burger fancy

for this round of burger-o-rama it is fine dining!
seth and i have been wanting to try david's ever since tv diner gave it the platinum plate.  when a said that david's had burgers i thought it would be a great chance to check it out.
the actual space that david's occupies is beautiful, with really high ceilings and lots of cool architectural details.  but the decor made me feel like i had taken a step back in time to the 1990s.  their were multiple out of place decorative colloum, i think i remember a few romanesque busts, and just a sense that someone with just a little decorative know-how needs to come in and pare down the decor.  even the david's logo needs some updating to the 2010s.  i know you don't really care about how the place looked, but i just had to say.
they started us a bread basket with these very tasty bread knots served with a parmesan cheese, oil, and herb mixture that was not so pretty to look at but was pretty good.  i was so hungry when we first sat down so i ate way too much bread and was stuffed after only a few bites of my burger.

the burger's description in the menu is full of superlatives like magnificent double smoked bacon and a really good pickle.  the bacon was pretty magnificent but the pickle was no more than what i would expect to come with a fucking $12 burger.  it was good but if you are going to say something specifically about the pickle, then it better be a really good pickle.
large thick angus beef patty was perfectly cooked at medium rare. the double bacon is really a double wide sliced of bacon.  it was unsurprisingly delicious as bacon tends to be.  it was served with cheddar cheese, ice burg lettuce, thin slices of red onions, and sad looking tomatoes.  the truffle fries with truffle ketchup were each very good but together, the truffle flavor was overwhelming.
overall the burger was good.  the bacon was smokey (surprise) and crispy and kind of overpowered the flavor of the beef.  i don't remember the cheese at all so it clearly wasn't that memorable.  i forgive the tomato, it was february in maine.  but maybe you should just leave it off if its no good.
while the burger was good, i would not go back to david's specifically for this buger.  if you are at david's and you are craving a burger, this one will do the trick.  but it was short of magnificent or even very good.

romantical meal

i don't go out to dinner on valentine's day but i do love to go on romantic dinner dates with seth. one of our favorite places is benkay japanese restaurant for romantic dinner for two.

here is what you get:
a choice of one drink, per person, sake or beer or wine
first course: seaweed salad, squid salad, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and tofu and pork gyoza.
main course:
sushi: tuna, Salmon, yellowtail, shrimp, flounder, eel
sashimi: tuna, salmon, yellowtail
Roll: choice of any two rolls from the regular menu

so what this means is you each get a drink, then you eat a beautiful bento box full of delicious appetizers. this is a really exciting part of the meal to me because we don't usually order these as our main focus is maximizing our raw fish pleasure. but I love goyza and tempura.

then comes the plate of maki, sushi, and sashimi. the sushi and sashimi are selected for you but you get to choose your maki and the selection is excellent and some of the choices are fancy $10 rolls. every time we go to benkay we have to order the new york roll with grilled salmon skin, cucumber, scallion, bonito flakes, radish sprouts. this is the best salmon skin i have ever had with crispy crackly skin and amazing smoky flavor.

the fish is very fresh and the slices of sashimi sit on the plate like little jewels, waiting for me to scoop them up with my chopsticks, dredge them in a slurry of soy sauce and wasabi, and plop them in my mouth.

the thing that really makes this a romantic dinner for two is the price. all this for $70! and for those of you out there who do go out to dinner for valentine's day, you can get it all for $60! go to benkay's website and print out the coupon and get $10 off from february 8th to 14th.

normally benkay is one of those great restaurants that always has a table open, but for valentine's day you will likely need reservations.
other spots we find to be romantical are salt exchange and bar of chocolate.

cold stuff

ice

frozen

meats

the first hot beef injection

we own a copy of george motz’s hamburger america; a state by state guide to 100 great burger joints. we’ve had burgers at new haven’s louis’ lunch, reputably home of the original hamburger.  (the proprietors don’t allow any ketchup or condiments in the restaurant and have been known to kick people out who attempt to smuggle in ketchup packets. truth be told, even after living in new haven for 3 years, jenner never at here.)  we’ve had the burgers at harman’s lunch, maine’s sole entry in hamburger america.  we’ve had from connecticut’s own ted's steamed cheeseburgers to the california's in-n-out.   What we are trying to say is that we like hamburgers, perhaps not as much as some people, but a lot.  so we are enthused about this new portland, maine food bloggers collaborative project, portland’s best burgers.  first up, the diner/sandwich shop burger.

so are we wimps because we went to hot suppa?  jenner doesn’t think so.   she even called both of the two diner/sandwich shops named after a man and a woman (steve and renee's diner and kathy and dave's cafe) , but both were only open for lunch.  it was wednesday night and we wanted some burgers.  After looking over the portland food map’s diner/sandwich shop section we settled on hot suppa, as much to check out their burger as to indulge in their amazing cubano sandwich.

