Husband and I made a brief, but totally worth it, visit to Portland after our one year anniversary/late honeymoon trip to Bali. The primary reason was to retrieve our dear, beloved Margo and bring her back to Japan to live with us for the rest of our stay. Visiting Portland offered us many opportunities we have been missing while living abroad. We saw family and friends, did some shopping for clothes that fit us correctly, saw the last home game of the Trail Blazers and ate all the food we have been missing.
Portland is a city that is in love with food. You can find anything and everything there. It's fantastic. We wasted no time stuffing ourselves with cuisine from Germany, Mexico, China and Hawaii, as well as getting our fill of American classics like over-sized hamburgers and pizza. And even though there is more than enough Ramen to choose from in Japan, there was no way I could pass up going to my favorite shop in Portland.
Boke Bowl started out only serving lunch at their location on the Southeast waterfront near OMSI. I would trek over there after my college classes ended, just in time to get my fill before they were done for the day. I remember being excited when they started opening for dinner every night (not just on Thursdays when they did their incredible Boke Bird dinner special of Korean chicken). Then, after I left for Japan, they opened a second location in Northwest. Of course a brand new branch would open up in the neighborhood I had just moved away from. My luck. Either way, I have nothing but happiness for this company's success.
Not skipping a beat, I ordered their pork Ramen and added a poached egg and extra pork belly (naturally). Husband was so torn. He loves the Ramen at Boke Bowl but can never say no to their version of θγΎγ (niku-man), or steam buns. Not wanting to miss out, he ordered both the beef curry Ramen and two fried chicken buns. We took our seat and began to take in the atmosphere of the new shop in our old hood while we waited for our lunch.
In no time at all our food was delivered. Hot, salty, pork flavored soup filled my bowl while seasonal vegetables, juicy shredded pork, bamboo shoots, a slab of seared pork belly, a soft egg and some shredded green onion and nori lay on top of the tangle of chewy noodles. Eagerly, I dug in to one of my favorite dishes in Portland. And of course, it was as good as always. It was not hard to finish the whole bowl. Husband, on the other hand, had twice the amount of food to get through. He quickly devoured the steam buns with their crispy fried chicken, pickles and sauces and moved on to his beef curry Ramen. While he was unable to finish the entire bowl, he was happy to have tried something new. If you live in Portland and haven't been to Boke Bowl yet, GO!
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| Pork Ramen with added egg and pork belly. |
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| Noodle shot. |
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| And that pork belly... |
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| Husband's Beef Curry Ramen |
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| And the friend chicken steam buns. Definitely a don't miss item. |
