you can have two entrees and three beers for under $40 including tip. Can't wait to go again.
Typhoon: We ate here on a visit in September and it rocked and was affordable, even with two glasses of Oregon pinot. The one thing I keep dreaming about: crab lemon grass coconut soup.
Pizzacato Pizzeria: we picked up a giant size Pizza Blanca and I winced at the $38 price, but we wanted to feed our moving crew, which we did, and still had left-overs to the tune of two more meals. 8 servings for under $40. It's fancy-pants pizza, but if you don't hog down on it and stick to portions within reason, you can make it pay off.
Baldy's BBQ: OK, I sneaked in here without the husband for a quick take-out of pulled pork on a bun with chipotle mashers and baked beans. It all was very good. Made me smile a lot. One pick: the pork is truly pulled and in largish chunks, which was okay, but I really was emotionally craving the chopped pork of dear ol' Carolina. With some cole slaw on top ... pretty puhleaaaays?
Strictly Organic Coffee: This is the kind of place that tickles me no end, from the agave nectar at the coffee prep area (raw!), to the all-organic beans, to the homemade p-nut butter dog biscuits (all three canines hardly sniffed them before mowing down), to the giant cookies in jars each separated by a perfect square of tissue paper, ready for you to grab, it's allllllll good. Can't wait to drive through and try a more substantial meal. Oh, and the iced Americanos are rockin'.
Victorian Cafe: It's like my husband's food-dream - a whole restaurant dedicated to eggs benedict. He had the Carribean kind with mango and black beans and despite that he called it "messy" and said he wouldn't order it again (read: but I will order a different kind of eggs benedict for sure), we were impressed. Of course I had the club w/ avocado on sourdough. Passable. But why no toasty the bread, boys?
Next on the Agenda if we get jobs:
The Indian place downtown for the lunch buffet
Village Baker
Hola!
The Thai place on Division
about a hundred other places downtown, including some fancy pants ones.