our last trip to hot suppa, right after they first started serving dinner, was kind of a bomb.  except that jenner ordered the cubano and fell in love.  before we even walked in the door on this recent cold wednesday evening jenner knew what we were ordering.  the restaurant was warm and bright and we got a nice cozy booth by the window for people watching. service was fast and attentive and our server knew a lot about their tea selection.  seth feels, and experts (meaning otis) agree, that hot suppa has the best bloody mary in portland, and so he started his meal with one.  jenner ordered a white pear tea due to her ongoing upper respiratory infection, then proceeded to order us poutine, the double double, and the cubano. 

the poutine came first, and while we ate the entire plate, jenner didn't feel like they lived up to her expectation.  now jenner does not claim to be a poutine expert (though, she wants to go to montreal but seth has a strange xenophobia directed toward french canadians), so the let down may simply have been that her expectations were unrealistic.  but she wanted thicker gravy and the cheese curds sounded amazing but were not melty enough.

the double double and the cubano came out together with their chosen sides of sauteed collard greens and some kind of tomato soup.  normally jenner doesn't believe in double patties on burgers because it usually leads to bad burger to bun/topping ratio.  but on reviewing the menu she realized that each patty is 4 ounces and one patty would be a small burger.  as it worked out two 4 ounce patties was in perfect ratio to the bun/toppings.  the patties are hand made and thin with the edges thinner than the center.  not only does this create delicious crispy edges when the burger is cooked on a flat top, its really pretty to look at and congers up nostalgic feelings of a bygone era of burgers.  when we ordered the burger, the waitress said "it comes w/ cheese, pickles, and sauteed onions, is that okay?"  hell yeah that's okay!  but when the burger got there we realized that cheese, pickles, and sauteed onions are all that come on the burger.  a quick wave to the waitress got us a side of tomato and lettuce.  iceberg lettuce.  normally jenner loathes iceberg lettuce, but when you are talking about this type of old fashioned, basic burger, no other lettuce will do.  

simply put, the burger tasted great.  this is not a fancy or gourmet burger, in fact its made with american cheese.  but if you are looking for a really tasty burger, you are not gonna go wrong with this burger.  all you got to do is find someone to split the burger and the cubano with you and you got yourself a fantastic date.

so yeah, this cubano is all that.  we know this piece is all about the burger but we really need to tell you about this cubano.  we are big fans of cubanos.  in boston we lived just down the street from la esquina de sabor, el oriental de cuba.  to translate for my non-spanish speaking reader, el oriental de cuba is a restaurant that touts itself as the corner of flavor.  they are in fact on a corner, and before they got moltov cocktails thrown through their windows and had to redo the whole restaurant they had a neon sign that read esquina de sabor.

el oriental's cubano is a classic cubano while hot suppa's is a slightly more modern version.  it starts off with this really amazing french bread.  the first time jenner had this sandwich she asked about the bread and it is actually made specifically for this cubano.  then the sandwich is layer with roast pork, ham, gruyere, mustard, and cornichons.  that's right, roast pork AND ham.  seth remembered that last time jenner ordered it he wanted a little extra mustard so we had the waitress bring some extra on the side.  this is an awesome sandwich.  jenner really really loves sandwiches and she thinks this sandwich is really really awesome.

the sides were good.  we both love and hate that the collard greens are sauteed and not real true stewed collard greens.  they are meaty and hearty and smokey and when you eat them you feel like you are eating something good for you.  jenner didn't have any of the soup but seth really liked it.

so we are definately going back.  next time we will skip the poutine and get fries as a side to either the burger or the cubano and maybe we will try to fool ourselves that we are eating healthy by getting the collard greens again.  oh and we will get the chocolate bread pudding again because jenner loves bread pudding and this is a great version (we will take it to go because seth likes some time between dinner and dessert).

the best of the thai-o-rama best

so if you have been following my blog or this thai-o-rama project than you know there was a lot of not great thai food eaten in the last year.  all a long you may have been thinking, "i don't care about hearing about bad thai food, just tell me where the good stuff is."  so this is where the pay off of eating all that not great thai food happens.  i can, with authority, tell you where you should spend your money on thai eats, and where you should not.
all of the bloggers are all using the same categories below to rate the restaurants:

Best pad thai: i actually don't order pad thai that frequently.  i thinks its kind of a wimpy thai dish, like ordering california rolls at sushi.  but sometimes i do crave it and reading back over my reviews it seems that vientiane had a great rendition.

Best curry: curry is the opposite of pad thai for me, i like to order it every time i go for thai, and i especially love to get it with duck.  the green tofu curry at chiang-mai two was excellent, though one needs to be aware of their heat rating. sabieng thai also had a good panaeng tofu curry.  with these two endorsements i think it may actually be tofu i like to order in my curry

Best spring rolls:  i think that spring rolls across the board are pretty mediocre so i can't recommend any places rolls over another.  but since seth's go-to thai appetizer is crab rangoon i will tell you that hands down the best version of this is at chiang-mai two.  you can actually taste crab in this version.

Best soup: we only ordered soup at 2 or 3 spots so i am gonna decline to comment here.

