Portland Pop-up: Serenade Spaghetti Western with Piccone’s Corner

The last Portland pop-up I attended happened to be a possible preview of the changes coming up to Revelry and additions of Cambodian food to the PDX food scene. Recently, I attended another pop-up from a dining experience producer called Serenade working together with Chef Nic Marazit who is working on opening Piccone’s Corner. So this is a bit of a preview too perhaps of what might be on the Menu at the soon to be open bar and butcher spot in February.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician. Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western. A spread of bites from Piccone's Corner alongside music from three time Grand National Fiddle champion Luke Price and Jonathan Trawick is a 3rd generation guitar picking Ozark musician.

A reservation and pre-payment of $89 bought you a ticket to the Tournant space. The Serenade concept for their pop ups are that each event brings together good food along with good music, with different chefs and musicians curated by the people behind Serenade. Here’s my perspective from this Spaghetti Western dinner theme, where the idea was old school Italian food and old school American folk music. Dinner included a welcome cocktail with appetizers, four courses, and a live musical performance.

Upon arrival for the first 45 minute reception time, guests first spotted the chefs still flame grilling the main course (at that point it had been almost 3 1/2 hours on the fire), a Wallow and Root Porchetta.
Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner Portland Pop-up: Serenade with Spaghetti Western, a Wallow and Root Porchetta being prepared by Piccone's Corner

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Gado Gado Portland Breakfast

I have been a fan of Gado Gado Portland, a PDX popup featuring Southeast Asian food, by Thomas and Mariah Thomas Pisha-Duffly over the past year. Their food menu has varied drawing inspiration from all over Asia but usually with nods towards Indonesia from which inspired their Portland popup name. I was thrilled that now they are working on a brick and mortar restaurant home in the Hollywood Neighborhood for spring. Until then they are still a pop-up and probably will be testing out what will go on the menu for their anticipated dinners and brunches. I think the recent Gado Gado Portland Breakfast at Guilder during the past MLK weekend was just the start of seeing what people have interest in.

Gado Gado Portland Breakfast pop up at Guilder during MLK weekend 2019 Gado Gado Portland Breakfast pop up at Guilder during MLK weekend 2019

I’m always excited to see Asian breakfasts. I never thought that Portland would fall in love with Chinese breakfast – but Master Kong has brought congee and jian bing crepes into the common food vocabulary here in PDX so there’s a real chance to expand beyond our donuts or biscuits and gravy and into more types of international breakfast options. Having Gado Gado Portland Breakfast will be a popular standby for me when they open, whether or not the breakfast items I had a chance to try will all be there. The recent pop up included

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Gado Gado Pop up presents food of Bali

One of my favorite things about food is how when you want to travel and have a new experience but don’t have the time or funds to get on a plane or train or other kind of transportation to go afar, you can still travel with the cuisine. Gado gado is a popular street food Indonesian salad, and also the name of an Indonesian food inspired pop up here in Portland by Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly. Today, I am sharing a recent meal I went to where Gado Gado pop up presented the food of Bali. They collaborated with Shipwreck at this particular dinner to also provide some cocktails, but I am currently on a schedule where I have to take evening work calls, so I had to hold back (in fact I took the early seating specifically to make my work call!). Unlike other times it was also a cash bar that pretty much was also a hard cut off for me.
Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali: Split pea tempeh with sweet soy and corn Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali: halibut cheek bumbu Bali with padrons and herbs

In this case, they went full traditional for the dishes, and even though it’s still on my bucket list to one day get to beautiful Bali, for now I also hope you might consider donating to help since the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, of which the aftershocks were also felt in Bali, a few days ago. As for Gado Gado, they have another upcoming pop up event already on the calendar: a brunch pop up at Guilder Coffee (2393 NE Fremont) on Tuesday, August 14th from 9am-2pm that will pair coffee from Sumatra, Indonesia with food that Gado Gado has described as including “shaved ice drinks, kaya toast, congee, rujak, Chinese sausage and more!! We are very pleased that this menu will have plenty of options for folks who are gluten free and vegetarian.” No tickets are needed for this event, just walk in.

