More Portland food reviews. Writing these up in case anyone else who moves here is desperate for some food reviews like I've been.

• Becky's Diner - This is the other "standard" in Portland next to the Miss Portland Diner. Becky's is on the wharf though and opens at 4am to serve dockworkers, etc., so it has a more working class, less retro vibe to it. Potatoes are much better than Miss Portland's, real honest to goodness home fries. Omelette was pretty good, broccoli and cheddar, they actual sautee the broccoli beforehand so it ends up pretty rich. French Toast was good, fruit cup was high quality (berries) which it should be for the price they charge. Snappy service. All-in-all good effort. Parking is sort of a bitch though, not fun getting small children out of the car on Commercial St. if the lot is full.


• Sapporo - Apparently the only place in town that serves Japanese curry, which Johan and I had a yen for at the time. It looks like your average mid-range sushi place that you'd find in a regular strip mall or whatever in LA (hello wood veneer), but happily they actually have a pretty good selection of curries, cutlets, and sushi. They even had natto, which I find quite surprising (and heartening). However I didn't try any of the sushi but I'll probably go back sometime soon for that. The vegetable curry itself was decent. Carrots, green beans, asparagus (?), and snap peas, the curry sauce itself had good flavor but was a little too thin for my tastes. Also a bit sad that they didn't put potatoes in it.


• Tu Casa - Finally had my first major case of the shakes from LA food withdrawal. My body craved an excellent bean, rice and cheese burrito. Oh Cuca's, oh Tacos La Flama, how I long for you! Doing a little searching it looked like Tu Casa up on Washington Ave was one of the best places to get some decent food, although they're an El Salvadoran and not a Mexican joint. The interior is definitely LA taquiera, tables, chairs, Univision, no frills. Ordered their veggie burrito (yeah yeah) and a cheese papusa on the side. Burrito was totally mediocre but I'm not surprised, really; all full of squash and what not. Next time I'll just ask for a straight-up BRC. The papusa, however... that was *awesome*. Worth the trip just to find out those are awesome. But the burrito craving is unfulfilled. I think I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and figure out how to ape the Cuca's BRC in order to satisfy myself.


• The Italian Place Around The Corner From My Office - No idea what the name of this place is despite having eaten there a few times. This place is a little odd. I have no idea why people alter the well-established and orderly "sit down, order, get food, pay" scheme but these guys like to pretend they're not "really" a restaurant and so you order your pasta at a "counter", pay, then sit down and get served. It's pretty goofy because if you don't have cash you have to tip before you get service. I wish they'd stop mucking around and set things straight up. Anyway, the food is pretty good. All the pasta is made fresh (and apparently they teach classes on it out of the kitchen) and they only offer five or so dishes a day, which is perfect for a small place with only one cook and approximately seven tables. Also they serve a decent bread and pate/sauce plate before the meal, the one today had a nice garlic puree with some sauces and cured olives. Tasty. I ordered an eggplant-filled ravioli in a butter and sage sauce that was quite enjoyable, and in just the right quantity. For dessert I ordered the tiramisu. Now, I love me some tiramisu, and that works out well because Jude makes a stellar one. This one was... decent, but not up to standards. The ladyfingers were incredibly oversoaked such that each bite was like drinking a small caraffe of espresso. The mascarpone was quite good, though, but the entire texture and feel in the mouth was ruined by the soggy biscuits. A bit disappointing.

Next up: more wine reviews, some sandwich shop reviews.