Portland Restaurant: Revelry

What: Revelry
Where: 210 SE MLK Blvd. 
Honeys Heart: Seaweed Noodles & Tuna Bowl

Doug and I celebrated his 30th bday with a trip to San Diego (don't get too jealous - it was rainy the whole time and he got the flu on our last full day), but it was obviously necessary to celebrate with friends when we got back too.

Doug's first pick was Mae, but the stars didn't align in our favor and we had to go with his second choice: Revelry.

I will admit, I had a little bit of attitude about Revelry prior to our dinner, mostly because I do not like kimchi and I was convinced that, being a Korean street food restaurant, they would put it in everything. This was an ignorant and incorrect assumption, and having tasted Revelry's crazy delicious food, I very much regret not giving it a try sooner.

Revelry's menu is divided up into "anytime", "pancake", "noodle", "rice bowl", and "sweets". With our server's help, we narrowed it down to the following dishes to split among 7 people. Here they are in order of favorite to least favorite, though it should be noted that even our least favorite was pretty tasty.

Our group's favorite dish was the Seaweed Noodles ($17) made with Dungeness crab, red curry, and creme fraiche. This was so, so good. The noodles were nice and chewy, and a great contrast to the creaminess of the crab. And while the flavors were more delicate than some of the other dishes, they worked very well together.

Right behind the seaweed noodles was Blackened Tuna Rice Bowl ($16) with cured yolk, koji asparagus, and zucchini. The tuna was seasoned perfectly and our group couldn't get over how tasty the zucchini was. They worked miracles with that squash, let me tell you.

We ordered Mrs. Yang's Fried Chicken ($14) in honor of our attempted meal at Mae and while there's no competing with Maya Lovelace's drumsticks, we all enjoyed this quite a bit. It had just the right kick of spice and the peanut brittle crumbled on top was an inspired addition.

We also tried the Dan Dan Noodles ($16) with chipotle pork and collard greens and while this was good, I'd definitely recommend the seaweed noodles first if you only want one noodle dish.

And in last place, the Short Rib Rice Bowl ($17) with cured yolk, herb tabbouleh, and charred spring onion. This was tasty, but on my next visit, I'll definitely skip this in favor of trying something new (that will not be the case with the seaweed noodles or tuna).

We also tried out a variety of cocktails including the gin & tonic. For whatever reason, people were not as jazzed about the drinks as they were about the food (I thought my G&T was good), but guess you can't win them all.

Doug and I are already plotting when we can go back. It's been over a week, so I think we've waited long enough. Eat you soon, seaweed noodles!

Portland Restaurant: CHKCHK

What: CHKCHK!!
Where: NW 23rd and Overton
When: 11 am - 10 pm
Honeys Heart: The price! And the decor.

Adam loves fried chicken. Like really loves fried chicken. He also really loves a sandwich, so anytime there is an opportunity to have a fried chicken sandwich he is all over it.

I've recently found that on weeks where we don't get Blue Apron delivered, we've lacked some cooking motivation. On such nights, I struggle between the financially responsible grocery store stop and the convenient Thai Peacock or Laughing Planet options. Tiring of our usual go-to's we decided to hit up CHKCHK, a new casual semi-fast food restaurant on NW 23rd. 

The menu is small but affordable, and the food is made to order, but quick. I would say we had our dinner in about 10-12 minutes and with our two drinks, spent a grand total of about $32. 

Our drinks were one of their four "Boozy Sodas". The Cactus Cooler ($7) is a bottled mix of green melon, tequila, and a little love. They weren't bad, but they were a little too sweet and a bit funky. I think I would try the CHKCHK Libre next time with rum, Blackstrap bitters, and cane soda.

For food, Adam opted for the Spicy ChkChk Sandwich ($7) while I went for the ChkChop Salad ($6) plus ChkChk Bites for an extra $1. 

Not that we needed it, but we complemented our fried chicken dinners with the ChkChk Fries ($2) and an array of dipping sauces. I do love a waffle fry...

The drinks weren't my favorite, but otherwise I would say this is a good stop for a quick, cheap din. Maybe not if you're trying to be healthy though... 

Portland Restaurant: Hat Yai

What: Hat Yai
Where: 1605 N.E. Killingsworth St.
Honeys Heart: Fried Chicken & Curry Broth

Doug and I are those obnoxious people who went to Thailand on our honeymoon and have since claimed Thai food as "our thing".

We unabashedly love Nong's, visit Langbaan as frequently as our wallets will allow (so, once a year), and have been known to pick up visitors from the airport and drive them straight to Pok Pok.

So you can understand that we were pretty excited when we heard about Hat Yai, a new restaurant focusing on dishes from Southern Thailand by Langbaan & Paadee's Earl Ninsom and St. Jack bartender Alan Akwai.

Hat Yai is located in a narrow space near La Taq/Podnah's. It's a counter service spot so the vibe is pretty casual.

The star of the menu is the Fried Mary's Chicken, available in different pieces and meant to be paired with Hat Yai's curry broth, sticky rice, and roti (Thai fried bread).

I got a little confused when ordering and somehow missed the option for the Hat Yai Combo ($17), which features all the items above. It was basically what everyone in the restaurant was eating, except for us. Sorry, Doug!

Instead, we ended up with an order of Wings ($6) plus the Beef Cheek Curry with Roti ($17), and the Khao Yum ($9), rice salad with shrimp powder, toasted coconut and herbs.

