Portland, Oregon is a town with an ingredients fetish. It’s an exciting place to eat out (watch for a Food Lover’s Guide in the November issue of Gourmet) but it might be an even more inspiring place to shop—the farmers markets are awash in Pacific seafood, pasture-raised meats, exceptional vegetables, and the region’s extraordinary fruit, and that’s not even getting to the wine. Note to self: When visiting Portland, especially in the middle of summer, do not be tempted to stay in a hotel, no matter how hip. Hotel rooms don’t have kitchens, and you’ll wish you had one.
You can do all right just by foraging, though. The toddler and I scrounge up a great breakfast at the Saturday morning market—a loaf of crusty bread; perfectly executed country pâtés from charcutier Viande; supple and tangy farmstead sheep and goat cheese from Monteillet Fromagerie, five hours up the Columbia in far Eastern Washington. It’s all so damn delicious. We sit on the grass and nibble and watch people fill their bags. I’d be jealous if I weren’t so content.
But it’s the fruit that really sends me over the moon. This time of year it’s all stone fruit and berries—blackberries (especially the Marionberry), raspberries, and blueberries. I had a few blueberries before the toddler monopolized them, and they were sweet, tart, rich, and more interesting than any blueberry I’ve had on the East Coast this summer. The stone fruit, too, is full of deep and complicated flavors that go beyond sweet and tangy. Even in mid-summer it’s typically cooler here than in the East, thanks to the nearby Pacific Ocean, so everything ripens a little more slowly and seems to have more to say because of it. I remember how, on our last pre-baby visit, we drove the “Fruit Loop” before tasting the eaux-de-vie at Clear Creek Distillery, and how ready I was to move out here to learn to perform that alchemy, or at least have easy access to it. I wonder if it’s too late to change my mind.
The toddler and I are still out at lunchtime. She’s being pickier, tossing that lovely bread on the ground, so I open the bag of Dungeness crab claw meat I bought as a surprise for my wife. I give Squishy a bite. She laughs out loud, then starts grabbing. Six claws, about $8 worth at $34 a pound, are gone in less than five minutes. Don’t get used to it, little girl.
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