A trip through the KFC drive-thru sets a man's
priorities straight. Somebody else can have the mashed potatoes
and gravy. Take the stupid Extra Crispy leg. Give me a spork
and the striped container of cole slaw, thank you very much.
It's not a 100-percent God's-gift-to-slaw kind of thing
at KFC, but it is familiar and lovable. Actually, it's damn
near a miracle the Colonel's slaw still occasionally rises
from the vast bog of fast-food culture, somehow overcoming
its mundane origins. This feeble, corporate cabbage is essentially
over-chopped by a machine processor and shipped for miles
in large plastic buckets before making it to your pie hole.
Still, its sweet, refined-sugary sucker punch keeps that
spork working double-time, dipping back again and again
into Kentucky's finest.
But we can certainly shoot higher here in Portland. Cole
slaw is a diverse and flexible form of salad that spans
cultural barriers and extends beyond personal creed. Let's
examine some of our city's finer destinations for cool cabbage.
CAMPBELL'S BAR-B-Q
8701 SE Powell Blvd., 777-9495
Home-style cole slaw
$1.95 per side order
Campbell's good-times slaw embodies all of the positive
attributes found in that of KFC, while eschewing all of
the mechanized, inhuman qualities. This outer-eastside barbecue
shack's down-home salad is hand-chopped chunky-style so
you're presented with big ol' pieces of red and green cabbage
and plenty of carrots. Plus, it's injected with that familiar
addicting sweetness, much of which in this case might come
from the fruity vinegar used to cut the medium-thick coat
of mayo. This slaw is a winner when eaten by itself, but
it takes on an even more satisfying character if you load
up a fat little hill on top of a juicy pork barbecue sandwich
and commence to getting down with your lunch.
RED STAR
506 SW Washington St., 222-0005
Chi-chi foo-foo slaw
"About $5.50," says the maitre d', if you can get the
chef to serve it as a salad dish instead of an entree garnish.
If you think you're too good for the KFC workingman's cole
slaw (hey, up yours), feel free to do it up high-class at
the Red Star. Instead of the bourgeois chopped cabbage featured
in most variations of slaw, Red Star uses the elusive specialty-market
root vegetable jicama. The crunchy, nut-flavored jicama
is sliced thin and slivery and mixed in a bowl with a good
portion of parsley, cilantro and what tastes like a basic
cider vinegar. No mayo on this version whatsoever.
The Red Star's "Santa Fe-style" slaw is served as a side
dish or garnish to a popular portobello mushroom and roasted
red-pepper tamale dish ($12.95 for lunch--yowza!). But the
restaurant is quite accommodating to special requests, and
if you so desire, you can taste an appetizer-size version.
Just ask nice and tip well.
YEN HA
6820 NE Sandy Blvd., 287-3698
Vietnamese slaw
$4.95 for a small portion; plenty--and I mean plenty--for
two people.
Dish No. 12 on the menu is Goi Ga Rau Ram, which I assume
is Vietnamese for cole slaw with chicken. And I am humbled
by this dish's complete awesomeness. What impresses me most
is this version's ability to mold a familiar side-dish theme
into a complex and hearty meal. In addition to the chicken
strips, which are marinated in hot chile oil and briefly
seared, the sweet-and-sour cabbage is tossed with fried
red onions and a handful of mint leaves. The entree is topped
with chopped peanuts and served with a light pink sweet
sauce on the side. Utterly mind-blowing.
Actually, to the eyes, this dish is nothing more than a
far-fetched take on your basic down-home cole slaw; but
to indulge is to truly see the light. With Goi Ga Rau Ram,
Yen Ha states the obvious without sounding absurd: Of
course! Incorporate chicken into the slaw! That dumb
old cooter the Colonel should've thought of this years ago,
back when Wendy's was getting P-A-I-D after "introducing
the world" to taco salad. A dish with chicken mixed into
the cole slaw was the scoop that never broke.
On second thought, let's hope our little secret stays put
at Yen Ha. I'd hate to be in the test market for a dab of
hot buffalo-wing cole slaw supplied by a surly looking Southerner
in a dinky bowtie.
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