Why Yes, I've Eaten Pigeon

Yes! It's been a while since the Mr. and I have liked a new restaurant. Le Pigeon's sister restaurant Little Bird was ehhh. I don't remember anything I ate there other than the foie gras creme brulee that was so bad we couldn't finish it.  Which brings me to my ah-moment - I have a general disdain for sweet foie gras dishes. They remind me of childhood smile-and-eat-it, we don't know why crazy Aunt Mildred put a chunk of spam in the apple pie moments. 

However Le Pigeon found the magical bridge for savory and sweet. Salt. Ah-ha! The very thing that makes me love bacon chocolate, has brought me my first edible sweet foie gras - Foie Gras Profiteroles with caramel sauce and sea salt. Eat it, love it, forgive Aunt Mildred.

Le Pigeon is a small, family style seating restaurant. Try to sit at the bar so you can chat with the 3 chefs preparing your food in the open kitchen. Being our first time, we ordered the 7 course tasting menu, which I highly recommend. Highlights include the butter with salt flakes (so good, although the butter at Beast is still my favorite), the Rabbit & Eel Terrine with peaches, avocado, and foie-miso vinaigrette, and the Pigeon with liver toast, grapes, and white anchovies (pictured below). 

My husband and I couldn't stop talking about the anchovy and grape salad. Such a good surprise of unexpected flavors that go so well together. It felt like we were judges at Iron Chef. The pigeon was delicious and the liver toast rivaled the salad, although you can't go wrong with liver mousse on bread.

The only small downside was the uni on the halibut. Uni is a fickle thing, so like Aunt Mildred it deserves forgiveness. It can taste like the deep ocean, which would of sent this dish over the top, or it can taste dirty like it did this time and taint the entire plate.

Great atmosphere and glorious food make Le Pigeon one of my top 3 restaurants. We ended up exchanging phone numbers with some new foodie friends and met a local wine maker (Mahonia Vineyard).  I loved the mismatched fine china and real silver utensils (unfussy, refined), and I'm going to try the peach and avocado with mint side dish at home. Sauternes, recommended by our fellow table-mates, is now my new favorite dessert wine for a cheese plate (think honey with cheese).

This is what makes a great restaurant. Unexpected delicious food, interesting conversations, and good wine. Le Pigeon has created that "je ne sais pas" space and food combination that makes me heart Portland. Plus, now I get to say that I've eaten pigeon!

Food poisoning

Ironic that when I find the time to blog, I am home with food poisoning. The first and hopefully only time pizza has, as they say in the song...done me wrong.

Which leads me to irony number deux, I'm on my second attempt of preparing and seeding the lawn. I can't seem to get grass to grow here

 
but I don't have any problems with it growing here

It came in yellow without ribbons

Mother's Day came quickly this year, just 2 weeks after getting back from our honeymoon. It should be no surprise then that my breakfast request was pineapple pancakes with passion fruit coconut syrup. Insanely sweet and completely ALOHA! 

It came without tags!

My boo bear came home after school with some beautiful pictures and a necklace he made for me. He was especially eager to tell me that he chose my favorite color for the necklace instead of his own (unlike some of his friends). It makes a mommy proud to know that her little man is learning what it means to give.

It came without packages, boxes or bags!

My husband (I love saying that!), who usually goes above and beyond for special occasions, kept apologizing over and over about not having any cards or gifts for me this year. Given that we're not even unpacked yet, I didn't expect or even really want to do anything. I was perfectly happy to spend the day in the backyard planting the garden and pulling weeds.

After a respectable amount of time spent gardening, I popped into the kitchen to sneak out the secret yellow sphere of sunshine called lunch that waited for me in the frig.  A lemon tart. Not just any tart, a perfectly smooth custard with just the right balance of sour to cut through the richness of a buttery crust tart from Beaverton Bakery. At that moment it wasn't just a sunny spring day,  I was summer - sticky, sweaty, and sweet.

I didn't have to deal with kids, cleaning the house, or cooking. Dinner was chosen for the yellow-orangy goodness of a blooming onion, the only redeeming aspect of an otherwise unremarkable restaurant. And after hearing the only 6 year old boy who would ever say, "MFK Fisher would go for a walk after eating," we went for family walk around the neighborhood duck pond. (It's hard to tell, but the mother duck is sitting on 3 baby ducklings.) 

So when my husband (love it!) apologized about not having any presents again, I told him to stop. To quote the Grinch, "Maybe Mother's Day doesn't come from a store. Maybe Mother's Day...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

Who Am I?