Food Review

My favorite part of the Oregonian is Food Day (Tuesday). Now that we’re getting the New York Times delivered at home I have another food section “Dining Out” to enjoy on Wednesday and after only a few weeks I am a huge fan of William Grimes the Restaurants columnist. This week he reviews Agave. He finds the menu “a dizzy document” but “[t]he basket of blue corn tortilla chips that arrives as soon as you sit down provides badly needed reassurance. They are warm, feather-light, superlatively crunchy and sweet with blue-corn flavor. They come with a pleasant, mildly spiced bean dip and an unconvincing salsa … .” He admires the pork in a spicy sauce. “[The chef] Mr. Pang understands spices. He doesn’t use them to traumatize the tonsils or boost the beer sales. He treats them as valued supporting players … .” He appreciates the pile on. “[Mr. Pang] knows how to deploy gobs of molten cheese.” In the end, he found the wait for his check long but noted, “[p]erhaps it seems longer because the restaurant’s Mission chairs, although beautiful to look at, are cruel, although not as diabolical as the backless banquettes, which will either straighten your spine or kill you in the course of an evening.” Isn’t this great stuff? I love this guy.

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