Art, Food, Art

Three good things to note.

First, "Plover" recently responded to this blog (entry from 4/10/09) offering me the name of French painter Andre Lauran's wife, also a painter: Veronique Veron. Lauran passed away in 2008; Veron is still living. Here's an example of her work nabbed from the Web:

Thanks, Plover.

Second, K and I went with our friend N out to dinner on Saturday night to Gruner (put an umlaut on that U) on 12th and Alder in Portland. We all had an excellent dinner. Appetizers: Pickled deviled eggs, juniper cured Chinook salmon, shaved radish salad with pumpkin seed oil, charcuterie sampler. K: mixed grill--herb stuffed quail, duck boudin sausage, spring onion, green lentils, pancetta mustard sauce; N: grilled golden trout, herb salsa verde, green beans, toasted almond, yukon gold potatoes. J: (special) beef tokany with potato dumplings. Desserts: Dutch baby pancakes with blueberries and something like sugar dusted ebelskivers with apricot filling. Everything was excellent--food, service, atmosphere. The cuisine is east-central European, that is, it contains elements of German, Austrian, Hungarian, Italian, and Czech cooking. Thankfully, the decor is sleek and modern--not a beer stein in sight (although waitresses in Heidi get-ups would always be welcome.) Highly recommended. Visit: http://www.grunerpdx.com/

Third: If you're in Portland, go to the Northeast Community Center on (about) 38th and Sandy and view Jane Erskine's paintings. She's there all month. More about it and her here: http://www.necommunitycenter.org/necc_artist_lobby_display

That's all for today, Ciao,
~CD