the very best

Near the end of 2008, we sat down to outline a very selective and disjointed list of year-end favorites: tastes, sounds, reading materials, and good experiences. It was maybe a bit quirky, but it gave us a nice chance to reflect on our best discoveries from the year and set the tone for 2009. Then, just into January, we followed it up with a firm resolution for the New Year: live awesomely. Simply put, if 2008 was a year of learning self-sufficiency and DIY basics, then 2009 would be a year of looking at how our decisions impacted our community, and how we could live more happily with our choices. Out went chain-store shopping, in came considered purchases for things we truly loved. Out went disposables, in came quality.

All in all, it went pretty well for us. Apart from underwear, we largely avoided major retailers and focused our spending on local and independent businesses. When we went out to eat, we made sure we to visit restaurants we loved. I'm not going to suggest that we staved off the recession in Portland (maybe just a little), but I am proud to see how many good local shops and chefs made it through last year. Here were a few of our best finds that summed up our year:

Mc Sweeney's
After years of coveting, we got a subscription. Our first issue was a set of dystopian shorts set in 2034. Issue two arrived as a full Sunday-edition newspaper with a magazine and book review. They may not single-handedly solve the problems of the publishing industry, but they'll certainly keep my interest.

Ned Ludd
With a good friend working there from Day One, we had the chance to watch this little restaurant go through their entire first year. Wood-fired foods, farm-direct sourcing, and salvaged interiors make this the quintessential Portland restaurant for these times. The owners are awesome and generous folks and 100% deserve all of the love they've received.

Cabinet subscription
Year 2 and we're still in love. It's like the hipster Harper's.

Pendelton
Part of shifting away from IKEA obsolescence and into heirloom hand-me-down territory meant replacing our pill-ridden fleece throws with two beautiful wool blankets. Totally timeless. Also awesome? Their amazing collaborations with contemporary fashion companies. P loves his Opening Ceremony x Pendelton cardigan.

Rediscovering hamburgers
Seriously, where have you been all my life? Grass-fed beef done rare with bacon, carmelized onions, cheese, and pickles on a good bun. There's something totally illicit about pressing down on an over-loaded bun and letting the juices run together. I certainly wouldn't eat a burger just anywhere, but I think about them all the time.

Dirty Projectors
Favorite album and favorite concert of the year.

iPhone
Totally worth it. It's a little, futuristic joy that makes up for the childhood birthday when I didn't receive a Dick Tracy walkie-talkie watch.

Pork
A spur-of-the-moment decision to order a half hog from a local farm led us to buy a chest freezer, which led us to a lot of summer preserving. The payoff has been huge, so we upped our share to an entire pig for year 2. The Portugese have a saying that the two happiest times in life are just after marriage, and just after a pig slaughter.

Bryant Terry
It's maybe a bit odd to follow up 75 lbs of pork with a shout-out to a vegan chef, but Terry really was that cool. We brought him to town for a weekend with Slow Food, and completely fell in love with the guy. His dishes never front as anything other than what they are - no faux-meats or cheese substitutes - just flavorful, vegetable-packed, and Soul Food-inspired vittles.

Indian cooking
The spices showed up after our visit to Montreal, but were only really put to work when we picked up a copy of Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine. With freshly-ground masalas for every dish, our home-cooked dals and biryanis now rival most restaurants we've tried.

Edible Geography
Of all the blogs I follow, this one stands out among this year's discoveries. With recent posts on North Korean food propaganda, soil flavors, plant quarantines, and sexual kitchen puns in Vermeer's paintings, this site offers the intellectual balance to all of the wonky food policy sites and cutesty cooking blogs out there.

Lucky Strike
A far-flung restaurant that inspired a lingering obsession with Sichuan cooking and authentic Chinese food. Fiery-hot dry-fried chilies and the numbing, citrus electricity of prickly ash.

Pet pha lo from Ping
Thanks to our geeky obsession with Pok Pok, we earned an early bird invite to the preview dinner for their new restaurant. The stand-out dish? An aromatic, star anise-infused duck leg stew, paired with pickled mustard greens and a vinegary chili sauce. We've been back four times and have never missed a chance to order it.

Anything served in a glass (or on a plate) at Beaker and Flask
This place works some serious cocktail magic. The longer we spend time at the bars, the more and more we realize that the basics are always best. Martinis. Manhattans. Gin and Tonics. Stray too far from those drinks and you'll end up with a syrupy-sweet, pink-hued mess. And yet, Beaker and Flask nails every drink every time, using stonepine liquer, rare herbal tinctures, and more booze than is probably healthy. The cocktails are consistently unique and always balanced. Couple the bar with an amazing kitchen turning out dishes like grilled romaine salads, smoked mackarel, and pork cheeks with pickled octopus, and it's definitely one of the best new places to open in Portland.