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Yesterday everyone was talking about the rain. In an area famous for it, one wouldn't expect such excitement. But the rain was exciting! It came out of the sky with a clash in the
sleepy late afternoon, rocketing from the dark clouds, pressing onto the trees. It was sound and movement and wet. 
and then the rain was over. Magnificent light came, the air was clear, and green
things were happy.
The best way that I can describe walking into Pix, looking around and setting the eyes on the packed pastry case is like coming upon The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence walking down the street for no 
apparent reason. Think goth girl's room crossed with Chinese-bordello-opium den.
The pleasure business, that's what I'm in. 
The sweet things at Pix are for the adventurous. Sensual flavours are paired with shiny glazes, gold dust sunbursts decorate chocolate domes and tiny vanilla speckled creme brulee are turned out to sit opulently atop small but intense cakes. This pastry chef's not afraid of food coloring. French macaroons jump out like the fluorescent colors in a crayon box. 
Michael Rockstar, the fellow behind the counter, asked me if I needed help but what I needed was time to take it all in. This is Portland, Oregon, a city known for hippies and comfy un-fashionable clothes not tiny shops hiding sexy treasures edible and visual.
In the end I chose two desserts dissimilar enough so that I could hope to understand a bit of what they're about over there at Pix.
The Royale was a dome shaped chocolate mousse glazed with an almost black cocoa 
glaze, and hiding in the center was a gorgeous mix of gianduja ganache and feuilletene. ( I love love love feuilletene!) The base was exactly the right texture: a thin disk of daquoise. The Tiki Tiki was yummy but did not deliver the same wow-ing impact. For me the preparation was cliche and I had trouble getting past that. A non-chocolate mousse that stands this high can only be achieved by using a lot of gelatin. I love gelatin and using it is really fun and amazing, but the mouth feel in something like
this is too spongy for me. The predominate flavour was passion fruit and it was decorated, surprisingly, with a cape gooseberry (these fruits are totally beautiful but taste like tomatoes.) I liked the touch of silk screened jaconde around the base. Pretty, of course, is pretty. { Loveskool also wrote about Pix. }
It's hot here in Portland. (So nice to be in a place with a proper summer!) Pix is advertising ice cream and I will be sure to go back and try it. Many of the individual desserts employ alcohol so I won't be trying those but based on my experience with these two I would definitely recommend Pix if you are visiting Portland. Come for dessert after dinner, pick up a cake for a birthday or shake up a dinner party with a sweets sensual and adventurous. Whatever your pleasure, Pix is sure to delight, eyes and mouth.
Tomorrow, early but not yet bright, I am taking my wheels on the road to Portland, Oregon. It will be the longest drive I have ever done by myself and I am getting excited. I have looked up the weather and it is in the 80's-90's everyday! The Pacific North West!! I am going up in time to catch the farmer's markets, on purpose. I will be staying with family who love to cook eclectic meals, take naps, and go on spontaneous adventures.
Yesterday, to join the modern age, I bought an iPod. I have been a rare San Francisco specimen: human in 30's without tell-tale cords streaming into pockets and ears. Truth is I don't much like walking around oblivious. My 
society tends to take advantage of such blatant disregard for danger. But I bought it as a gift for my car, and the long drive ahead. A costly check-up at the dealership last week makes me feel safer stepping on the gas and moving the gear shift around from one state to the other. So off I go!
music I'll be happy to have in my little silver and white contraption: LL Cool J, Rachel's, Rose Polenzani, Afrika Bombaata, Sleater Kinney, Team Dresch, James Brown (the stuff from the '60's), The Cure, Echo and the Bunneymen, Eric B & Rakim, Cat Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Sundays, Portishead, Black Eyed Peas, Rob Base, Sinead O'Conner, Beastie Boys, Arvo Part and others.
Who remembers "those tiny little tea leaves in Tetley Tea!"? It was the terrific taste of "Tiny is tastier." I have one of those elephant memories. I can also sing the Peak Freans song, but it sounds better at a party.
Of course tiny is not always tastier, but lately that old jingle has proved true. In 
NYC I went to a lot of tiny restaurants, in one I outstretched my hands and it measured no more than a few inches from my fingertips. (I'm 5'5"!) Sometimes small can be the selection on a menu, sometimes it can be spoon sized bites, often it's an item 
meant to be one bite, un-shareable and can make your eating partner jealous because they got something else. An "amuse" is meant to be little-- a taster to start your mouth off for the great adventure that's to come. Canapes at a catered function are purposefully meant to be no more than two bites as you are usually holding a glass in the other hand, don't want to smear your lipstick and want to look graceful when flirting with the boss's husband.
