I think about food. A lot. What I’m eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between. What I should buy at the grocery store. What I’ll be cooking since I’m not fortunate enough to have a personal chef—the one person I’ll definitely be hiring if I ever win the lottery. Where I’ll be dining for the week. Food is a constant thought in my daily life. And vacations are no exception.

My recent trip to Portland, then, centered around two things: food and shopping (hello, sales tax-free shopping!). This post is obviously a departure from what I usually post about on this site—Asian food—but I think that most people visit my blog to see food photos. I’ll be sharing those with you…

Forget fresh bagels, burgers & fries, and big salads, all of which I’m sure are delicious. I went to Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen for a sandwich as big as my head.

The fair and lovely city of Portland has a lot of clean and reflective windows. (That was a strange sentence to type. A true statement, nonetheless.)

This Jewish delicatessen offers counter seating. This is the only photo you’ll see of the patrons. (You’ll see few panoramic shots with people on this blog. I don’t feel comfortable posting photos of unsuspecting people; you know who you photo-plastering Facebook culprits are.)

The comfortable restaurant features exposed-brick walls and dark-wood floors. A friend and I were seated near a quiet corner in the back, away from the bustling tables that filled the rest of the airy space.

Lining the warm yellow walls are black boards with food offerings written in white chalk, adding to the restaurant’s casual charm.

Notice the salami hanging below the board. It’s available for $10.75 a pound.

A display case of various salads and cream cheese.

Top row, left to right: tuna, egg, and chicken salads.
Bottom row, left to right: olive, scallion, and plain cream cheese.

A closer look at the egg and chicken salads.

Gravlax, a boned salmon cured in seasonings including sugar, salt, and pepper. Kenny & Zuke’s version can be had for $22.75 a pound.

Two soup selections. I didn’t ask what flavors they were, sorry.

My first thought when I saw this cheesecake? I wonder how much of it I can eat. Not, I wonder how many calories a slice contains.

The deli also offers specials, T-shirts, and catering.

Next to the display cases of cold foods are tall shelves of bottled drinks in all sorts of different flavors.

Like the never-before-seen-by-me Buckin’ Root Beer from the Jackson Hole Soda Co.

And more standard flavors like Dr Pepper…

and Coke. Why do beverages in glass bottles look so much more attractive?

Although I knew what I wanted to order before even stepping foot into Kenny & Zuke’s, their menu has a ton of delicious-sounding offerings.

If you want to make plain water not so, well, plain, do what this restaurant does and serve it in a glass bottle.

My friend’s Macaroni & Cheese. It was only after I uploaded this photo that I realized she didn’t offer me a taste, even though I gave her some of my potato salad. I don’t know if I can be friends with her anymore.

My Pastrami on Rye with potato salad and Russian dressing on the side. The sandwich wasn’t as big as my head. Oh dear.

Potato salad as it should have be, but often isn’t: coated with a little mayonnaise and seasonings, so that the full flavor of the (red) potatoes came through. This was delicious in its simplicity.

The Russian dressing, which enhanced the sandwich.

The Pastrami on Rye sandwich. Oh, the Pastrami on Rye sandwich.

One sound: Ugh.

I’m stilling thinking about this sandwich, days and days after I ate it. It was that good. Hand-sliced, thick pieces of smoky pastrami that weren’t particularly juicy but definitely not dry—a perfect amount of tenderness, in my opinion—tucked between slices of not-falling-apart or scraping-the-roof-of-your-mouth rye bread.

Because it bears repeating: Ugh.

For those of you who live in Portland and have Kenny & Zuke’s within walking or driving distance, I know that I’m envious and I think that I hate you a little.

The next two posts will still be about Portland food. I’ll resume my regular posts showcasing Asian items next week, and hopefully also return to a more normal posting schedule. Thanks for sticking with me.