News I must admit, I was disappointed about the “tablecloth.” What was advertised in the TBA guide as a “giant, checkered picnic blanket” and what I had imagined as a rolling sea of gingham turned out to be large red and white tarps, spread apart in a vast rectangle. Maybe if I had seen it from an airplane it would have looked better. I mean, do you see a blanket here (see photo ...   More

News For the first time in the history of the Golden Spurtle competition, an American has taken the title of World Porridge Making Champion. That's right, local grain connoisseur Matthew Cox of Bob's Red Mill has beat out all of the Scottish Oatmeal experts to take home the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy. As WW reported last month, Cox, pictured above with specialty winner Anna-Louise Batchelor of England, ...   More

News Willamette Week's 2009 Restaurant Guide is out today, inside every issue of this week's paper. We had a blast, as always, putting the guide together, and noticed a few things along the way that didn't make it into the guide. First, turnover. The following restaurants that were in last year's guide have either closed or undergone such drastic changes that they might as well have: 23Hoyt, Alberta ...   More

News Home cooks adore him. Bloggers can't stand him. Foodies call him simultaneously brilliant and boring. On his relentless path toward culinary perfection, he has certainly stepped on a lot of toes (especially when critiquing the ever-growing food blogosphere, which he recently blamed for the demise of Gourmet magazine). Yet Chris Kimball, the studious, and perhaps obsessive, creator of America's ...   More

News Bravo's best reality show finally jumped on the Portland-happy bandwagon—casting producers stopped by last Sunday to hold open castings for Top Chef. All those with passable cooking knowledge and a vocal personality were invited to throw their knifes into the hat for a chance at mid-level TV stardom. "We want people who are outspoken and passionate" about cooking, Hunter Braun, one of the show's ...   More

News Lucky Strike, the beloved Szechuan restaurant on outer Powell Boulevard whose pepper-bath chicken has caused me more pain than any other dish in the city (I once spent a morning curled up in bed, simultaneously cursing Lucky Strike and longing to return), has applied for a liquor license at 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. That's the basement of the torch-fronted building across the street from the Hawthorne ...   More

News I want you all y'all foodies to try and stay calm. I've got a sneak peek at Plate & Pitchfork's 2010 summer dinner series schedule right here. Why the warning? Well, the outdoor dinner series, which has been shining a bucolic spotlight on local farmers since 2003, sold out in a single day last year (and it broke the internet in 2008)—so apparently somebody cares about eating a white tablecloth ...   More

News Foster Burger, the excellent, pedigreed burger joint on Foster Road that has been widely reviled in media other than this paper, has won its first national praise: Bon Appetit named the kid-friendly diner one of the "top 10 new burger spots" in the country. Speaking of new burger spots, Violetta, Dwayne Beliakoff's "fast slow food" restaurant in Director Park, finally opened over the weekend. ...   More

News Natto! The gooey, stinky fermented soybeans that are huge in Japan! Natto! A dish so nutritious it should be on every public school lunch menu, and yet so repulsive in appearance that I could not bring myself to try it on a recent trip to Japan! And I eat pig feet! Natto! Have you ever wanted to make your own? No? Check out this Portlander's guide—you probably still won't want to make your ...   More

News Lend your ears and raise some funds: Jeffrey Jerusalem, Housefire, Future Historians, SAFE and more artists will perform at the PDX Gult Coast Benefit Sunday, Aug. 1 at Disjecta. Funds will go to help fishermen affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill. Tickets are on sale now, and for a $40 minimum donation you'll get a Southern-style seafood dinner, cocktails and a raffle. The Oregon Bartenders ...   More