March Over to Marche Restaurante - Eugene, OR

Recently, I was in Eugene, OR for business. When I asked the people at the hotel which restaurant they would recommend, besides their own (the obvious answer), they recommended Marche in Eugene's 5th Street Market.

The restaurant was great. The ambiance was relaxing and similar to a hip bistro in any big city. The service was great. The food excellent.

The Marche menu focuses on local ingredients with exceptional preparation. Here is a quote from their web site

We support local farmers, ranchers and forages and are dedicated to using organic, chemical free and genetically unaltered products whenever possible.

The quality of their food was exceptional.

I had the romaine leaf salad to start with. It was their take on the more traditional Caeser salad. I truly enjoyed it. The dressing was lighter than a normal Caesar, but with much more flavor and instead of using Parmesan, they use large shavings of Pecorino Romano. I could have enjoyed a large version of this salad for my entire dinner.

On to my entree. I had the seared Oregon Black Cod with spring pea puree, roasted vegetables and fingerling potatoes. This was my first time trying Oregon Black Cod, so I did not know what to expect. What I can tell you is that I wish I could have this fish every time I wanted fish. The fish was the best prepared I have ever had. It was very moist and fell apart in perfect layers. The vegetables were under the fish and were a perfect medley to let the fish take center stage.

On to dessert. I am constantly in search of the ultimate bread pudding. I have to say that the Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding at Marche was right near the top of my list. Bread pudding can be heavy and overly sweet, but pastry chef at Marche found the perfect balance. It was absolutely sinful and I loved every bite.

In short, I'll be back next time I visit Eugene. The restaurant had a great bar with a knowledgable staff and featured local wines. They even have outdoor seating, but it was a little cold for that.

Technorati Tags: Oregon, Review

As the Portion Size Increase, So Does the Waistline

We've all talked about it.

Wow! Those portions at the Cheesecake Factory are huge.
If that's a small, I'd hate to see a large. We've all thought about it. . .

How can we possibly maintain or lose weight when all around us portion sizes are getting larger?

This post from Divine Caroline points out that portion sizes have increased, almost double of what they were in the 1970s, so has the population of obese people, up from 15% to 30%. Ouch!

Just take a look at the popcorn picture above. Twenty years ago, the image on the left was the size of a normal serving of popcorn at the movies, 5 cups or 270 calories. Today, we get the "Tub" which is 630 calories. Many would argue that we just shouldn't eat that left over popcorn, but the same post goes on to talk about a 1996 Cornell Study that showed that people who eat from a large container tend to consume more.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
found that Americans consume around 10 percent more calories than they
did in the 1970s. Given no change in physical activity, this equates to
around 200 extra calories per day, or 20 pounds a year.

I think we need to get back to basics and common sense here. No one needs a full Tub of popcorn or a 32 oz. soda. We need to reteach ourselves what portions are and we need to teach our children that they don't need the super size and if they are full they don't need to eat everything on their plate.

Fleming's Steakhouse - The Perfect Ribeye

Right off the bat, I have to tell you that I think I had the best rib eye steak ever at the Fleming's Steakhouse at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, CA. The taste was superb, the meat tender and it was served sizzling hot on the plate. I loved it and the guy sitting next to me loved his just as much. If I said nothing else about the dinner that would be enough for me.

The location is easy to find on the eastern side of the Fashion Island Shopping Center. There is plenty of free parking or you can valet park. The restaurant is very unpretentious in side, especially considering the neighborhood it is in. It is a more modern version of a steakhouse.

They have a great wine bar and for stronger drinks you are more likely to find martinis and vodka choices than tequila or frou frou drinks. I have to say our best service was at the bar. Our waitress there took orders and remembered drinks even when we came back after 2 hours at dinner. I was impressed as were the others in the party.

Dinner service was more lacking. Menus were set out prior to our sitting down for dinner. It was difficult to hear the server talk about the specials due to the volume in the restaurant and she stayed at one end of the table the whole time she talked. Also, as people were finishing their entrees, I felt rushed to finish mine as the wait staff kept asking if they could take my plate.

The food was a whole other story though. Fleming's menu was very straight forward. For dinner, I had the spinach and portobello salad with red onion balsamic dressing, pancetta and a crispy goat cheese crouton. More than one person at dinner eyed my salad with envy and asked what I had. It had a perfect balance of flavors with the acid of the dressing and the warm goat cheese. I could have had a larger version of the salad and been perfectly happy for dinner.

Well, maybe not. As I mentioned at the top of my post, the bone-in ribeye is the best I have ever had when dining out. I have tried other steakhouses, but no one compares to the flavor of my steak at Fleming's. I also tried some of the grilled vegetables that they brought out which included carrots, baby bok choy, spaghetti squash, mushrooms and asparagus. Very good and light.

I would definitely come back here and highly recommend it.

Fleming's Steakhouse

455 Newport Center Drive,
Newport Beach CA 92660
(949) 720-9633

Yelp Me! I am Looking for a Good Place to Eat

I was listening to the morning DJ, Joe Escalante, on Indie 103.1 and he kept talking about Yelp! I thought to myself, stop beating on that poor dog, but what he was talking about was a restaurant review site, Yelp.com.

Think of this as TripAdvisor for restaurants. They host reviews on other venues as well, but it seems that their real bread and butter is restaurants.

I created a profile and am going to share some of my reviews there. Let me know if you have a Yelp account. I'll check out your reviews.