Stumptown Coffee is one of the best coffee shops in the country.

This place has helped to move coffee into an artisan realm:

The business practices and quality standards of Stumptown Coffee Roasters have led to them being recognized as having "revolutionized the coffee business" and helped "refine coffee drinkers' palates" in Portland. Founder Duane Sorenson and Stumptown Coffee Roasters have been credited as being part of the third wave of coffee movement (WIKIPEDIA).

Sorenson, and his employees, in pursuit of the best quality coffee spends considerable time visiting farms in person and is willing to pay high prices for coffee he deems worthy—occasionally three or four times the fair trade price. He once set the record for highest price ever paid for coffee beans. Sorenson is known for forming lasting relationships with coffee producers. 

Stumptown places a bit emphasis on tasting, roasting, sourcing and more.

While you are holding that cup of coffee, close your eyes. Open your mouth slightly. Breathe in deeply through your nose. 

You are smelling the most complex thing humans consume. When people talk about the flavors of coffee — notes of orange, or hints of clove — it’s because those organic molecules are contained in the coffee bean. If a coffee reminds you of apple pie, it's because coffee shares some of the same components as food, like lactic and malic acid. 

Inside that small bean are the same natural components that make flowers smell so lovely, the same ethers that let you know when a piece of fruit is ripe. Coffee has twice as much going on, molecularly speaking, as red wine. 

When tasting coffee, try waiting for it to cool down a little — you’ll be able to taste (and smell) the most when it’s the same temperature as your body. 

Flavor only matters in the context of you. What do you like? What does this scent remind you of? Are you looking for a full-bodied cowboy coffee, or a delicate, tea-like finish? Chocolate aromas, or hints of jasmine? 

Don’t worry if you can’t describe it precisely, or have a different perception than someone else. Even when you can’t put it into words, you’ll know what you like.You experience the full flavors of the coffee bean if and only if nothing has gone wrong during… roasting.

So, Stumptown is just way cool for a number of reasons and I was super excited to try it.

They had a Sasparilla Latte on special, so I tried that.

And, it was very good. If I had a more discerning palate, I could probably tell you about individual notes and flavors. But, I can tell you this: I really enjoyed it. It was smooth, roasty and provided a nice little jolt. Lovely.

Grade: A

Who knew we had pork roll in WV?
 

While Seattle is fantastic, I was determined to take a train just down to Portland to get a taste of that city, too. Unfortunately, the train was canceled due to a mudslide, and we were bused to Portland.

First stop: Voodoo Doughnut.

Voodoo is a quirky, suggestive donut shop that's open 24 hours a day, with lines twisting and turning outside the sparkly brick building through pink gates.

“A culinary example of just how weird Portland can be”, these colorful 24/7 Old Town-Chinatown dessert dens are “worth a stop” even “just to gawk” at the “huge” corner-curling lines for “extremely imaginative”, often “hilarious”, pastries like the “to-die-for” bacon-maple bar and “as-good-as-advertised” signature Voodoo Doll; all in all, the "novelty" makes it a “must-visit”, especially for “visitors.” (Zagat)

We took our place in line outside of the shop. The bright pink gates, the sparkly brick siding, the neon lighting and fencing all made me think we might be at a strip club. But, we weren't.

After waiting for quite a while, we were finally inside and able to order. Cash only.

The donuts are all sort of gimmicky, with one called "Cock-N-Balls" and filled with Bavarian cream. There's "The Homer," with strawberry icing and round sprinkles. There's a "Marshall Mathers" dcake donut with mini m&ms.

But, I went for some classic ones -

The Voodoo doll is filled with raspberry jelly and topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake.

The Bacon Maple Bar has maple frosting and bacon.

The Maple Blazer Blunt is dusted with cinnamon sugar, the top is dipped in maple frosting and red sprinkle embers.


So, I think these were actually good. I know they're tourist-central, but a good jelly-filled donut is a good jelly-filled donut. I think the blunt and the maple bacon were a little lackluster. But the namesake voodoo is tasty.

Voodoo Doughnut in Portland Oregon, Eugene Oregon, Denver Colorado, Austin Texas, and now L.A. California, was the brain child of Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Tres Shannon who had been friends for a while. They always wanted to start a business together. Something that would fit into an extraordinary Portland Oregon business climate. Something fun, different, and one for the ages. 

Cat Daddy with his stunningly brilliant business sense, and Tres with his seemingly endless supply of connections, set forth to conquer Old Town, Portland Oregon, and the world with the Doughnut!! After a meeting with some Armenians and drumming masters, they were ready to set up shop in the “crotch” of Portland — Old Town. 

There was only one problem, neither Cat Daddy nor Tres had ever made a doughnut before! They set out for the sunny Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, California, where they met up with some doughnut masters, and learned about doughnuts from the ground up. These old, grizzled doughnut veterans knew what they were doing and were barely willing to give up their trade secrets at first. 

