In August, I'm scheduled to teach a couple cooking classes in Portland, Oregon. It's been years since I've traveled to Portland, where there's a sizable Asian population. I always like to discuss with students where and how they may locally source ingredients and equipment for cooking Vietnamese food. To help me do my homework, I asked Trillium, a Portland resident, food lover, and avid cook. Whoa, she fired back these recommendations and thoughtful insights:
Our favorite place to shop in Portland is at An Dong market on Powell. It's run by Teowchiu speakers from Vietnam (they also speak English, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cantonese if you need them too). My perspective is skewed because I've been going there for 5 years and get treated really well because they're used to us, so when I come in by myself everyone is really nice. But some people don't like shopping there because they can be a little crabby if you're not used to that "buy your stuff and get out" attitude. They do all of their pork butchery in house, which is nice. They also have all of the good stuff, innards, feet, etc, and Asian beef cuts (outer flank, etc). For fresher, still live, seafood (crabs, shrimp, clams etc) and fish at great prices, I shop at Om Seafood down the road. An Dong has a little selection of ok quality and very good price fish and seafood. On the weekends they also sell banh cuon hap that are really good (very finely textured), and bbqed coconut sticky rice with banana, taro, or lotus in banana leaves. Their bao are also tasty, and very different from the Chinese ones we're familiar with (pork, peas, glass noodle, wood ear, hard boiled egg, lap cheung and mushroom).
Fubonn Market is the big market that is trying to be like 99 Ranch. I find the quality of the produce isn't as good there, and I don't like that every thing is wrapped and on Styrofoam, but some people like going there a lot.
Pok Pok isn't Viet, it's Thai, but you should go if you get a chance. It's pretty good Thai food depending on what you order. Andy and his crew are doing things like making their own coconut milk, and trying to convince Portlanders that salted blue crabs are a good thing in your papaya salad. We cook a ton of Thai food, and traveled in Thailand with Thai speakers, so of course I think what we make at home is better, but I think he does a really good job for a restaurant in North America.We used to really love Pho Oregon but the last time we went it wasn't as good. I don't know if it was a one time deal or not, but they had taken some of my favorite dishes off the menu and just had more typical stuff left.
We really love Binh Minh for banh mi, their original location is on Broadway and they have another on Powell now. The proprietress is notoriously grumpy and she always asks the round-eyes if they want extra meat! If I'm not in there with my Asian partner she tends to leave off the chillies too, unless I tell her not to, but when he's there we never have that problem. Their bread is classic Viet "French" and I love both the combo and siu mai fillings.
The South East part of the city is where many immigrant communities live, which explains these address for the locations Trillium listed:
An Dong market: 5441 SE Powell Blvd, Portland, 97206 - (503) 777-2463
Om Seafood: 3514514SE 76th Ave, Portland, OR, 97206, (503) 788-1984, www.omseafood.comFubon market/shopping center: Powell and Division on 82nd
Pok Pok Thai restaurant:3226 SE Division, Portland, OR 97202, (503) 232-1387
Pho Oregon: 6236 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97213, (503) 281-2990
Binh Minh: 6812 NE Broadway St (original location; new location is on Powell), (503) 257-3868
Do you have favorite markets and restaurants where you live? Email me and I'll post them so we can build an information base.
Hi Andrea,
Fubonn (correct spelling is two N's). And please correct the misspelling of banh mi in the copy of the email. I realize it's not your misspelling, but I feel it's important not to leave VNese errors as is.
I'm not sure if Pacific Market still exists. I couldn't find it on Google. But next door to it is Thai Binh Restaurant, 6700 NE Broadway St, Portland, OR 97213,
(503) 252-7710. That's where my family usually stops off for pho? after the airport.
In the Hollywood district along Sandy Blvd., you'll find some of the older Vietnamese stores and restaurants that started b/c of its proximity to the SE Asian Vicariate.
One of the more popular restaurants for muc rang muoi is Thien Hong, 6749 Ne Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97213,
(503) 281-1247.
Also, on the west side of town in Beaverton where many Asians live, there's Uwajimaya. Even though it's a Japanese chain, they do stock on VNese products.
And you can't do Portland without mentioning Pho Van. http://www.phovanrestaurant.com/ They started from a small basic mom-and-pop restaurant and have really made VNese food more accessible for non-VNese. They've got a bistro location downtown. And I think have been written up in Gourmet magazine.
