It’s difficult to come up with a list of the best things you ate if you haven’t been taking notes at every meal, but this is what I remember really enjoying in 2014 . . .
Pork Chops aren’t your typical Argentinian steakhouse fare, but the ones at Ox are perfectly brined, crisp around the edges and have just enough smokiness from the grill. Their clam chowder, and Argentinan steaks are delicious as well.
Bacon bleu cheese tots at Providence Park. Tater tots with bacon, bleu cheese, onions, tomatos are good, but eating them with a next to you, surrounded by the Timbers Army, all while watching your favorite team in their first home game of the season tastes pretty good.
On the tiny Island of Providencia off the coast of Colombia, are a couple of beach shacks serving fresh seafood. There are only a few restaurants on the island, so the locals come by motorbike, ATV and horseback to grab their lunch along side the few dozen tourists visiting the island. The restaurants open for service about 30 minutes after the fisherman drag their boats on to the beach with that day’s catch. After having the beach all to ourselves in the morning, we walked up to El Divino Nino, grabbed a wobbly table in the sand and proceeded to eat fresh lobster, conch, black crab and fried fish all for a few dollars.
Lang Baan was not only the best Thai food I had all year, it was probably the best restaurant meal I ate. 12 beautifully structured dishes served over nine courses in the backroom of a Thai restaurant hidden behind a bookcase and a meat grinder. All this for half the price of Roe.
Lang Baan gave us intricately composed Thai food from 300-year-old royal palace recipes. On the more casual end of the Thai spectrum, Marc and Brook threw some rice in a bowl and covered it in green curry and it was good. Our friends have been spending years perfecting their coconut-based chicken curry. They travel all over Portland to find the ingredients and then spend hours putting it together in what may be a perfect one-bowl dish. It didn’t hurt that we were there to watch the Timbers play on TV and they won 5-0.
In late November, we flew to Budapest to meet up with friends that are traveling around the world. On our first night in Budapest we stumbled across a night market. There were picnic tables and booths selling beer, grog and food. A band was off to one side covering American pop hits. We grabbed a table and sit down to our first meal together since our friends left Portland in March. We each picked out a food booth we want to try. I went for a cart that’s grilling non-recognizable meat and onions over a charcoal grill and stuffing the meat into folded flatbread. The flat bread was baked in a cast iron oven next to the grill. After stumbling through my order in English (my Maygar is not very good), I chose a goose meat sandwich with cheese and something like sour cream. The goose was rich and moist, the bread warm and fluffy. It may have been one of the messiest sandwiches I’ve ever eaten, but it taste really good enjoyed with friends under the dark cold Hungarian sky.
How to Eat . . . Better 