Toya Ramen & Bar

Finally breaking out of the streak of Thai restaurants in Portland, we moved onto a different Asian cuisine with Toya Ramen & Bar.  This modern noodle bar is Japanese-inspired, which is key to the overall understanding of the menu.  They take food in all sorts of creative directions and although they have some of the classics available, there are re-imagined plates as well.  We were excited to try some of their creations as well as taking in the energetic vibe and cocktails.

We began with some small plates including the fantastic Miso Eggplant.  This was full of umaminess with smoky and sweet notes.  There was a slight tang to it that made things appetizing.  Although the eggplant was tender, it was not mushy.  The crunch from the bubu arare added the necessary texture.  We also had the 5pc Hawaiian Kanpachi that was dressing in ponzu jelly, jalapeno and sansho oil.  The buttery pieces of fish were fresh and bright. There was some balanced saltiness with herbal notes and sweetness.  Burdock and seaweed on top came through with crispiness.

We then had the Crispy Gau Gee (or deep fried dumplings).  Although one would think this shape of dumpling and its preparation was only beneficial in saving time and effort, the results were actually quite good.  The outer wrapper was crispy and fairly light without being greasy.  The star of the show was the pork & cabbage filling.  It was moist and tender with some juiciness.  The seasoning was on point with equal parts sweetness and saltiness.

Before we got to the noodles, we tried their Lan-Roc Farms Tonkatsu featuring a panko fried duroc pork cutlet, cabbage, toya "57" sauce and takuan.  Fully-cooked through, but still juicy and tender, the pork cutlet was coated in a crispy layer of panko.  It was quite good on its own but the sauce on the side some tangy spice.  Loved the pickles (takuan) on the side as well as the sesame seed slaw.  It was rather aromatic and provided some relief from the fried panko.

Starting with something more traditional, we had the Shoyu Black.  This looked the part and also tasted the part with a silky chicken broth that wasn't too heavy, but not short on umaminess either.  Naturally, the black garlic oil did some of the heavy lifting with sweetness and almost smokiness.  The ajitama egg yolk was custardy while the egg white was delicate.  Torched and buttery, the pork chashu melted in my mouth.  Noodles were al dente as well.

From here, we moved onto something fusion with the Spicy Tom Yum Men.  Yep, we really didn't get away from Thai food with this meal.  Not complaining as I love Tom Yum!  For this bowl of noodles, the soup base was a clear chicken broth infused with tom yum.  I found it medium-flavored and spiced.  I definitely could've done spicier, but they provided some extra spice on the side.  The lemongrass component really came through being aromatic and gingery.  Noodles were firmly al dente and held up to the soup.  The sous vide chicken breast was supremely tender and juicy while the pork was equally tender.

We had an off-menu item in the Duck Ramen.  We are always game for some duck broth and this one delivered with a mild silkiness giving way to natural duck aroma. Unlike some versions, the duck broth was not salty.  Rather, it featured inherent umaminess and background fall flavors.  The sous-vide duck was perfectly tender as well as the sous-vide chicken.  For this bowl, we found thin ramen that worked beautifully with the duck and the broth.

They also have a selection of soupless ramen and we had a couple including the OG Abura Soba.  If you've ever had Kokoro Mazesoba before (lots of international locations), you would know exactly what this bowl is about.  With chewy noodles topped with shoyu tare, allium oil, onsen egg, pork chashu, green onion, nori and menma, there was more than enough components to ensure umaminess with a peppery and savory flavor profile.

The other soupless ramen we tried was the Caronaramen with onsen egg, chicken butter, speck, black pepper, parm and pecorino.  Yes, this did eat like an actual carbonara except with ramen noodles.  The noodles were firmly chewy and when mixed with the egg, resulted in a creamy and silky coating spiked with the saltiness of the speck and cheesiness of the parm pecorino.  Add in the black pepper, and we had a slight bite as well.

