Road Trip through Oregon Day 9 - Portland (Final)

 

Our last day in Oregon and we are back where we started - Portland. We are still at the Duniway Portland Hotel. As a Hilton Gold member, our breakfast is pretty much free.

After breakfast, we walked around downtown. We walked by the Portland Art Museum - didn't bother going inside because we are not big on museums (shame). We saw the Simon Benson House, which is beautiful and there's a plaque that tells you about the life of Simon Benson.

There's a beautiful church building here as well. The First Congressional United Church of Christ.

Downtown Portland has many parks. This is the Shemanski Park.

We also visited Powell's Bookstore. This place is a must see. It's the largest bookstore in the USA. It's HUGE and they have author signings all the time.

The books go on forever here. I'm sure I didn't see it all. As a booklover, you can imagine how exciting walking into this place was. (If you haven't checked out my book review blog, now might be a good time!) 

I just want to quickly mention that public transportation is very convenient in Portland, and environmentally friendly - the public transit are electric powered. Everywhere we went felt very safe and there are a lot of mural art and sculptures.

Tonight's dinner is a tasting menu at a contemporary Mexican restaurant called República. I am a bit concerned for this restaurant to be honest because when we were there, we were the ONLY people there. I know it's a Wednesday, but we were there for quite a few hours and never saw anyone else...

República Tasting Menu

Course 1

First course are 3 little bites: 1. maíz ancestral, frijolitos, pepita. 2. maíz ancestral, caviar, cotija (removed for mine because I don't eat cheese). 3. maíz ancestral, salmon, zanahoria. I didn't care for the third one at all - it really accentuated the bitterness of the maíz in my opinion. 

Course 2

The second course is has hiramasa, sugar snap, chile piquin. Hirasama is Japanese for yellowtail amberjack. This was pretty good, because I love raw fish.

Course 3

This course has fresa (strawberry), hoja santa (root beer plant), asparagus. Very good.

Course 4

This course is sturgeon, piñón (kind of like pine nuts), mustard. This was absolutely heavenly and I'm glad things are getting a bit more substantial in quantity.

Course 5

This is like a piece of art. Really cool. The menu says poblano, requesón (similar to recotta), peanut. I'm sure mine was made without requesón. 

Course 6

Course 6 has bison, morita (a type of chipotle pepper), nopal (part of the prickly pear cactus). Very good. I also love edible flowers in my dishes so this is a plus.

Course 7

Foie gras, guajillo (dried chili pepper), chocolate. You can't go wrong with these ingredients.

 Course 8

Coppa (an Italian cured pork), lentil, hazelnut. Very good but that mole sauce (it tasted like mole sauce to me) is quite strong.

Course 9

We are onto the dessert course - good because I was getting pretty stuffed. The last course was very filling. This first dessert course says clavo (clove), porcini, pimienta blanca (white pepper). Very good. 

Course 10 

Queso (adjusted due to my aversion to cheese), haskap (blue honeysuckle), sunflower. Very good. I find the presentation very artistic as well.

Course 11

Our final course of the night, fenugreek, rhubarb, pistachio. Delicious. 

Overall, I thought this was very good. We did not do the wine pairing, but each got a cocktail. I thought there was a strong emphasis on corn, which I guess is reasonable since this is a Mexican restaurant with an emphasis on historical Mexican cuisine, with a modern flair. Every dish was meticulously prepared and service was top notch, although I was a bit uncomfortable for being the only group in the restaurant. At the price of $120 per person, it felt high compared to some of the other restaurants we visited on this trip, although compare to what we have back home, the price becomes reasonable. This is the end of our Portland trip. Here's a picture I took in flight.

I hope you enjoyed our journey with us. See you on the next adventure!