Best atmosphere: boda is the only interesting restaurant space of any of the restaurants we dined at.  but remember, if you like bus stations, vientiane is the place for you.

Best overall: i'm gonna do a top 3, in no special order -- pom's thai taste, chiang-mai two, and boda.  i'm not totally on the boda band wagon, and i didn't like everything we ordered.  but with some much of exactly the same thai food, its fun and exciting to dine on something different.  honestly i would put it in the top category alone for the dessert of sticky rice, coconut milk and mango.  it was a total surprise that chiang-mai two was so good.  it has a very traditional menu but everything we ordered was the best version we had in 13 restaurants.  pom's thai taste is a great stand by with a huge menu and is super approachable for those new to thai food.  i also think that veranda thai and sabieng thai do a good job.

Best prices: i think this really should be best value for the money.  again i think chiang-mai two had excellent food and reasonable prices.  vientiane also had very good food at pretty much dirt cheap prices.

Best "I never expected to like it" dish:  i have mixed feelings about crab rangoon and i usually just allow seth to order it.  so i guess my 'never expected to like it dish' was the crab rangoon at chiang-mai two.
Place I would never go back to (my own catagory): so while there was a lot of mediorce thai, most places were not horrible, just nothing special.  i think that if they are your neighborhood thai restaurant than you can get a decent americanized-thai meal there.  the one restaurant that i would never recommend anyone is viet bangkok cuisine.  i actually gave this place a okay review when we dined there but it was only our second restaurant and i was not yet jaded by just okay food.  and, in fact, this place's food is not okay.  i can still taste that weird plasticy taste that flavored our curry.

last thai supper

so last night for our last thai supper (round 13 of thai-o-rama) we all met up at sengchai thai (803 forest ave).  we were the only table in the restaurant (really glad i made reservations) so we got a lot of attention from our server.  at first she was endearing and quirky but by the end of the dinner it was a little much for me.  i was out to dine and conversate with friends and our server frankly dominated the conversation at times (i will be interested to hear how everyone else felt about her).  with all this said she was quite attentive, she gave us all separate checks which i always think is above and beyond what a server really needs to do, and she gave us a free appetizer of curry puffs, which were tasty.
seth and i ordered crab rangoon (surprise) which the server said was great but was only your average crab rangoon that don't taste like crab but are somehow satisfying in their fried creaminess.  we also got the tom kha gai which was quite flavorful with a strong scent of lemongrass and, of course, coconut milk, but was a little watery in texture.
for our entrees we got the spicy basil with tofu and the pineapple curry with duck, both ordered 2 out of 5 spiciness.  the spicy basil was spicy w/ lots of nice fluffy pillows of fried tofu and a nice basil flavor.  the pineapple curry was a red curry w/ loads of pineapple, red and green bell peppers, carrots and duck.  i thought the flavor was fine, not the worst curry i have ever had but far from the best and it wasn't spicy at all. there also wasn't really that much duck in it, but i liked the duck that was there.
finally, my thai iced tea, which i sucked down in about 5 minutes flat, so it clearly wasn't that bad, was not as strong as i typically like them.
so as you can tell, this was yet another mediocre thai meal.  if you are in the area and you are really craving thai, by all means stop into sangchai thai and you will get a predictable meal of thai standards.  but by no means go out of your way to dine at this restaurant. 
coming soon, find out which thai restaurants you should go out of your way to dine at when i do my wrap up of all things thai in portland.

no name thai restaurant

guest blog post by seth eli goldstein:
Well, this is embarrassing.  Jenner asked me if I would guest blog for this round of Pad Thai-o-rama.  Sure I would, and so I headed down to the Thai food restaurant located in the food court at Monument Square.   The embarrassing thing is I can't remember this place's name.

                The food court is a nice clean space and there is excellent people watching when all the suits downtown are released for their one hour recess.   The restaurant, whose name I cannot remember, is really a counter place.  The cool thing is that you can watch your food cooked to order before your eyes.  My Pad Thai went straight from the wok to my Styrofoam container and was piping hot.   It was a large portion and I felt like I got a pretty good value for the price.  I would have tried a couple of appetizers as well but I was all by my lonesome and although I am in the Guinness Book of World Records for most crab Rangoon eaten in a single meal I just went with the Pad Thai. 

                I thought that the spice was pretty mild, particularly as I requested a spice factor 2 out of 3.  Perhaps a tad bland as well, but still passable Pad Thai with wide noodles served with scallions and mung beans.  Sometimes pad Thai can be a bit on the sweet side.  The Pad Thai, from the restaurant whose name shall remain a mystery, was not too sweet, and that was nice.  If you need a quick and affordable Thai fix for lunch (I'm pretty sure this is a lunch only joint) that will leave you with leftovers for dinner, hit this place up.  It won't knock your proverbial socks off but it does the trick.

this was a guest posting brought to you by seth for the 12th round of thai-o-rama. the unknown name of this restaurnt is siam orchid and it is located at the one city center food court.