We had 3 desserts including the Hojicha Gelato, Black Sesame Cheesecake and Panna Cotta.  Of the 3, my favourite was the was the cheesecake as it was rich and creamy with a sweet nuttiness.  As for the panna cotta, it was thick and had real umami with the combination of salty miso, peanut butter and chocolate.  Lots of sweet and salty here with the rich taste of chocolate.  I really enjoyed the taste of the gelato as it was nutty and sweet.  I wished it was creamier though.  Overall, the food at Toya was delicious and the fusion aspect worked well in my opinion.  Great place to grab drinks, meet with friends and have some eats.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

 The Good:
- Solid eats
- Good cocktails
- Nice vibe

The Bad:
- I would've liked the Tom Yum to be spicier, but you can get extra on the side (also understand that that you can add flavor but can't take it away)  

Thai Peacock

Three straight Thai restaurants to start off our Portland trip?  Woah, Thai food is excellent here, but isn't this a bit of an overkill?  Of course not!  There is never too much of a good thing!  Well maybe except too many fried chicken sammies.  That gave me bad cholesterol!  Anyways, Thai Peacock is related to some other great PDX Thai restaurants in Khao Moo Dang and Ruk-Diew.  Since we enjoyed those 2 spots already, we were pretty confident that Thai Peacock would too!

So all of the food pretty much showed up at the same time.  Hence, I'll just put them in order of how I would've eaten them starting with the House Combo with a variety of small appies.  My favorite item on the plate was the chicken teriyaki meatball.  Sure, not really a Thai item, but delicious nonetheless.  It was moist, meaty and had all the great caramelized sweetness from teriyaki.  The coconut prawns were pretty awesome too.  They were crispy and aromatic with a buttery snap texture.  Also not Thai, the gyozas were solid having a thin crispy dumpling skin with tender chicken and cabbage filling.  Veggie spring rolls were crunchy with non-mushy veggies inside.  Salad roll was veggie too and it was okay, I would've preferred some meat but I get there needs to be non-meat options.

As always, we got the Papaya Salad since we can say we got our veggies!  Well, also because we enjoy it due to the crunch and briny tangy dressing.  This one here was no exception as it was fresh and had plenty of brightness with a touch of spice.  On that note, we could customize our spice level with their box of Sauces.  I was using the hot chili with lots of the other dishes including the following one.

Yes, I added it to the Pad See Ew since I love my noodles spicy!  Even though this was prepared medium spiced, I wanted more heat.  Loved this version as the rice noodles were intact and not clumpy.  This was the case despite the dish not being overly greasy.  Lots of wok hei ensuring caramelization and smokiness.  Also a touch of brininess from fish sauce provided that umaminess.  We opted for tofu in this one and that goes the best in this dish in our opinion.

For our choice of soup, we had the Tom Kha this time around and it was fragrant due to the lemongrass.  It was pretty prominent and of course had the bite of the galangal and brightness of the kaffir lime leaves.  Due to the addition of coconut milk, the sharp tanginess was muted while the spiciness (we asked for medium) was balanced.  We had this with prawns and they were buttery and cooked just right. For me, I wished there was even more coconut milk.

From the soup, we moved onto 2 pork dishes in the Braised Pineapple Pork and Pad Ka-Phrao with Pork Belly.  Due to the use of pineapple, the natural enzymes broke down the pork muscle fibers.  The result was super tender meat with a natural sweetness.  The stir-fried pork belly was really good with proper wok hei that produced intense sweetness.  The Thai basil really came through with added sweetness and herbaceousness.

We were all ready to order a standard Pad Thai with shrimp but it was suggested we have the Pad Thai with Crispy Trout instead.  Good call as the trout was fantastic.  Crispy on the outside but flaky and moist on the inside, it was unexpected match for the noodles.  The noodles were chewy and not clumpy with a tangy and sweet tamarind sauce.  It had balanced spice and the extra squeeze of the lime made it even more impactful.

