Every Monday in May, Stray Dogs PDX (link to their Facebook account because sorry, their website is terribly uninformative and outdated), usually known for their popping up at various restaurants with their fancy take on hot dogs, has been hosting a Stray Birds concept at Beast. Nomadic chefs Peter Cho and Johnny Leach (aka the “Strays” as they have no brick and mortar home yet) for Stray Birds change the focus from Dogs (hot dogs) instead to Birds – which in this case, means Korean Fried Chicken (aka the real KFC).
Oh, sold! I’m sold! I loooove Korean Fried Chicken because it’s always crispy on the outside with a glaze that is both spicy and sweet, and succulent and juicy on the inside. It’s not something you can easily find in Portland.
So after an email to straydogsPDX at gmail.com, we secured our reservations for an opening during their service from 5:30-9:30pm. For $35, three courses and a beer equaled on my visit
Beer: Rainier Beer Lager in a can
There were alternate drinks also available for purchase additionally, like a bottle or shot of Chamisul Sojo or a bottle of Makgeolli, or cans of Asahi or Oriental Brewery Beer.
Course 1: Bibim Gooksu
Bibim Gooksu, a cold buckwheat soba noodles with kholrabi, cucumbers and nori with chicken clam and pineapple dashi
Course 2: Korean Fried Stray Bird
The glorious main protein of korean fried stray bird, 1/2 chicken with gochujang and tamarind glaze. You will need the moist towelettes they also give you, and I appreciated that they gave a bone bin.
Side dish of Black Sesame Seed Corn Bread with Warm Brown Rice Syrup and Charred Ramp Butter
Side dish (Banchan basically) of a Pickle Plate with bread and butter daikon, garlic chive stuffed cucumber, and dill pickled bean sprouts and kimchee
This second course is served family style to each dining party, which is what you would usually expect dining Korean style.
Course 3: Milk + Cookie
Two desserts of the Milk + Cookie, the koji brown rice milk bingsoo with toasted barley powder (basically a shaved ice dish), plus the choco pie with coffee marshmallow and puffed rice
A few shots of the staff at work. Since we had the 5:30 seating, and were literally the first guests to walk into the restaurant, I got to marvel and the beautiful tray of chicken awaiting the fryer and to have the glaze brushed on.
I really enjoyed the chicken, and hope to visit a Stray Dog event sometime in the future. Again, if you are interested in attending one of the Stray Birds by Stray Dogs PDX pop up, they are every Monday in May at Beast, and you make your reservations ahead of time for 5:30-9:30 at straydogsPDX at Gmail dot com.
Stray Dogs is also popping up Fridays at Kitchen Cru serving their haute hot dogs for lunch only from 11:30 – 3 every Friday in May as Stray Dogs Luncheonette.
Have you been to a Stray Dog event, or had Korean Fried Chicken?
So happy you were able to do this! The hot dog pop-up has been on my life for months!
Wow, you find the most amazing delicacies. That chicken looks delicious. Everything looks delicious!
It definitely was – I guess the same amount of time you spend looking for quilts is probably what I spend just trying to stay abreast of what is happening in the ever changing food scene in Portland! The chicken was so fresh and hot, it was sooo good!
Ok, I’m real glad you wrote this post, because confession time, I definitely thought Stray Dogs was just hot dogs and I’m all about them branching out to other things! And seriously, that cookie and milk course? Count me in.
They just started doing the Stray Birds this month, and so I jumped at the chance! They are still doing the hot dogs, but only for lunch on Fri now so it looks like they are growing up from that initial hot dog concept (and what is with hot dogs being such a trend this year?!)
This looks insanely good! Especially the milk + cookie!!
I was surprised that dessert was so good – I had heard they were just doing shaved ice so for some reason I was thinking more along the lines of Snoopy Sno Cone machine, and only after I looked it up after this dinner did I realize all the possibilities of Korean Shaved ice desserts!
I’ve never heard of Stray Dogs or Birds, but the concept is great and fried chicken, Korean or Southern or whatever, is always a win in my book!
I’m with you, that’s why I was sold so quickly on the idea- I’m always down for fried chicken.
dang! The real KFC, that sounds amazing. The dessert made my mouth water too. PDX really is a city for foodies.
Haha, that’s what I think everyone should call Korean Fried Chicken too… the real KFC. I think what makes PDX especially welcoming for foodies is that creative chefs get a chance to experiment easily with food carts and pop-ups to try out their concepts and execution, and people here are interested so it works well for both parties! Thank you for stopping by to read my blog!
That sounds and looks so amazing; Ron and I would love to attend one of those events but Monday’s are so hard. Thank you so much for enlightening me on what is going on in Portland – I am so behind times 😉
I hope that they will increase the number of times they pop up during a week – I want to do their hot dog events, but they are only on lunchtime on Friday and I work in Beaverton so it’s a no go. Previously though they were doing hot dogs on Monday evenings – which now are korean fried chicken, so it seems they are evolving so let’s see how they go! I think they do wish to not be a pop-up but be a brick and mortar, so that means being able to be accessible to more people over time to get the investment needed for it, so I expect they will expand in the near future to allow more people to experience them.
“The real KFC” – I love it! I have not been and I wish I could go but my schedule doesn’t seem to mesh with theirs. Looks and sounds amazing!
What a funny but memorable name for a restaurant! 🙂
I’ve never heard of a Stray Dog event, but it sounds fun! The chicken looks soooo good, and the desserts have my name all over them. 🙂