Portland Foodies,. It’s been ages since I got a breather to write a few lines about my food journey that we embarked on with you all since the past few months. In the holiday spirit I decided to dedicate this blog today to the real foodies who dare to indulge in no-nonsense, great tasting food. Definitely NOT for the faint hearted, diet conscious, uppity self-appointed foodies. LOL!!! Most of us are either working hard or burning the midnight candle studying for decent grades on weekdays and look forward to a decent outing and frequenting places that offer satisfying meals over the weekend. Aarti and I, have enjoyed many restaurants that serve fantastic brunch in Portland. But one place that is particularly unique is Screen Door. Located on 2337 East Burnside Street this unassuming restaurant is bustling any given time of the day or evening. Popularly known for their Southern and Cajun specialties, they offer rich and hearty fares during brunch or dinner time with produce and meats that are locally produced and organic too. Reservations are not accepted and standard waiting period time is over an hour especially during the weekends. Now if you have a party of 6 or more they can give you an allotted time of arrival which makes the wait much shorter. I have figured that asking for outside seating during the summer time also cuts short the wait time. Oddly true! To make your wait bearable and sometimes even enjoyable you can avail their bar services or their local coffee brew. It is very common to see people sipping on their choice of poison and patiently waiting for their turn to be called inside. The cocktail that I indulged in while waiting for our table was “Bloody Mary”. You HAVE to try this out. I think these guys must have made this cocktail just for the purpose that people will enjoy the drink and forget the time that it took to get the table!! Quite frankly it is difficult to stop at just one. Besides, the world does seem like a better place after a couple of drinks and it’s easier to forgive the wait! The main ingredient of this drink is Rum, and not Vodka. You wonder how this will go as a traditional Bloody Mary drink, but believe me, it makes a whole lot of difference. The spice level and the salt content in this cocktail is optimum enough to set your tongue tingling and brings out the unique flavors of the drink. DELICIOUS! Aarti, our beer lover, enjoyed one of the seasonal local draft that Portland is oh so famous for! Cant ever go wrong with that! Now let’s start with the dishes...Where do I begin? One look at the menu and you know this is a lost cause. Ranging from chicken and waffles, beef briskets, buttery mashed potatoes, low country shrimps and Grit, Sweet potato waffles to name a few to the Eggs Benedict I can truly say that each and every item is filling and mouthwatering to say the least. Vegetarians, this is a fantastic place to check out as they have a lot of vegetarian fares to keep your palate satisfied. The quantity is beyond huge and prices are reasonable. You can also justify to yourself that you are eating organic stuff if you are so inclined.. The chicken and waffles are a special here and very popular. Amazing fact: they offer 3 huge pieces of fried chicken towering over a waffle. I was a little confused because I have tried this dish in many places and have always seen this dish served with 1:1 proportion of chicken and waffle. But in this place it was mainly 3:1 proportion of Chicken to waffle. I had to try it out. Aarti scanned over the menu and learned that she could order most of the dishes as half order and also some side dishes so she could indulge in more than one dish. This is also a great idea, in case you want to do a family style brunch. We ordered, Chicken and Waffle (I had to, there was no choice LOL!!!) and Aarti ordered a half order of Banana Foster French Toast along with side dishes like Biscuit and Gravy, buttery mashed potatoes, cup of gumbo and some red beans and rice. What a royal feast indeed. It took 20-30 minutes to get the food since the place is always packed with foodies like us with the kitchen going crazy trying to cope up with the madness of the day. On this note I must say that the service is surprisingly personal and friendly given the perpetual mad rush. We received our order and as I expected my dish was a tower of fried chicken with a small waffle accompanied with hot maple syrup. Typically I do not have a sweet tooth but this combination is another story altogether. The chicken had perfect fried batter and crispness seasoned with black pepper that gives it the perfect zing. The maple syrup over the chicken and waffle along with a generous douse of spicy habanero pepper sauce (provided on each table as a condiment) is a perfect bite, to savor: It’s the ultimate combination of Sweet and Hot/Spicy flavor. This is a MUST try dish. Other dishes were amazing too…the half order portion is as good as one whole order in any other restaurant. So I guess their Mantra of not letting people go hungry is true. Beef hash is as good as what you might eat in your grandma’s kitchen. It has a very hearty portion of corned beef sautéed with potatoes and peppers blending and complimenting each other yet keeping each ingredient flavor intact. Biscuits and gravy are another favorite with the patrons. Flaky and light pieces of utter delight that melt in your mouth with each bite. The gravy over the biscuit is rich and creamy adding to the decadency of this dish. The highlight for Aarti was Banana foster French toast, I think if you have a sweet tooth and really love to eat a hearty sweet breakfast, then this is just perfect nirvana for you. The caramelized bananas in a decadent creamy caramel gravy on top of thick cut French toast, is Heaven personified!. Now there goes all the good intention of dieting, health consciousness etc. down the drain. As I said earlier, it is not for Faint Hearted, diet conscious people. Real foodies, want to experience a wonderful brunch experience? Visit this place, and let me know what you think. As I say “Taste is totally relative. These are my views and I stick by them.” Enjoy eating, one bite at a time.. Happy holidays!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 23:33:48 +0000
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