Oregon is home to a lot of restaurants, bars, wineries, and breweries, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Portlanders aren't unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we've enlisted some of our city's many food players to share their recommendations for a weekly feature dubbed Dining Confidential.
Lisa Mygrant opened Raven & Rose a year ago in downtown's historic Ladd Carriage House. A veteran of the Ballymalloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland (and a life-long vegetable and flower gardener), Mygrant has brought to Raven & Rose a love for historically forgotten ingredients like rabbit and quince as well as a commitment to sustainability, both structurally and on the plate. For kicks, Mygrant loves to check out the food carts on SW 6th Avenue near Portland State, and one of her favorites is chicken-and-rice cart Love Belizean.
Tiffany at Love Belizean went to Belize with her husband for their honeymoon and fell in love with a local staple chicken and rice dish. She learned how to make it and came home and found herself making it all the time. Everyone really loved it and she started to think it might make for a successful food cart. My favorite part is that she offers a huge selection of amazing and delicious hot sauces to go with the dish. My favorite is actually the "original hot" but she has everything from mild tropical fruit-flavored hot sauces to blazing hot sweat-your-face-off hot sauces... so you have lots of options depending on your mood when you order. It's a perfect meal: juicy spiced chicken, rice and beans, fresh arugula salad, hot sauce, and lime wedges. All for $6!
· Love Belizean [Official site]
· All Previous Dining Confidentials [Eater PDX]
Photo of Love Belizean courtesy Tiffany L. via Yelp
