Autentica

Seven of the 20 nominations for The James Beard Best Northwest Chef went to Portland chefs and we are working our way through the restuarants we have not been to; next up on the list Autentica and Chef Oswaldo Bibiano.

Autentica is located in the new NE restaurant vortex (there are at least five amazing places on the same stret) and the serve up traditional recipeies from the Guerrero region of Mexico. These are hearty dishes, of which the chicken mole (which I ordered) is the king. The Pollo en Mole Guerrerense is half a chicken in Autentica’s house made mole sauce, with more than 30 ingredients including: nuts, chocolate, chiles, bread, plantains, tortilla, tomatoes, onions, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, anise and more. You could eat the mole with rice and make it an entire meal, but you would miss out on the amazingly moist chicken that falls off the bone. The Carnita Autentica is traditional pork carnitas , served with amazing refried black beans and grilled tomatillo sauce, another must.

As a starter we tried the ceviche crudo, which was very nice. Add a couple of Caddilac Margaritas and you will be in great shape. The only dissapointment was the lime cheescake that was way too dense and filling at the end of such a heavy meal.

Tue- Sun 5-10 PM
Weekend Brunch: Sat+Sun 10 AM-2 PM

Autentica

5507 NE 30th Ave

Portland, OR 97211

503-287-7555

Rabbit Run by John Updike

I am back to books written before I was born, with Rabbit Run by John Updike, but in my defense this turned out to be a series of four books and the last two were written while I was of reading age.

Rabbit Run depicts five months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, and his attempts to escape the constraints of his life. He doesn't like the domesticated man he has become and through a series of misadventures and affairs, he tries to find something better only to fall further down the hole of despair. Updike said he wrote the book in response to Kerouac's On the Road to depict, "what happens when a young American family man goes on the road – the people left behind get hurt"

Rabbit Run spawned three sequels, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest, that take us through Rabbit's middle aged life and up to his death. It is a great joy to be able to read these book consecutively, rather than having to wait 10 years between them.

Qik Video App

If you are not into buying a new iPhone every three months, you will love this app. For $1.99 Qik Video allows you to shoot video on your older generation iPhone. The quality is pretty good and it allows you to easily e-mail the video or post it directly to facebook. It is a memory hog and I am sure a battery drain too, so you need to get the video off your iPhone asap. All in all, a great tool for the price.

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan is the author of five previous books, including In Defense of Food, and The Omnivore's Dilemma. In the current world of food confusion, he is a guru that cuts through the crap and makes things simple for real people to understand.

Food Rules outlines sixty four rules for eating better. Seems like a lot of rules, but they are not too hard to deal with and I like rules. The rules are split up into three categories. What should I eat? (food). What kind of food should you eat? (mostly plants). And, how should I eat? (not too much). The rules are also well written and easy to remember, like "if its a plant eat it, if it's made in a plant don't eat it." Pollan suggests that you pick a couple of rules from each category and try to implement them. The hardest ones for me are the portion control ones, "don't eat a portion of meat bigger than your fist," and "no seconds." I will be struggling with those ones. There are also some funny ones, that make sense when you think about it, "don't eat any cereal that turns the milk a different color."

If you liked his previous books and you are looking for simple guidelines to eating better this is the book for you.

Could be an interesting show

Today on the bus a guy next to me took a phone call, which is usually annoying, but this one proved to be somewhat entertaining:

Hello

Yes, I am available tonight.

What's the show?

It's at Dante's?

I can be there at 7, do you want me to get there earlier so we can rehearse?

What should I wear?

I don't think I have furry pants, but I can look around. Is there a back up?

Short shorts? Leather short shorts? Yeah, I got those.

What's your name again?

GWF? OK, see you at 7.

It might be worth mentioning that the guy on the phone is mid-30's, about 5' 6", and about as normal looking as you can imagine. If I wasn't old and lazy, I would make an effort to go to Dante's tonight to see how this plays out.

Ping Restaurant

I have been hearing a lot about Ping restaurant lately as they have been named a rising star in the Oregonian restaurant guide, GQ named them #4 in their top ten new restaurants, they are a finalist for the James Beard award, and most importantly one of the partners at Wieden+Kennedy, where I work, is a part owner. So, with all that hype to live up to, we took a small seat for two by the door last night (we were very glad we made reservations as the wait for a table was over an hour).

