Founder Files: Portland Food, LA Shopping & an Avocado Toast Replacement

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey there, it’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.

---

I’m just back from the West Coast, where I spent some time with the Schoolhouse team in Portland, then headed to Ojai and LA in California. Along the way, I did the very hard work of sourcing shopping and food tips for you.

Yaowarat – I previously mentioned this Thai-Chinese restaurant’s take on the shandy (they make theirs with Guiness and Thai tea); this time I went back for their chive cakes, which are fried cubes of chive rice cakes that you dunk in vinegar and soy sauce. Order these alongside the crispy bean curd dumplings that are stuffed with shrimp and pork fat. And make sure you visit the bathroom (on the right) to see the excellent bird faucet.

Xiao Ye – I meant to tell you about this place after my last trip Portland-way. They describe their cooking as “first generation American cooking” and it’s such a fun menu. Get the half fried chicken with pickles, the shrimp scampi, and the fried head-on shrimp with salted egg yolk butter.

Ken’s Artisan Bakery – Ken Forkish’s bakery (see his Morning Ritual here!) offers an “Oregon croissant,” a plump square of croissant dough stuffed with blueberries, blackberries and hazelnut cream. Shouldn’t every state have a signature croissant? The New York: shaped like a pizza slice in honor of Pizza Rat.

I have a big project happening in Ojai, which I’ll tell you about soon. For now, I’ve got other big news—I discovered an avocado toast replacement: toasts topped with aioli, sliced egg, anchovy, and pickled mustard seeds. This gift to humanity is served at Rory’s Other Place, a cafe in the center of town where you can watch bakers roll out pie dough while you order a coffee served in a red hand-thrown mug, and then you can sit on the patio and look out at the Topatopa mountains.

+COOP – I finally got to meet a personal hero, Jenna Cooper, who has built an empire around two of my biggest obsessions, home goods and real estate. Jenna sells beautiful homes in and around LA that she zhuzhes with vintage furnishings and art as well as home goods from her beautifully edited shop +COOP in West Hollywood. You don’t need to be house shopping in LA to enjoy her feed—follow her @shopcoopla.

Tortoise General Store – I made my first purchase at Tortoise General Store nearly twenty years ago, when the shop was still on Abbot Kinney. My haul was a set of Sori Yanagi steel bowls and colanders that I still use nearly every day. The owners have since relocated to a larger space on nearby Venice Boulevard. Everything in the store is either handpicked, carefully crafted, or charming—and often all three at once. Go buy some tableware, then head to Venice beach to watch the skateboarders. That’s what I did.

Late August through early October is the best time of year to cook. Anyone want to dispute this? We’re ready for ya!

Save your sweet but not-too-soft peaches for Nea’s Peach Crumble Bars. The brown sugar topping doubles as the crust–easier than pie.

César’s Nectarine & Heirloom Gazpacho is a part of our month-long ode to in-season tomatoes. If you make it, share it! Post a pic on IG with the tag #f52tomatothon, and tell us what you loved or tweaked. (My roasted tomato jam is part of this week’s recipe challenge.)

Most people who I know cook wearing headphones or earbuds. I just read that Dyson, the maker of elite vacuum cleaners and fans, has released noise-canceling headphones that can be customized in more than a thousand color combinations. A thousand!

I wear these Sony headphones when I do laundry or cook. They don’t squeeze your brain or give you a headache. But they are solid black and now I feel boring.

Yours in headphones fomo,

Amanda