Polenta to Go

After a 6+ hour train trip to Portland, we were glad to settle into our comfortable little cottage in a pleasant neighborhood and relax. It's much warmer here than in Bellingham, as you'll read in Phil's blip today, so it was pleasant to walk a few blocks to Spints Alehouse for supper and be able to eat at an outside table.

For such a small place, the diverse menu was impressive, and the food was excellent. I could not resist their creamy polenta, a side dish -- and in addition to enjoying it tonight, I ordered an extra portion to take away. It was that good!

Not wanting full dinners, we each ordered appetizers, which were generously sized. My choice of the fresh peas, edamame, arugula, roasted pork belly, mint, and feta salad was wonderfully balanced. I shared some with Phil, and enjoyed tasting his choice of grilled octopus, saffron custard, pea shoots, and basil, shown on his blip. He had an Oregon red ale and I had a glass of excellent Chilean chardonnay.

We still had a little room for dessert, and it was unanimous -- the house-made rhubarb tart with honey ice cream. Rhubarb desserts are often overly sweet in the United States, but this one wasn't, and the flavor of the fresh rhubarb was superb.

Tomorrow (Monday) we are meeting Kendall at BridgePort Brew Pub for lunch, a mini-Blipmeet long anticipated!