Creative Mexican by Clandestino PDX

On Monday – Wednesday you can find creative Mexican plates and glasses of intriguing wines from Clandestino PDX, a pop-up now in residence at Lil Dame by Dame Collective (in the old Beast/Ripe Cooperative space). If you haven’t had an opportunity to visit, make a date for these weekdays to treat yourself to a cozy dinner and a food and wine mini adventure.
Clandestino PDX - Left Ceviche of yellowfin tuna, guava, avocado, lime on tostadita, Right Carne tartara - beef, yuzu kosho, serrano on tostadita Clandestino PDX - Quesadillas - carnitas, quesillo, guacachile

Clandestino joined the collective to start serving up Mexican inspired dishes in December to rave review by tastemaker and written word wrangler Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly who called Clandestino Portland’s Best New Mexican Restaurant. Try to make reservations as the space in inclement weather is very cozy and with recent media coverage may even be full for the night, even on a Monday. You can see how small the open kitchen is, so they also can only realistically do only so many covers per evening. As spring and summer weather open up the outdoor seating and they dial in their menu they’ll have more capacity.

Be sure to try several half glass pours during your visit! You can trust and after selecting your dishes let the staff pour their recommended pairings – you can even ask for a different pairing per person like we did for each dish. Not only are the selections carefully curated to be all winners with the food and diverse in provenance and flavor profile, but that helps support both sides of the collective.
Clandestino PDX - part of the Dame Collective

The way it works is the food sales are kept by the chef, Dame keeps the beverage, and overhead and staff costs are split by both resident chef and Dame. So patronize both with your check! I’ve always been a fan of the pop-up model (I even used to cover pop-ups for Eater PDX) – restaurant industry life is hard in terms of long hours and margins in balancing inventory with limited shelf life. Pop-ups allow for some reasonable work time boundaries with more control of when open for business and taking breaks, and an ability to get some work life balance. It’s great business sense for the brick and mortar owners and visiting chefs and part of PDX’s supportive hospitality community.

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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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Fimbul Icelandic Dinner Spring 2018

Fimbul PDX is a pop up focused on Scandinavian and Icelandic cuisine. I raved about the dinner I attended last year, and am excited to see what they do this year. They took a little bit of a break as Matt and Aurora welcomed their beautiful daughter last year, but seem to be ramping up for more this year. After a short research trip by the Matts to Iceland, there is a possibility that we’ll be seeing more frequent offerings of Fimbul dinners (possibly even twice a month?!), so make sure you are following them on their email list (sign up on the website) and social media to be in the know! In the meantime, he’s a look at the recent dinner I attended, the Fimbul PDX Spring 2018 dinner on March 13.
Fimbul Icelandic Dinner Spring 2018

They do have one dinner already planned – a collaboration with Johan Vineyards for their annual wine dinner in the vineyard on August 25th, 2018. Tickets available through Johan (info@johanvineyards.com). Expect that dinners may sell out, and you need to make reservations. The usual Fimbul pop up dinners are ticketed off their website, and you can choose to purchase just the prix fixe dinner, add on wine pairings, or purchase beverages a la carte there. The wine pairings for this dinner were all Wines by Johan Vinyards, and there were also spirits like Brennivin and Opal, both which are Icelandic liqueurs.

For the Fimbul Icelandic Dinner Spring 2018 edition, I attended the 5:30pm seating, and they did an amazing job of prepping beforehand so that we were out as the 7:30pm seating was coming in. Here’s the menu, and then I’ll go through my thoughts course by course.
Fimbul Icelandic Dinner Spring 2018 Fimbul Icelandic Dinner Spring 2018
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