Dining out in Portland, Oregon and other Food Travels
This quarterly dinner series by Imperial Session duo Advanced Cicerone Ryan Spencer (Bailey’s Taproom) with dishes from Chef Spencer Watari (Clyde Common) pairs beers and food. Unlike many beer and food dinners, this pop up concept does not beholden itself to any particular breweries or restaurant so they can select any beer or dish to make an interesting pairing without worrying about representing or promoting any business. The last dinner focus was on beers from New England.
Updated August 1, 2017
It’s difficult to track pop-ups: they often change up when they are open and where they might appear. Depending on the season, they may close down for a while – and if you don’t pay attention to their social media you could miss when they come back from their sabbatical, while others move on to other ventures. All have limited capacity so if you don’t jump on reservations quickly you are out of luck until the next event.
That means following lots of things on social media or being on several mailing list to become informed immediately when an announcement for a meal event is made with the when, where, etc. Despite the work, pop up restaurants are often your chance to try great cuisine and meet amazing chefs, as the lineage of pop ups alumni that have now settled into homes like Holdfast Dining, Nodoguro, Langbaan, Coquine, and Nomad PDX are proof.
Eater PDX has published my list of Best Portland Pop Ups and Supper Clubs and you can see it here: the only ones listed below are ones not on that published list or I have my own link so you can read my experience with it on a blog post as I removed those for the Eater article. [Read more…]
It finally happened – Carlo Lamagna (of Clyde Common) held an all Filipino dinner under the pop up Twisted Filipino December 1 and 2 located this time at Holdfast at Fausse Piste. Hopefully this is just the first installment that I experienced, and we’ll see it popping up again and again in 2017 (I overheard he’s hoping to do the next one in January…) Make sure you follow him on his social media (Instagram, Twitter) to be in the know of his next pop up – this one was sold under Brown Paper Tickets for $80. Here’s a look at the 9 courses of this Twisted Filipino December Dinner.
At the beginning of the evening, Chef Carlo explained how in many ways he was repeating a circle of life – his first Twisted Filipino pop up was also a 2 day dinner event that sold out, was dedicated in honor of his father, but in 2013 in Chicago, when his first son was just a couple months old. This evening, with his second boy also just a few months present, he once again was back solo putting himself on a plate, giving us 9 courses of elevated Filipino food that were nods to his heritage, his history and experience as a chef, and where he wants to go forward.
Also included in this dinner was a welcome sparkling cava drink (Suriol Brut Nature 2012 Cava) and 5 additional glasses from the Spanish region ranging from Basque Cider (Sidra Trabanco Cosecha Propia 2014 Asturius) to electric rosé (Fronton d’Oro Rosado 2014 Canary Island) to bright LA Rodriguez Vina de Martin Os Pasas 2013 white wine (this was my favorite pairing of the evening with the Alimasag and Arroz Caldo), an all purpose red that would go with any meat that was fantastic with the Dinuguan (Gujmaro Tinto Ribeira Sacra 2015), and a sherry (Bodegas Grant La Garrocha Amontillado Sherry Jerez) to pair with the dessert courses. All the drinks were paired by Jeff Vejr of Holdfast.
This Lumpia Sariwa is Carlo’s fresh take on the usually deep fried lil meat rolls (which you can get at Clyde Comomon) with hearts of palm, watermelon radish, soy bean sprouts, mustard greens, spiced peanuts (with cayenne and sugar) and a slightly open crispy crepe vehicle brought together with a sweet garlicky sauce. I found this a bit too salty for my taste and still prefer the deep fried version which I can eat oh, like 3-6 of.
Pinais na Kabute, a nod to the traditional cooking in a banana leaf with this pocket filled with various mushrooms, bone marrow, and mushroom tar
Tapsilog, a variation of a traditional Filipino breakfast usually with air dried beef, garlic rice and fried egg, updated here as a dish of marinated and then shredded and dried beef tapa, garlic rice crisp, soft boiled egg, and a pickled corn chow chow as a nod to Carlo’s time with Paul Virant
Wild burgundy snails from his The Snail Guy friend Doug, young coconut, saluyot, serrano and coconut broth with ginger and garlic
Alimasag, aka how my mom cooks noted Carlo, as he told us a tale of when he was young how they would sear crab with garlic and the roe would get all mixed in and he would pick out every piece even though it meant his food getting cold to make sure he got in on all the deliciousness. Here he makes it easy for us without having to pick out the roe in this dish of dungeness crab, crab roe (with ginger, garlic, a bit of fish sauce, and touch of African hot pepper), housemade alkaline noodles, fingerlime, and chicharron. One of my favorite dishes of the night.
