Laughing Planet

http://www.laughingplanetcafe.com/
3320 SE BELMONT and other locations
Portland, Oregon

The Laughing Planet has several locations in Portland and one in Eugene. It is everything I look for in a good restaurant, cheap, filling, healthy, and with vegetarian options. I eat here at least once a week and usually get the same thing, the Soylent Green. It is a bowl with a barley-quinoa pilaf, steamed chard and broccoli, tempeh and choice of a sauce. I usually stick with the cilantro pesto. It is amazing, healthy, fresh, invigorating, and pretty cheap.

Another one of my favorites is called Chairman Meow, a pretty simple bowl of brown rice, steamed veggies and either shiitake mushroom or a Thai peanut curry sauce. I always get the curry and top it with tempeh. It is just so fresh tasting and the curry gives it a little kick. They don't skimp on the veggies and it is a great balance of rice to veggies.

Another thing they are famous for is their burritos, or wraps. They have an assortment for all tastes. There is a classic Mexican-style burrito, Southwestern, mole, my favorite Thai-me-up and always a special burrito of the week. Of course we cannot forget sweet treats. They always have an assortment of cookies and a delicious pie.

Saburo's

http://www.saburos.com
1667 SE BYBEE ST
Portland, Oregon
First of all, be prepared to wait. Good things come to those who wait! They open at 4:30 on weekends and 5 during the week, so it is a good idea to be there half an hour before. If you are a single or double you may be able to sit at the bar for a shorter wait but if you are bringing a group come early and bring good conversation.

You may have had cheap sushi. You may have had good sushi. But you haven't had cheap, good sushi until you've tried Saburo's. The thing about Saburo's is not necessarily that it's cheap but for the same price you get huge amounts. The size of your typical California roll for example, is probably twice what you would expect. Although not necessary, I usually start with a few appetizers. Some favorites are Spicy Tuna Salad, Agedashi Tofu, and Edamame.


Now for the real stuff, the sushi you've never had. The nigiri range in price from a $2 inari (comes with 3) to a $4 unagi (each about 5-6" long). The regular rolls like the futomaki (veggies, crab, tamago) and spicy tuna roll are around $4 for 5 huge pieces. California rolls are huge and range from $3.50 for a regular with fake crab to $5.50 for real crab with smelt. Then there are the $6.50 special rolls like a sabu roll (tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado, cucumber, smelt) or budokhan (shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, cucumber, smelt) and finally the most expensive roll, spider roll (soft shell crab, avocado, green onion, cucumber, smelt) for $7.25. You can't really beat those prices. What is the catch? Why are they so cheap? Well they must be small, right? WRONG! These pieces of sushi are huge! So much so that Japanese people (from Japan) don't think it's right. But we are American fatties and we think it's great! It's a great deal, its fresh and delicious.


Jeremy and I always get way too much sushi and end up taking half of it home. You mark off your order with a dry erase pen on a plastic menu and sometimes we get a little too pen-happy. We end up with two huge platters of sushi and need all the room on the table. The people sitting next to us always stare and think we are crazy. It is just so good and cheap, for $60 two people can eat like kings and still have leftovers! These pictures don't really show how big the pieces are but basically nigiri take at least two bites and the rolls maybe 3 bites each piece. We always leave really full and end up in a food coma shortly afterward. I try to bring all my friends here and no one leaves hungry or wanting. It is the best place to get sushi in Portland!

Por Que No

http://www.porquenotacos.com/
3524 N MISSISSIPPI AVE
4635 SE HAWTHORNE BLVD
Portland, Oregon

Two locations are not enough for one of the best Mexican places in Portland! Luckily one of the locations is pretty close to me, it's open late and has great deals. Tacos are $0.50 off from 3-6pm and Tuesdays 3-close.

Definitely start your meal off with some chips. Chips and salsa or guacamole, you can't go wrong. These chips are perfect! I would go just for the chips, and have a side of chips to go with it. They are fresh, crunchy and salty. They are not to thick or thin but really, perfect. I am not a chip aficionado but they were the first thing that made me really notice this place. These really are perfect chips, which really seems like a simple thing but lots of places don't do it right. I'm not sure what it is but they know what they are doing!

They do several things well besides chips. Their tacos are also pretty amazing. If I am eating meat I go for the carnitas. I don't know if I would say "the best" carnitas but they are definitely very good. Can't go wrong with carne asada as well. They also have bowls, which I guess seem to be one of my favorite things. I definitely prefer bowls to plates and spoons to forks for that matter. Back to their bowls, Bryan's Bowl is where it's at. "Your choice of meat or veggies in a bowl with beans, rice, guacamole, salsas, queso fresco, crema, cilantro & a side of chips or 3 tortillas" all for less than $7. Most items on the menu can be made vegetarian and they have a great selection of beverages, alcoholic and non-. Of course what would Mexican food be without horchata?

Biwa

http://biwarestaurant.com/
215 SE 9th AVE
Portland, Oregon

Growing up in Hawaii and Japan I have acquired a fondness for a nice bowl of ramen. I'm not talking about Top Ramen or any other kind of instant noodles. While those are good and will hold me for awhile, sometimes you need a real bowl. Portland is not Sapporo and is not known for its ramen. Its not really a big deal here. But I have found a couple good places to get ramen. Biwa is one of them and pretty close to home.

Biwa is an izakaya, a Japanese drinking establishment. In Japan after a hard day's work you go to one of these places to socialize, drink and eat. They generally serve small plates, like tapas. There are different salads (like this seaweed salad), yakitori (various grilled meats on a stick), kimchi, gyoza, other pickled vegetables, miso shiru, and also yakionigiri (grilled rice balls) which I was really excited about. They have a decent kare raisu (curry rice) and pretty good ramen. It definitely brought me back to small kid time and made me want to go back to Japan again soon.

Ramen is something that is taken very seriously in Japan. I remember visiting Sapporo when I was really young and there are these ramen shops where you stand in line behind a row of people eating, waiting for them to finish so you can get yours and eat it as fast as possible. It was delicious of course but so much pressure to eat fast! In Japan you slurp noodles, and that means you like it. Here is Jeremy doing his best to slurp. It takes awhile to get used to making all that noise. People might stare but in Japan it would be a compliment to the chef if you made lots of noise. The last time I went to Japan we visited a "Ramen Stadium" where there are maybe a dozen ramen shops with all different kinds of ramen. You look at the different menus and choose what you want, buy it through a machine, take your ticket up to the counter and get your ramen. I want to go back!

Back to Biwa. They have two types of ramen to offer, their "Biwa Ramen" with a thick, rich, dark pork broth and what I call "the other" because I have yet to try it. I've always been a dark broth kind of gal. The only downside to this place is the price. A bowl of ramen is a certain price then for add-ins it costs more. Some of the options include egg, wakame, char siu, miso pork loin and corn. I would want it all but then I'd be buying a $20 bowl of ramen, which is just not right. In my opinion, ramen should always have wakame and char siu, and be cheap!

Their char siu is really good and worth the extra price but I like to have it all! That being said, a plain bowl of Biwa Ramen would be perfect on a cold winter's night and would beat any Top Ramen with even the best toppings. The broth is just really rich and deep. Fills you from the inside out. It's very comforting to me.

Late night menu! No pictures yet but after 10pm they have a different menu for a different crowd, one of their specialties being the Biwa Burger. It's a burger with char siu and a kimchee mayo. Definitely worth staying up late for. One of these days I will return for one with my camera. Unfortunately you cannot get ramen after 10! I know, its horrible. I often want ramen at midnight...