One of my favorite dishes was the Garlic Fried Rice with Garlic Shrimp.  As expected, the wok hei was evident here with the nuttiness of the rice and the caramelization of the shrimp.  Since it was an open kitchen, we had a clear view of the flaming wok.  Lots of aromatics within the rice including plenty of garlic.  It wasn't greasy though and the rice was chewy.  Shrimp were bouncy and naturally sweet with spot on seasoning.

We also decided to try the Seafood Khao Soi where it came with a pretty impressive amount of ingredients.  The large scallops were so buttery and soft while the prawns were as good as the other dishes.  Calamari was tender while still retaining a bite.  As for the broth, it was a bit less rich than other versions I've had but still aromatic.  Noodles were al dente and did soak up some of the flavors of the broth.

For our curry selection, we had the Kaeng Matsaman with Beef.  Although this is generally a milder curry, it still had plenty of impact from its nuttiness and creaminess.  It was medium spiced with a small lip tingling at the end.  The ample amount of beef was fairly tender while the nuggets of potato were delicate and soaked up all of the sweet and peanutty goodness.  Of course this went well with some white rice.

For our drinks, we had the Thai Iced Tea and Thai Iced Coffee.  Predictably sweet, the ice tea had all of the strong tea flavors.  It was actually not overly sweet, so we enjoyed it.  As for the coffee, it was pretty strong and that was enough to balance off the sweetness.  It had Vietnamese French coffee vibes and that suited us just fine.  We also had one mocktail in the Lychee Daiquiri.  It was fruity and semi-sweet.  Great with the spicy food!  Overall, the food at Thai Peacock is solid with some memorable dishes.  Pricing is affordable and portions are fair.  Definitely an option if you are craving Thai food in Downtown PDX!

*All food and beverages were complementary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Excellent wok hei and caramelization
- Well-priced
- Open dining space with high ceiling and plenty of light

The Bad:
- Tom Kha and Khao Soi could've used more coconut milk

Nong's Khao Man Gai

Wait, didn't I just post about Nong's Khao Man Gai earlier this year?  Yep, that is true, we paid Portland a visit in March and made our way to the SE Ankeny location.  Food was great, served in large portions and was reasonably-priced.  A good recipe for success and in fact, they have been very successful with their food truck in the past.  I've enjoyed their chicken rice with "crack" sauce since this blog began.  So I was not about to pass up another opportunity to dine there again.

Although I will talk about some other dishes in this post, I can't help but start with their namesake in the Khao Man Gai Piset.  This was the larger version of their signature dish with more chicken, rice and sauce.  Although the chicken itself is tender and moist, the ginger garlic sauce is what makes this dish.  So addictive, the combination of sweetness, tanginess and aromatics could make shoe leather taste good.  The chicken rice was nutty and al dente which was perfect for the chicken and sauce.  Loved they included the chicken livers too.

Sure, the chicken rice here at Nong's is really good with all of the components being on point.  However, I'm going to say something controversial - the Super Soup is my favorite thing here.  It is essentially the chicken soup that comes with the chicken rice, but served in a large bowl with the chicken and rice in it.  It becomes a super hearty and comforting dish with sweet soup, tender melon, chewy rice and tender chicken.  I could eat multiple bowls of this!

If you aren't into the chicken, they do have an alternative in the Khao Kha Muu or Thai Pork with rice, pickled mustard greens, gai lan and boiled egg.  Really enjoyed this dish as the fatty pork did not require much in the way of chewing.  Even the fat was easy going down.  It benefitted from the sweet and savory soy braise as well as the tanginess of the mustard greens.  Combined with some spicy sauce, this was delicious.