But the charm and good looks of our Portland heroes eventually won over the doughnut masters, and the secrets were revealed to them. Learning when to throw the flour, proper handling of a rolling pin, the intricacies of an old fashion, the “flip,” and countless other tricks of the trade were now in the hands, minds, and notebooks of Cat Daddy and Tres. They returned to Portland regaling the locals with tales of Brad Pitt eating one of their early maple bars, a Chick Hearn memorial documented on Japanese Television, featuring Voodoo Doughnuts, and the wild, wild, times of California — artists, actors, washed up sports stars, old people, disillusioned tourists, and musicians. Ah California… Portland soon learned of these tricks and Voodoo Doughnut became the best tasting doughnuts in the world, chico!! 

After flying in some “Voodoo Oil” from down south, acquiring the nuts and bolts of their shop, the boys started tinkering around with their methods that soon became known locally, nationally, and worldwide. People have talked about Voodoo Doughnut in Tibet, on Easter Island, Japan has some stylish folks sporting the latest Voodoo underpants, and friends have shared a buttermilk bar in Tanzania. I’m sure some corners of the globe have yet to be penetrated. Stay tuned! (STORY)

Grade: A

We're wrapping up my Seattle trip. I know you're all really sad. But, I thought I'd end on my most extravagant meal there - maybe ever.

We went to Sushi Kashiba. Sushi Kashiba is the most recent restaurant from Shiro Kashiba - a legend in Seattle.

To Chef Shiro Kashiba, it feels like it was just yesterday. But in 1970, Chef Shiro introduced the city of Seattle to sushi when he convinced his bosses at Maneki restaurant to build Seattle’s first sushi bar. Chef Shiro had just completed years of grueling apprenticeships at Yoshino Sushi in the Ginza district of Tokyo, training hard alongside his senior supervisor, the world renowned (and now cinematically famous) sushi maestro, Jiro Ono. But unlike his contemporaries, Chef Shiro had his eyes on America. Chef Shiro was convinced that he could import the Edo-mae style and “shun” philosophy of Tokyo to the extraordinary variety and delectable seafood offerings of the Pacific Northwest. He was right. After working at Maneki, Chef Shiro opened his first restaurant, Nikko, in the International District. In 1992, he sold Nikko to the Westin hotel chain and opened the new Nikko at the downtown hotel location. For Westin, Chef Shiro served as Executive Chef and helped open several properties throughout the Americas. After his first “retirement," Chef Shiro opened Shiro’s in Belltown in 1994. Shiro’s became a smash success and was one of the pioneering restaurants to usher in Belltown’s revival as a hot dining spot in downtown Seattle. In 2014, Chef Shiro sold his remaining stake of Shiro’s to the I Love Sushi group which operates it to this day. Nominated twice for the James Beard Award, Chef Shiro has cooked for Japanese Prime Ministers, masters of the arts, star athletes, industry tycoons, and has shared his knowledge and experience with local colleges and universities. Chef Shiro’s dishes have also been served in the First Class cabins of Japan Airlines and United Airlines. But what Chef Shiro enjoys most is preparing and explaining the intricacies and detail of the delicious item he has just served to the customer seated in front of him at the sushi bar.

For the first time in my life, I splurged on the Omakase, which consists of many courses at the chef's choosing. It's expensive - into triple figures - but a memory in the making.

Omakase menus change daily based on what's in season, what's available, or maybe even who happens to be sitting next to you at dinner. As in life, every day is different, and no meal is exactly the same. An omakase dinner is expensive, but here, as it progresses, its value becomes incalculable. Several courses featured different varieties of the same fish, some from different parts of the world, all served next to each other on the same wooden board. Eating them in progression allows you to experience the range of flavors and possibilities that reside within a single family of fish (The Stranger).

The hard part is, I cannot tell you everything we ate. I know we had white tuna, blue fin, fatty tuna, scallops, prawns and a host of other things. Here's someone far better at sushi than I am. We started with that triple-item dish that had oyster and fish and a jelly thing.

Then, we moved to that hand roll, which I had never had before.

Then, a beautiful spectrum of nigiri. This was delicious and fresh.



Then, this bowl of egg custard.

Then, even more sushi and look at that prawn!

And, oh my god more.

Plus this little cake thing that was vaguely sweet to end on.



This was so fun, so cool to experience and sooo much food.

Not sure I'll ever be able to afford this again, but it was cool to try all the different items, eat fish as fresh as it can be and learn what I liked and what I don't.

For the most part, I liked everything. Some of the roe or sea urchin or things I haven't experienced quite as much took some time to get used to the texture.

But, overall, a very cool experience well worth it to expand your boundaries.




Grade: A