The wings were delicious, especially when dipped in the beef cheek curry. They're made with an herb and spice marinade featuring cumin, white pepper, coriander, and fresh garlic, and are topped with fried shallots- so there's lots of good flavors happening.

The beef cheek curry broth was rich and velvety, so while the portion of cheeks was fairly small, it ended up being the perfect amount.

The Khao Yum was probably our least favorite part of the meal, mostly because of the tiny red peppers that we realized were SUPER spicy only after we had mixed them into the salad. We ended up carefully picking around them, which is never the most enjoyable way to eat something.

We both also tried the Tamarind Whiskey Smash, made with bourbon, tamarind, mint, simple syrup and soda, which was super refreshing. 

And, while we rarely order dessert at restaurants (I know, poor me!), I decided we couldn't leave without sampling Hat Yai's Dessert Roti ($5). The dessert roti is topped with milo (a chocolate & malt powder that is popular in Thailand) and condensed milk. It might sound a little strange, but it was so good!

Doug is already plotting when we can go back to Hat Yai, partly so we can order properly (combo, here we come!), but mostly because it was so delicious.

It's also worth noting that Hat Yai is still in it's "soft-opening" phase- though you wouldn't guess it from how smoothly things seem to be going.

Buzzed with the Happy Hour Honeys: Nashville Episode!

Our third episode of Buzzed with the Happy Hour Honeys is devoted to our recent girls trip to Nashville! Listen in to hear all about our adventures in Music City including our picks and pans and how to properly execute drunk planing.



A Visual Guide to Episode 3:

(See a guide to Dougie PDX vs. Katie's husband Doug here.)

Concrete at Wiz Bang Bar

 --- NASHVILLE!!! ---

Nashville Ladies: Kelly, Katie, and Dana

Georgia's Adorable Apartment in 12 South

 
Husk's Shrimp & Grits

Husk's Beef

Hattie B's Hot Chicken 

Cocktails at The Patterson House

Beers at The Pharmacy

A Bass Player

Las Paletas' Popsicles

Sweet Tea at Draper James (Reese Witherspoon's Store) 

B-Cycle Bikes

Cronuts at Five Daughters Bakery

Joy Ride Nashville Photo Shoot 

Super Salty Country Ham at The Loveless Cafe

"Demonbreun" is hard to say but fun-ish to visit.

Also, we really liked Proper Bagel, but we forgot to talk about it. Thanks, rosé!

Portland Pop-up: Mae

What: Mae
When: Monday and Wednesday Nights
Where: Old Salt Marketplace

If there's one "foodie" thing I just don't really get, it's fried chicken. I feel terrible about it, but it's true. Poor Doug. He never got to go to Son of a Biscuit, I had trouble properly sympathizing when Muscadine was out of fried chicken during our one and only visit, and, even though you know I love me some Dougie PDX, his fried chicken at Imperial was not my favorite dish on the table.

But, I think I might be starting to see the appeal, and that's all thanks to Mae.

Mae is a southern Appalachian-focused pop-up run by Maya Lovelace, an alumna of Beast and Husk. Maya's cooking is inspired by her grandmother Mae, for whom the pop-up is named.

Mae's family-style feasts are served out of the back room of Old Salt Marketplace and you have two options for dinners (so far): Monday Meat & Three ($35 per person) or a 10-course Southern Bacchanalia on Wednesdays ($65 per person).

Kelly, Adam, Doug, and I opted for the Monday Meat & Three option, mostly because it was more cost efficient and we still got to try Mae's fried chicken.

Monday Meat & Threes are BYOB so before Doug and I headed to Old Salt, we grabbed some German-style beers since Doug read that they go well with fried food (who knew?).

We were the first to arrive, and after a friendly greeting, Maya directed us to our assigned seats at Mae's communal tables.

Before each course, Maya stopped by each table and explained the dishes as well as her emotional connection to them. Elements like that are something I just love about pop-ups. The meal already feels special but it's made that much more so by the personal interactions you get to have with the chef.

Our meal started with Sassafras Sweet Tea and Cornbread with sorghum butter and pimento cheese with ham.

Up next was Buttermilk Salad with iceberg lettuce, buttermilk dressing, and bacon. Adam LOVED this, and for good reason. It was very simple, but very good. Too bad our tablemates got a little greedy and didn't leave enough for our half of the table to have seconds too...

And then it was time for the big show: Mae's Fried Chicken, which is brined in buttermilk and fried in lard, bacon fat, AND chicken fat. The chicken was juicy with a perfectly crispy crust and not greasy at all. Plus, Maya doesn't skimp- our table's large patter included two pieces for each of us plus Maya offered a second round, which we were quick to take her up on.

Along with the fried chicken came Collard Greens (tasty) and Pimento Mac & Cheese topped with potato chips (OMG so good).

For dessert, Maya served a cheery Lemon Pound Cake with whipped cream. Since we were fairly stuffed at that point, its lightness was the ideal end to our meal.

Before we left, Kel and I stopped by the prep station to thank Maya and to ask her if she had any recommendations for our upcoming trip to Nashville. She gamely wrote down more than a few options for us- so sweet!

So, how do you partake in one of Mae's feasts? Join Mae's mailing list here. You'll get email updates about upcoming dinners including information about how to register. Cheers!