Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project: Year Three

Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project’s Umi Kobe Combo grid/map for year three. Illustration by Jillian Barthold. Image credit: Umi Organics

I want to tell you about the Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project, now in its third year. So what is it? A two-week festival of sorts, celebrating “cross-Pacific collaborations around food” that both Kobe, Japan and Portland, Oregon share. And it means a lot of tasty times for us all.

From from now (it started yesterday, January 19) until Tuesday, February 1, 2022 head to seven different spots around Portland to enjoy what the organizers call the Umi Kobe Combo. It features the Umi Ramen Spirit “served as an ice cold Kobe-style highball” with a yakisoba-pan. This is a sandwich: “yakisoba noodles tucked into a tender milk bun.” Each participating restaurant will offer their own take on this popular treat.

Participants

Expatriate, 5424 NE 30th Avenue, Portland. expatriatepdx.com
Oma’s Hideaway, 3131 SE Division Street, Portland. omashideaway.com
Obon Shokudo, 720 SE Grand Avenue, Portland. obonpdx.com
Sunrice at Deadshot, 2133 SE 11th Avenue, Portland. deadshotpdx.com

Here you can have just yakisoba-pan without the highball (nice for those of us who abstain from alcohol for whatever reason):
Oyatsupan, 16025 SW Regatta Lane, Beaverton. oyatsupan.com
Shizuku, 1235 SW Jefferson Street, Portland. shizukupdx.com

Here is where you can get the Umi Ramen Spirit by itself:
Zilla Sake, 1806 NE Alberta Street, Portland. zillasake.com

Spirit and Sandwich

More on that Umi Ramen Spirit—it is the result of the collaboration between Umi Organic‘s CEO Lola Milholland and Andy Garrison, the distiller at Stone Barn Brandyworks. He took her excess noodles and turned them into liquor. The spirit has barrel-aged over 1,000 days and is ready for you to drink it. The flavor is “omoshiroi,” which means “interesting” (as far as Google Translate tells me).

As for yakisoba-pan, it is a popular sandwich in Japan and is featured in the Japanese sitcom, Midnight Diner, of which Andy and Lola are fans—note also that year three of the Kobe + Portland Yakisoba Project is nicknamed “Midnight Diner Edition.”

Origins of the Kobe + Portland Project

More on the project itself and its founders:

“The Kobe + Portland Project began when two friends, Kyoko Shinohara and Lola Milholland, realized how much spirit their home cities, Portland and Kobe, share around food. With support from the City of Kobe and a host of collaborators, they dream up (almost) annual events to bring contemporary riffs on yakisoba into people’s lives. Each year, artist Jillian Barthold creates zines and illustrations to bring their ideas to life and our Japanese and Japanese American friends share recipes and stories. This ongoing project takes a lot of connectivity to bring into being.”

So stop on by the participating establishments to try this interesting spirit and yakisoba sandwich. I’m already figuring out where I want to go first.

Kobe + Portland Project: Year Three (Midnight Diner Edition)
Wednesday, January 19 to Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Participating establishments throughout Portland (and one in Beaverton)