One item that is not on the regular menu is the Noodle Bitter Melon with chicken wings, bitter melon, shredded chicken breast, gai lan, bean sprout, shiitake mushroom, daikon radish, rice noodles and goji berries.  To me, this had some duck soup vibes even though there was not duck to be found.  It had depth, sweetness and just a tinge of bitterness from the melon.  Noodles were thin and soaked up all of the delicious broth.  There was no shortage of meat with tender wings and shredded chicken.  A comforting bowl of noodles for a cold day.

For those who want something different than the classic chicken rice, there is also the Chicken, Rice & Peanut Sauce with a side of boiled broccoli.  This came with plain white rice rather than the chicken rice.  Good thing because the peanut sauce was pretty dominant with its nutty sweetness.  There was some salt to balance and further enhance the peanut flavor.  Reminds me of the Chinese hand-shredded chicken with peanut sauce but with much more sauce!  Every time I have this dish at Nong's I find it heavy and hence, I can eat only half of it.

To go with our food, we also ordered 2 drinks in the Ginger Lemonade and Thai Tea Float.  Refreshing, tangy and plenty gingery, the ginger lemonade really helped keep our appetites going despite being full.  As for the float, it was addictively sweet and creamy.  Great option for those who like Thai iced tea but want some creamy soft-serve with it.  Overall, this was another great visit to Nong's.  The food isn't complex here but it doesn't have to be.  It is comforting, served in large portions and affordable.  Perfect trifecta!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Inexpensive

- Homey and delicious food

- Large portions

The Bad:

- Seating is tight here and limited (although there is overflow next door)

- Simple menu, but you know what you're here for...

Rama Thai

For those who are unaware, Portland's Thai food game is pretty unreal.  My experiences with Thai cuisine in the PDX area has been meals to remember.  Coming from Vancouver, B.C., it was a total surprise at first, but now it is just par for the course.  In fact, the Thai food is so good that the original superstar Thai restaurant, Pok Pok, doesn't even exist anymore!  The options are just so many and they are generally good.  So it was fitting to visit Rama Thai in Beaverton as our first meal during our trip.

To start, we had something I've never had before in the Som Tum Thai.  We chose the salted crab version and it was mixed into the papaya salad.  It provided a salty brininess to the crunchy papaya.  The ample amount of dried shrimp combined with the usual sweetened fish sauce dressing provided pops of fermented brininess, sweetness, tanginess and aromatics.  This was quite the seafoody-tasting salad and I loved it.  Only thing I didn't like was the crab getting in the way as we couldn't eat the shells. Provided good saltiness though!

Going with another classic Thai starter, we had the Larb Chicken with lime juice, shallots and mint.  This was an ample portion of chicken that was slightly dry.  I've made this dish before and the meat is cooked without oil in a pot, so it dries out a bit (it is normal).  Mixed in with the fish sauce and lime juice, the meat became rehydrated a bit and took on the tanginess and saltiness.  It was had the aromatics from the shallots and herbecousness of the mint. 

From here, we moved onto a couple of meat dishes in the Crying Tiger and the Moo Ping Kati.  Consisting of a 9oz char-grilled ribeye, the crying tiger was flavorful even without the side of sweet chili sauce.  Although it was still moist being prepared medium, the meat was a bit tough.  However, the pork skewers were considerably more tender with a good caramelization.  I loved the sweetness with some smokiness.  I would go for the pork skewers any day!

Moving onto the soup course, we opted for the Tom Yum Goong.  This was a large portion of soup that was kept warm with a heated hot pot.  I found this super fragrant and impactful (a flavor bomb!).  They weren't shy with the fish sauce, galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves because I could taste every one of these clearly.  Beyond that, the ample amount of shrimp were plump and barely cooked-through having a buttery snap.

Another dish I've never had before was the Ka Prow Kai Yeow Ma.  This consisted of stir-fried ground pork and preserved eggs.  Honestly, they had me at preserved eggs.  Yes, those black things on the plate are the eggs.  They are gelatin-like and taste a bit nutty and pungent.  As for the pork, it was tender with plenty of sweetness and a faint touch of spiciness.  This was also aromatic due to the garlic as well as the fried basil on top.