For me this was one of the most homey dishes and recognizable as more traditional. It also didn’t hurt as Carlo told us his association with this dish of his dad making this all day and having this dish while opening presents at 3 AM. Arroz Caldo with quail, rice porridge, and scallions. Although his twist was to use quail rather than chicken, he got that bird flavor well infused into the porridge.
A dish also called “Chocolate Meat” of braised pork collar glazed with dinuguan sauce, pork blood adobo, crispy pig ear, and steamed rice cakes of puto (which we laughed as admittedly this last word is a bad word in Spanish but hey a light delicious adorable lil cake in this case) to wipe up every lil bit of sauce. Another of my absolute favorites of the night. This is probably the most attractive that dinuguan can hope to ever be, impressive Carlo.
Now into the dessert courses. Here’s a play on a traditional Chinese almond dessert here with fizzy lychee, grape, mineola, Thai basil, and almond jello
Best dessert! Fluffy light chiffon cake with fresh parmesan and marshmallow fluff combining together for his parmesan fluff, pandan ice cream, and white chocolate florentine.
What do you think of these Filipino dishes? Have you had experience with Filipino cuisine before, do you recognize anything from here? What dish most interests you?
There’s a new bagel option in Portland – at least sometimes. It’s a Bagel Brunch pop-up by Sean Coyne called Bagel Farm that offers bagels to dine in at a pop up locations on Saturdays (Elder Hall) or Sundays (right now Renata). The bagels are organic, use Pacific Northwest flour, and have a great crispness to the outside but doughy inside that is a perfect combo.
I happened to stop by the Renata pop-up at the beginning of the month when they first appeared at the wonderful space that is Renata. The next pop up is this weekend and next weekend, August 20, 21, 27, and 28.
The bagel choices include
Meanwhile, the schmears are particularly fun, including besides having your bagel plain, or with butter, the spreads of
You can also additionally add cucumbers, capers, onions, or a tomato to enhance your sandwich. Or, they also offer open faced bagel sandwiches, which they called “Bagels Composed”, that include
Because I was at Renata, I was happy to treat myself to a well earned after the gym cocktail – and I wanted to make sure I got my fruit into my brunch too. This cocktail is called the Buon Giorno Princepessa with white peach – blueberry mint sorbetto and prosecco. It takes a little care and love to create, but it’s worth the wait – I could have drank these all morning.
What’s your favorite type of bagel, and what do you top with your bagel in terms of schmear?
I’ve had the pop up Supper Club Meadowlark on my to do list for quite a while, and finally got to experience my first dinner with them earlier this week on February 9, 2016 with the Meadowlark PDX Seollal Korean New Year Dinner. They popped up at Din Din, located at 920 NE Glisan. Just getting to the location you may have some doubts if you’re in the right place along the dark roads and warehouses, but the bright lights of the Din Din sign confirm that you’re not lost and isn’t parking so conveniently easy?
After my experience at supper club, I kept kicking myself that I waited so long. Chefs Jen Datka and Emily Park focus on being very local and hand crafted, with everything made from scratch. Even though the dinner I attended included almost 40 people, it felt as intimate as a dinner party.
At the cozy location of Din Din, the open kitchen is brightly lit and teases you with direct line of sight and smell to the preparations and finishing touches as they bustle in aprons.
Upon checking in and hanging up your coat at the wall long coat hooks, guests were welcomed at the adorable bar nook with a cocktail of rye whiskey with Korean Cinnamon and Date Tea, as well as a little take out box filled with Popcorn with nori and chili powder.
The tables are decorated simply with a few vases of willow so that there is little in the way to chatting and making new friends with those around your seat. A menu at each setting also looks simple and straightforward, but belies the complexity of flavor and how fulfilling this dinner will be for all. Although there is regular water available for instance, at first the offering was a chilled barley water that has only a faint grain taste and is a nod to the ubiquitous roasted barley tea popular in Korean culture.
Bottles of Kooksoondang Draft Makgeolli (a rice wine) and Heater Allen Pils appeared shortly after the cocktails and popcorn snacks were cleared in anticipation of starting dinner. They remained on the table to share for each table of 6.
I tried to take the hint to try several glasses of the Makgeolli since it seemed like they were encouraging the pairing when 2 more bottles of it showed up to share by the time the main course arrived.
To get our attention before describing each course we are about to receive, the ladies behind Meadowlark ring a big bell.
