THE COMMUNAL TABLE ~ "James Beard ~ A Homegrown Celebration "

THE COMMUNAL TABLE ~ "James Beard ~ A Homegrown Celebration " Featuring rustic dishes from our favorite Beard repertoire -Sunday May 15, 2011 5:00pm Reservations (503) 699-1136 Menu. Still just $25 per person plus gratuity. There will be a great selection of hand-picked regional Northwest wines to choose from.Limited seating, reserve now! MENU



Who will be the L.O. Quiz Wiz at the next Communal Table event? Until then, we're on pins and needles so won't you join us for great food and wine at this convivial affair? Also, when you play "The Quiz Gastronomique”, you may win a choice bottle of wine AND admiration from your Communal Table mates!

James Beard Foundation Awards Nominees: CONGRATULATIONS FROM TEAM TK

 Join us in congratulating all our Northwest friends, acquaintances, and industry peers on the recent annoncements for the annual James Beard Foundation Awards!

We're pulling for our favorites - Jerry Traunfeld - for Oustanding Chef Award. Jerry and I made our debut presentations at the Beard House together where we presented foraged foods and dishes of the Pacific Northwest. Also to Cathy Whims whom we've known and admired for years. Andy Rikker was not only one of my favorite cooks at Fiddleheads (past Gourmet magazine top table and Oregonian Restaurant of the Year) but I came to admire his rugged "monkey factor" and his demonstrated ability to stay focused on his passions, as we've all come to know and love. Having lived and worked in Oregon, Washington, and Arizona over the past three decades, there are a lot of great cooks, writers, food activists, wine makers, spirits producers and such that we have befriended and support. 

April Communal Table: The Cuisines of Northern Italy

THE COMMUNAL TABLE ~ "La Cucina di Italia del nord " The Cuisine of Northern Italy- Sunday April 17, 2011 7:00pm Reservations (503) 699-1136 MENU. Be like oscar-winning film director Roberto Benini - a Northern Italian - and live in the moment....join us! Still just $25 per person plus gratuity. There will be a great selection of hand-picked regional Italian wines to choose from.Limited seating, reserve now! Menu

Who will be the L.O. Quiz Wiz at the next Communal Table event? Until then, we're on pins and needles so won't you join us for great food and wine at this convivial affair? Also, when you play "Il QUIZ DI GASTRONOMIA ITALIANO”, you may win a choice bottle of vino maximo supremo AND admiration from your Communal Table mates!

We'll celebrate the first asparagus and berries. Don't miss this one. (503) 699 - 1136 for reservations.

Developing the Regional Table: Arrowhead

Born in Wapato, Washington in 1956 to a migrant father working the fertile Yakima Valley floor where this splendid food plant continues to flourish, I have only recently become this beautiful and delicious plant's advocate.
For descendants of the original inhabitants of this great region, the First Salmon feast is now underway. Gathered, prepared, and served with this royal fish is a water plant rhizome called arrowhead. Wife and partner Marlene and I first tasted the roasted root of the arrowhead plant at a Spring Root celebration with artist and friend Lillian Pitt at the ceremony for the people of Warm Springs. The nut-like flavor with the texture of sunchokes is at once unique and most satisfying. Nutritionally speaking, arrowhead contributes significantly less carbs than potatoes and has nutrients and qualities that migrant domestic crops do not possess. My son and partner Zoey and I have managed to winter over our second crop of domesticated arrowhead (Saggitara latifolia). This was our successful attempt to discover growing conditions for arrowhead as a food crop. In addition to our kitchen garden greenhouse, family friend and master gardener Joy Pruitt provided a site in Lake Oswego for our experimental crops.
Also commonly called wapato, the rhizomes of the plant have been eaten for centuries by folk here in the Columbia River and Willamette River basins prior to the introduction of potatoes and other Old World starchy food alternatives. With mass migration into the region and the ensuing industrialization, wapato was displaced by grazing domesticated animals and its habitat was polluted by industrial waste. In spite of our local government's collaboration with the United State's Superfund efforts for clean-up at sites in the immediate Portland area, the land has not been cleansed of toxins to a level that could warrant harvesting of healthful, edible root stock. Ironically, wapato may well be the healing solution necessary to save itself. Used for decades by environmentalists to 'reclaim' the lands saturated with light toxins, the process of clean-up and renewal is facilitated by the wapato plants natural filtering mechanism. Once pollutants have been mandated to be eliminated or diminished by industrial producers, wapato is planted adjacent to the sites. Within a few years in some instances, the toxin laden wapato is replaced with fresh root stock providing a safe harbor for rehabilitation to begin.
I am of the mind to grow this local and delicious potato alternative for market. We have conducted extensive research on the matter since 1996. Efforts include a test pond planted in Washington D.C. under the direction of landscape architect Johnpaul Jones on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian. Along with many other indigenous food crops of the region, the wapato has flourished there. We have since grown subsequent crops and are developing plans for a commercial production facility.
We have been serving wapato to a receptive crowd since 1986 where, after presenting it to my guests and mastering its preparation, it was presented in a warm salad to accompany salmon at the American Seafood Challenge garnering a championship crown and gold medal for me in Oregon then, subsequently, Washington State. We presented wapato as an Ark food for Slow Food Iternational's Salone del Gusto and to dignitaries by invitation in Italy's Etruscan region. Presentations wapato's versatility have been made to foodies in Kyoto and Tokyo Japan, and continue here in our region to traveling food writers from throughout the planet - all with a concerted and favorable response. We believe that wapato, like so many other overlooked indigenous foods, presents the foundation for a truely regional cuisine.



Wind River Steelhead with its Roe, flavored with sumac
and Oregon Mountain Mahogany. Accompanied by roasted
wapato (in foreground), camas root, cress and hazlenut oil



The Communal Table ~ Thursday March 31 Rustic Dishes of the Pyrenees



THE COMMUNAL TABLE
Rustic Dishes of the Pyrenees
Thursday March 31, 2011
7:00pm Reservations
(503) 699-1136
Menu
You could be
L.O.'s next Quiz Wiz
when you play to win the
“BASQUE QUIZ GASTRONOMIQUE”

GET 'EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT! DUBLIN STYLE FISH & CHIPS

St. Patrick's Day ~ Dublin Style Fish & Chips ~ don't miss 'em! Thursday March 17, 2011. Presented throughout the day with Irish libations too.

Fat Tuesday

Terrace Kitchen

Presents

A Menu

for Friends and Family

In celebration of

Mardi Gras

Fat Tuesday

Tuesday March 8, 2011

7:00 PM

Menu

$25 per person plus gratuity

First Course

Fried Green Tomatoes confetti corn compote

Entree

Accompanied by

hush puppies and sweet chile butter

Jambalaya

chicken, shrimp, clams, and andouille sausage

~OR~

Stuffed Mirliton

hoppin john salad with molasses dressing

Dessert

Pecan Tart

with bourbon vanilla ice cream

Additional Info