Food & Drink

Although our unsteady spring weather may have kept most of us inside, it hasn’t put a damper on the happenings in the ever-changing food industry.

Volo is officially open downtown, serving a plethora of upscale comfort food in the sleek new 919 Bond Street Building. View the menu at www.volobend.com. Cork now has a full bar with mixed drinks as well as their innovative wine list. Blacksmith will offer beer tastings every Wednesday in June to be overseen by their in-house intoxicologist, John Hansen. Try a different beer genre each week. The $25 price includes appetizers. Get the details at www.bendblacksmith.com. On Tuesday, June 24 there is a rare opportunity to taste two 1988 vintage Bordeaux’s at Bistro Corlise’s Wine dinner lead by sommelier/chef Jason Logan. Find out more about the dinner at www.bistrocorlise.com.

Baba brings familiar favorites to redmond. The Long family has built themselves an Asian food empire in Central Oregon. With their flagship "Szechuan" restaurant on Third Street, they own a total of seven spots, including their newest addition Baba Chinese in Redmond.
Located in a historic Sixth Street building downtown, Baba bucks the trend of traditional, ornate décor for a clean and modern look.
The remodel includes sleek black tile flooring, built-in and lit alcoves showcasing teapots, and a peak-through shelving with vases sporting post-modern design. A bamboo forest decorates one wall and the rest of the surfaces are either shiny black, bright red, or a soothing tea green.
The menu is daunting; four pages of dishes ranging from noodles to meat to seafood. The recommended dishes are listed on the nightly insert, a formidable list and the one we chose to order from.
To start, the server brought over a dish of fried wonton skins and a brilliantly red-orange sweet-and-sour dipping sauce that was more sweet than sour. As addicting as potato chips at a picnic, or tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, these will fill you up if you're not careful. A pot of steaming tea accompanies the wonton skins to sip while perusing the expansive menu.

Baba brings familiar favorites to redmond. The Long family has built themselves an Asian food empire in Central Oregon. With their flagship “Szechuan” restaurant on Third Street, they own a total of seven spots, including their newest addition Baba Chinese in Redmond.
Located in a historic Sixth Street building downtown, Baba bucks the trend of traditional, ornate décor for a clean and modern look.
The remodel includes sleek black tile flooring, built-in and lit alcoves showcasing teapots, and a peak-through shelving with vases sporting post-modern design. A bamboo forest decorates one wall and the rest of the surfaces are either shiny black, bright red, or a soothing tea green.
The menu is daunting; four pages of dishes ranging from noodles to meat to seafood. The recommended dishes are listed on the nightly insert, a formidable list and the one we chose to order from.
To start, the server brought over a dish of fried wonton skins and a brilliantly red-orange sweet-and-sour dipping sauce that was more sweet than sour. As addicting as potato chips at a picnic, or tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, these will fill you up if you’re not careful. A pot of steaming tea accompanies the wonton skins to sip while perusing the expansive menu.

Wine making is a tricky business. I recently visited my friend Mark Huff, owner of Stag Hollow Vineyard, who along with his wife Jill Zarnowitz, generates about 1800 cases of classic Oregon pinot noir, dolcetto, and dry-style muscat each year.

Wine making is a tricky business. I recently visited my friend Mark Huff, owner of Stag Hollow Vineyard, who along with his wife Jill Zarnowitz, generates about 1800 cases of classic Oregon pinot noir, dolcetto, and dry-style muscat each year.

at $3 a pound, you can’t go wrong with pork. Summer means barbeque. To some people, barbeque includes anything cooked on a grill. To me, barbeque means pulled pork. Blame it on my Southern upbringing. I was raised in a state with more pigs than people. My first job was in a barbeque restaurant that smoked pork shoulders by the dozen. A pig-pickin' was an acceptable meal at a high-end wedding.
My preference is for Lexington-style barbeque, which is slathered in a vinegar-based "dip" and piled high on a Wonder-style bun, or in a tray, with a roughly equal amount of cole slaw, and some hush puppies on the side. If authentic, it will be washed down with a tall glass of sweet iced tea.
Procuring my particular brand of barbeque has proven challenging in Bend (no offense to Baldy's, whose food I love). So my husband bought a smoker a few years ago, and we started making our own.

