Portland Dumpling Week 2020

February 1 – 8 2020 marks the 6th annual Dumpling Week as organized by the Oregonian. This year there are 35 restaurants participating in offering a special dumpling menu item for $10 or less. I have been enjoying Dumpling Week throughout the years – you can see my photos from last year in 2019, then in 2018, then 2017, and 2016, and first year 2015. Here are what I have enjoyed for Portland Dumpling Week 2020.

I went on a Dumpling Crawl on Day 1 (February 8) with friends @eatrichordietryin, @trailofcrumbs, and @hummingbirdhigh, so you may find additional photos there. I then went on a second smaller crawl with @perfectfooddays. You can find a Dumpling Map at the initial link above for Dumpling Week, but for the descriptions of the dumplings being offered at each location check out the article at the Oregonian here.

One possible start is for a dumpling crawl (and which we used on Sat) was they serving dumplings after 11 AM at Nel Centro. Here they are offering a Duck confit and radicchio Tortelloni in porcini parmesan brodo. I recommend also ordering a side of foccacia bread for a few dollars more to soak up all that lovely broth.
Nel Centro offered for Portland Dumpling Week 2020 a Duck confit and radicchio Tortelloni in porcini parmesan brodo

Next we popped into wine bar Canard for the maple sausage, egg and cheese breakfast gnocchi. Seared foie gras can be added optionally for $15. I found it sort of dry since it is not with a sauce, and sweet with the maple flavors. But, lean into the sweet and do as we did – order the Paris Brest with the cookies and cream and chocolate sauce, which was wonderful.
Portland Dumpling Week 2020 offering from Canard was a maple sausage, egg and cheese breakfast gnocchi Canard dessert offering of Paris Brest with cookies and cream and chocolate sauce

[Read more…]
Signature

Txoko Experience with Urdaneta

I was pretty excited when I heard that Urdaneta was bringing back an instance of Basque Supper Club with the theme of Txoko! Going to txokos with his grandfather had inspired Chef Javier Canteras to open Urdaneta and create Basque Supper Club. Now it was coming around full circle as the documentary ”The Txoko Experience: The Secret Culinary Space of the Basques”, along with scriptwriter, Marcela Garces, was making a West Coast premiere showing at Urdaneta. The restaurant was closed for this private event on a Sunday evening, and the night included watching the movie in the restaurant, and then enjoying a multi course dinner of Basque cuisine. Here’s a look at my Txoko Experience with Urdaneta.

The Txoko Experience - movie and a Basque dinner with Urdaneta The Txoko Experience - movie and a Basque dinner with Urdaneta

Txoko (The “Tx” in Basque language is pronounced Ch, Cho-ko, with ch hard like the ch in in chocolate), is essentially a dining club that allows members to gather together in a space (often a restaurant kitchen and dining area) and cook and dine together outside their home, which are often apartments.

It’s more then just food though- the txoko is an escape from family to be with the community that only sees what you are good at cooking (or maybe you’re a good singer), regardless of what you do for your day job. It’s an environment of good food, good conversation, and apparently, also group singing. We didn’t sing at this dinner, but there was definitely the wonderful food and conversation and everyone attending and working was in excited, cheerful spirits.
The Txoko Experience - movie and a Basque dinner with Urdaneta The Txoko Experience - movie and a Basque dinner with Urdaneta

[Read more…]

Signature

Urdaneta for Portland Dining Month

Earlier this week, I had a chance to enjoy Urdaneta for Portland Dining Month. I will also be back to Urdaneta shortly for their Basque Supper Club. If you haven’t heard, on Sunday April 8th at 6PM Basque Supper Club will be doing the only Portland screening of the film “The Txoko Experience: The Secret Culinary Space of the Basques”. Basically, Txoko is the Basque version of a supper club. This Basque Supper Clubevent, with tickets already sold out, includes watching the movie, a Q&A with the scriptwriter  and a Txoko inspired 6 course dinner by Urdaneta. Chef Javier was inspired to create Urdaneta and Basque Supper Club based on his own childhood experiences with his grandfather’s txoko so I am super excited to learn more about Txoko and get a personal take story-wise and food-wise from Urdaneta.

I’ll recap that experience and meal later, but for now I can’t emphasize enough that you have 2 meals left to get over there for Portland Dining Month. Fortunately, some of the dishes are also on their regular menu, so even if you can’t make it today and tomorrow you can still enjoy some of these dishes.

This is not part of the Portland Dining Month, menu, but it is impossible to resist ordering some pintxos every time I come here whether I am only coming here for Dumpling Week or for Portland Dining Month. Go ahead and give in and get a few starter bites after browsing the menu with the marinated olives. A sherry flight or sangria or Basque cider (sidra) would also be great choices to wash down your pinxto bites.

The Urdaneta pinxtos you see are the

  • Sobrasada, a soft chorizo in fry bread with grilled halloumi and truffle honey;
  • Albondiga, a lamb meatball with house tater tot, spicy brava sauce, apple, sofrito aioli;
  • Camarón, grilled shrimp al ajillo with tomato conserva, ajo dulce, chili, dill, and toasted bread;
  • Morcilla, a grilled blood sausage with dad’s marinated peppers, piquillo jam, piparra, and toasted bread
    Urdaneta olives Urdaneta flight of sherry Urdaneta pinxtos, skewers of bites to go with your libations Urdaneta pinxtos, skewers of bites to go with your libations

Now onto the Portland Dining Month options…

[Read more…]

Signature

Pinxtos at Urdaneta PDX

Recently, I visited Urdaneta, located on NE Alberta, for the first time. It has been on my list for a while from when Chef and Owner Javier Canteras with Ryan Spragg was running the Basque Supper Club as a pop up (and which he plans to still do) and then won funding from Restaurant Startup to open Urdaneta. It’s always hard to balance my wishlist with the reality of a reasonable amount of dining out and when some restaurants are literally on the opposite side of town from me (I live in SW Portland). Finally though I made it – and then all I could think about is why did I wait so long and when could I come again? What really stood out was having such unique and strong flavors, so small bites go a long way.

Sherry cocktails at Urdaneta

[Read more…]

Signature