Ping is a hipster place, but there was a wide variety of different patrons, from families, to couples on a date, to hipsters. I thought the waiter was going to be a hipster jerk, but he was super nice and helpful with recommendations. We started with some great cocktails, of which I would highly recommend the drinking vinegars, with or without alcohol. The passion fruit flavored vinegar, did not taste like vinegar at all, it was refreshing and citrusy. We then moved on to the Salapao, a Thai-style steamed bun stuffed with shredded pork and shallots, which was amazing, and by far my favorite thing. In fact I wish I could have one right now. Then the food started coming out fast and furious. The Spicy Mama Ramen noodle soup was a super doctored take on instant ramen and very flavorful. The pork collar was good, and was plused by the spicy dipping sauce. Finally the trout fish special was very good as long as you ate the skin, otherwise it was bland.

I was still a little hungry, but we were not tempted by any of the deserts on the menu, the only short coming I would mention. Otherwise, I can definitely see why this place is getting a lot of hype. The food is great and the atmosphere is fun. I only wish they had a bigger bar, it would be great to just sit and drink a flavored vinegar.

Open M-F 11 am-10 pm
Open Sat 5 pm-10 pm
Closed Sun

Ping

102 Northwest 4th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 229-7464

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

Not all my favorite books were written before I could read. Irvine Welsh is actually still alive and still writing great stories. His best so far is Trainspotting. Written in a strong Scottish venacular it can be hard to follow at times. It's the story of four young men in Edinburgh whose lives revolve around drugs, trying to get off drugs, and stealing things to get more drugs. As the main character Renton says, being a herion addict is hard to kick, because "when you are on heroin you only have one problem, how to get more heroin." The real world is a lot harder to deal with. You have to get a job, interact with people and deal with the day to day stuff that drives us all crazy.

I had always heard that Edinburgh was the AIDS capital of Europe because of the herion use and sharing needles. It wasn't until I read this book (and subsequently saw the movie) that I realized how bad it was. This book is gritty and hard to read, and not only because of the Scottish accents (which had to be subtitled in the US release of the movie). Some of the characters, i.e. Begbie, are reprehesable and seem to have little human value. Other characters you root for despite their bad habits.


This is also one of those very rare cases here the movie did a great book justice. So, if you have seen the movie, go back and read the book.

Where is Tiger Woods?

Everyone is asking where Tiger is, and we can now reveal he has been at Nike Golf World Headquarters practicing his swing. Actually this is just the new TW mannequin that will be in stores later this year. It is very life-like and although it is a little darker than Tiger, it's pretty cool.

Now everyone can get their picture taken with Tiger, all you have to do is visit your local Golf Galaxy.

Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce

I think I am the only person in the world who has not seen the movie Cool Hand Luke, so it was with great anticipation that I opened my new book of the month by Donn Pearce. I honestly had no idea what it would be about, I only knew that Luke was played by Paul Newman in the film. The funny thing is, that despite the fact that I knew this, it was not Newman that I was picturing in my head. I think Newman is way too good looking to be Luke. I think he would be more rugged, maybe more Redford or Nick Nolte.

Cool Hand Luke was written in 1965 and was Pearce's first novel. He was a veteran of WW II, a thief and a private detective. He wrote about prison from first hand experience. While he was nominated for an Academy Award for the screen play adaptation of this novel, I have to think a lot of the rhythm and voice of this book would be lost in a movie. It is so very well written that you find yourself cruising through large swaths of the book like a poem. The content however is gritty and dark. A prison chain gang in 1960's Florida is not a friendly place. In fact it is one of the most brutal atmospheres I have every read about. It is so bad that you feel sorry for the convicts despite the terrible crimes they have committed. You are even rooting for them when they try to escape.

While there are good times amongst the convicts, telling stories about the outside, playing music, celebrating the fourth of July, life is mostly hard. They dig ditches and clear weeds every day in the hot, mosquito infested swamps of Florida. If they look at the guards sideways or talk out of turn you spend the night in the box. The regular building is only marginally better. It is hot, the lights are always on and the smell is brutal. It is only the thought of getting out that keeps the men going, despite the fact that life on the outside would not be a lot better for a convicted felon.

