At Javelina and Inisha, Indigenous Food Finds Portland Quirk

"I was eating a slice of fluffy blue corn bread that tasted like the very color blue when the question took hold. It lingered as I dragged the blue bread through whipped maple butter, sitting at Javelina, the counter service restaurant focused on Indigenous cuisine that opened in the Cully neighborhood this spring. It was all I could think about by the time the bison chili hit the table, unctuous with green chile and Tillamook cheddar, with iced herbal Hopi tea to wash it down."

"When I moved to Portland in January 2011-the same month Portlandia premiered-the local cuisine appeared to be deeply personal. It was about people as much as place, an idiosyncratic, chef-driven idiom above all else. Chefs like Vitaly Paley, the late Naomi Pomeroy, and Gabriel Rucker helmed singular restaurants full of quirk and risk, producing sometimes extraordinary results. Portland food was housemade charcuterie, hazelnuts, and blue cheese; then it was maximalist foie gras dumplings."

Blue corn bread at Javelina in Cully is paired with whipped maple butter, followed by bison chili flavored with green chile, Tillamook cheddar, and iced herbal Hopi tea. Portland cuisine emerged as an idiosyncratic, chef-driven ethos centered on individual points of view, exemplified by chefs such as Vitaly Paley, Naomi Pomeroy, and Gabriel Rucker. Signature dishes ranged from housemade charcuterie and hazelnuts to maximalist foie gras dumplings. Restaurants such as Kachka, Langbaan, Han Oak, Jeju, Kann, and Xiao Ye demonstrate cultural specificity and first-generation American perspectives. Indigenous first foods and chefs like Sean Sherman and Jack Strong are increasingly foregrounding Indigenous ingredients.

Read at Portland Monthly