One dish I had a love hate relationship with was the Crispy Fish featuring deep fried tilapia slices with sweet & sour and Thai lime sauces.   Okay for the love part of the dish, each piece of fish was indeed crispy and nicely salted.  Dipping sauces were bright and delicious, especially the lime.  However, I'm not a big fan of tilapia, but that wasn't the problem here.  The hate part was that the fish was rather dry.  The sauces helped though.

We had to get some noodle dishes, so we had the Pad See Ew with an extra fried egg on top.  This tasted quite good with a good balance of sweetness and savoriness.  There was enough wok hei to ensure caramelization of flavors and slight smokiness.  The noodles were mostly intact but there was also a number of pieces that were broken and clumped-up together.  That didn't affect the eating experience much, but still needed to mention it.

We had to also get the classic Pad Thai, in this case, we had it with prawns.  This was a good version of the dish with loose, al dente and non-clumpy noodles.  The dish was a bit sweet with ample palm sugar, but at the same time, there was balancing tanginess from the tamarind.  There was also a medium spicy kick (as we requested) that brought the dish together.  Would've liked more pickled radish as I didn't notice it much.

One of my favorite dishes of the meal was the Snow Crab Fried Rice.  Beyond the good amount of fluffy crab and eggs, the rice itself was expertly prepared.  Sure, it was on the greasier side, yet that only meant it was legit.  The wok hei (wok's breath) was strong and helped create caramelization and smokiness.  Each grain of rice was discernible, chewy and nutty.  There was brininess and aromatics abound.  Excellent dish.

Beyond the rice, we ended off on an even higher note with the Crispy Duck Curry.  This featured a substantial amount of bone-in roasted duck sitting in a beautiful red curry with pineapple, peppers and basil.   The duck was moist and tender with rendered crispy skin.  The curry was sweet with a spicy finish.  The intense pops of sweetness from the pineapple really helped keep things light.

We also had a couple of drinks to go with our meal in the Butterfly Pea Flower Lemonade and the Cranberry Slushie.  The lemonade was refreshing and lightly sweet, perfect for cooling down the spice.  As for the seasonal slushie, it was tart and sweet with ginger cinnamon vibes.  It could be had as mocktail or cocktail.  Ending off this meal, we had the Thai Tea Toast with coconut ice cream.  This was not as sweet as it sounded as the Thai tea jam was used conservatively.  The toast itself was crispy and light, so this didn't eat heavy at all.  Overall, the meal at Rama Thai was good with some real highlights.  A great start to our Portland food adventures!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Food full of impact

- Good wok hei, hence caramelized and nutty flavors

- Generous portion sizes

The Bad:

- Parking lot is insufficient

- Fish was a little dry

Creo Chocolate

When I was younger, I was a milk chocolate guy.  In fact, I was a crappy milk chocolate guy.  Yes, I didn't know any better and in fact, I was dabbled a bit in generic candy bars and even Allen chocolates (*GASP*).  After I became aware (like Skynet), I began to dislike crappy chocolate and gained an appreciation for artisan hand-crafted chocolates, especially those of the dark variety.  So this brings me to Creo Chocolate.  This Portland favorite not only offers up the classic options, they dare to go out-of-the-box (sorry for the pun) and come up with some pretty unique flavors.

If you are apprehensive or not very adventurous, they do offer chocolate tastings so that you can make a proper decision when selecting your box of Chocolates.  I nearly sampled them all and my favorites included the spicy Ghost Pepper (the white one).  I didn't even notice the white chocolate as it was only sweet enough and besides, the heat from the ghost pepper was the dominant flavor.  Something that with less heat was the Spicy Passion also made with white chocolate.  It hit more subtly and was also purposefully sweet.   Really enjoyed the Raspberry Dark as it had appealing bitter notes and of course the tangy sweetness of raspberries.  The chocolate had a beautiful sheen and melted with a smooth creaminess.

