Nicholas Restaurant – Savor, Sip and Sojourn

Nicholas Restaurant is cravable

Okay, I had to go to Nicholas Restaurant because of our recent Middle Eastern restaurant experience that I wrote about a couple weeks ago.

I love Nicholas. Their original location is on Grand in Portland but they have a location on Broadway and in Gresham, as well. I’ve been to the Broadway location and I like it but Grand is just our preference. They’ve been open there since 1986.

So they start you out with flying saucer-sized hot pita bread straight from their ovens and a dipping paste made of thyme, salt, sumac, oregano, sesame seeds and blended with olive oil (although I heard our served tell another table it’s actually blended with soy oil) that’s called zattar. It’s wonderful!

I always order the vegan mezza platter but I really should branch out. Their salmon kababs sound wonderful as does their kibbah be batata and foohl mudamas. The last two are vegan dishes.

Vegan mezza platter at Nicholas Restaurant

The vegan mezza platter comes with humus, falafel balls sitting in tahini sauce, tabouli salad, mjadra and a garbanzo plate. I’m not a huge fan of tabouli salad but the mint flavor is enjoyable and it’s my salad for the evening. Everything else I could eat double of. The falafel balls pair fabulously with the tahini sauce they’re swimming in. I try not to scarf on the warm, soft pita bread so I can enjoy it with the humus that comes with my dinner. The garbanzo plate is simple but the spices give it an authentic flavor. My husband (the meat eater) is always jealous of my garbanzo plate. The mjadra is my favorite dish of all. You can actually order this dinner-sized and I really ought to sometime. It’s jasmine saffron rice, lentils, olive oil, spices, caramelized onions and cumin. Oh, my gosh, so simple but so amazing!

My husband ordered the meat mezza platter and made sure to substitute the tahziki for the mjadra which I’m glad he did so he wouldn’t eat bites of mine. He loves it as much as I do. I love lentils but who knew rice and lentils with perfectly-caramelized onions could be so cravable?

If you’ve not been to Nicholas, you’ve got to check it out. The service is always very friendly. I love the décor of the Grand location and the Broadway location has some unique roof-top seating. With the sunshine we’re having, it’s probably a popular spot this week.

Jerusalem Cafe would be a wonderful lunch spot

vegetarian mazza platter at Jerusalem Cafe

I realize the Jerusalem Café has been in downtown Vancouver since 1996 but we just went last night…a little slow, I know. Frankly I’m a HUGE fan of Nicholas in Portland so it was with a bit of trepidation that I agreed to Jerusalem Café. That, and the fact that it was really cold last night and parking at Nicholas usually requires a fair amount of walking outside and the popularity of the place causes lines outside at times.

The service at Jerusalem Café was wonderful. Everyone was very nice. I liked the ambience, as well, although it was a bit cold inside and we weren’t sitting in front of the door.

I really enjoyed my Israeli wine. It was a Merlot which our server recommended over the Cabernet Sauvignon. I’m a Cab gal but I went with his advice. It had a nuttier taste than Merlots I’ve had in the past which actually made sense to me. Again, I liked it.

I ordered the vegetarian mazza platter and just really missed the opportunity to have spinach pie, or mjadra (which is amazing) but their lentil soup was terrific; it really hit the spot. I very much liked their falafel balls, hummus and potato salad. I also had babaghanooj for the first time and was not disappointed. The portion size wasn’t the same at the restaurant I’m comparing it to, either. There was a lot of sour on the plate…the red cabbage dish, green cabbage dish and Mediterranean salad. Maybe that’s more traditional but I’ve had other experiences with Mediterranean food and not run into so much sour in the past so now I’m confused.

Lentil soup with appetizer medley plate in the background

My husband had Chicken on Fire and did not find it to be the least bit spicy though he enjoyed it. You pretty much have to throw a match in my husband’s mouth for him to notice. He was barely fazed by the wasabi at Mio Sushi a couple weeks ago or his number 5 dinner from Thai Orchid.

All in all I’d go back for lunch but probably not for dinner. It was just missing some of the options I’ve come to love at other Mediterranean-inspired restaurants. It certainly seemed a favorite with a lot of other people so it could just be me.

Pound cake and a clam shell rant

I’m very frustrated with the fact that plastic clam shells are no longer recyclable in the Vancouver/Portland area. More specifically, I’m frustrated with the fact that there is no longer a market for this plastic and yet we’re still finding it ALL OVER THE PLACE. If I want strawberries, blueberries, or pound cake at Winco, Safeway and a host of other grocery stores in our area, it all comes in this packaging. I could go on and on listing items that are packaged in clam shells.

My immediate solution is to no longer buy items packaged in clam shells. I went to Kaye’s Blueberries and bought 18 pounds of blueberries and even returned the pound cake I purchased at Winco. Fortunately, it was so tightly packaged with three different layers of plastic that returning it was not an issue.

Adding insult to injury, restaurants are still using these non recyclable clam shells as their to go boxes for food that you want to take away from their restaurants. Living in an area that is so big on recycling, I am absolutely baffled by this. We were at Nicholas Restaurant the other night (which is a fantastic Lebanese restaurant with three locations in the Portland area) and they brought us out these clam shells for the pizza my sister-in-law was unable to eat and I was so disappointed. They seem so progressive to me. There must be other options for these restaurants than giving us containers that are going to end up in land fills.

My hope is that the companies and restaurants still packaging with and giving out clam shells have ordered ahead and are simply using up this material before transitioning to a more earth friendly product.

Regardless, it has caused me to rethink some things so let me share the pound cake recipe I modified to be vegetarian friendly so we could still have chocolate fondue with our niece and nephew last night without chucking a hunk of plastic in a landfill. God forbid my eccentric rants would rob two precious teenagers of their birth right to indulge in spongy deliciousness coated in cocoa. As a bonus, the batter of this recipe was fantastic and the end result quite moist.

Pound Cake

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/3 cups agave nectar

4 Tbsp tapioca flour

4 Tbsp water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups soy milk (add 1 Tbsp + 1 ½ tsp lemon juice into total measurement)*

*soy milk and lemon juice are a substitute for buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325° . Grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan. Beat vegetable shortening with agave nectar in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat tapioca flour and water into mixture. Mix vanilla into the mixture. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; stir into liquid ingredients in several additions, alternating with buttermilk substitute to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven until cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cake cool.

This recipe has been modified substantially. Original recipe with common ingredients of sugar and egg found at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/camilles-buttermilk-pound-cake/detail.aspx