Portland 2: Charcuterie and Paley’s Place

I had fantastic charcuterie in Portland. From lunch and Rioja chorizo at Olympic Provisions, to boar and juniper saucisson from Chop at the Saturday Farmer’s Market, to the lamb crepinettes I had for breakfast at Nel Centro, bring on the meat! However, by far some of the sexiest “meat products” came from a dinner at Paley’s Place, an award winning resto that cooks local and organic and makes much of their their own charcu. The coppa cotta filbertina was probably my favourite, with it’s meltingly delicious fat, but the rabbit and prune galantine was great too. How to try it all? If you have a large enough table then order lots, otherwise ask if the kitchen might make you a tasting plate…. you’re VIP you deserve it!

And while you’re at Paley’s Place, don’t limit yourself to cured meats; my appetizer of roasted marrow bones, escargots, and sauce bordelaise was revoltingly good. In fact it was so good that the kitchen made a mistake and brought me two plates instead of one, I hate mistakes like this. The crispy sweetbreads with spaetzle were incredible, the sweetbreads cut quite thinly so as to maximize the crispy which is always a good thing. French fries, rabbit ravioli, vegetarian cassoulet, and then oodles of lovely desserts, chocolates, and sweets, especially the almond brown sugar cake with rhubarb compote and ricotta ice cream. So tasty. Such a great meal.

Get the Paley’s Place cookbook to recreate some of the magic at home, with pictures from Oregon photographer John Valls.

Tagged as: charcuterie, Paley's Place, portland