Pot Odds

[May 20th, 2009]

However thick a recipe’s consistency, gumbo remains among the most transparent of dishes. The Southern gut-bomb special belongs to a family of food—relatives include goulash and curry—whose crest could read: “Is Anything Left Over from Last Night? Throw It In This Pot and We’ll Pour It Over Rice.” So it’s fitting that two new additions to Portland’s thin gumbo scene both feature open kitchens that reveal more of the preparation methods than one might ideally prefer to see. The counter at Steaming Pot Gumbolaya is a window showing the signature stew ladled out of a plastic tub (so large it’s marked with a warning that toddlers could fall in and drown), while Palm State Gumbo—which is nothing but a window, actually—offers a view of muddled ingredients sagging in plastic bags. It’s not pretty, but shut your eyes: It tastes gol-derned terrific.

The concoction at Steaming Pot is more haphazard and, not coincidentally, it’s the better brew. Virgil and Quiana Allen’s seafood-and-meat gumbo ($6-$8) contains not only the expected sausage and chicken, but adds whole, steamed butterfly shrimp, and—in a fit of aw-hell inspiration, entire fried chicken wings. The pepper-strewn stock is brashly spicy, but it doesn’t overpower the individual tastes within the mob of meats. The jambalaya ($6-$8) is slightly less impressive, and some of the sides are pretty obviously microwaved, but Steaming Pot’s unfussy prep is its strength: A hot-link sandwich ($3) presses a fiery sausage between two generic hamburger buns—and the result is hot sex, drizzled in barbecue sauce.

Steaming Pot is a family establishment, with its Northeast 42nd Avenue neighbors popping in to order a rib sandwich and ask “What up, Virg?” Palm State Gumbo, by contrast, is an open-till-2 am window carved into Alberta Street nightspot the Nest: A typical patron is more likely to be a denim-jacketed barhopper drunkenly asking how large the hot dogs are. (They are the regular size.) The place is highly conscious of its ingredients—noting on the menu that its sprouts are homegrown and the sausages are made in Northwest Portland by Zenner’s—but in spite of this (or maybe because of it), the gumbo isn’t very good. Its stock is oily, and its shrimps are small and grainy; only that sausage is worth dipping into another bowl for. But the rest of the menu is stellar—especially the hot muffaletta sandwich ($6) and an array of po’boys. The best of these is the Carolina Swamp Fox ($5), a piquant chicken salad with pecans and watercress. I’m not convinced this is an authentically Southern delicacy—but do we really need to know?

• Order this: Steaming Pot Gumbolaya’s large gumbo bowl ($8) or Palm State Gumbo’s Carolina Swamp Fox po’boy ($5).

• Best deal: The only other sandwiches you can find as cheap as Steaming Pot’s $3 hot link are fast food—and they won’t make your mouth sweat.

• I’ll pass: Palm State Gumbo’s signature dish ($6) still needs a little more simmering.