Alright, I’m already behind. My excuse is that I spent so much of the last few days meeting new people and tasting cider that it was hard to sit down and concentrate on the write-up! Regardless, I hope you enjoy.
Monday, 3 June
Finally, Cider Judging Day! After a sensory training session the previous day at a local taproom (of course), led by well-known American cider writer Darlene Hayes, followed by a Northwest Cider Association-sponsored evening at Bauman’s on Oak (Small plates and almost 30 ciders on tap! Oh my!), I was itching for the main event. There’s quite a lot to write up about the Northwest Cider Cup judging day, and given I will certainly do so for Cider Review, I shall cheekily skip this day here.
Suffice to say, for the moment, that I tasted (and spittooned!) around 20 ciders across the day, that I don’t know who won ‘best in show’ (the head judges argued that one out at the end), and that I finally made it to Portland’s world-famous cider bar, The Place!
Tuesday, 4 June
Alfie and I started the day — heavier with cloud than ever — with our now-customary morning walk through Portland. We ended up at Blue Star Donuts; it’s considered the one you should actually go to instead of the very touristy Voodoo, and seemed the perfect place for Alfie to try his first (!) true buttermilk old-fashioned doughnut.
Blue Star did not disappoint: somehow, we were able to tear ourselves from flavours like ‘‘cointreau-crème brûlée brioche” and “pear-lavender fritter” and go for the ‘simple’ buttermilk option, and it was hands-down one of the best doughnuts I’ve ever had. The perfectly balanced saltiness, sweetness and greasiness created a real depth of flavour, and the strangely clinical (as well as large and empty) setting of the street-corner shop allowed the loveliness of the doughnut stand out even more.
The rest of the morning before our lunchtime appointment was spent exploring the ‘International Rose Test Garden’. Part of the gloriously huge Washington Park, this is the oldest continuously operating rose test garden (as in, testing ground for new rose varieties) in the US. Miraculously, we were here at just the right time of year. Below a threatening sky, the scent of roses was heavy on the air, and we enjoyed walking around and finding the most interesting-smelling and most interestingly named ones, from Betty Boop to Pope John Paul II and Rosie the Riveter. I was also fascinated by all the songbirds we came across in the garden, most of which I had never seen before. I suppose an interest in (garden) birds is a sign of maturity I was not displaying the last time I was in the US!
In the afternoon, we went on a rather wonderful outing organised by the Northwest Cider Association for the writers attending their Cider Cup as judges this year. Peak Light Cidery is a harvest-based cider maker on Portland’s Sauvie Island, a large, flat expanse of incredibly fertile soil in the middle of the Columbia River. Sauvie is designated ‘ag only’ by local zoning laws, meaning that everyone who lives there owns some sort of farm. In the case of Peak Light, it’s a 4-acre orchard of all kinds of fruit trees, from quince to pluot and persimmon (but mostly apple). A strikingly modern house — don’t all cider makers reside in dusty barns? — overlooks the 450-ish semi-dwarfing trees (as fruit is usually hand-picked in the US, this rootstock size is attractive).
After a brief orchard stroll with Travis Lovejoy, one half of the couple that owns and runs Peak Light, we had lunch in the kitchen and tried three ciders, all of which were very interesting indeed. As a Big Quince Nerd (see here for proof), I was delighted to try the ‘Orchard Reserve Quince’, a circa 50-50 post-fermentation blend of quince and apple that had real acidity balanced by a touch of sweetness — rather like an actual quince. An intriguingly vegetal and pleasingly grippy ‘Orchard Reserve Red’ followed; this was a blend of various red-fleshed apples including Niedwetzkyana, the Central Asian OG from which most of the US’s popular red-fleshed varieties are descended by breeding. My favourite cider, because it was so unusual, was the last: a straw-coloured limited-edition co-ferment of apples and sour cherries that displayed heady aromas of candied almonds and coconut, almost like a gorse bush in full bloom. After the more urban cider experiences of past few days, it was a wonderful contrast to try some ciders in their ‘natural habitat’ — overlooking an orchard.
Back in Portland, we spent some time walking off lunch before heading to the southern Thai place recommended by Emily. It’s good to have a recommendation in Portland, or you might just spend hours trawling Google Maps trying to decide where to eat. Sprawling onto the sidewalk of one of the city’s many hip and colorful mixed-use streets, the restaurant was of the casual, seemingly very popular ‘thank you for bussing your table’ variety. Having learned our lesson about American portions, we shared the one-person combo plate of Persian-, Indian- and Malay-influenced southern Thai fare: highly spiced fried chicken crackling with coriander seeds, homemade pickles, Massaman curry broth and buttery roti. We paired this with one house horchata, a velvety concoction of rice, coconut, mango and nutmeg. It was all excellent: the broth a highly seasoned, unfamiliar mixture redolent of fish sauce, turmeric and plentiful cinnamon; the horchata’s creamy sweetness the perfect foil.
Having restrained ourselves from getting another dish at Hat Yai, we felt justified in sampling one of the ice cream places that had been on my Portland to-do list from the beginning. Salt & Straw, famous for its rogue flavours, yielded a texturally perfect Oregon olive oil flavour, but the show was stolen by another shop, Nico’s, which we hadn’t known about previously. Inspired by New Zealand-style ‘real fruit ice cream’, Nico’s exclusively serves vanilla ice cream blended to order with Oregon berries. Then, at your leisure, it tops this pink-hued grown-up soft serve with any of a set of eclectic toppings, from Graham crackers crumbs to Mexican tajin (chili–lime salt). We went with the tajin on our marionberry–vanilla blend, and it was somewhat of a revelation — the perfect end to a rainbow-flavoured day
Wednesday, 5 June
The Central Valley is big, and the Central Valley is hot. We have arrived in California, having flown from Portland to Sacramento and been collected by my grandmother. Driving up to Redding, we enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the rice fields and olive groves, whereafter stars could be seen scattered across the huge sky, even above a brightly lit freeway. The night was incredibly, unusually humid, with the summery scent of dried-out foliage on the air.
Our last day in Portland was much sunnier than the others. So, naturally, we spent a lot of it inside browsing Powell’s, that famed entire city block of books and merch (mostly excellent merch, like seemingly everywhere in the city). We also checked out one of the midweek farmer’s markets, where everyone and their cousin was selling Hood strawberries. Afterwards, we finally got around to grabbing a bite to eat at one of Portland’s ubiquitous ‘food cart pods’. These are neighborhood enclaves of hipsterness where you are conveniently allowed to enjoy a beer outside with your potstickers or smash burger. The miso pork katsu was epic; the hand-pulled Szechuan noodles were really just quite hot, but weirdly addictive; the rice lager was an absolutely perfect pairing.
We were sad to leave Portland after that: too quirky by a third, and bafflingly walkable to those of us Europeans who imagine the US as catering primarily to giant pick-up trucks (to be fair, even Portland has its fair share of those), it won our hearts. Certainly, the city has its issues, especially and sadly with homelessness, but there is a clear progressive spirit to the place; a drive to make things better.
The good vibes continued all the way to the airport, where all food and drink outlets are local businesses or franchised locations thereof. What’s more, amazingly, these outlets are forbidden to engage in price-gouging (they must charge at the airport what they charge in the city). Imagine how much more enjoyable other airports would be with this policy implemented! The Pacific Northwest seems to have a real pride in its food businesses; coming from England, where this spirit is unfortunately often lacking, this was great to see. They were even serving free Stumptown coffee on the plane!
Portland, we’ll be back soon.