The best bathroom in Portland

When W+K first moved to the Pearl District there were not as many tall buildings as there is now, and we had great views from every side of the building. One of the best views was from a seldom used rest room on the sixth floor. I am not sure why this rest room even exists. It is the biggest one in the building on the least populated floor, and it is on the other side from the cafeteria and conference room where people might actually want to use it. I bet there are a lot of people that work at W+K, that don't even know this rest room exists.

If you stand at the second urinal there is a window that looks out towards North Portland. In the old days you could see the Freemont bridge and the Port of Portland. Unfortunately this view is now gone and all you see is the side of an apartment complex.

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

The Brothers K is one of my all time favorite books and David James Duncan is one of my all time favorite authors. His first book, The River Why is an American Classic and is on many critics best lists. It is deeply philosophical and delves into one man's struggle with God and fishing. The Brothers K, Duncan's second novel, came 10 years later. It is a much bigger book, that portrays the tangled interaction of an American family during the tumultuous Vietnam era. Hugh Chance is a former minor-league baseball player. His career was cut short by an industrial accident and the thumb on his throwing had has been replaced by a toe. His wife is deeply religious. His six kids are are all dealing with growing up in the 60's; they range from an atheist draft dodger to a devote of eastern religion to a devout christian who ends up in Vietnam.

The family interaction is in turn hilarious and intensely sad. The themes the author tackles are grand, but the book is immanently readable. It may get a little out of control at times, but it comes together in the end, a must for me. I love a book to end with some sense of closure.

One embarrassing thing I will add in closing: I met David James Duncan at a reading in Portland several years ago. I had brought a nice copy of The Brothers K to be signed. He looked at it and said, "oh, this is valuable, I need to do a good job on this," to which I replied, "this is the best book I have ever written." I didn't realize my mistake, but my wife was kind enough to point it out. I of course was hugely embarrassed and was standing there like an idiot trying to apologize, when Duncan says, "don't we all rewrite books in our head as we read them?" Wow, what a nice guy for not making me feel like a total idiot.

USA Today App

A while back I raved about the the NY Times app, and while I still love it, I have to say the USA Today app is starting to get some quality time. The USA Today app loads a lot faster than the NY Times and it has a wider range of stories. Obviously the reporting is not as good, nor as deep. It's like reading the real paper, you get lots of top line info, in short easy to read stories. It also has weather and scores right on the home page, with no intrusive advertising (I am sure that will change).

This is a great free app that is a must have for fans of the newspaper.

Clairvoyant

Everyday you meet interesting people on the bus. Today we got to hear how this lady has visions, like the the lady on the TV show Medium. She has had them her entire life, she wishes she didn't, but what can you do? As proof of her clairvoyance, she offered up this story. When she was in high school, she told her boyfriend he shouldn't take her car because something bad would happen. He did it anyway and he ended up getting arrested. As the story unfolds we find out that he hot wired the car and that he was a drug dealer on his way to make a buy. Seems amazing that this could somehow lead to "something bad happening." I don't have visions, but I can tell you if a drug dealing friend takes my car against my will, there is a pretty strong chance it won't turn out well.

Hey can I borrow your car?

Uh, what are you going to do with it?

Rob a bank.

Uh, you know I am a little clairvoyant and I am having a vision that his ends badly.

Relax, I got it covered.

Super Bowl Commercials

Let's get started with the best Super Bowl commercial for 2010, hands down our Simpson's Coke spot. I heard through the grape vine that this was a difficult spot to produce, but it was well worth it. Even if you are not a huge Simpson's fan, you got to love it. The story was funny and the animation was great. Unfortunately the USA Today Readers Poll did not agree with me, ranking it number 30. They choose the Snickers Betty White spot number one. While I agree it was a very funny spot, I didn't think it was the best spot.

My next favorite ad was a promo for Late Night with Dave Letterman. How he got Jay Leno and Opra to be in the promo is a great story you can read about on USA Today. Jay is a good sport for doing it and Letterman is a genius for conceiving it.

There were also a few too many spots where people were not wearing pants. The Career Builder spot was funny, but the Dockers one was not. What was truly strange is that there were two pantsless spots back to back, could that have been coordinated?

W+K had a total of four spots on the Super Bowl. There were two Coke spots, a Dodge spot, and an EA Dante's Inferno spot. I thought the Dodge spot was funny (as did all the folks at my viewing party), but the NY Times panned it as sexist.

