We started the day with ramen for lunch at Marukin in Pine Street Market. They have nine locations in Tokyo, Portland is their first in the U.S. We both had the tonkotsu, handmade noodles, rich, tasty broth and the chashu pork was maybe some of the best we’ve had.
We then wondered around, food stalls/carts/trailers are huge here and they are everywhere. The pic below is about a block long with no gaps, it’s amazing that a city of this size can support the number of restaurants and “restaurants.
Riding the street car made us thirsty so we stopped at Departure, on the top floor of The Nines hotel. I had a japanese old fashioned and Chris a Martini with Miso and rimmed with bonito flakes. What we really wanted was an ounce or two of the Pappy Van Winkle 23 year but it was $170 an ounce. MSRP for the bottle is $299 but it’s so rare you’d probably pay thousands.
Our last stop was for dinner at Shalom Y’all for some Israeli street food. While waiting for a table we popped over to the green room for a cocktail and wanted to go back to their whisky bar, the Mulnomah Whiskey Library (around 1200 bottles) but we just couldn’t do it after supper :). We both had the falafel plate and honestly, maybe it was the fresh made pita bread, it was the best we’ve ever had..Portland is doing it, OMG the food is amazing everywhere.
