The Food Lovers' Guide
55 tasty destinations for the culinary adventurer in you (Hope you're hungry!)
By Mike Thelin, Martin Patail, Kaitlyn Evans, and Eva Hagberg
Fish
ABC Seafood Market
6509 SE Powell Blvd
503-771-5802
The Find: The cheapest Dungeness crabs in town
When Sharon Chan, a native of Guangzhao, China, moved to Portland, she found the Asian restaurants to be lacking in the seafood essential to her native cuisine. So, in 1999, she started her own store to fill the niche. The tiny shop now has the largest selection of edible aquatic life in the city: Dungeness crabs, giant Maine lobsters, tilapia, prawns, mussels, Louisiana crawfish, and geoduck the size of your foot. Half of Chan’s business comes from restaurants and seafood markets all over the country, but she still has time to cater to home cooks. And if you ask nicely, the folks at ABC will gut and clean your catch at no extra charge. —MT
Likely to Spot: Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker fetching a Vietnamese farm-raised catfish
Anzen Hiroshi’s Inc
736 NE MLK Jr. Blvd, 503-233-5111
The Find: Sashimi-grade tuna
When the daily shipment arrives, Anzen Hiroshi’s tiny seafood counter becomes Studio 54 for Portland’s top sushi chefs. The store opened in 1904 in Old Town, when the neighborhood boasted one of the country’s largest Japanese populations (it later all but disappeared thanks to World War II internment). Anzen hopped the river in 1968 to its current digs on NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where the small storefront is dwarfed by the elephantine Oregon Convention Center. Once you’ve discovered it, though, the city’s only centrally located Japanese market is tough to live without. Mackerel, whole octopus, and rex sole are always in stock, in addition to Japanese seafood mainstays like hamachi, tuna belly, and several types of ahi. You’ll also find produce staples like galangal, fresh ginger, purple yams, shishito pepper (the padrón peppers of Japan), slender enoki mushrooms, lotus root, burdock, and gargantuan daikon radishes. —MT
Likely to Spot: Biwa owner Gabe Rosen perusing the selection of Hawaiian yellowfin tuna
Newman’s Fish Company
735 NW 21st Ave, 503-227-2700
The Find: Line-caught wild salmon
A prominent fish wholesaler since 1890, Newman’s debuted its first fish market in Portland in 1986. It now has one of the most extensive seafood inventories on the West Side. Depending on the season, Newman’s carries fresh shrimp of several sizes and origins, live crab and lobster, monkfish, halibut, chinook salmon, mussels, clams, sole, trout, albacore and ahi tuna, and several varieties of oysters, from the Pacific Northwest’s Kumamoto to New England’s Westport variety. Shoppers looking to grab and go will appreciate the selection of house-smoked fish—more than 10 kinds, including peppered chinook salmon, escolar, and buttery Oregon black cod. —MT
Likely to Spot: Tabla executive chef Anthony Cafiero buying whole fresh octopus
Published: March 2010
Have you checked out Limbo’s Wall of Herbs on SE 39th next to Trader Joes.
Great place to buy small amounts of 700 different herbs, tea and spices. Yeah jars are kind of gross but I risk it to expand my horizons.
I also shop at People’s Food Co-op, Food Front for specfic ingredients and cutting edge products. You don’t have to be a hippy to shop there. I just bought knives and sharpening at Hawthorn Cutlery and got great service.
I love sheridan fruit company, want to go there to see if they have beer sausages, forgot to check when I was there, does anyone have any information on this?