Oysters are considered one swallow. When drinking a shot we are trained to open up our throat and let all the liquid enter swiftly. And the cherry's stone makes it hard to have more than one in our mouth at a time. Somehow with the small things we savor them differently. They spend more time with our tongue. Eency weency food intrigues, delights, puzzles.
A tiny restaurant inspires the young cook. "I could do this," the sentence is emitted
as the eyes glaze and look at nothing in particular on the horizon. Restaurants with few seats are owned by humans, people who might have a life one day, big houses are places that might hire us, but small ones are places we might one day open and own.
I was nicely surprised to eat at more than one eatery in NYC that had fewer than 20 seats, my favorite having no more than 40. One of the reasons why I love Portland (Oregon) so much is that the city feels friendly, welcoming and encouraging to small business owners. Every neighborhood has more than one off-the-wall specialty store, cute restaurant, or bakery making the person exploring feel that they have always discovered something. It is a giddy feeling like finding a toy in the sandbox.
NYC eateries worth making a trip for include Lassi on 
Greenwich avenue just up the block from 6th ave. A long elegant hallway of a space with chalkboards for lassi flavours and daily specials, Lassi is a prettily decorated space with culinary details, like jars of put-up lemons and limes. You may take your food to go or sit at stools along a 
dark wooden counter. The
owner is Heather Carlucci Rodriguez and although I've not met her I like her; she's a pastry chef too.
Another is Chikalicious, a dessert restaurant on east 10th street right off second ave. It seats 19, is open from 3pm- 10:30 pm (or until they sell out), and is closed 
Monday and Tuesday. In a one month span I came here 3 times and would go once a week if I lived in NY. In fact I met an NYU student who, in 4 months had been there 9 times, always bringing new people and increasing her friend population tenfold. I will be writing a more extensive review down the road, but mentioning it twice won't make it any less outrageously delicious and profoundly inspiring.
Another restaurant I plan to review is Prune, first street between 1st and 2nd avenues. If Lassi is a penny and Chikalicious is a nickle then Prune is a quarter. The bar seats 4-5 people and it's a good idea to be interested in the conversation of those around you. It's lively, Parisian-feeling, unpretentious and the food has the Zing of a Jazz band of old cats with great suits. In 10 days I had two meals here that were fabulous to the point of wanting to cry, the food was so good. Plates and bowls stayed on the table with no more than a few bites because we were all afraid to make them disappear. The chef is a real person with a sense of humour and some of the staff has been with her since day one.
And lastly, my current favorite small bite can be purchased at The SF Ferry Plaza Farmer's market on Saturdays from Happy Quail Farms. All you have to do is shell out $6, heat up a cast iron pan til 
it's real hot, splash some extra virgin olive oil in there and throw these tiny green babies in. Saute until scorched on a few sides, toss with good salt, eat. I'm talking about PIMIENTOS de PADRON. Today I bought a bag even though I had one in the fridge, because I was 
nervous to have only one. In about 4 minutes I can eat them all. Sometimes I share. Sometimes.
when words are challenging for me, taking pictures is the only way I can speak. It's images that become my closest friends, moving or still no matter. My friend Gerry understands this. We both feel as though we could step into a favorite image and it will save us.
When walking by a window display of a thousand tchotchkes my old girlfriend Christine (an incredible photographer) would say, "don't fill your head with visual 
garbage." We had a still life in our house opposite the couch because we did not own a tv and we wanted something there for people to look at.
Suffice to say almost all the photographs on eggbeater are taken by me. Lately I have been inspired by Farmgirl's daily farm photo. I wish I could be that minimalist, but I can't. I paint small and love little things for people to look at as they stroll through my room. The majic of Show & Tell has stayed with me 
since gradeschool.
So here are some pretty pictures.
I am quite belated in letting you all know that I am now the proud author at another blog, Bay Area Bites. BAB is KQED's food blog and I am proud to be on the masthead with some other good eggs in the food writing world.
Here is where you will find a piece I did on Ritual Coffee 
Roasters, an incredible new coffee shop the size of a small church, on Valencia street between 21st and 22nd streets. What you will find here is espresso smooth and perfect, foam creamy and decorated. If you have had the privilege to drink a cappuccino at Vivace in Seattle you know of what I speak. Ritual is the first SF coffee house to use Portland Oregon's much talked about Stumptown beans which are roasted to order, drop shipped by Fed Ex and turned into liquid sumptuousness within 10 days of their arrival!
Read more here: http://www.kqed.org/weblog/food/2005/07/ritual-coffee-roasters-living-here.jsp
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