at $3 a pound, you can’t go wrong with pork. Summer means barbeque. To some people, barbeque includes anything cooked on a grill. To me, barbeque means pulled pork. Blame it on my Southern upbringing. I was raised in a state with more pigs than people. My first job was in a barbeque restaurant that smoked pork shoulders by the dozen. A pig-pickin’ was an acceptable meal at a high-end wedding.
My preference is for Lexington-style barbeque, which is slathered in a vinegar-based “dip” and piled high on a Wonder-style bun, or in a tray, with a roughly equal amount of cole slaw, and some hush puppies on the side. If authentic, it will be washed down with a tall glass of sweet iced tea.
Procuring my particular brand of barbeque has proven challenging in Bend (no offense to Baldy’s, whose food I love). So my husband bought a smoker a few years ago, and we started making our own.

I have often wondered why, in a society of parents who are wait-listing their barely conceived children at private schools and enrolling toddlers in immersion language schools and advanced tap dancing, that we so neglect the education of the palette. America is fostering a culinary culture unmatched in our history and there is no reason to be ordering your kids mystery nuggets or plain pasta.

Here in Central Oregon we have many, many options beyond over stimulation and bad burgers. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern options have become easy and kid friendly for open-minded parents. The happy hour at Merenda offers all sorts of Northern Italian/Southern French influenced dishes for cut-rate prices. Get there at 4:30pm, sit in the dining room and order off the bar menu. Kebaba has great Lebanese food and a relaxed atmosphere – especially in the summer months. I’ve yet to meet a kid that won’t eat hummus or falafel with a little tzaziki. Demetri’s has Greek food in a low-key atmosphere. Try the spanikopita to introduce them to spinach and finish off the meal with the baklava – a kid favorite.

I have often wondered why, in a society of parents who are wait-listing their barely conceived children at private schools and enrolling toddlers in immersion language schools and advanced tap dancing, that we so neglect the education of the palette. America is fostering a culinary culture unmatched in our history and there is no reason to be ordering your kids mystery nuggets or plain pasta.
 
Here in Central Oregon we have many, many options beyond over stimulation and bad burgers. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern options have become easy and kid friendly for open-minded parents. The happy hour at Merenda offers all sorts of Northern Italian/Southern French influenced dishes for cut-rate prices. Get there at 4:30pm, sit in the dining room and order off the bar menu. Kebaba has great Lebanese food and a relaxed atmosphere - especially in the summer months. I've yet to meet a kid that won't eat hummus or falafel with a little tzaziki. Demetri's has Greek food in a low-key atmosphere. Try the spanikopita to introduce them to spinach and finish off the meal with the baklava - a kid favorite.

Burgers and Fries beware. We’ve got ethnic, buffet style. Since its opening, Taj Palace has stood out as the ONLY Indian eatery in town, but it also happens to produce some of the best Sag Paneer (spinach and cheese cubes in a spiced cream sauce) this side of New Delhi. I’ll admit that I’ve never been lucky enough to eat in India, but of the food I’ve eaten in Indian communities in large American cities, Taj Palace holds its own.
For the last couple of years, Taj has offered a Friday and Saturday night buffet. It’s a variation on the popular lunch buffet, featuring a bit more upscale items. For $14.95 you have a choice of unlimited amounts of sag paneer, lamb curry, homemade nan, lentil dahl, chicken tikka, sambar (thick lentil vegetable soup), aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower cooked with Indian spices), vegetable biryani (basmati rice with mixed vegetables) and malai kofta (vegetable and cheese balls in a yogurt sauce). Not only is this a smokin’ deal, it’s the best way for a novice to try Indian cuisine.