Wood-Fired Oven

Hilary: When deciding where our last dinner should be, I really wanted to go to Ned Ludd. I loved the whole concept behind the restaurant…that they make almost everything in house, including pickled vegetables, charcuterie, condiments, sauces, etc. And their only heat source is a wood-fired oven, so many of the dishes tasted a little smoky and charred.

Dickel & Pickle

We saw that they had Dickel & Pickle listed on the drink menu. Ashley and I love pickle back shots, so we had to get this! It was a shot of Dickel rye followed by a shot of housemade pickle juice. The pickle juice was good but it was a little sweet…not as vinegary as I’m used to. The rest of the night I was drinking Gibson martinis with vodka and I was really digging the house-pickled pearl onions that came with it.

Ashley: I still remember the first time I tried this shot…I thought it was so strange and I didn’t like it. But my tastes have changed as I have gotten older and I have grown to like the whiskey more and actually enjoy taking the whiskey shot first. I still love pickle juice but I agree with Hilary that it was on the sweeter side. Still good though.

Salad

We started off with a salad (shungiku, fresh sheep’s cheese, bacon, sunflower seeds, tarragon vinegar). I really liked this salad. The dressing was like a Greek type of dressing. The cheese was delicious. It was like a creamy goat cheese but not as strong. It was still the perfect amount of salty though. The lettuce was a little bitter but when I combined everything into one bite, I really enjoyed it. It was really light and refreshing.

Hilary: We learned that Shungiku is a type of Asian green. I loved the leafiness of it and thought it had a tiny hint of sweetness to it. The cheese was nice, fresh, and slightly salty. There was bacon in tiny, cubed chunks. The salad, overall, was on the verge of being overdressed but stopped right before. If I had to describe the salad in two words it would be salty and fresh.

Ludd Board

Next, we decided to try the Ludd Board (assorted charcuterie, pickles & cheeses). There was so much on this board!! Many places skimp with their cheese & charcuterie boards, but that was not the case at Ned Ludd. It took us a while to get through it and try everything. There was Tomme de chevre (semi-soft goat cheese), raclette (semi-hard cow’s milk cheese), pork & pistachio pâte, smoked ham, rabbit rillettes, green tomato jam, beets, pickled fennel & radish, apple butter, whole grain mustard, dried fig, and crackers & bread. Whoa! The stand-outs to me were the raclette, rabbit rillettes, apple butter, pickled vegetables, and pork & pistachio pâte. The raclette was nutty, smoky and savory. The rabbit had a hint of anise. The pork & pistachio pâte was served like chunks of meatloaf. I’m used to pâte being spread-able rather than solid, but the flavor was great. I started trying out different combinations of things and the apple butter was great with almost everything. Especially the rabbit and raclette. I liked the pork & pistachio with the mustard and goat cheese. Off to an excellent start.

Ashley: I don’t even know where to start on this. There was so much to it. I tried a little bit of everything and I was excited about the things I had never had before. Like rabbit…that was the first time I had a chance to try it. It was interesting. It was salty and had a slight fennel flavor to it but that might be because it was mixed with the pickled fennel…ha. Also, in case you were wondering, pickled fennel still tastes like fennel. The apple butter was like applesauce but not as coarse. I also tried the pickled radish and was really surprised because I liked it. It didn’t have the normal onion-y flavor of normal radish. The green tomato jam was just ok to me but I couldn’t really taste the tomato at all. I found out that I still don’t like beets. The Tomme de chevre was really strong and salty. I didn’t really like it on its own. The raclette was pretty mild and didn’t have much flavor until the end. The pork & pistachio pâte was really good and reminded me of bologna but not as salty. The smoked ham was good…not too salty. It also had a hint of fennel flavoring…I think I must have touched the fennel with every bite…ha.

Garlic Stewed Greens

The next dish was the garlic stewed greens (fresh cheese, olive crumb). The greens were extremely bitter and the cheese was lacking a little flavor. This was my least favorite dish. I did like how they were cooked though…a little crunchy on the edges but cooked through otherwise.

Hilary: This dish was very charred and bitter. I think it might have been collard greens or chard. The fresh clumps of cheese were wonderful…I wish there had been more. The greens were just a little too bitter for me to enjoy this dish.

Beans

Next were the beans (cauliflower, greens, charred leek yoghurt, harissa). MMMMMMM!! This was my favorite dish of the night. The harissa was great…the smoky, roasted red pepper flavor stuck out to me. I had trouble forming words about why exactly I loved this dish so much. It was magnificent. I even loved the beans by themselves. They were seasoned, but I don’t know with what. The dish was so relatable and I wouldn’t have expected that with this unique mixture of ingredients! Definitely a highlight of the meal.

Ashley: This was SO GOOD and also my favorite dish of the night. The cauliflower was cooked perfectly, a little crunchy but still soft. The harissa reminded me of the red sauce that comes in the Taco Bell burrito supreme (yes, I just compared this meal to Taco Bell. It’s a compliment though…I love Taco Bell…ha). I loved everything about this dish and wish I could eat it again.

Sturgeon

Last we had our main dish, the sturgeon (lightly cured sturgeon, roots, Bordelaise, chervil). My favorite part of this dish was the carrot puree. It had a great texture, not gritty or anything, and was not as sweet as a lot of carrot preparations I’ve had. The sturgeon was a little fishier than I was expecting and the texture was surprisingly more like chicken than fish. The bordleaise sauce was syrup-like. My favorite combination was the sturgeon, carrot puree and radicchio together. The radicchio was slightly bitter but the char gave it a nice contrast. Everything really balanced itself out well on this.

Hilary: I loved the bordelaise sauce. It almost acted like a barbeque sauce on the sturgeon because it thickened up nice and sweet. I’m not sure if I’d ever had sturgeon before, but I enjoyed it. It was a dense, meaty fish. More like the texture of chicken than fish and was very moist. There was a carrot puree that I really liked and some charred radicchio, which was a little tough to cut through and take bites of. I didn’t end up eating much of it because it was pretty bitter, although it tasted pretty good with the sauce.

We definitely ordered too much food! Especially because the Ludd board was so filling. I think we could have done without the greens and possibly the salad and been just fine.

Ashley: I agree that we could have done without the greens but I liked the salad, so I wouldn’t have wanted to skip that.

Hilary: The night we were there, we found a little card and empty envelop on the table. They explained that they were mailing out letters for free, so we ended up writing (and drawing) a note to our parents. It was a fun way to reflect on the trip and be grateful for the opportunity to take the trip together and have such an awesome, unique experience! I was sad that our trip was coming to an end.

Ashley: This was one of my favorite parts of the night. We drew some interesting pictures on the card and when my dad saw it, he was slightly confused. I think the best part about it was hearing the story of him opening the card and being confused with our drawings. But it was funny and a great bonding experience for us all.

Food trucks: Aybla Grill (top right) & Namu

Hilary: The next morning Eric and Valerie left really early but Ashley and I were able to make a stop at some food trucks before heading to the airport. We hit up Namu and Aybla Grill. I’m glad we got the opportunity to get that in before heading home! I loved Portland. It was an awesome vacation.

Ashley: I am also glad we got a chance to get to the food trucks. The chicken gyro from Aybla Grill was sooooo good! Namu was also really good. It was a great ending to the food coma that was Portland. It’s a good thing that I don’t live there because I don’t think I would be able to stop eating all of the good food! We had an amazing time.