Four Things I Learned This Week (March 25)

Din Tai Fung is coming to Pioneer Place. I first caught wind of this yesterday from the Portland Business Journal and yesterday morning The Oregonian confirmed it. A second Portland Biz Journal article confirmed it, too: “A representative for Brookfield Properties and Pioneer Place confirmed Thursday that a world renowned Taiwanese restaurant is coming to Pioneer Place shopping center.” This is a win for soup dumpling lovers in Portland. Look for a 2023 opening. 700 SW 5th Avenue, Portland

Two 82nd Ave wings recommendations. This week I picked up on two solid recommendations of places to get tasty quality wings in Portland—Utopia Lounge and Mekong Bistro. Utopia Lounge is in the northern section of Montavilla, and according to Yelp they’ve done some recent renovation inside (there’s karaoke, too). Their fish sauce wings (these are the style of wings made famous at Pok Pok) with a cold beer is the perfect pairing; pepper salted squid and shaking beef also come recommended. Then there’s the “Crazy Wings” at Mekong Bistro in Madison South, a Cambodian restaurant. A “thick fish garlic sauce” enrobes the wings, accompanied by crispy onions. 1125 NE 82nd Avenue and 8200 NE Siskiyou Street, Portland

Food Fight! vegan grocery has new owners. Beth and Adam are the new owners of Food Fight! and posted about it over on the FF! Facebook page. They wrote, “We are best friends that have been married 25 years. Some of you may already know Beth from the store, she’s been working here the last few months. Adam is a Master Mechanic who loves to share his knowledge with anyone that needs help. Portland has been our home for a few years now and we love this vegan paradise.” Read more over on the post. 11155 NE Halsey Street, Portland

Flour Market cafe featured on GoodStuffNW. Kathleen Bauer, who writes the excellent blog GoodStuffNW, stopped in at Flour Market, a bakery/cafe that opened up recently on 30th Avenue and Killingsworth and wrote about her time there. I liked this part especially:

“I myself am particularly fond of the pastelitos, squared layers of shatteringly crisp, flaked croissant dough that Matt, the croissant savant at the market’s production bakery, whose family has roots in Puerto Rico, made and filled with cream cheese and a guava paste that an aunt sent in a care package.”

Guava and cheese, one of my favorite combinations. I look forward to stopping in soon. 5507 NE 30th Avenue, Portland