The first course was Tteok Mandu Guk, with pork belly and shrimp dumplings, rice cakes, kimchi consommé. This was served last year at their Seollal dinner as well. Emily explained how Seollal is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea, and eating dumplings is traditional although they make no claim that all the preparation and dishes is necessarily traditional since they used local seasonal ingredients and added personal touches.
The ladies of Meadowlark PDX chefs Jen Datka and Emily Park took turns ladling in the Kimchi Consommé – the gentle focus I saw in both of them underscored the care they put into each dish and giving individual attention to the details.
The dish is exquisite- the chewiness of the rice cakes, the slight kick to the broth, the rich chubbiness to the dumplings, and the beauty of those floating carrot flowers…
Each dumpling is hand formed, and the skin, the filling, broth is all from scratch like from a Korean grandma.
The tease of seeing them put together the banchan, or side dishes, and seeing Jen take the Bo Ssäm roasted and smoked pork out of the oven and start plating in that bright open kitchen…
while Emily supported a pescatarian option by frying up some fish!
Here’s a detail look at all the banchan and sauces:
I love banchan – all the little dishes all over the table as small bites of accompaniments to go with the main!
Bo Ssäm is pork belly that is traditionally boiled, but Jen and Emily not only upgraded us with the best pork shoulder in town from Tails & Trotters, but also chose to slow roast and then smoke it. Rather than slicing it, the ladies served it shredded to show off its tenderness and perhaps as a nod towards American pulled pork.
Add Hapa Rice and Lettuce and time to eat!
My plate with a little bit of everything from every plate… man I really want this plate again. You can see such a mix of sweet and salty and savory and spicy and acidic/sour
You can eat it with rice, but wrapping it in lettuce adds that extra refreshing crunch to the slow roasted and smoked organic sustainable pork shoulder and pretend healthiness to the fattiness and richness, here accompanied by Ssamjang sauce for spicy funky kick. I also admit I may have just smeared a bunch of Ssamjang sauce on rice and been every happy with that combo.
Dessert was a satisfying lightness of ice cream sandwiches – a duo of Ginger Cookies with Yuzu for tartness or Brown Butter Cookie with Black Sesame that offered more toasty notes.
I did at first miss a little bit that they didn’t have my favorite banchan, which is the Mung Bean Sprouts. I can dump a whole little plate of that on my own plate and ask for more several times at a Korean meal. But, since the sauteed until just wilted mizuna provided the same flavor profile of garlic and sesame, I didn’t miss it much and plan to do this with my spinach in the future.
F tells me that he always can tell when I find something spectacularly delicious. I stop talking for a while to turn internally because I want to focus on just savoring each bite, and my eyes may not even be focused. I take smaller bites to stretch the experience. I might take little samples of elements of a dish, or before, with, and after a sip of beverage, and then compose a perfect bite with a little bit of everything. I may even shake my arms with excitement.
I did all of these at Meadowlark. I can’t wait to visit another Supper Club Dinner again and enjoy the care and thoughtfulness in composing each dish that Jen and Emily do. Most chefs have an appreciation for Northwest ingredients, and Jen and Emily particularly are adept at keeping it simple but also doing just enough to coax the best of each ingredient in a way that as an eater, you have that same appreciation while also recognizing the expertise of labor and vision brought by the chefs to transform ingredients into a dish and an experience.
Oh no, me and my camera have been caught by Jen and Emily! It’s true, I’m one of those people…
I was also really struck by the warmth and how it really feels like they enjoy nourishing everyone – chefs often vibrate with excitement for ingredients, the enthusiasm of inspiration and ideas behind a dish, the control and mindfulness of perfect execution, the focus of tracking details and being organized. Some chefs are boisterous with the bravado of creativity, some are quietly deliberate, some are organized and meticulous, others are flexible and a bit chaotic. Jen and Emily stood out to me for how they emanate the feeling of welcome, generosity, hospitality, and especially grace.
Meadowlark changes up their theme every month, so make sure you follow them on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and sign up for their mailing list to be in the know before a dinner sells out. When you purchase your Brown Paper ticket (this meal felt like a steal at $40 – their prices generally are in the $40-$60 range historically so far), everything is included – food, beverage, and gratuity.
Have you had Bo Ssäm before? What’s your favorite banchan? Do you have a favorite Korean restaurant in Portland, what is it?
Pechluck's Food Adventures
Enjoying deliciousness in Portland & wherever travels may lead me.
My name is Pech, short for Pechluck. I enjoy adventures in eating - dining out and cooking and imbibing for local Portland deliciousness or wherever travels lead.
Disclosure: There may be at times sponsored posts where the ticket to an event or meal or sample product to review was complimentary, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.
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