Breakfast in Bridgetown

Every now and then I just cruise through the local blogs and pubs for breakfast-related info. Here’s the latest batch of results:

• PortlandFoodCarts.com took a trip to the newest breakfast food car, The Big Egg in the new Mississippi Marketplace. Their post is here, the Big Egg’s Twitter feed is here, and Mississippi Marketplace is here.
• Yet another publication has piled onto The Original, Portland’s own “Dinerante.” The New York Times had already called it “a super-designy restaurant that wants you to think it’s just a hipster diner.” And the Portland Mercury said it was ”gimmicky, showy, and plagued with problems.” Willamette Week then cried out, “The Diner is Ironic; The Pain is Real.” And now, finally we hope, the Oregonian has kicked the dead horse once again, asking its readers, “When you make a fried bologna sandwich with shallot mayonnaise, are you actually making it something more nuanced and sophisticated than a fried bologna sandwich?“
• In happier news, my favorite Internet goofball — whom I once semi-threatened to punch — has returned to Portland to give some much-deserved love to Moxie RX. Check it out, from Vendr.TV.
• Daniel of Vendr.TV also paid a visit to our very own Grilled Cheese Grill. Check out that episode here.
• And finally, I somehow missed this, but I guess our mayor, Sam Adams, got into it with Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, about who has the best food carts. The New York Post followed Bloomberg out for lunch, and Vendr.TV has the whole story.

I swear, I can’t keep up anymore. Now I see on Twitter that Paddy’s is doing weekend breakfast. There’s nothing on their website. Anybody know anything about this?

I just put up a new poll at PaulGerald.com, with this question:

After I finish the fourth edition of my 60 Hikes book and the second edition of my breakfast book — both due out in early 2010 — which book should I do next?

There are four options and, as of today, 27 days left to vote.

I see Montage is now doing brunch on weekends, 10 to 1:30. Anybody been there?

I am quite sick today, so no clever details. Just a link to the Fair’s website — beware the huge download — and a note that I got a great location, the corner of NE 25th and Alberta. Come on out and say hello! Selling time is 11 to 7.

My friend Megan McMorris will have a new title, as well: P.S., What I Didn’t Say, making its world debut at the Stumptown Scribes booth. Here’s  what Megan wrote about it:

From BFFs to Frenemies, from The One Who Got Away to The One You Wish Would Go Away, P.S.: What I Didn’t Say gets at the good, the bad, and the ugly of female friendships, all in an “unsent letter” format. The letters in this collection will make you laugh out loud, sob quietly into your cereal, and above all make you appreciate, celebrate, and examine the females in our lives

The book has a website and …. amazingly …. a video book trailer with her own music! What a cool chick.

Read it here.

I wasn’t particularly kind to the Paradox Cafe in my book. I kind of covered my ass by also making fun of myself and saying that I might just be an idiot. And I hung it on various friends, reporting that they all shrugged at the food. But the truth was, I thought the place was grimy and the food was crappy.

Well, now they have expanded, cleaned up, and — near as this idiot can tell — improved on the food considerably. They also have AC and take plastic, which is nice.

I had the Paradox Benedict (Sourdough bread with veggie sausage, your choice of tofu or egg topped with fresh tomato and Bon Bon’s Tree Hugger hollandaise sauce served with seasoned red potatoes), which was probably too salty but at least had some action to it, and was quite filling. The taters were awesome. My friend had the corn cake special, with bananas and walnuts in the cakes and strawberries on top. Outstanding.

Here’s the breakfast menu.

By the way, neither of us finished. Add two cups of coffee and a nice tip, and we got out of there for $27.

So I’ll add the Paradox to my “re-write list,” which so far also includes Cafe DuBerry (which isn’t as good or bad as I wrote) and Daily Market and Cafe, which is now larger and called the New Deal Cafe.

I mean “not much going on” in two ways for these two places, which otherwise have nothing in common.

One way is that neither place had any kind of a crowd when I was there — though it must be said that I was at Pambiche at 7 this morning. It also must be said that Pambiche has two-for-one entrees at breakfast from 7 to 8. La hora del amigo, they call it. So four of us shared a basket of baked yummies, four coffees, and four entrees, and the bill was $35. Not bad. For the record, we tipped as if the bill had been $20 more than that. We’re all about restaurant karma — or, as our ranting liberal friend Bob put it, we’re taking money out of the pocket of the restaurant owners and giving it to the staff!

Springwater is a different deal. We were there Sunday morning and saw only two other tables occupied. Granted, it was Labor Day Weekend, but I suspect there’s another reason: their food isn’t that good. The place is pleasant, the heart-of-Sellwood location is killer, but the food is just a resounding blah. I had a pork verde that had as much zing as a Taco Bell taco, the chipotle creme fraiche notwithstanding. (I should have known when they said “mild” chipotle creme fraiche.) Nobody else seemed to wowed by their meal.

Now, for Pambiche. That place tortures me, and here’s why. People love it. I mean, love it. The Oregonian said ” … each dish explodes in an array of colors across the spectrum … This is not a breakfast for the timid of heart or belly.”

Well, flame away at me if you will, but I do not get it. I think their food is bland as hell, at least at breakfast. I’ve had a few things, and I am left feeling disappointed every time. There’s no kick, no zing, no “explosion” of any colors other than the ones on the wall. Frankly, it all tastes the same to me.

I know I am against the tide on this one, and it could be nothing but ignorance and a complete lack of culinary sophistication. And clearly nobody cares what I think, since the place is wildly popular. And should I even be saying this kind of thing in a book, especially one in which I sing the praises of, say, Tosis?

This is why Pambiche tortures me. I feel like I am missing something, or that everybody else is delusional or something. And I feel like I should shut up and say “It’s popular, you’ll probably like it.” Or I should go there with somebody who can explain it to me.

Anyway, it’s not crowded, it’s super cheap for two in the morning, and folks love it. Let me know what you think.

The Oregonian did a little piece this week on two Northwest Portland breakfast standards, Besaw’s and the Stepping Stone. And they hit on something I often say. Whenever people ask me what my favorite place is, and I get that a lot, my standard answer is “The Stepping Stone is my favorite, but Simpatica has the best food.”

I’m not even sure the Stepping Stone really is my favorite, but there’s a lot of sentimental value there, even with slow service and mediocre food. And that’s pretty much what the Oregonian said.