Dogs
Dig Vegetarian Deli
212
NW Davis St., 223-3362.
9 am to 5 pm Monday-Friday,
10 am-2 pm Saturday.
Takeout only.
Picks:
A-No. 1 hummus, daily soup special (Nairobi pea and yam
if available).
Nice Touch:
One table, two chairs on site, plain, brown paper bag filled
with pretzels.
There is a corps of hardcore vegetarians who bring their
lunch to work, every single day, with rare, indulgent exception.
And I cannot fault their hard-nosed self-sufficiency. Really,
what percentage of restaurants in this city can meet a true
purist's standards? Any place that serves beef-this and
chicken-that and offers one piddly-diddly vegetarian option
is to be trusted like a gubernatorial handshake.
One entirely trustworthy exception is Old Town's Dogs Dig
deli, which is a wholly committed vegetarian island in an
overwhelming ocean of meaty, greasy lunchtime quickies.
Now, this deli is nothing but a walk-up, grab-it-and-dash
breed of streetside service, of no greater size or scope
than a traveling cart or purveying caravan. Yet its restaurantlike
frontage on Northwest Davis Street instantly gives it more
credibility than the ubiquitous drive-away luncheonettes.
It has logged six years at this location, and the experience
shows.
As a walk-up affair, the order of business at Dogs Dig
follows the classic city standard: Form
something of a line; think--think hard--about what you'll
order; then, when your turn hits, order quickly, efficiently,
without gratuitous pause, so as not to slow things down
too much. More often than not, there are a handful of voracious
vegetarians standing behind you, chomping at the bit, and
your "umm...umms" are shaving precious time off their sole
hour of freedom.
Here's a little tip for you indecisive folk: Order one
of the two daily soup specials (medium, $2.25). No, really.
Consider the matter settled and just order one. Even if
the day is hot and you are cranky and you don't think you
really want any soup at all. Dogs Dig's soup is high-class
slurpage, and it is always a vegetarian's warm, pleasant
daydream.
And pray to all that is good in this land that on the day
you visit they have prepared the Nairobi pea and yam soup.
This is a creamy and smooth combination of sweet orange
tubers and soft baby green peas that is capped with a healthy
dose of electrifying cumin. Despite the soup's naturally
thick, potatoey consistency, it is not over-flavored, and
it strangely seems refreshing and subtle. If this soup were
served cold it might taste like a West African gazpacho.
Puffy brown rice, the world's most famous provider of fibrous
rice bran, appears in many of Dogs Dig's other soup specials.
People: We all know this is a good thing. Eat it up. The
veggie medley soup with squash, peppers, tomatoes and corn
holds a few extra ounces of weight thanks to that colon-friendly
puffy brown rice, making a medium cup of soup feel like
a well-rounded two-part feast.
All sandwiches at Dogs Dig are served in a brown paper
bag half-filled with either pretzels or popcorn--the forgotten
children of lunchtime savory snackfoods. Alas, potato chips
universally rule the sandwich sidekick roost, and while
a pretzel slipped into the middle of a sandwich isn't nearly
as gratifying as a potato chip, it's still nice to taste
a crystal of big pretzel salt melt away on the tongue in
between bites of Dogs Dig sandwich vegetables.
While the hummus sandwich ($4.50) with onions and tomatoes
is a tasteful way to sample Dogs Dig's stellar version of
the Middle Eastern chickpea spread, a better way is to purchase
a 6-ounce container to take home ($2.25) to scoop up with
tortilla chips or pita bread or whatever your personal favorite
scooping medium might be.
For some perspective on the quality of hummus we're talking
about, I staged a gladiator match at home between Dogs Dig's
hummus and a container of hummus found in the deli section
of the East Burnside Nature's grocery store. While a gladiator
match may not seem like such a vegetarian-friendly metaphor,
I use the term here only to illustrate the ferocity with
which Dogs Dig kicked some Nature's hiney.
A detail of the battle follows:
1. Dogs Dig's deep golden hummus is significantly darker
in color than Nature's creamy tan or, shall we say, khaki-colored
hummus. This might be attributable to the inclusion of water
in the supermarket's recipe, an ingredient that does not
appear in the Dogs Dig rendition.
2. Dog's Dig hummus is more pungent and therefore more
perceptible to the olfactory nerves and the tongue (translation:
You can smell and taste it way better). Again, this might
be attributable to the waterlogged Nature's recipe.
Conclusion: Watered down just doesn't cut it on the hummus
scene. Seek out Dogs Dig and get yourself some real garbanzo
glory or whatever veggie-friendly lunch staples you crave.
And if you're not a vegetarian, don't be a 'fraidy cat;
it's certified A-OK for anyone just into eating plain ol'
healthy.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
|
