The Best Dishes Eater Portland Ate in March

Welcome to The Best Dishes the Eater Portland Team Ate This Month, featuring the dishes that the Portland-based Eater team can’t stop thinking about.

Peanut butter and jelly custard at Cornet Custard

Paolo Bicchieri

It doesn’t take a lot for cream and sugar to hit all 9,000 tastebuds, the right part of the brain. Still, a rare custard is worth noting, and Cornet Custard’s peanut butter and jelly is just such a rarity. The cup of dueling flavors had me rummaging my spoon around the empty rim of the cup in mere minutes. The Concord Grape sorbet — fruit provided by Oregon City’s Stewards Valley Farm — is light, icy, and complements the dessert’s bodying richness. The eggs and infamously thick peanut butter was not overpowering, and there are no nuts; this was a Jif all-cream peanut butter situation. It might’ve been all the sweeter knowing owner Mika Paredes managed to get a Department of Agriculture grant that the Trump administration attempted to take away. — Paolo Bicchieri, associate editor

Charred carrot salad at Eem

Erin de Jesus

At Eem, the Thai-meet-Texas-barbecue spot on North Williams, the smoked meat and curries obviously earn the bulk of the attention. But the star of a recent meal was a new-to-me dish: a charred carrot salad whose visibly blackened state undersold its sheer flavor. Here, herby and savory played alongside sweet and acidic. Shallots — which I suspect were dressed in some kind of fish sauce — sat atop a dairy-free coconut cream and fresh mint that dressed the carrot wedges, with a cashew-based romesco below. As the carrots disappeared from the plate and other staples arrived (barbecue fried rice, fried chicken, white curry), I found myself returning to the carrot plate, wiping up the mixture of left-behind sauces with my fork again and again. — Erin DeJesus, executive editor

The Nonna at Grana Pizza Napoletana

I probably don’t need to tell you that Portland is awash in excellent pizza. However, since perfectly charred, bubbly Neapolitan pies are no longer a rarity, I don’t eat them as much as I used to. I recently hosted some friends for the weekend, and one of them is a bit, ahem, picky. Pizza was a safe choice as I planned dinner for the weekend, and I was fortunate to secure a reservation at Grana Pizza Napoletana. It served as an excellent reminder that while pizza may be abundant, great pizza is worth seeking out. I typically prefer red sauce pies over white, but Grana is the exception. The Nonna, which includes ricotta, preserved lemon, and broccolini, is doused with sesame seeds, oregano, garlic, and olive oil. The addition of preserved lemon and the za’atar-like spice blend makes it stand out from the usual lineup, and trust me when I say you won’t want to leave any of the airy, leopard-spotted crust on your plate. The salads are also excellent, but if there’s one thing to skip, I’d say it’s the dessert. While I don’t think you’d regret eating tiramisu, it was the only weak link in an otherwise excellent meal. — Kaitlin Bray, senior audience development director