That's all I can think of for now.
Posted by: Wandering Chopsticks | July 21, 2007 at 12:41 AM
Trillium knows her stuff, but she did miss two of the best: Banh Cuon Tan Dinh and Bun Bo Hue. You can probably guess what they specialize in. BCTD has a big menu and everything I've eaten there has been at least decent. It's in the Fubonn Shopping Center along with Malay Satay Hut and another Vietnamese restaurant that isn't one of the better ones in town. There are a lot of dishes on BCTD's menu you don't find on many others in Portland, such as banh cuon, but also one of my favorites of theirs, banh khot. I've tried bo la lot at several places in town and theirs is the best.
Bun Bo Hue has a much smaller menu. They don't even serve pho. Everything there is done very nicely with probably the best salad rolls in town, really nice grilled items, and easily the best bun bo hue I've had around. It's not just spicy broth, it's complex and flavorful. Really, really good stuff.
btw, my favorite Vietnamese market is Thanh Thao on NE Sandy, although since Fubonn opened I've gone there a lot less. Lily Market is the best Thai market in Oregon.
I'd say that Trillium just had bad luck at Pho Oregon. I've had good meals at both locations in the last six months. Still the best pho around.
Posted by: extramsg | July 21, 2007 at 09:31 AM
Thanks Wandering Choptsticks and ExtraMSG. Corrected the typos that you pointed out, WC. Lots to eat and explore in Portland. I greatly appreciate your recommendations!
EM -- consistency is hard to achieve at restaurants, especially small mom-and-pop ones. A place can have a bad run for a while and then rebound. I like the fact that BBH doesn't serve pho, and that it concentrates on just one thing. I'm sure a steamy spicy bowl of BBH hits the spot on the many rainy cold days in Portland.
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | July 21, 2007 at 01:52 PM
Hi Andrea,
Love the new format of your website! Just found out about it. When are you coming back to Chicago? We'll go wandering around town again!
Richard (from IACP)
(Can't wait for your story in Saveur to come out, it's due any day now, isn't it?)
Posted by: RST | July 21, 2007 at 09:07 PM
Andrea, could you please explain how MSG works? Though I have never used it in my own cooking, I have tasted it in its pure form on a teaspoon. It just tasted a little bit salty, kind of like...sweat. I don't understand how something like that could enhance the flavor of food. Could it be just a myth?
Posted by: Nobody | July 24, 2007 at 07:27 PM
Congratulations on the stories in the September Saveur. Stunning pieces-the article on Hmong farmers in Fresno in particular is quirky, unexpected and deeply moving. And they did such a great job with the layout!
Richard
Posted by: RST | July 24, 2007 at 07:57 PM
Thanks Richard. I'm thrilled to know you found the story provocative. Means a lot to me. Yeah, the layout is killer beautiful.
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | July 25, 2007 at 11:36 AM
There are several theories on MSG and thanks for the prompt. Many old-school Viet cooks believe it makes food more 'authentic' tasting. I'll put it on my to-do list!
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | July 25, 2007 at 11:38 AM
Another thing you might want to post about is knives. How to sharpen them and also how to keep them sharp with proper cutting techniques.
Posted by: Nobody | July 25, 2007 at 04:33 PM
Wonderful post. I agree with the above comments. I also think Fubonn is great. I also noticed another typo for the OM Seafood complex building. I believe their address is "3514" instead of 514... just a simple typo. The scientific reasoning of MSG is that it is pretty much a salt that helps the brain interpret a stronger flavor. Cheers.
Posted by: Kevin Michaels | September 21, 2007 at 01:05 AM
Kevin, Thanks for catching the typo! Love your take on MSG.
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | September 21, 2007 at 08:57 AM
Our favorite place for Pho is Pho Hung - they have two locations, one on 4717 SE Powell, and one on SE 82nd, near Division. We usually go to the one on Powell. We love An Dong as well, and will have to try out Om Seafood - we see it all the time.
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Posted by: target stores | February 16, 2010 at 12:12 PM
where can i get taro cake/ube cake/taro coconut cake in the Portland area?
Posted by: stefanieap | February 21, 2010 at 05:03 PM