Oh My! Omakase at Wafu

I find myself visiting Portland again… on Halloween!  For a bit of a change from the norm of my PDXcess visits I get invited over to the Schmawtelle Estate for a dinner and some trick or treating with Samawesome.  If you need to find the house, its’ about 3 houses past the Playboy Mansion, turn left when you see the Scarface Estate, and you cant miss it.  Our lovely hosts served up some perfectly cooked 24 hour shortribs with Chantrelle Sauce.  Wash that long, thick, slab of meat down with some Dark and Stormy’s and Absinthe and Rootbeers.  Thanks for having us over homies!

So I have been hearing many great things about this place Wafu that opened up a couple months ago.  Chef Trent Pierce, formerly of the now closed, Fin, opened up this Izakaya/Ramen house and is a part of the Chefstable Group PDX.  So we walk in to this joint and our ear holes are greeted with a lovely music mix from the 80’s-90’s. through our dinner we heard everything from Lionel Richie to Def Leppard, and back to dirty dancing!  Chef is not in (sad face).  We were stoked to allow the chef to feed our face with whatever they felt like… and were discouraged to see that Omakase was NOT on the menu tonight (another sad face).  BUT, Jane, the sous chef, saw the look on our face when we were told there was no Omakase tonight, and immediately decided that we were good enough to make this happen.  So Jane comes over and does a quick interview “meat centric or veg centric?”  “MEAT CENTRIC!!”  Jane informs us that we will be placing 8 courses into our mouth holes for $25.  Happiness ensues!

Out comes a Sunomono Salad with Red Crab, and a lovely manhattan

Followed by a hand roll with spicy mayo and tempura scallops.  At this point, I am in happy town and my belly looks up at me and smiles.

Next course is a crab roll topped with lightly cured snapper.  Much applause for the techniques of the light cure, globules of wasabi and soy, and some poor bastard had to sit and brunoise buckets of pickled ginger. 

Okay, are you ready for this?  The next dish blows my mind and taste buds!  Lamb Tongue with grated daikon and truffle.  The lamb is cooked confit and you seriously don’t even need to chew it for it to fall apart.  The cooks explained the process to us, lamb tounges confit under lamb fat for 12 delicious hours.  Baaaaaaaaaaa!!!  I could eat this every single day of my life… really.

I think I need a 12 dollar beverage with a hand carved ice rock to wash this down

Oh Yeah, I forgot, we are in the middle of a tasting menu.  Hey look!  Grilled Skewers of Miso/Ginger Skirt Steak!

OK, this is getting serious, there is more food coming and me is getting full.  So do you know how many oysters are on a chicken?  Two!  The oyster is usually the part that the chef or carver of the bird reserves for themselves, cause its yummy and most people don’t even know theyre in there.  Well We got a bunch of em on one plate!   It is apparent that they part out chickens and use all of the parts of the yardbirds all over the menu.   Then chicken wings show up… with wet naps of course.

We could not show up here and not get a bowl of ramen, they are making all the noodles and everything in house.  We ordered a shoyu ramen with all the fixins minus the chicken.  Cooks thought we were enthusiastic eaters, so they threw in the chicken anyway.  Here is our ticket from the rail.  Im completely stuffed  when 2 types of cream puffs arrive!

Thanks Jane and Crew, it was an extremely memorable dinner and we will return for shizz

The next evening I was informed I would be being fed by the Willischwabs.  Two Home Cooked Meals in one trip to Portland??? Crazy.  Walk into the house and am attacked by the scent of pork fond.  I am fond of the scent of pork fond.  Sorry no pics folks, my camera is malfunctioning. 

Before i leave Portland, i need some food truck.. How about some Broke Da Mout Loco Moco from 808 Grinds? Hells to the Yeah

So I will be in many states for the next few weeks.  So whenever I get back, I hope theres some good food to share!