Gado Gado pop up presents food from Bali

My dinner celebrating Bali did have a shaved ice dessert – lets’ take a look at my meal, which was all served family style with dishes arriving as they were ready, just like food often comes in Southeast Asia. Most of the people in Bali are Hindu, so you won’t see beef – and you will probably notice some Indian influences in some of the dishes. Also, like foods of Southeast Asia in general, you will find flavors that are spicy, a depth of umami with use of fish sauce, and seasonings that take advantage of chilis, spices, leaves, and coconut milk.
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Ox Box, a summer pop up

Last summer and this summer, from the chefs behind Ox Restaurant, is a special pop up called Ox Box. Ox Box is only open during lunch, 11 AM – 2 PM daily seven days a week, just in the summer until Labor Day. You can relax in the outdoor seating in the Ox Restaurant parking lot (covered with umbrellas), or inside Whey (where you can also order drinks including cocktails and beer or glasses of cava or rosé if you’re not on the work clock) while a grill man fires up choripan sandwiches over a wood fire. If you think it’s hot now, you gotta feel for this guy behind the grill – come show him some love and treat yourself to some Argentinean lunch! And, they are perfectly happy to wrap all your stuff to go so you can take it home or to the river to eat – just bring lots of napkins. Here’s a look at the Ox Box pop up from my visit.
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina) Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina)

Choripan sandwiches are chimichurri drenched grilled sandwiches which are very popular in Argentina as street food. Here at Ox Box, you can choose from a menu that includes their housemade chorizo sausage, house morcilla blood sausage with hot peppers and onions, chorizo-spiced Pacific Northwest albacore, or provolone and chorizo spiced eggplant if you are vegetarian – or do a combo like I did (I got both eggplant and chorizo).
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches, a popular sandwich with lots of chimichurri from Argentina. Choose from a menu that includes their housemade chorizo sausage, house morcilla blood sausage with hot peppers and onions, chorizo-spiced Pacific Northwest albacore, or provolone and chorizo spiced eggplant if you are vegetarian - or do a combo like I did (I got both eggplant and chorizo)

All sandwiches come with a Grandma Agnes Dill Pickle Spear, and Ensalada Rusa (a potato salad), but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available – one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown below).
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. All sandwiches come with a pickle spear and potato salad, but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available - one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown here) Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. All sandwiches come with a pickle spear and potato salad, but I also highly recommend trying out their empanadas. There are two available - one stuffed with beef, olive and raisin, and the other with grilled poblano, sweet potato, gruyere and fontina (the latter shown here)

New to this year’s edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons – a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only. There is also an Oregon Bay shrimp Ceviche with Citrus, Chiles, Cucumber, Cilantro, and Popcorn if you want something cold and it’s still a day of a heat wave week like today. But, when we get back to those cooler summer days below 90, you do NOT want to miss out on this amazing rich chowder.
Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. New to this year's edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons - a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only Ox Box, a summer pop up from Ox Restaurant only during the summer for lunch offering choripan sandwiches. New to this year's edition of the Ox Box pop up is a Halibut Chowder with Jalapeño, Green Onion, and Smoked Marrow Croutons - a riff on the famous Ox clam chowder for dinner only

This is the Argentinean equivalent to an American hot dog, and with its limited time offering until Labor Day, you should make sure you put a day on your calendar to grab some to try before its gone! They are really generous with the chimichurri sauce – I did not need it for the empanada at all, but was happy to have the container to take home to punch up some grilled meat at home too!

Are you a fan of chimichurri sauce? What kind of choripan sandwich would you try?

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A recap of Desayuno PDX popup

Last week, I braved the heat to attend a special pop up at St Jack’s by Desayuno, Mexico City-inspired brunch pop-up with food by Ben Morris and cocktails by Justin Garcidiaz (both employees of St Jack’s). All proceeds at this Desayuno PDX popup benefited Pueblo Unido PDX, which whose mission is to empower and provide resources to Latinxs with vulnerable immigration status, including assisting those in need to hire attorneys to fight deportation, get released from detention, and return to their families, as well as organizing and rallying community engagement.

The word desayuno means breakfast in Spanish, although really this was more of a brunch pop up. The menu for this first event boasted an impressive five savory dishes, two desserts, and seven original craft cocktails including ones that featured mole spices, or masa, or mezcal worm!
Desayuno PDX pop up inspired by the cuisine of Mexico City to benefit Pueblo Unido PDX Desayuno PDX pop up inspired by the cuisine of Mexico City to benefit Pueblo Unido PDX

Ok, so I wasn’t brave enough for the beverage with the mezcal worm, but I went for the beauty (I think everyone at the bar had this gorgeous cocktail – once you saw it you couldn’t resist getting it yourself) of the Polanco Margarita featuring pueblo viejo blanco, lime, cointreau, st. germain, rainbows, pink salt. Does it look like two different glasses? That’s because I totally had two of these.
Desayuno PDX pop up inspired by the cuisine of Mexico City to benefit Pueblo Unido PDX, cocktail of Polanco Margarita featuring pueblo viejo blanco, lime, cointreau, st. germain, rainbows, pink salt Desayuno PDX pop up inspired by the cuisine of Mexico City to benefit Pueblo Unido PDX, cocktail of Polanco Margarita featuring pueblo viejo blanco, lime, cointreau, st. germain, rainbows, pink salt

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