No One Was Hurt During This Food Crawl

And I have a lot of feelings about that.

To the three people I nearly killed this past week in Portland crosswalks, I’m truly sorry. I’m normally a safe and conscientious driver. I pride myself in my ability to share the road obligingly with other drivers, cyclists, and usually pedestrians. This was not the case this past week when I strayed south of rural Washington to the urban landscape of Portland to house-sit. I continually had trouble keeping an eye out for pedestrians crossing busy streets when I was making a left turn on green. I’m almost positive I made one woman pee a little …

Apologizing profusely out my window I proceeded to feel like an inept loser for the remainder of the day. I’m always in the car. I’ve driven across the country multiple times for work. But my behind-the-wheel hours have largely comprised of long hauls on interstate highways and rural backroads where you don’t find many folks walking because there just aren’t sidewalks and it’s 58 miles to the next town. Keeping an eye out for people crossing the street is a skill I need to brush up on, apparently.

Portland pedestrians, my bad. I’ll do better.

So I spent two glorious weeks down in Portland, eating like a glutton and trying to avoid hitting people in crosswalks. I’m so close now to a food mecca I’ve idolized and romanticized from forever, and I’ve been able to get down to PDX (their airport, a nickname, and part of the domain of nearly every restaurant website) for the day or weekend quite often, but never two whole weeks.

Where to start?

Before I share what I had the pleasure of eating — I love those two words; pleasure and eating — I must first admit that while I’ve loved the Portland food scene for what seems like forever, it’s mostly because I’ve been mindlessly gorging myself on amazing food and not necessarily because I understand enough of the backstory to comment reliably on it. I’ve read enough to know there is a shit-ton of history (in the kitchens, and in the neighborhoods) that hasn’t been very palatable. I also know that its evolution in the past two to three years has been immense and transformative and I can’t wait to dig deeper, one restaurant at a time.

In other words, please take the following musings with a grain of salt.

Nacheaux

Nacheaux, the little Southern-Mexican Fusion food cart that opened up right as COVID decended on us all in 2020, opened its second location in a shared space on Fremont (home to so many food delights). Chef Anthony Brown fuses his love of fresh and healthy eating with his wife Sephanie’s Louisiana roots and they serve happy Portlanders burritos, tacos, and quesadillas stuffed or smothered with Southern-influenced proteins like Cajun-fried chicken and crawdads, and cornmeal-crusted catfish and shrimp. Mexican staples like carne asada and carnitas are also available, and pretty much every menu items can come to you “Nacheaux style” - pickled onions, purple cabbage slaw, salsa, cotija cheese and Nacheaux sauce. And you know there’s rice and beans. 

This was my first stop in Portland and also my first visit to Nacheaux. Like so many neighborhood restaurants throughout the city, you’ll find parking on the tiny residential side streets (bring those side mirrors in) and lots of great eateries close by. I’ve made a note to check out the neighboring Pips Original Doughnuts & Chai that had lines wrapping around the corner. Doughnuts and chai? Yes, please. And for more standing on line, cross the street for Grand Central Bakery on the weekends.

The cajun-fried chicken burrito, stuffed with red beans and rice, purple cabbage slaw, and pickled onions provided lunch as well as dinner for me, but I wouldn’t fault you if you ate the whole darn thing.

Blue Star Donuts

Portland is a breakfast town, and there’s no shortage of incredible bakeries, coffee shops, and cafés if you’re willing to wait on line a little bit or have the forethought to pre-order. My current brekkie of choice has got to be Blue Star Donuts. If you want their signature and seasonal flavors (you must score a Meyer Lemon & Key Lime Curd or the Chocolate Bergamont Old Fashioned if you know what’s good for you), take advantage of their pre-order system and get your order in the night before. Then simply glide by one of their five (three current, two coming soon) locations in Portland, or their three spots in LA if that’s where you reside, and the cheerful Blue Star staff will run them right out to the curb for you.