In addition to their chocolates, they also have an array of Chocolate Bars in classic and creative flavors.  I particularly enjoyed the dark chocolate especially the Dark Raspberry.  This was mildly bitter and sweet with the tangy hit from the dried raspberries.  Also enjoyed the Spicy Mango as it had a kick like those Mexican dried fruits while having a balancing sweetness.  Strangely, the Purely Dark 100% was something that I didn't mind either.  It can be very strong-tasting and almost ashy, but I really enjoyed it.  Even the white chocolate Meyer Lemon was appealing as they didn't make it crazy sweet and let the lemon come through.

Beyond the chocolates and bars, I also tried some of their S'mores Bites as well as their Hot Chocolate.  If you aren't into digging into big pieces of chocolate, the bite-sized bags are perfect for you.  I loved snacking on the s'mores bites as they were purposefully sweet and perfect for sharing.  As for the hot chocolate, I tried the 73% Ecuador Cacao with mint.  This was slightly bitter with a refreshing mint finish.  Not sweet and plenty chocolatey.  Right up my alley.  In fact, all of the items from Creo were great and definitely worthy of their many awards.  I will be sure to hit them up again when in PDX again!

*All chocolate was complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Straight-up quality chocolate

- Unique flavors

- A little something for everyone

The Bad:

- Well you do have to pay for this chocolate but well worth it

Insadong

It has been some time since we have last visited Insadong.  In fact, when we showed up for our reservation, it became evident that they had made some renovations.  The place looks much more modern and cleaner than it had been before.  This was one of my criticisms the last time I ate there.  Sure, the renos looked to be done in the past few years, so there was some wear and tear.  But so much more inviting than before.  I've always loved the food here, hence, it was a welcomed sight. 

We were here for the BBQ, so we got the Family of 4 Combo C meal that also included the usual Banchan.  We didn't get much variety (even though the menu states 10+ varieties).  As you can see, we only had bean sprouts, kimchi, spicy cucumbers and stewed potatoes (2 orders of each).  Also had a green salad as well as the usual romaine for wrapping the meats and rice, bean paste, peppers and garlic.  Banchan was good though where the potatoes were soft but still had a bite.  Kimchi was tangy with spice, would've liked some shrimpiness to it.

The fairly large plate of Japchae was not included in the combo, but we got it to supplement the meats.  This had quite a bit of components in addition to the chewy sweet potato starch noodles.  It was sweet as usual, but fairly balanced otherwise.  Overall, it was pretty decent.  For our choice of soup included in the combo, we went for the Soft Tofu (the non-spicy version).  It came out bubbling hot and the tofu was silky and smooth.  Broth was lightly sweet.  It was a little lacking in depth, but again, decent otherwise.

Onto the Meats, we had a selection that included Pork Steak, Pork Belly, Marinated Beef, Marinated Chicken and 2 types of Beef Short Ribs.  I thought that this was just the right amount of beef for 4 people, yet not enough if you had bigger appetites.  Meat quality was good where the pork was tender with just enough marbling while the thinly sliced beef was sweet and charred up nicely.  Beef ribs were fatty and had that classic short rib chew.

Seeing how we have bigger appetites, we did go for another 2 orders of meat including Pork Jowl and an extra order of Chicken.  We like the bouncy fattiness of the pork jowl and although chicken isn't what people really order at Korean BBQ (it is all about the beef!), the kids love the chicken, so we got more of it.  The grill itself needed to be turned up a bit to get a nice sear, otherwise, the meats merely boiled themselves.  Overall, Insadong provided the expected Korean BBQ experience.  Not the best in town, but definitely reliable and acceptable.  Service has improved greatly and the new decor (well, new to me) was welcomed.

The Good:
- Reliable eats
- Efficient service
- Decent

The Bad:
- Parking lot is terrible (not enough spaces for the amount of businesses
- Banchan selection is lacking