Meadowlark PDX Seollal Korean New Year Dinner

I’ve had the pop up Supper Club Meadowlark on my to do list for quite a while, and finally got to experience my first dinner with them earlier this week on February 9, 2016 with the Meadowlark PDX Seollal Korean New Year Dinner. They popped up at Din Din, located at 920 NE Glisan. Just getting to the location you may have some doubts if you’re in the right place along the dark roads and warehouses, but the bright lights of the Din Din sign confirm that you’re not lost and isn’t parking so conveniently easy?

After my experience at supper club, I kept kicking myself that I waited so long. Chefs Jen Datka and Emily Park focus on being very local and hand crafted, with everything made from scratch. Even though the dinner I attended included almost 40 people, it felt as intimate as a dinner party.

At the cozy location of Din Din, the open kitchen is brightly lit and teases you with direct line of sight and smell to the preparations and finishing touches as they bustle in aprons.

Upon checking in and hanging up your coat at the wall long coat hooks, guests were welcomed at the adorable bar nook with a cocktail of rye whiskey with Korean Cinnamon and Date Tea, as well as a little take out box filled with Popcorn with nori and chili powder.

The tables are decorated simply with a few vases of willow so that there is little in the way to chatting and making new friends with those around your seat. A menu at each setting also looks simple and straightforward, but belies the complexity of flavor and how fulfilling this dinner will be for all. Although there is regular water available for instance, at first the offering was a chilled barley water that has only a faint grain taste and is a nod to the ubiquitous roasted barley tea popular in Korean culture.

Bottles of Kooksoondang Draft Makgeolli (a rice wine) and Heater Allen Pils appeared shortly after the cocktails and popcorn snacks were cleared in anticipation of starting dinner. They remained on the table to share for each table of 6.

I tried to take the hint to try several glasses of the Makgeolli since it seemed like they were encouraging the pairing when 2 more bottles of it showed up to share by the time the main course arrived.

To get our attention before describing each course we are about to receive, the ladies behind Meadowlark ring a big bell.

The first course was Tteok Mandu Guk, with pork belly and shrimp dumplings, rice cakes, kimchi consommé. This was served last year at their Seollal dinner as well. Emily explained how Seollal is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea, and eating dumplings is traditional although they make no claim that all the preparation and dishes is necessarily traditional since they used local seasonal ingredients and added personal touches.

The ladies of Meadowlark PDX chefs Jen Datka and Emily Park took turns ladling in the Kimchi Consommé – the gentle focus I saw in both of them underscored the care they put into each dish and giving individual attention to the details.

The dish is exquisite- the chewiness of the rice cakes, the slight kick to the broth, the rich chubbiness to the dumplings, and the beauty of those floating carrot flowers…

Each dumpling is hand formed, and the skin, the filling, broth is all from scratch like from a Korean grandma.

The tease of seeing them put together the banchan, or side dishes, and seeing Jen take the Bo Ssäm roasted and smoked pork out of the oven and start plating in that bright open kitchen…

while Emily supported a pescatarian option by frying up some fish!

Here’s a detail look at all the banchan and sauces:

I love banchan – all the little dishes all over the table as small bites of accompaniments to go with the main!

• Sauteed Spinach Mizuna with sesame and soy
• Braised Burdock Root
  
• Kimchi with radish and napa cabbage
  
• Apple and Watermelon Radishes
  
• Pickled Shitake Mushrooms
  
• Ginger Scallion sauce
  
• Ssamjang sauce with gochujang that is a Marshall’s Haute Sauce and Kim Jong Grillin collaboration
  

Bo Ssäm is pork belly that is traditionally boiled, but Jen and Emily not only upgraded us with the best pork shoulder in town from Tails & Trotters, but also chose to slow roast and then smoke it. Rather than slicing it, the ladies served it shredded to show off its tenderness and perhaps as a nod towards American pulled pork.

Add Hapa Rice and Lettuce and time to eat!

My plate with a little bit of everything from every plate… man I really want this plate again. You can see such a mix of sweet and salty and savory and spicy and acidic/sour

You can eat it with rice, but wrapping it in lettuce adds that extra refreshing crunch to the slow roasted and smoked organic sustainable pork shoulder and pretend healthiness to the fattiness and richness, here accompanied by Ssamjang sauce for spicy funky kick. I also admit I may have just smeared a bunch of Ssamjang sauce on rice and been every happy with that combo.

Dessert was a satisfying lightness of ice cream sandwiches – a duo of Ginger Cookies with Yuzu for tartness or Brown Butter Cookie with Black Sesame that offered more toasty notes.

I did at first miss a little bit that they didn’t have my favorite banchan, which is the Mung Bean Sprouts. I can dump a whole little plate of that on my own plate and ask for more several times at a Korean meal. But, since the sauteed until just wilted mizuna provided the same flavor profile of garlic and sesame, I didn’t miss it much and plan to do this with my spinach in the future.

F tells me that he always can tell when I find something spectacularly delicious. I stop talking for a while to turn internally because I want to focus on just savoring each bite, and my eyes may not even be focused. I take smaller bites to stretch the experience. I might take little samples of elements of a dish, or before, with, and after a sip of beverage, and then compose a perfect bite with a little bit of everything. I may even shake my arms with excitement.

I did all of these at Meadowlark. I can’t wait to visit another Supper Club Dinner again and enjoy the care and thoughtfulness in composing each dish that Jen and Emily do. Most chefs have an appreciation for Northwest ingredients, and Jen and Emily particularly are adept at keeping it simple but also doing just enough to coax the best of each ingredient in a way that as an eater, you have that same appreciation while also recognizing the expertise of labor and vision brought by the chefs to transform ingredients into a dish and an experience.

Oh no, me and my camera have been caught by Jen and Emily! It’s true, I’m one of those people…

I was also really struck by the warmth and how it really feels like they enjoy nourishing everyone – chefs often vibrate with excitement for ingredients, the enthusiasm of inspiration and ideas behind a dish, the control and mindfulness of perfect execution, the focus of tracking details and being organized. Some chefs are boisterous with the bravado of creativity, some are quietly deliberate, some are organized and meticulous, others are flexible and a bit chaotic. Jen and Emily stood out to me for how they emanate the feeling of welcome, generosity, hospitality, and especially grace.

Meadowlark changes up their theme every month, so make sure you follow them on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and sign up for their mailing list to be in the know before a dinner sells out. When you purchase your Brown Paper ticket (this meal felt like a steal at $40 – their prices generally are in the $40-$60 range historically so far), everything is included – food, beverage, and gratuity.

Have you had Bo Ssäm before? What’s your favorite banchan? Do you have a favorite Korean restaurant in Portland, what is it?