Although this picture is from the food market in Barr, France it provides the milieu in which to tell you about a new Spanish restaurant in Portland that I had the pleasure of visiting recently (well about 2 hours ago).
It's Toro Bravo at 120 NE Russell - next door to the Wonder Ballroom. Mainly a Tapas bar but they also do serve Paella. No paella tonight but we did start with a pitcher of Sangria that was delicious - not too sweet and swimming at the bottom - a medley of fresh Oregon berries - nice touch.
We ordered a variety of things - manchego cheese and paprika fritters; chorizo and sliced manchego with bread; grilled shrimp with chili oil; grilled sweet corn with cilantro pesto; and a mixed green salad with hazelnuts served in a light vinagrette and topped with Spanish goat cheese.
Without going all Rachel Ray on you - it was all pretty damn yum! The fritters were light and delicious with a hint of spice. They were served with chunky tomato salsa. The sliced chorizo and cheese was good - not fancy but both were well selected and somewhere in the back of my head I was humming Andalucia as I took each bite of manchego!
The highlight of the evening for me was the grilled shrimp. The serving dish came with three large, luscious and spicy good shrimp - which when there are two of you (as happened to me tonight) makes it very awkward - try splitting three shrimp in two and still remain friends at the end of the evening. Apparently I really didn't value friendship tonight as I ate two of the three shrimp lustily and with absolutely no guilt.
The grilled sweet corn was drizzled with generous dollops of cilantro pesto - now I usually despise cilantro so I was leery to dive in. And well I still despise cilantro so I nibbled around the pesto and tried to save the friendship by "generously" offering my dining partner the extra cob of corn.
The salad was well dressed, light and just the right counter to the richer food we had ordered. And there was lots of it as we both were able to get multiple servings and even left some in the bowl.
I should add that one pitcher of Sangria was enough punch to boozily divert my partner from remembering that I had stolen the third shrimp. So when we ordered dessert (baked Oregon berries with sour cream ice cream) and it arrived piping hot and all oozy melting goodness - I was able to again eat my share and then some by diverting her attention to a puppy in the street.
So I highly recommend Toro Bravo - there were many other things I yearned to try on the menu - some really tasty sounding carniverous offerings and since the owner/chef is a former butcher - I have no doubt they are all quite good. But I will pick my dining partner more wisely - most likely a vegetarian.
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