Our first time here. And I’ll preface my review by saying I’m not vegan, nor am I vegetarian. I’m not opposed to vegan or vegetarian (or we wouldn’t have come here). I just traditionally like meat.
That said, my wife and mother and I came to Venti’s for dinner while in Salem. They each ordered the more traditional meat hamburgers and fries. I decided since it was a vegan-forward restaurant, I’d try a vegan dish.
You order at the counter and they bring the food to you, so it’s a little more like a diner than a “fine dining” restaurant. Our service was good, quick and friendly. The atmosphere is a bit cold, but not off-putting.
I ordered the Red Curry Pasta with a Side Salad. Other reviewers seemed to be raving about the red curry, so I thought it was worth a try.
Red Curry Pasta with Side Salad
I can see why they rave about it. It was excellent! And the side salad had a variety of ingredients, so it wasn’t “just a side salad”. I tried the avocado ranch dressing and it was fine. Not stellar, but good. The pasta had just the right amount of sauce and was very flavorful.
Now to the meat. You might expect a vegan-forward restaurant to have meat dishes as kind of an afterthought. But both my wife and mother raved about their burgers. My wife got the Rooster Burger and mom got the traditional House Burger. With meat. And cheese. And fries. They LOVED the burgers.
House Burger (meat) with FriesRooster Burger (meat) with Fries
All of us want to go back next time we’re in Salem and the biggest problem will be deciding what to order. Well done, Venti’s!
We had heard about this Syrian restaurant in Corvallis (we live in Eugene) and had been meaning to go there for dinner with friends, but it just never seemed to gel.
Then, on a trip to the Oregon coast, we happened to be going through Corvallis at lunchtime and decided to stop.
We are SO glad we did. All of the other Yelp reviews said it was really good, but few mentioned any specific dish. Except for the hummus, which received off-the-chart good reviews.
So we tried the Lamb Hummus dish as well as the Musakhan Rolls, which is a chicken with caramelized onions wrapped in fresh grilled bread. Both were excellent with some notes.
The Musakhan Rolls said they come with a garlic sauce. The sauce was excellent, but tasted more like a tart yogurt/sour cream sauce to us. Not a strong garlic flavor.
The lamb in the hummus was also very good, but kind of bland. We love lamb when it is prepared well (we usually only order from a Middle Eastern restaurant) and this was prepared perfectly. We just felt it could stand a little more flavor or spice.
However, the hummus. Oh. My. Word. The hummus. All of those off-the-chart reviews were spot on. The hummus had to be the best hummus we have ever had in our lives. And we eat a variety of foods from a variety of places. It was the perfect amount of garlic and so creamy, we actually used our fingers to wipe the bowl and get that last remaining bits of the hummus.
Our service was excellent. It is family-owned and our server was very pleasant and hospitable. The inside is decorated in what appears to be Syrian decor and is nicely done.
Now we have to connect with our friends and go back sometime soon for dinner. Yumm!
Before we went to Portugal, I anticipated having a lot of seafood. I had never thought I liked seafood and discovered it was largely due to the way it was prepared (bland). I found some really good recipes before we left and got myself “up to speed” with fish.
Portugal is also known for its wines. Beer, not so much. During the trip, I don’t think we had any bad wine. Conversely, I only really had one good beer (a can of Hazy IPA our last night in Porto).
WINE
I’ll start with the wine. Our first night in Portugal, we went to a restaurant near our hotel and six of us had entrees and two bottles of wine for €127. Total. The wine on the menu was €13 and we had to ask if that was by the glass or by the bottle. It was bottle.
Excellent wine. Most everywhere.
We also when on a wine tasting tour of the Douro Valley where they make Port wines. I had never really like Port wine, but these were amazing.
Port tasting in the Douro Valley.
Portugal is also famous for its Ginja, a sweet, fortified liquor made from cherries. It is popular in Óbidos and served in a chocolate cup that you eat after drinking the Ginja. It wasn’t bad.
Ginja in a chocolate cup at Óbidos, Portugal.
Beer. Don’t bother. You can have most any kind of beer you want as long as it’s Super Bock, a pilsner. I dislike pilsners. They also have a Super Bock stout. I dislike stouts, too.
Super Bock. It was EVERYWHERE. Meh.
So stick with wine.
FOOD
Overall, we were a bit disappointed in the food. As I’ve mulled over my thoughts on this, I think it’s largely the lack of variety and the very mild seasonings. We have a friend who always takes a tiny bottle of Tabasco with him when he travels.
Now we know why.