There were way too many Bud Light and Doritos spots for my liking. I didn't think any of them were as good as years past.

The most controversial spot of the year has to be the Tim Tebow Focus on the Family spot. If you hadn't heard about it before the game, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. The issue is that it is an anti-abortion spot, and this is the first time a network has allowed an advocacy spot on the Super Bowl. To me this is a little taste of what we can expect next election year due to the Supreme Court's ruling, which allows corporations to spend whatever they want on ads. We are going to be inundated and politics are going to get even more nasty.

If you want to judge for yourself you can see all the spots on Spike.com and vote for your top 10.

Super win for Saints

I think this is the first time in my life that I have really cared who wins the the Super Bowl. It has been fun watching the Saints all year, and with Barbara and her family being such big fans, we got our Fleur dis Lis on, and pulled for New Orleans. Not just the football team, but the entire city. As much as I wanted the Saints to win, I was worried about Payton Manning and the Colts. First time Super Bowl teams are 4-15 against teams that have been there before. When the Saints went down 10-0, and they flashed the statistic that winning after being down 10 points would equal the largest Super Bowl comeback in history, I was even more worried.

That worry was for naught as the Saints battled back and took the lead. Then they did what has made them great all season, they picked off Manning and ran it back for a TD. At that point I felt pretty good about the outcome, but it was still an exciting finish. As the Colts were driving with two minutes left, you could see a patented Manning moment coming. Thankfully the Saints held strong and the Bourbon Street camera showed the French Quarter exploding.

Boy I wish I was in New Orleans tonight, it is going to be a great party. Mardi Gras is still a few days away, but I think things are going to get started early.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces is a great book, has an amazing back story and is set in New Orleans, do I need to say anything more? OK, I'll say a little more. John Kennedy Toole wrote a book when he was 16 years old. Nothing happened to it. He went to graduate school and became a professor and wrote another book. Nothing happened to it either. In fact it was rejected by Simon and Shuster because, "it wasn't about anything" (didn't Sienfeld make a lot of money doing nothing?). Over time, Toole became so despondent he quit working, drank heavily and ultimately committed suicide at 31. His mother picked up the torch and kept trying to get the book published. Eleven years later, LSU press published 2500 copies (that are now very valuable) and the book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

Now to the book itself. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, and this book captures the rhythm and the language of the city better than any other book ever written (and that includes any Tennessee Williams play). You'll meet a lot of weird and wonderful people, such as the eccentric Ignatius Reilly; a man who thinks everyone else in the world pales in comparison to his genius, despite the fact he as only left New Orleans once in his life, and only got as far as Baton Rouge. This book is dark and hilarious and you'll find yourself laughing out loud. One thing is for sure, you will never walk through New Orleans' French Quarter and see a Lucky Dog cart again without thinking of this book.

Avatar in the Amazon

You may remember that I took a trip to the Amazon rain forest last year where I got to spend the night with an Achuar family. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot about what native peoples are up against in their daily challenges to protect their way of life. It was also a very primative place, where people live off the land and survival is not assured. They had no electricity, no running water and no bathrooms.

So, what happens when you take a group of these folks out of the rain forest and into the big city to watch (in many cases) their first movie? And what if that movie is Avatar, a 3-D extravaganza about saving a native people's way of life? You get some interesting reactions. Check out the full story on NPR.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz. It is one of the only movies that beat out Avatar in any award show this year. Another strange connection to Avatar? The director Kathryn Bigelow was once married to James Cameron. OK, enough with the trivia. This is not a trivia inducing movie. It is a super serious and intense movie.

At two hours running time it will leave you a little worn out. The film begins with Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) joining an Army demolition team in 2004 Iraq. The team only has 36 days left on their rotation and James is seriously jeopardizing their chances of getting home alive. James is a cowboy and an adrenaline junkie. He lives for the thrill of defusing bombs. He is a complicated character and The Bigelow does a great job bringing him to life without too many of the cliches we have grown accustomed to in war movies. She also does a great job of getting us inside the life of a soldier in Iraq. There are no overt political statements, but you can easily come to your own conclusions of whether or not anything we are doing over there makes sense.

The Hurt Locker is now avaialble on DVD and On Demand. I doubt it will win the Oscar for best picture, but it is in the top three.