In a spur of the moment decision, my husband, Ben, and I decided to take a trip to Portland for 2 nights. We’d already been before for a weekend but it had been four years. We were overdue! Given that Portland is a “food town” we were excited to put together a list of restaurants to check out while we were in town. At the top of the list was Kachka, a Russian restaurant owned by Bonnie and Israel Morales. I had met Israel before with my last job so I knew it was a restaurant I was excited to check out. But after listening to the the Bon Appetit Podcast interview with chef Bonnie, Kachka was the first reservation I made once we booked our hotel. It was a good thing I made the reservation because the very next day Kachka was listed in the top 38 restaurants in America by Eater.com. Other food spots I added to the list included Thai, donuts, a Chinese tea house, an Australian café, and Olympic Provisions the crafted meat experts.