Obviously, there is a lot of seafood (cod, sardines, octopus, shrimp and occasionally, salmon). There is also a lot of pork, generally as sausage or pounded-thin fried steaks. They do a fair amount of soup, generally vegetable and generally pureed. There are some “touristy” foods such as pizza, burgers, and hot dogs.
Sardines. They actually weren’t bad.Shrimp salad with avocado.Vegetable soup, pureed.Curried salmon. Good enough I looked up a recipe when we returned home.Fried pork steaks. Pounded thin. They were OK.Pork sausage flambé. It came out on fire. And it was tasty.
We tried some alheira sausage. Originally created by the Jewish residents to hide the fact they were Jewish during the Inquisition It was made with chicken. It was also not nearly as good as the pork sausage.
Alheira sausage. Mushy.Pork sausage in Sintra. Yummy. Good spices.
Two specific foods we tried (and liked) were the Bolinhos de Bacalhau (cod cakes) and the Francesinha (a layered sandwich).
The Bacalhau were generally very yummy. I ordered them a few times and liked them.
Bolinhos de Bacalhau in Sintra.
The Francesinha is a hot sandwich of sorts with a layer of bread, layers of meat, layers of cheese, more bread, more meat, more cheese. Topped with a sauce/gravy. You could also call it “heart attack on a plate”. It was OK.
Francesinha in Porto.
However, one amazing food they have is Pastel de Nata, which is a small, egg custard pastry that is amazing, especially when you sprinkle cinnamon on top and eat them slightly cooled right out of the oven. Our cooking class made them (see my blog for Day Five) and loved them. Paired with some good espresso.
Pastel de Nata and espresso. Doesn’t get much better!
TOURISTY STUFF
There were some touristy foods we became thankful for. After eating cod, pork, cod and more pork, we enjoyed some other good foods. We had an amazing smash burger in Queluz (paired with fresh-squeezed lemonade), a unique “hot dog” and fries in Porto at a place recommended by the late Anthony Bourdain and a four ingredient pizza in Porto where they separated the four toppings. Interesting.
No words. It was awesome!I agree with Anthony Bourdain. And it tasted much better than it looked.Four topping pizza. Separated. After all, you wouldn’t want to mix the toppings…
Not to miss out on some unique pastries more like we are accustomed to, we had some carrot cake and pastry with an espresso and a macchiato. Quite tasty.
Pastries and coffee. This was on our last day in Portugal.
Overall, the food was decent. But not a lot of variety and, as I mentioned earlier, not a lot of spice. We were there two weeks and by the end of our time, I was a little tired of eating pretty much the same things day in and day out.
This will be my first specific blog post related to food. You may have noticed I added Food and Travel categories to my site. It seems, as I head full-on into retirement, those are two areas of our lives that are rising to prominence. So here it is.
El Nopalito, in downtown Eugene, is a short walk from our house. We had walked by it several times in the last couple of months (they opened at this location in July) and kept saying we need to try them out.
Last evening, we had that opportunity. And we were NOT disappointed!
Chips and Guac
We started with the Chips and Guac. Everyone seems to do theirs slightly different and some are too salty, have weird flavors of spice combinations, or even dry (or greasy), stale chips. El Nopalito nailed it.The chips were fresh, crispy and not greasy at all. The guac had just the right amount of salt and seasonings. It was excellent. We immediately felt we were off to a good start and anticipated the next round.
Carnitas Taco and Fish Taco
We wanted a variety this first time, so we each got one taco. As is now common in most Mexican restaurants, the tacos are reasonably-priced street tacos, so they are smaller. That’s OK, because we also ordered a quesadilla. I had the Carnitas, which was smoked pork and very flavorful. They have four salsas to choose from and we tasted all four and settled on two. I can’t remember which two, but they were all good. Brenda had the fish taco and thought it was very good as well.
Our only criticism was I felt the Carnitas could have used some jalapeño (next time) and Brenda felt the fish taco was good, but not the best she had ever had. All in all, though, they were very tasty and flavorful.
Tinga de Pollo Quesadilla
OK, so don’t let this picture fool you. The quesadilla was probably my favorite of all that we ordered. Doesn’t look like much, but it was very tasty. Tinga de Pollo is generally a shredded chicken, braised in a chipotle-tomato sauce and spiced. So while all you see here is a flour tortilla, inside is…wonderful! The combination of chicken and spice was perfect. I will definitely order this again. And I won’t share it with Brenda!
We WILL be going back. I’m anxious to try their margaritas and a few other items on the menu.
