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My trick to subverting seasonal affective disorder in the Oregon gloom is a personal regimen that alternates firs and peppers. On dry days, hike among the big trees. When it’s wet, eat spicy food.
This is easily accomplished. Portland’s perch on the Pacific Rim endows us with outstanding examples of nearly every Asian and Latin cuisine, each offering distinctive warming dishes: soups, stews and noodles.
In December, we published Oregon Winter, a guide to thriving in the darkest days of the year. It included four meals that I’ve found sufficiently seasoned to fortify me against the elements.
That list is especially useful now. The past week brought Oregon’s lowest temperatures of the year, and the forecast says we’ll be getting the Pacific Northwest Special—45 degrees and raining—for as long as this edition of WW is on the stands. You could be using the WW print edition as a makeshift umbrella as you read these words.
If so, ask yourself a few questions. Am I cold? Am I hungry? Am I downtown? If the answer to even two out of three is yes, head directly to the original location of Xin Ding Dumpling House and order something with Szechuan peppercorns. If you’re on the east side of the river, there’s a second outpost of the restaurant that opened last year in Sellwood. This review, reprinted from Oregon Winter, will guide you to the most lip-numbing entrees.
While waiting for your food to arrive at the table, click here to find three more restaurants that will keep you toasty until the cherry trees bloom.
Xin Ding Dumpling House
It is a dish with a name as colorless as a day in January: fish fillet in hot gravy. But for my money, it’s the best winter thrill ride in Oregon west of Mt. Hood Meadows, and while any number of Sichuan restaurants serve some version of shui zhu yu—arguably China’s most popular seafood dish—for my $18.95 no one is doing it better than Xin Ding. A broth of peppercorns, chiles and other spices (I detect notes of anise and maybe a little cinnamon?) boils the imported flatfish in a crimson bath that keeps me and a select set of dining companions returning on a nearly weekly basis. (How do you keep friends in your 40s? Find a spicy fish.) While xiao long bao are the marquee attraction at the wood-paneled Old Town dining hall and its new offshoot in Sellwood, the menu contains half a dozen Sichuan items that are the soup dumplings’ equal: Along with the fish, try the ma po tofu ($17.95), the stir-fried beef with cilantro ($20.95) or the dandan noodles ($14.95). Or just explore the menu: Xin Ding serves easily five dozen entrees, most of them marked from 1 to 3 peppers for spice level, and I’ve never had a bad one. Bring on the rain. Order the fish.
Downtown: 71 SW 2nd Ave., 503-345-7777; Sellwood: 7135 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-468-7777; xindingdumplinghouse.com. Hours vary by location.
