I mentioned Paella Sundays at Chesa in my recent post about Summer Pop Ups in Portland 2017 where I listed pop ups and special summer series events that didn’t make it into my Eater PDX article Portland’s Hottest Supper Clubs, Summer 2017, but wanted to share even more detail! Purchase tickets and see exact dates ahead of time or you can try your luck at walk ins. The next Paella Sunday by the way, is this Sunday (2nd Sunday, August 13, and next August 27!)
Yep, Chesa the restaurant may be closed, but there’s still the original restaurant Ataula, churros at 180, and on the 2nd and last Sundays the Chesa space is still being used by sexy and down to earth chef couple extraordinares Jose Chesa and Cristina Baéz for Paella Sundays. These take place on the patio towards the back of Chesa, are family friendly and dog friendly. Paella Sundays at Chesa give you a glimpse of a casually enjoying Spanish food with your Spanish best friend’s family patio.
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Of Roots and Blooms Vegan Food
Of Roots and Blooms recently made an announcement that they are working on two cookbooks and unspecified future projects TBD so if you haven’t been before, it’s only a few weeks before they are changing their schedule. Up until end of September they will pop up every Wednesday at Bottles on Fremont, and up to end of August they will finish popping up Sundays at Culmination Brewing offering rotating vegan delights. After that, who knows what will happen: apparently not even owners Nick and Carina, who only share that they don’t have anything solid except knowing “this while operation is about to morph into a new incarnation and life phase”
So hurry in now to try some of the best vegan food I’ve ever had! Here’s a look at some example greatness Of Roots and Blooms vegan food I’ve been able to enjoy to entice you to try it, and that vegan food isn’t all raw or dry food – it can be luxuriously rich too in the right hands.
This grilled cheese with cashew fromage fort, cheddar, spinach, toasted levain and side of chips reminds me when I first fell in love with them as a Cheese Plate cart.
I’m also a fan of their Brussels Sprout Grilled Cheese with butternut squash butter, sage aioli, and melty cheddar
And just as you would expect, this mac and cheese is so rich and creamy that you can barely tell it’s not real cheese but vegan cheese. This is their IPA Mac and Cheese, made with Culmination’s Phaedrus IPA and topped with rushed pretzels and chives.
Here’s a closeup of their vegan Lobster Mac and Cheese with sharp cheese sauce with seaweed “lobster” stock, chopped vegan lobster meat, chives buttered Old Bay breadcrumbs baby spinach.
One of the things that really impresses me though beyond that is how incredible and inventive they are at creating vegan adoptions of East Coast seafood, like New England clam chowder, shrimp scampi, clammy linguine, meatball or cheesesteak sandwiches. This is their surprisingly evocative of the sea but vegan and so velvety Vegan Oyster Stew with cashew potato cream and oyster mushrooms, served with oyster crackers
Or how about when they made Vegan Lobster Ravioli with vegan lobster meat, chives and almond ricotta stuffed into red bell pepper pasta with tomato saffron cream sauce with Calabrian chilies and almond ricotta topped with arugula and peas.
Don’t miss out on desserts either – which can vary to mousse to cheesecake and more. This is the Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake with rhubarb sauce, and their vegan Pecan Bar.
You can follow OfRootsandBlooms on Instagram to see what will be their menu of the week – they change every week. As mentioned, they are at noon to 8 pm at Culmination Brewery (2117 NE Oregon) until end of August and Wednesday at 3-10 PM at Bottles (5015 NE Fremont) until end of September and after that it’s unclear.
Have you heard of Of Roots and Blooms vegan food before, what do you think of some of the dishes they offer, what would you try?
Ssshaved Ice offers Portland Japanese Shaved Ice
With the heat wave, I thought it was an appropriate time for me to have this post where I highlight SSshaved Ice. I included SShaved Ice, a pop up on which offers Portland Japanese shaved ice on announced Saturdays at Courier Coffee, on my Eater PDX article The Hottest Portland Pop-Ups Right Now, Summer 2017. Here are some more detailed photos of some of the amazingness that you can find. You can find out when they are popping up by following their Instagram, @ssshavedice, usually it is Saturdays at Courier Coffee at 923 SW Oak from Noon – 4 PM (or until run out!).
Summer Pop Ups in Portland 2017
Recently, I was given the opportunity to update the Eater article on pop ups, “The Hottest Portland Pop-Ups Right Now, Summer 2017”. It is not an exhaustive list of all the pop ups in Portland, though I think you know about a great majority of them if you reference that article and also look at the website Feastly (which I also wrote about for Eater) which also is a platform for local and visiting from other Feastly cities chefs to set up pop up events.
To make the list manageable, this time I tried to divide it into more subgroups based on type of cuisine in the world highlighted – and I was asked to keep it to a list of 21. So how did I curate it? And what stuff did I wish I could have included but couldn’t for the Eater PDX article – but can totally mention and loop you in on my blog since I control the space here? What else do I want you to know about Summer Pop Up Series Dining in Portland opportunities?
Shipwreck PDX at Taqueria Nueve
Last month in May, Shipwreck PDX popped up at Taqueria Nueve. They will be back next week on July 10 but with an update to now be working with one of my favorite burger joints in town, Burger Steven’s, and burger food cart of chef Don Salamone. In the meantime, here’s a few photos from the last Shipwreck PDX at Taqueria Nueve pop up to show their larger menu of drinks and eats. You can also see photos from their first pop-up here.
If I was to offer a few tips since I’ve been there twice they would be…
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