Rural past collides with urban present at Belly By Aaron Ragan-Fore
Photos by Jay Schwartz
Upon entering Belly, Brendan Mahaney’s restaurant, the first thing that strikes a prospective diner is the eatery’s modest, funky decor: simple wooden tables and chairs, bleach-white walls, a few local oil paintings. Metal pipes, part of the fire suppression system for the long block of restaurants and stores at 5th Avenue and High, erupt from the plywood floor, and there’s really no damping the rumble of trains passing on the tracks that run past the back door.
The place most assuredly doesn’t look like the chic Eugene dining spot it has become, or the sort of venue in which a gourmand would encounter words like confit, nicoise, or tapenade. But here we are, early to dine on a Wednesday night, and there’s already a wait at the door, diners hip to the fact that a humble stage can still produce some great performances.
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Mahaney isn’t too surprised by the hovering hungry. “We’ve put a lot of effort into good food and beverages at an affordable price,” the handsome young chef reasons. “You put those together in a small house, you should be full.” Mahaney earned his chops at local upper-tier restaurants such as Marché, Red Agave, and Soriah, but “I wanted to take some of the fluff out of the overwritten menus in this town,” he explains. “One of the goals was to stay under 20 bucks on the entrée side.”
Affordability might be one of Mahaney’s stated goals, but the real goal of Belly is MEAT, meat in abundance, meat worked into nearly every step of a multi-course meal, if one so desires. Oh, a vegetarian could find his way around the menu, to be sure, and could even leave the joint well-fed. But make no mistake: Belly is one of those restaurants that makes vegetarians wistful for their omnivore days.
Mahaney rotates items on his menu seasonally, sometimes even monthly, so describing what might be waiting on any given evening is difficult. One recent repast began with roasted dates stuffed with manchego cheese and wrapped in superb bacon from Long’s Meat Market, and rounded out with lamb loin courtesy of Junction City’s Cattail Creek Farm. True to ttthe porcine logo on the sign out front, other entrées include a delightful pork shoulder confit that is by turns juicy and crisp, a house-made boudin blanc sausage served with a sweet cabbage-and-apple slaw, and sometimes even a homey pork belly over lentils. Even the desserts, like a rhubarb crumble with strawberry sauce, are reflective of Belly’s down-on-the-farm charm.
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When asked whether he always planned to serve a menu featuring pig’s feet and tripe, Mahaney flashes a smile and says, “It came late to me.” He describes his fare as “rustic French and Italian,” but all this meat would be familiar to any southerner raised on pulled pork. Perhaps country cookin’ is country cookin’, regardless of continent of origin.
Since Belly opened in the summer of 2008, the business has thrown Mahaney a few surprises, including a departure from his planned focus on European cuisine. “I’m meandering around a little more,” he muses. “Oregon kind of stepped in. What was available seasonally kind of trumped anything that might be more standard bistro fare or trattoria fare.”
It’s tough going these days for restaurateurs, but Mahaney predicts his rural chow vision will remain a vital part of the urban restaurant landscape. “I am hoping to inspire some trust” in the community, he says, “and take a chance.”
And who knows? Maybe one day Mahaney’s business will expand. “I’d love to have a big, fat Belly,” he grins. The pun comes almost too easily, but we’ll forgive Brendan Mahaney. His eats are worth it.
Pho Yi Shen Satisfying, inexpensive Vietnamese specialties By Lance Sparks
Yi Shen is one of those little secrets that foodies share—sometimes reluctantly—among close friends and relatives, taking their chances that other folks will discover it too. It’s sort of the way avid fishermen feel about their favorite fishing holes.
It’s not surprising, then, that loyal customers had little trouble following Yi Shen’s recent move from its previous site in the strip of stores behind the popular Ring of Fire to the new digs in the old Indoor Garden location, just a couple blocks west on 11th Avenue.
The new spot’s not much for decor (yet), but decor’s not the draw: the draw’s the food. Also, we can’t expect dazzle in a combination retail food store and restaurant. Still, the new place is emerging as tasteful, walls freshly painted in warm saffron and ochre, faux-marble tables clean, cane-back chairs comfy. Lighter, brighter, more space, a much larger kitchen, an inviting area just outside where diners might slurp noodles in the fresh air—in all, the new Yi Shen probably can’t stay secret much longer.
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The energy driving Yi Shen’s transformation is generated by the dynamic duo of Ming Hsieh, 53, and his wife, Phung, 49. Ming stands a few inches over five feet, with not an ounce of fat on a solid frame, a quiet man but strong enough to wrestle a pallet cart loaded with several hundred pounds of goods. Phung is lithe and quick, with a bright smile and easy laugh. There’s some division of labor—Ming mostly handles the back of the store and the kitchen while Phung runs the registers and serves the tables, but they are clearly of one mind in their determination to share the work and to make their business a success. Occasionally, Ming and Phung get help from their daughters, Vivian, 17, a student at South Eugene High School, and Rachel, 21, completing her degree at the University of Oregon.
Between them, they have moved a small mountain of food stocks from old store to new, cleaned out the garden store, repainted, installed a full kitchen and restaurant, and embarked on an ambitious project of landscaping, which might make possible some patio seating for the restaurant.
They might soon need the seats. The food is that good. The menu offers a full line of pho, the traditional Vietnamese slurpy noodle soups, supplemented by daily specials that take advantage of fresh, seasonal vegetables. For example, summer brings an abundance of fresh produce, including watercress, which lends itself to a spicy stir-fry with shrimp paste and garlic sauce, served over jasmine rice ($6.50). Singapore noodles with chicken ($6.50) are flavorful and popular with the lunch crowd. Regular customers watch for any dish that involves Ming’s roast pork, marinated for two days in Ming’s sauce then slow-roasted to golden brown; one customer claimed that this is “the best roast pork in this—or any—city.” Ming’s barbecue pork and roast duck are also popular.
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Expanding might seem a risky venture in these times, but Ming and Phung Hsieh have lived lives full of risk and hard work. Both were born in Vietnam, Ming in Saigon and Phung in Dalat, and both survived the hardships and dangers of the Vietnam War. Shortly after the war, in 1979, Phung remembers, “Our parents decided ‘You got to get out of here.’ They gave gold”—her hands shape an ingot in air—“’cause those people don’t take money, then put us on a boat.” Ming had been a motorcycle mechanic, Phung “still a schoolgirl,” but they boarded the ship, bound for the United States. The two arrived in Eugene in 1980 and Ming started cooking at Oriental Village, staying for seven years. The Hsiehs then opened China House at 29th and Willamette; in 1996, they launched the first Yi Shen. Long hours and hard labor yielded a piece of the American dream, a story which never grows old.
The future? Catering? “Not yet,” says Ming. “Not yet,” Phung agrees. But maybe a new way of helping people learn how to use some of the ingredients on the store’s shelves and in the cases, maybe some convenience meals, finished at home. Two big smiles. Then back to work.
It’s sort of the way avid fishermen feel about their favorite fishing holes.
