14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Best market meals embrace coastal smorgasbord
Review and photos by
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L
ast week’s column highlighted
farmers market purveyors.
This week we turn to the food
courts. There’s one at a each mar-
ket. (For times and locations, see
the sidebar.)
The best market meals take
advantage of the smorgasbord of
freshness that surrounds them. In-
deed, it’s a special thing to see the
vendors, the farmers, the ranchers,
and have a dish prepared from the
bounty.
No one is doing this better than
Roll & Bowl, a sushi and ramen
cart you’ll find at the Manzanita,
Cannon Beach and Seaside mar-
kets.
When Roll & Bowl appeared on
the circuit last year I marveled at
the veggies, for I’d never had sushi
with such vibrant ruffage. (They
get the lion’s share of their produce
from KingFisher Farms.)
In year No. 2, Roll & Bowl have
upped their game considerably. The
improvements began with a new
trailer, increasing both capacity and
efficiency. The menu has grown,
and so has the team.
Sushi chef Bryan Tiller added
a ramen specialist: Brae Bartlett.
Starting with scratch-made noodles,
Bartlett builds beautiful, teeming,
artfully arranged bowls. The offer-
ings evolve week to week, shaped
by inspiration and availability.
You’re likely to find a “tonkot-
su,” a pork-based broth, and a
vegetarian option, which of late
has been a marvelous Green Curry
($11). With marinated tofu, mush-
rooms — both pickled shiitake and
the long, thin-stemmed enoki —
sesame-marinated bamboo chutes,
green onions and other elements,
the vegetarian bowl’s broth has
a depth of flavor that’s nearly
bottomless. (It includes miso, green
onion, garlic, shio koji curry paste
and more.) The Tonkotsu ($12),
CS Fishery at the Manzanita Farmers
Market
Roll & Bowl’s Green Curry
Rawk Star Creations’ Sage Garden
Burger
with luscious slabs of pork belly
and a similar smattering of mush-
rooms and veg, is equally divine.
Each bowl comes with a sous-vide
egg whose viscous yolk unwinds
in slurpy ecstasy. (For $2 more you
can upgrade to an even-richer duck
egg from a flock raised by Tiller
himself.)
Then there are rice bowls, which
make lean little lunches. Atop
perfect white rice is that shifting
array of mushrooms, veggies and
herbs. They’re topped with, say,
juicy slices of seared flank steak,
marinated in Korean chili paste,
fish sauce and soy. Or grilled salm-
on skewers. Or seared pork belly
and tangy kimchi. Again, it changes
week to week.
Tiller’s sushi has evolved, too.
The most obvious difference is
structural: hand rolls (cone-shaped
with a dried seaweed wrapper)
have replaced rolls (sliced bites
with rice on the outside). For $6
each, or two for $10, Tiller offers a
few choices. The stalwart Philly-
style includes smoked salmon and
cream cheese. The Veggie packs
spicy arugula, goat cheese, sweet
potato and beets. And, from time
to time, you’ll find raw fish. The
Albacore Lox, with burdock,
carrots, cucumber, arugula and an
edible flower, was tangy, buttery
and irresistible.
Together, Tiller and Bartlett’s
dishes exhibit a studiousness and
refinement that comes only through
apprentice and passion. Theirs is
food every bit as good as — and,
in many cases, better than — the
brick-and-mortar restaurants in the
region.
Alongside Roll & Bowl’s green
trailer at the Cannon Beach and
Manzanita farmers markets you’ll
find CS Fishery, grilling up rockfish
on a big round flat-top. The catch
comes from a collective of fisher-
man in the Garibaldi area who’re
committed to sustainable practices.
CSF’s flagship is the Rockfish
Taco ($10 for two). On 8-inch flour
tortillas, they’re not quite street-
style. The flaky white rockfish is
grilled, not fried, topped with slaw,
a drizzle of spicy mayo and salsa.
It’s reasonably clean and simple.
Atop the grill you’ll also see a
pile of sizzling veggies — mostly
onions, cabbage and chard (again
from KingFisher). While some veg-
gies may make their way into tacos,
most are reserved for the Rockfish
Bowl ($12). It’s kind of like an
unassembled fish taco, tortilla
included. The veggies in the bowl
were dominated by long-cooked,
caramelized onions. Adding some
sharp and sweet to the veg — like,
say, bell and spicy peppers — or
some body — potatoes, for in-
stance — would punch the bowl up
significantly.
In Manzanita, CSF offers ham-
burgers, too, with beef from their
neighboring Nehalem River Ranch.
The burger ($10, served with
chips) is stout, thick and generous.
Though it could be more astutely
seasoned, the beef has a cleanliness
and — how do I put it? — a local
flavor signature. (Or maybe I’m
just not getting enough well-raised,
grass-finished beef?)
It’s heartening to close that dis-
tance — to know where your food
comes from, not to mention know-
ing your purchases are supporting
the local economy.
Though it’s the largest by far,
you won’t find as much preparation
of market goods at Astoria food
court. To me, it feels as much like
carnival fare as it does farmers
market. Some of Astoria’s food
court vendors are extensions of
brick-and-mortar businesses, and
I couldn’t resist Himani Indian
Cuisine’s pop-up. I just don’t get
enough Indian food on the coast,
and the combo ($13) scratched that
itch with smooth, buttery chicken,
silky eggplant curry and the singu-
lar seasoning of a tandoori chicken.
I’d heard good things about
Rawk Star Creations, a vegan
vendor from Olympia, Washington,
but was a bit deflated that the Sage
Garden Burger ($8) was pre-made
and packaged, simply pulled from a
cooler. The grainy, nutty patty, be-
tween raw, grainy, onion bread was
like a car crash of protein bars. The
cashew “cheese” was hummus-like,
and the veg was solid. But don’t get
me wrong: My body was thankful
for this raw, natural, healthy sand-
wich. Were my diet thusly restrict-
ed, I’d be quite thankful for such a
robust, on-the-go snack.
It would be another vendor from
Olympia, though, that would be the
star of my Astoria market: Claddagh
Coldbrew Co. As I drink my coffee
black, I had no use for the nitro
(which emulates creaminess without
ASTORIA SUNDAY MARKET
12th St., Astoria, Ore., 97103
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays
through Oct. 8
ASTORIA RIVER PEOPLE
FARMERS MARKET
577 18th St., Astoria, Ore.,
97103
Third Thursday of the month
through Oct. 19
CANNON BEACH
163 E. Gower Ave., Cannon
Beach, Ore., 97110
1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through
Sept. 29
MANZANITA
Laneda Ave and 5th St. S.,
Manzanita, Ore., 97130
5 to 8 p.m. Fridays through
Sept. 1
4 to 7 p.m. Fridays, Sept. 8
and 15
SEASIDE
1120 Broadway St., Seaside,
Ore., 97138
3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays
through Sept. 27
ILWACO, WASH.
Port of Ilwaco
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays
through Sept. 30
LONG BEACH, WASH.
212 Pacific Ave, Long Beach,
Wash., 98631
3 to 6 p.m. Fridays through
Sept. 29
the dairy). For a moment, I scoffed
at the puny 12-ounce cold brew. But
about a third of the way through I
found caffeine nirvana. A habitual
coffee drinker, the descendant of
prodigious, all-day-and-night coffee
drinkers, I rollicked in a glorious
buzz the likes of which I haven’t
had in many years. Huzzah! CW