More food on the coast

When last we left our intrepid foodies, we were having Rachel's famous fruit salad on Wednesday night. It was fabulous as usual, and we added a little Ferrari-Carrano El Dorado Gold dessert wine as a finishing touch. We paired the fruit salad, cheese and bread with a bottle of Tualatin Estate semi-sparkling Muscat - not too sweet, slightly spritzy and very tasty. This is a great wine, at at only 6.5% abv, you can drink it all night.

On Thursday we were in a bit of a quandry. It was time to have lunch at the sunny beer garden at the Warren House Pub, but unfortunately it wasn't sunny. Instead we decided to have our second lunch at Bill's Tavern, and we all had the same things we had the first time. In addition to her burger, Rachel also had a glass of the spruce ale, a light hoppy ale with the definite taste of pine. Very refreshing, and she really enjoyed it. I also discovered why 2 pints of 2x4 stout makes me feel like I was hit with a 2x4 - it's 7.5% abv! That's higher than the wine we had last night!

For dinner on Thursday, we had originally thought that we might eat at Ye Olde Driftwood Inn, but after popping our heads in the door after lunch, we decided not to. The menu looked like plain uninteresting American food, and the smell of old deep-fry oil was somewhat off-putting. Instead, we decided to make reservations at JP's. Now, faithful readers of Rachel's Post from the Coast will recall that last year JP's was very disappointing. But, we decided to give them another try - after all, we've had many good meals there over the years.

We started with the crab cakes appetizer, and it was really nicely done - crisp on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside, and served with a tangy and sweet BBQ-style sauce. The boyz both had Caesar salads, and I had a green salad which had not been sufficiently dried, which diluted the dressing. For the main course, Rachel had her usual Black Forest Salad (chicken and lamb), Tim had the New York strip steak with green peppercorn sauce, and Josh and I had the daily special - cracked pepper crusted flat iron steak with mushrooms and a red wine reduction. Our steaks were very good - flavorful and spicy, although a tad overdone. Rachel's salad was good, but Tim was disappointed with his steak. He said it was like "when Dad's in a hurry and just throws a steak on the grill." The marionberry lemonade was better than last year, but we think they may be using frozen lemon juice concentrate rather than fresh lemons these days. For desert, Rachel had the "dessert bites" size of the bread pudding - a smaller version which she said was just right. Tim had a cappuccino torte with cinnamon ice cream, and I had creamy cheesecake with chocolate topping. The cheesecake was very good, but didn't really need the chocolate. The best part of dessert, however, was the wine. They had 2 Moldovan wines on the menu, and I asked the waitress to tell me about them. She didn't know, so she brought Diane Papas over (chef Bill's wife). She poured me a taste of each and asked me to describe them. The first was in a bottle that had been decorated to look like a tree. It tasted earthy and slightly musty - interesting, but not great. The second was similar to a tawny port, and I had a glass of it. So, JP's exceeded expectations, but is nowhere near a "knock your socks off" experience. I'm glad we went, but it certainly wasn't the high point. I think I'd rate it just below Wayfarer this trip.

Friday was finally almost sunny enough to have lunch on the deck at Warren House. Rachel and I both took long walks in the morning and ended up meeting in Cannon Beach. I walked from the house in Arch Cape to the north end of Cannon Beach (about 5 miles) and Rachel walked from Indian Beach into Cannon Beach (about 3.4 miles). We called Josh at the house and he and Tim drove down and met us at mid-town and took us to Warren House. I had my usual pint of 2x4 and Rachel had more spruce ale (Warren House gets its beer from Bill's). Rachel had a very nice smoked salmon salad, Josh had the mountain of nachos, and Tim had his usual giant burger. I had the special - a grilled andouille sausage in a bun with sauerkraut, cheese and a little pico de gallo. Very tasty! After lunch, we drove up to Indian Beach to retrieve my car that Rachel had left there for her walk this morning.

For dinner, Rachel and I again left the boyz to fend for themselves at home and had dinner at the Bistro. For several years, the quality of the food here was hit or miss, but for the past couple of years it's been superb and tonight was no exception. To start, I had the Greek lemon soup - a chicken based soup with lemon and rice. Rachel had a wonderful pear, walnut and bleu cheese salad. For the main course, I had seared scallops with dried tomatoes and capers accompanied by asparagus risotto and Rachel had crab stuffed prawns. My scallops were prepared perfectly - crisp searing on the outside without being overcooked. We also ordered a bottle of St. Veran, which went nicely with the meal. Normally St. Veran has an overtone of honey, but it was somewhat muted in this particular instantiation. For dessert, we shared a very nice chocolate torte with a nut crust. I asked about port, and they gave me the choice of a tawny from Australia or a ruby from Portugal. Needless to say, I went with the ruby from Portugal and was not disappointed.

Tomorrow is our last day, and I don't know what we'll do about lunch. Dinner will be the annual smokked fish and steamers which I will prepare at the house. We'll also be tasting wines from Zenas at Mr. WKIA in town. Should be fun!