Lardo and Mi Mere Mole Chefwich

This month, until May 15, the Lardo and Mi Mero Mole Chefwich collabration with Nick Zukin is to benefit Hacienda CDC. Hacienda CDC is a Latino Community Development Corporation that strengthens families by providing affordable housing, homeownership support, economic advancement and educational opportunities.

The chefwich is a Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce.
May 2014 Lardo Chefwich with Mi Mere Mole, Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce

The Mi Mere Mole Chefwich is just smothered in that red chili sauce, so make sure you have a big beverage with you (like the grapefruit margarita I did) in order to help calm your tastebuds down. Don’t worry about it making the sandwich soggy though- it all held up, with the outside grilled side remaining crunchy, just like a torta ahogado should even though it is drowning in sauce.

May 2014 Lardo Chefwich with Mi Mere Mole, Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce Lardo's Grapefruit Margarita

If you are sensitive to spicyness you might want to ask them to take it a little easier on the red chili sauce- but make sure you still get some, it’s fireworks in your mouth!

Also, make sure you have lots of napkins. I think I used 6 myself.
May 2014 Lardo Chefwich with Mi Mere Mole, Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce

It’s a huge sandwich- just compare it to the silverware there on the platter!
May 2014 Lardo Chefwich with Mi Mere Mole, Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce

In addition, if you buy this chefwich, Mi Mere Mole is stepping it up to encourage you to support Hacienda by offering a deal that if you visit Mi Mere Mole in Chinatown or on SE Division, show a receipt or tweet or share a picture with/to Mi Mero Mole proving you’ve eaten the Lardo Chefwich, and receive a free Mi Mero Mole taco!

May 2014 Lardo Chefwich with Mi Mere Mole, Portland Ahogado that includes Pork belly, potato, re-fried beans, egg, red onion, red chile sauce

Keep in mind you can get this chefwich at any of the THREE Lardo locations:

  1. West Side at 1205 SW Washington
  2. East side at 1212 SE Hawthorne
  3. North Portland location at 4090 N Williams

You can visit Mi Mero Mole at their TWO locations:

  1. Chinatown (open for lunch currently only) at 32 NW 5th Ave
  2. Division location at 5026 SE Division St

The Mi Mere Mole Chefwich is only available at Lardo locations until May 15, so hurry to benefit Hacienda and your tastebuds!

Signature

Lardo and Irving St Kitchen Chefwich

I’ve written about the Lardo and various restaurant collaboration chefwiches so much that I’ll be brief for a change for this blog post. The next chefwich that is up until mid-April is one by Sarah Schafer of Irving Street Kitchen, with proceeds to benefit Share Our Strength. This non-profit endeavors to end childhood hunger in America- I have another post coming up next about the Taste of the Nation in Portland (of which Sarah/Irving St Kitchen as well as Lardo are also participating) so you will hear more details about this soon.
Lardo Chefwich #5 of 2014, a collaboration with Sarah Schafer of Irving St Kitchen. Fried chicken, tasso bacon, padron pepper relish, buttermilk slaw, cajun mayo. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength to fight childhood hunger. Until mid April 2014 only.

You can get this chefwich at any of the THREE Lardo locations. 

This chefwich, #5 in the series, is a sandwich of Fried chicken, tasso bacon, padron pepper relish, buttermilk slaw, cajun mayo.

Go get this chefwich.
Lardo Chefwich #5 of 2014, a collaboration with Sarah Schafer of Irving St Kitchen. Fried chicken, tasso bacon, padron pepper relish, buttermilk slaw, cajun mayo. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength to fight childhood hunger. Until mid April 2014 only.
It is delicious. It is spicy, so make sure you order a nice cider or beer to wash it down with. Really, you will need it. It is an intense explosion of flavors in your mouth.

Lardo Chefwich #5 of 2014, a collaboration with Sarah Schafer of Irving St Kitchen. Fried chicken, tasso bacon, padron pepper relish, buttermilk slaw, cajun mayo. Proceeds benefit Share Our Strength to fight childhood hunger. Until mid April 2014 only.

Signature

Mid Jan-Feb Chefwich at Lardo

I know, it’s shocking that this time I actually got to the Lardo chefwich and am reporting back on it when there is more than 1 week of time left for you to go get it. When I saw on Instagram that Gregory Gourdet of Departure was collaborating on the next Chefwich, I knew I had to go try this one right way.


Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo

I adore GG- the creative things he’s doing with the Departure menu of modern Asian cuisine to make it a dining destination not just for the cool view and “eating in a spaceship in the future” feel inside a restaurant are spectacular. To begin your crush on GG, if you don’t already have one, check out this profile on Portland Monthly. PS, he was also voted Eater Portland’s Hottest Chef 2012. Whenever I see him at a festival doling out samples himself, I can’t even speak and only gaze at glow, both physical and metaphysically in the positive energy he passes on through his food and just his good cheer to everyone around him. Let me stop the fangirling and get to the food… and I will try not to think about how the one time I attempted to exchange words with him all I did was babble nonsensically.
Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo

The chefwich he created with Rick is a Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo. Part of the proceeds of this Chefwich, available until mid February, will benefit Our House of Portland.

Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo Chefwich #3 with Lardo and Gregory Gourdet of Departure: Chicken Tonkatsu yuzu jalapeno slaw, Japanese pickles, and sweet vinegar mayo

As always, almost any sandwich can be made into a salad. In my case, although I enjoyed half of it in sandwich form, I admit that for the second half I discarded the bread to just enjoy the crispy chicken with the pickles and the bit of that mayo with its sour undertone unencumbered. Keep in mind that this is chicken, not the traditional pork that is used for Tonkatsu, in case you are comparing it to previous Tonkatsu. I was hoping that the yuzu jalapeno slaw would have had more spicyness to it, but settled for the strong citrus flavors it offers to cut the deep frying here. This is a sandwich enjoyed as fresh as possible.

I can’t leave without one last squee and share to try to convince you of the awesome of GG.

 

Signature

Lardo Chefwich with Country Cat Lamb Burger

Until the middle of this month,  at both Lardo locations you can experience the sandwich that won the People’s Choice at Feast 2013 Sandwich Invitational in September (previously recapped by yours truly here)!
Lardo Chefwich with Adam Sappington of Country Cat's Lava Lake Lamb Burger. It is dressed with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese. Lardo Chefwich with Adam Sappington of Country Cat's Lava Lake Lamb Burger. The Country Cat Lamb Burger is dressed with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese

Among all the dozen sandwiches that evening, Adam Sappington of Country Cat offered the award winning (and now #2 in the current Chefwich Series) Lava Lake Lamb Burger. It is dressed with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese. Part of the proceeds of this sandwich benefit the Humane Society.
Lardo Chefwich with Adam Sappington of Country Cat's Lava Lake Lamb Burger. The Country Cat Lamb Burger is dressed with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese Lardo Chefwich with Adam Sappington of Country Cat's Lava Lake Lamb Burger. The Country Cat Lamb Burger  is dressed with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese.

Again, the Country Cat Lamb Burger is available only until the middle of January!

Signature

The Lardo Chefwich Series is Back!

So, I covered during most of this year the 6 chefwiches of Lardo. Each month usually around the 15/16th, there would be a new collaboration sandwich on the menu between Rick Gencarelli of Lardo and a guest chef, aka, a chefwich. Each chefwich has been rotating into the Lardo menus (either of the two Lardo locations, Lardo West in SW downtown or in Lardo East in the SE) over the past 6 months. For all the chefwiches a portion of the proceeds benefited a charity of the guest chef’s choice, and each chefwich was a limited time sandwich offer, only available for a month.  Each chefwich could also net you a stamp on the chefwich card, and if you collected them all it offered you VIP access to the Chefwich Party (though you can also purchase a ticket in- and the party brought back all the chefwiches all at one time for an ultimate chefwich faceoff!)! I covered all the previous 6 sandwiches here at this blogpost.

Well, the Lardo Chefwich party has come and gone, but the Chefwich series continues! Starting off with #7 and going to #13 apparently, which means the next chefwich party will be in May?

The chefwich  series continues on by kicking off with The Chris DiMinno, formerly of Clyde Common. This sandwich has apparently been dubbed “Arthur Avenue Called” and is comprised of breaded chicken, marinara, mozzarella, parm sauce, soft hoagie… essentially a chicken parmesan. The charity of Chris’s choice is The Bicycle Transportation Alliance which works to promote bicycle use and improve bicycling conditions to make bicycling safe, convenient and accessible.

Update 12/17 The next chefwich is out: Adam Sappington of Country Cat‘s chefwich of a Cattail Creek Lamb Burger with smoked tomato jam, fennel slaw, and havarti cheese will benefit the Oregon Humane Society. Goddamit, Lardo you are making me a sandwich addict.

But let’s just get to the sandwich photo porn from chefwich #1 shall we?

The next Chefwich, featuring chef Chris DiMinno, formerly of Clyde Common. This sandwich has apparently been dubbed Arthur Avenue Called and is comprised of breaded chicken, marinara, mozzarella, parm sauce, soft hoagie... essentially yes a chicken parmesan sandwich! Lardo's signature Pig Out in holiday colors The next Chefwich, featuring chef Chris DiMinno, formerly of Clyde Common. This sandwich has apparently been dubbed Arthur Avenue Called and is comprised of breaded chicken, marinara, mozzarella, parm sauce, soft hoagie... essentially yes a chicken parmesan sandwich! The next Chefwich, featuring chef Chris DiMinno, formerly of Clyde Common. This sandwich has apparently been dubbed Arthur Avenue Called and is comprised of breaded chicken, marinara, mozzarella, parm sauce, soft hoagie... essentially yes a chicken parmesan sandwich!

Rick Gencarelli hasn’t just been collaborating on sandwiches however. Oven & Shaker is also now doing a chef series, but with pizzas. The first chef pizza at Oven & Shaker was in collaboration with Rick, and turned Lardo’s mortadella sandwich into pizza form with a Mortadella pie. This pizza started with an olive oil, oregano, and garlic base topped with provolone picante, Mama Lil’s peppers, and mortadella, and then was topped after the wood fired oven with shredded lettuce and dressing. Their schedule is different than Lardo’s by doing beginning-end of the month rather than Lardo’s mid-month change-up. Oven & Shaker doesn’t have a punchcard, but they also donate some of the proceeds to the collaborating chef’s charity of choice. Last month, November, it was Ecotrust’s Farm to Schools.

This month, December, the collaboration chef is Greg and Gabrielle Denton of Ox with a Clam Chowder Pie with split bone marrow and jalapeno. Clearly the Oven & Shaker series is going after some signature dishes with the guest chef.  I’m planning to go there next week, so stay tuned!

Signature