Tonno Panino

Isn’t she beautiful? I finally bought one. I don’t care that it doesn’t fit in my tiny kitchen. I’ll blend my heart out. I’ve already made a smoothie and a sauce in it. Just…wow. Words can’t express the feelings you develop for such a piece of kitchen machinery. It’s heaven. I apologize in advance for the potential onslaught of photos of her and my new found love for smoothies. Kale virtually disappears. It’s true!

I’m currently working through a salt binge. I was invited out to a Dishcrawl event the other night. Think bar crawl, but involving restaurants and food instead of bars. You hit up four restaurants within walking distance of each other and partake in specialties of the house. Your food is included in your ticket price, drinks extra. The first stop was Zeus Cafe. If you’re familiar with the Portland area, you know all about McMenamins. They’re a local chain of revitalized old buildings that make a lot of their drinks in house—beer, wine, spirits, coffee. They generally stick to pub fare [think tots and burgers], but this one classes it up a little bit. We sample pulled pork sliders, chickpea fries slathered in their famous mustard, and beer and bacon braised mussels. I could definitely eat my weight in mussels. They’re so good. We were taken on a tour of the hotel after that. It’s a cool spot. Then we were off to Gracie’s at the Hotel deLuxe. It was by far my favorite stop of the evening. The restaurant is a total old Hollywood glam theme. It’s so regal. They pulled out the red carpet for us and stuffed us silly. They stick to American food but class it up a little and locally source the heck out of it. I loved it. We were surrounded by baskets of freshly fried fingerling potato chips tossed in truffle oil, huge slices of gorgonzola cheesecake and roasted garlic, thick slices of crusty bread, and sizzling skillets of sauteed mushrooms. They even gave us one of their fancy champagne cocktails. We couldn’t finish it all. I wanted doggy bags before we moved on. I have no doubt I’ll be back here at some point. We headed to Habibi next for some hummus, baba ghannouj, and tzatziki. I’ve been here before, and have liked it. Unfortunately, I was way too stuffed from Gracie’s to really enjoy it. Our final stop was The Heathman. I usually eat here yearly for our company holiday lunch. They’re practically an institution in Portland. They treated us to dessert—a chocolate roulade with chocolate mousse and raspberry sauce. It was divine. I needed to round out the evening with a hot toddy because we were rained on during our walk and treated to a lot of falling snow on the way home. If nothing else, I was glad I was introduced to Gracie’s. I fell in love at first bite. Last night I gorged on Chinese food with my family. And that, my friends, is a lot of salt.

I balanced out my week with a newfound love for mayo. I usually avoid the stuff like the plague. If a sandwich/burger/salad comes with it and I don’t know it, I’ll eat it. If I know it, I try to get it removed. It’s a far cry from totally practically eating it by the spoonful as a child [and I wonder why I was a fat kid…]. Tonno Panino is Italian for tuna sandwich. It might be one of Andrew’s  favorite sandwiches. I found a recipe for it in La Cucina Italiana, naturally. Yes, a recipe for a tuna sandwich. The key here is in this mayo. It’s not just a jar of Best Foods. Although, it started that way. You add some goodies to the mix. If you let it sit, it tastes even better. Then you assemble your sandwich, preferably on ciabatta, and you’re golden. I may or may not have been slathering leftover mayo all over left over black bread. Being bad tastes so good.

Inspiration: La Cucina Italiana

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise [I used Best Foods with Olive Oil]
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, soaked in water for 10 minutes before draining and rinsing again, then minced
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 6oz cans of tuna, drained [class it up and get quality cans if you can]
• 4 ciabatta rolls
• Olive oil for brushing on the bread
• Lettuce of choice [anything but iceberg]

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, parsley, capers, and red wine vinegar.
2. Slice the ciabatta rolls in half and brush the cut sides with olive oil.
3. Spread the mayo mixture on top of the oil.
4. Top with tuna and lettuce.
5. Serve.