Archives: September 2009
Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I am unconvinced we need the holiday to send sweet things in the mail to those we love.
Here’s one of my recent concoctions. For those who prefer shopping to crafting, a few of my favorite online resources for sublime, hand-crafted or artist-designed cards are Art School Girl, Binth and OrangeBeautiful and they are all based in my city, Chicago!
Here’s how it works in the eat.shop universe. We make Kevin Bacon’s world look desolate and empty.
Tyler Doran owns Heir Antiques, the single greatest thing to happen to Providence since, oh let’s go bold, and say, the Talking Heads. Tyler worked at the brilliant gallery/store Obsolete in Los Angeles where he met a woman launching a fledgling guidebook series on local eating and shopping. We’ll call her Kaie, and her series, eat.shop.
Kaie and the eat.shop guides hail from Portland, Oregon. So does Carson Ellis, who lives there with her husband, Colin Meloy, the lead singer of The Decemberists. She illustrates their album covers and sometimes does commercial work. Like when she did the identity for Tyler’s shop, here in Providence.
And Providence is about 40 minutes from Newport where the 50th anniversary of the legendary Folk Festival took place (remember when Bob Dylan went electric?). And guess who was at the Folk Festival: The Decemberists. Oh, and me.
I knew it would get around to me eventually.
Even though I dislike this song, it is hard to not hum “It’s a Small World After All” while walking around downtown Portland during lunchtime. For a town often described as Honkeyville USA, the cart scene is undeniably diverse and multicultural. Add to the mix the economic downturn, where it is less risky to open a food cart than an actual restaurant, it makes for a burgeoning cart world offering some of the best eats going. One of the finest is the fairly new Nong’s Khao Man Ghai at SW 10th and Alder.
Nong serves one dish only, Khao Man Gai, not because she is lazy, rather because it kicks some serious butt. This Thai street food specialty is simple: a perfectly steamed chicken breast, tender and juicy, on a bed of scented rice served with a small cup of delicate broth and winter squash soup. Wrapped in white butcher paper with a side of soy, ginger and garlic sauce, your lunch arrives literally looking like a birthday present. And what a gift! The flavors are subtle yet punchy—the combination is perfectly balanced. If this is the food they eat in Thailand everyday, thank goodness it is a small world.