Cheap Eats 2009

By KELLY CLARKE

Call it "feel-good bento." Tokyo native Naoko Tamura's wee downtown cafe banishes freezer-burned chicken slathered with Sysco sauce in favor of delicate bits of Yamhill's Kookoolan cluckers and other locally sourced proteins and veggies. Tofu and chicken bowls run around $6.75 and lacquered bento boxes with extra compartments containing omelets and other nibbles are $9 ($11.50 for a gingery grilled wild salmon). But one bite of the bento-box salad, a light mélange of greens, seaweed and grains with a puckery dressing, and you know where the money goes.

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