{"id":12023,"date":"2016-10-26T18:01:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T22:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=12023"},"modified":"2016-10-27T11:49:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T15:49:42","slug":"beyond-salt-and-pepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/beyond-salt-and-pepper\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Salt and Pepper"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Meet the wizards who awaken our palates with oils, spices, and flavors galore. If you can\u2019t stand the heat, get out the kitchen.<\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

Transport yourself to warmer climes via your taste buds with exotic spices and imaginative ingredients.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AWESOME SAUCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"hungry-eye-nov16\"One of the most effective ways to light up your taste buds is to look to the East. Asian cuisine is all about nuance, which is why Portland is in love with pho, ramen, and hot-and-sour soups. Another easy flavor gateway is via dipping sauce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just call it ginger sauce,\u201d says Siwaporn Roberts (pictured right), the busy chef at Thai Esaan on Forest Avenue, when asked about the dark and powerful mixture she serves with her Khao Mun Gai (below).<\/p>\n

We just call that an understatement. Khao Mun Gai is one of the specialties of the Esaan region in Thailand on the concise menu at this pristine little caf\u00e9, owned by Roberts\u2019s son Ben Boonseng, which opened in February. Roberts steams and slices chicken and serves it over rice with the magical ginger sauce alongside for pouring or dipping. \u201cI make it with sweet soy, white vinegar, garlic, ginger, and hot sauce,\u201d she says. But this sauce is so much more than the sum of its parts, and this dish is an extraordinary cold-weather comfort.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t stop dipping at Cara Stadler\u2019s Bao Bao Dumpling House on Park Street, either. The day\u2019s special is crispy chicken-cashew dumplings served with \u201ca hoisin sauce we make,\u201d says server Hannah D\u2019Errico. \u201cIt\u2019s nice and plummy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to small condiment containers set on every table. \u201cThis is soy, and this is seasoned black vinegar. We suggest mixing them fifty-fifty. And this\u201d\u2013she touches a little medicine bottle of clear orange liquid\u2013\u201cis our chili oil. We steep Thai bird chilis in oil and then strain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bao Bao\u2019s chili oil is hot but not incendiary. It\u2019s another enchanting use of hot peppers in a city that\u2019s crazy for them. The farmer\u2019s market is full of fresh chilis in bright colors\u2013cayennes, Cheyennes, serranos, jalape\u00f1os, Fresnos, and the once rare and now ubiquitous shishitos. Remember when Scotch bonnets were found only in Caribbean hot sauces? Now you can get them fresh at Hannaford.<\/p>\n

ELIXIR FIX<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vena\u2019s Fizz House on Fore Street in the heart of the Old Port is a good spot to start your quest to spice up your life. Step inside and you\u2019re surrounded by intriguing little bottles and jars of bitters and tinctures, and all sorts of classic bar paraphernalia. Step upstairs into the bar and you\u2019re Indiana Jones pausing for a drink in Timbuktu. It\u2019s dim, and there\u2019s rhythmic music with vocals in faraway languages in the background. The shelves behind the bar are packed with bottles and vintage glassware.
\n\u201cWe call this the Kickstarter,\u201d says bar manager Warren Murray as he shakes up a \u201cmocktail\u201d and strains the pretty orange concoction into a Mason jar garnished with an orange slice. \u201cIt\u2019s made with Fire Cider, which is apple cider vinegar infused with digestives like turmeric, ginger, habanero pepper, and horseradish. Then we add blood-orange juice, fresh ginger, and some of this ghost pepper extract from Belfast, Maine. Ghost peppers are supposedly the hottest of the hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

You take a sip\u2013overwhelming fizzy, citrusy, sweet-sour brightness. Two seconds later, your lungs feel warm. Despite the peppers, it doesn\u2019t burn like hot sauce\u2013it heats up your soul instead, and it\u2019s a warmth that stays with you.<\/p>\n

Vena\u2019s comprehensive drink menu has pages of cocktails, mocktails, fizzes, rickeys, restoratives, digestives, and curatives. Curatives include an Alchemist\u2019s punch and a Hemingway Frapp\u00e9 with absinthe, suggesting hangover cures. There\u2019s food, too, including chef Stephanie Shershow\u2019s chocolate chili fondue. \u201cI use Urfa Biber chili salt from Vervacious,\u201d she says, referring to another spicy shop on Commercial Street committed to making life taste better than ordinary.<\/p>\n

Warren Murray points across the street to the Sweetgrass Winery tasting room, where the wine and spirits are fermented and distilled on a farm in Union. \u201cWe use their gin in our cocktails. And their bitters.\u201d A jolt of Sweetgrass\u2019s Maine cranberry bitters adds unexpected dimensions to even plain seltzer water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying out some new quick health shots\u2014kind of the opposite of a cigarette break. They\u2019re full of herbs and bitters. There\u2019s an antioxidant shot, a digestive, and a \u2018simmer down\u2019 shot with lavender.\u201d He strains pale green liquid into a stemmed sherry glass. \u201cThis is a Joy Tonic, with basil, rosemary, sage bitters, and lemongrass bitters.\u201d You\u2019ll be smiling when you leave.<\/p>\n

TEA TIME<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWould you like to try my Fall Tonic?\u201d asks Sarah Richards. She\u2019s behind the bar at her Homegrown Herb and Tea shop on Munjoy Hill, which can best be described as a tiny oasis behind a brightly painted storefront. Yes, yes, yes. You never drink tea because you\u2019re too busy guzzling dark-roast Midnight Jazz from Coffee By Design to power through your busy day. So step away from your preconceptions.
\n\u201cThis is my mix of sarsparilla, nettles, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, elderberry, and fennel seeds,\u201d says Richards. She makes up her own tea bags with her mixtures. It\u2019s scalding, delicious, and extremely reviving, even without caffeine. \u201cMost of my house-made blends are herbal,\u201d she says of her teas, \u201cbut some are tea-based.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shop is crowded with jars of herbs, spices, peppercorns, assorted salts, dried chilies, and honey. There\u2019s a gallon jar of pickled eggs on the bar. \u201cI hard-boil them and put them in vinegar that\u2019s steeped with dried mustard, chili flakes, and salt.\u201d She also sells bulk cooking herbs and spices, and she serves \u201clight fare, like crumpets and scones\u201d that she makes herself.<\/p>\n

Lest you think this little throwback-hippie cafe will be here today and gone tomorrow, Richards has over 30 wholesale tea accounts, including \u201cMiyake, the Green Elephant, Emelitsa, the Blue Spoon, Sonny\u2019s, Local 188, the Press Hotel, and Coffee by Design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m celebrating my tenth anniversary,\u201d she says, \u201cwhich is why I just put a fresh coat of paint out front.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2016
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