Pine State Biscuits.
P.S.B. started off as a vendor at the Portland State University Farmer's Market (PSU, more important initials to remember) and became so popular, they opened up first one, then another brick & mortar. The original has recently closed to make way for the opening of another permanent biscuitery. Fortunately for all of Portland, they still come to the PSU.
And we were there waiting for them (we and a bunch of other blokes). This is the scene minutes (maybe seconds!) after the 8:30am opening...those aren't people loitering, that's the line-up.
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| Pine State Biscuit at PSU |
But it goes fast, my friends. And Pine State doesn't scrimp on menu offerings just because it's a market stall. They have all their best sellers, including the Reggie (fried chicken, bacon & cheese) and the Moneyball (biscuit & gravy & a fried egg). They have a traditional sausage gravy as well as a mushroom gravy on offer. Being a Canuck, this biscuit & gravy thing is new'ish to me - but once you taste a good one (and Pine State fits the bill perfectly) - you begin to understand the love for this legend of a dish.
We opted for a Reggie and a biscuit/egg/cheese. One dish with gravy between two of us seemed a good balance. And it really is delicious. The biscuit is flaky, the gravy is thick, flavourful and full of sausage bits and the chicken is moist! Starving bloggers=rushed photo.
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| Pine State Reggie (chicken, gravy & cheese) |
Pine State Biscuits
PSU Saturday Farmer's Market 8:30-2pm 'til Nov
2204 NE Alberta St from 7am (Mon-Wed til 3pm, Thu/Sun til 11pm, Fri/Sat til 1am!)
Blue Star Doughnuts
And when our biscuit breakfast ran out, we stopped for a coffee and doughnut refuel. We've previously been to the famous Voodoo doughnuts (with its nightclub-like line-up and capital-C crazy doughnut toppings) so this visit we've sussed out somewhere new-to-us - Blue Star Donuts
Upon walking in, I'm quite sure I heard angels begin to sing. This place is fabulous! I regret we only bought three. If we had stayed in the town longer, we would have made a return visit to try more flavours.
After agonizing over choices, we settled on an hard apple cider fritter, blueberry bourbon basil and a meyer lemon & key lime filled. The doughnuts are not small so we ended up noshing a bit in the store, some later in the afternoon and splitting the final one for dessert.
The fritter was crunchy on the outside (the cross-hatch scoring of the pre-cooked doughnut adds lots of edges to crisp up when cooked) and soft on the inside (with small pieces of apple woven throughout). FYI: the hard apple cider part means Strongbow Cider... Blue Star uses the good stuff!.
The blueberry bourbon basil glazed doughnut was also fabulous - the basil & blueberry combination was unique, delicious and balanced - not too sweet or thick on the glaze (you still get to enjoy the simplicity of the base doughnut carrying the glaze). The meyer lemon & key lime filled doughnut was perfect - great tart lemon/lime flavour in the custard filling. We observed a moment of silence afterwards.
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| Hard apple cider fritter, meyer lemon/lime & blueberry, bourbon basil. |
Their hours speak for themselves - they open early 7 days a week and close when they're sold out.
So don't dilly-dally around.
Blue Star Doughnuts
1237 SW Washington
Mon-Fri 7am-out
Sat/Sun 8am-out
And I may have earlier said that we didn't target food trucks while in Portland, but sometimes you have to give in to the inevitable. We headed for breakfast to Alberta St and drove past several restaurants sporting huge line-ups of patient diners; so we headed instead to the Mississippi pod of carts and filled our tummies with some fabulous fresh squeezed juices and an American classic - chicken and waffles.
Dogfeathers cart/trailer has great fresh-made juices - several sizes to choose from and lots of blends - I opted for an apple, pear & ginger. It was on the special menu as a warm drink - but I asked for it cold and LOVED it. The spiciness of the ginger was great with the pear & apple.
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| Dogfeathers fresh squeezed juice cart |
And for breakfast - we went "next door" to Miss Kate's Southern Kitchen. One giant biscuit sandwich (with bacon, cheddar, fried egg, fresh arugula and drizzled/glazed with syrup....oh man). And one chicken and waffle. Both parts (chicken and waffle) were HUGE as well as piping hot, crispy and delicious. Like the biscuit, it was also drizzled with the syrup. We endeavoured to finish the meals, but they got the better of us.
White flag!
We give up!
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Miss Kate's Southern Kitchen 4233 N Mississippi (Mississippi Marketplace, at Skidmore)
Wed-Sun 10am-4pm
twitter: @misskatessk
www.misskatessouthernkitchen.com
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