Famously known as “donuts for grownups”, Blue Star is not the first donut show in town, but they’ve one-uped the donut game by setting themselves apart in two distinct ways that tic all the boxes in my wheelhouse: using gourmet ingredients in unique combinations (lookin’ at you, Blueberry Bourbon Basil and Valrhona Chocolate Crunch), and their signature 18-hour brioche dough. 

Not to worry — Blue Star is inclusive. They’ve got your style, old-fashioned buttermilk donut lover. They’ve got you, vegan cake donut connoisseur. But I can’t get past the brioche. I once burned up a Kitchen Aid mixer motor making brioche, and I’d do it again. It takes muscle, it takes time, and it takes a TON of butter but it’s so worth it. I guess that’s ultimately what Blue Star is for me: totally worth it.

If you didn’t plan ahead and pre-order, no worries. Be sure to check current hours at your closest location, but you can totally walk in and the Blue Star team will happily demonstrate their five-star commitment to an amazing donut experience in real time.

Malka

Malka opened in January of 2020, but it was a concept that chef and co-owner Jessie Aron had been dreaming about and slowly developing since 2018. Searching for my takeout order (like many Portland spots, Malka is currently only offering take-out and delivery) I drove past the repurposed bungalow on Division street several times before I realized it was a restaurant.

I try to put as much of the revenue I fork over to restaurants into the actual establishment, so I almost always order my take-out for pick-up. And as a designer and creative, I love experiencing the symbiotic relationship between food and environment — if the aesthetics of your location amplify my food experience, you’ve got me for life.

Stepping into Malka for the first time, I was met with incredible aromas and a vibrant surrounding showcasing vivid colors, lush greenery, and an exotic back patio that made me long for in-house dining.

The food at Malka is as bold as the visual sensory overload of its surroundings. Eating Jessie’s food takes you outside of yourself, like you’re eating in another dimension or in a completely new world. Menu items like the playfully named Important Helmet For Outer Space (a coconut rice bowl with slow-roasted pork shoulder in apricot curry barbecue sauce, stir-fried vegetables, pan-roasted mushrooms, pineapple-tamarind slaw, crispy shallots, peanuts, avocado, herbs, pickled peppers and ginger, sesame, and lime - gasp!) make it clear you’re headed for a culinary adventure outside of the everyday dining experience.

While their initial menu started out small, they now offer dishes that satisfy any appetite from small plates like Still Happy to Be Here (housemade roasted garlic and z’atar sourdough topped with grilled mushrooms, leeks, scallions, red onions, goat cheese cream, garlic honey, “all of the herbs” sauce, Novak 7yr cheddar, sungold tomatoes, fuikake and togarashi) and Hobes is Wearing Jams! (a salad with sugar snap peas, pickled cherries, watermelon radish, mint & basil, tahini, spice-roasted carrots, golden raisins … and so much more) to larger portions like the coconut rice bowl mentioned above and the dish I fell in love with: I Have A Lot of Feelings (Rice bowl with Ota tofu in sweet soy and sambal, chickpea fritters, coconut jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables with green curry, pan-roasted mushrooms, miso-tahini slaw, crispy shallots, peanuts, pineapple, avocado, herbs, pickled ginger and peppers, sesame, lime.). Each dish consists of elements that are quite nearly dishes on their own, and I felt my mind being blown with each mouthful.

There is no shortage of savory braised meats, fresh veg, crispy rice, and sticky sauces dripping with tamarind, nam prik pao, and coconut cream. I’d read about her ribs, which she marinates in one of my favorite Thai sauces, Golden Mountain, but they’re not currently on the menu. All the more reason to make future visits to this magical Portland eatery.

This is where I’ll leave you, but I’m headed back for more next week. Stay tuned to find out what you can experience at Core - the new food cart pod on 82nd and Powell, why I can’t get enough of Canard, and how the noodle soups at Ha & VL provide a healthy and savory start to the day when you’ve gorged on too many Blue Star donuts.