When we signed up for Forktown Food Tours’ afternoon in Portland’s Alphabet District (a.k.a. “Slabtown,” a.k.a. the “Trendy-third” neighborhood), I never dreamed I’d come away saying the high point of the tour for me was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We met Heidi outside Besaw’s, a restaurant that began life as a Slabtown saloon in 1903. (The bar is still there, but its most distinctive feature — a wide rectangle of ornate brass grillwork set into the floor, serving patrons as a “you don’t have to leave your place at the bar to relieve yourself” urinal! — has happily been replaced by a tile mosaic.)
First up? A green salad, studded with dried cranberry and carrot, paired with pear reduction mimosas:
After this treat, my heart sank a little when Heidi told us we were headed to a Jewish deli for Ruben sandwiches. Now, don’t get me wrong — on a food tour, I’m up for pretty much anything. But in the land of sandwiches, Rubens have got to be my least favorite. When someone says “Ruben sandwich!” I invariably think of soggy rye bread sopped in kraut juice and dry pastrami.
I couldn’t have been more wrong! In fact, Kenny and Zuke’s deli served up one of the most amazing bites — a Ruben featuring homemade bread, succulent “beef plate” (think pork belly, but from a cow), just enough mild sour kraut to give the sandwich some bite, and creamy dressing:
How good was it? Well, in the end, we had one too many sandwiches, and when Clyde scarfed it up, I forced him to share it with me. Me! The kid who hates Rubens! I did that.
We hit a delightful French bakery for chouquettes (little balls of baked dough sporting crystals of sugar and salt), a distillery for samples of the local spirits, a local bakery specializing in tiny cookies, and Wildwood, for a cup of brilliant French onion soup and a slice of pizza.
But nothing along the way prepared me for this:
That’s Clyde, sitting outside a food cart dedicated to grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Yep, grilled PB&J.
Now, before you think I’ve gone off my rocker, let me clarify: the folks in this food cart aren’t smearing some Jif and Welch’s on Wonderbread and chasing it around on a greasy grill. No. Instead, on a foundation of hand-crafted local bread, they’re adding orange marmalade, sirracha hot sauce, fresh basil, curry, and homemade peanut butter to produce masterpieces like the Spicy Thai PB&J:
We sampled others, too: the Oregonian (like a fruit plate squeezed into a sandwich) and the Smokin’ Good (with Calamata olive bread, almond butter, applewood smoked bacon, goat cheese, and apricot jam. But nothing — nothing — compares to the Spicy Thai.
So: a happy Valentine’s Day afternoon in Portland, swapping stories with Heidi and enjoying a leisurely walk through a funky, crunchy, New Age-y neighborhood. (If you’re so inclined, you can get massages, float in sensory deprivation tanks, or shop for Tarot cards before or after the tour.) Recommended!
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