Food Foray Screening: Food and Culture in East County

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of Food Foray, an original docuseries produced by Gresham’s MetroEast Community Media. It was a really fun afternoon of film, food, community, and celebration of food cultures from three continents. I learned that East County (east Portland + Gresham) is the most ethnically diverse region of Oregon and home to many of Multnomah County’s immigrants and refugees, who have brought their beautiful food and flavors with them.

Food Foray: Some Background

The Director of Food Foray, Ivana Horvat, offers some insight into how the series came to be, and her hopes for it:

“Growing up, I spent weekend exploring international grocery stores with my mom for fun. I loved discovering crunchy snacks with foreign labels, oddly shaped vegetables, and brightly colored drinks, which I had never seen before. Coming to this country as a refugee in the early ’90s, I knew that these items weren’t just there for my amusement. They were staples in the cuisines of different cultures with interesting stories to tell. If only I had a representative from these cultures to show me what to do with these goods .… Decades later, I got to live my childhood dream and answer these questions when we filmed the first episode of Food Foray. 

“Of course, Food Foray isn’t solely about food. Through food, we are able to get to know the communities living in our neighborhood as so we can have a better understanding of different lived experiences, especially from an immigrant standpoint. My hope is that Food Foray encourages people to look at immigration with compassion, curiosity and instill in them a zest to learn about new foods and perspectives on life.”

The Screening Event

Food Foray was described to me as “Imagine Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown but at local grocery stores with a host named Jess. Each episode takes us a food journey through east Portland while we learn about our immigrant neighbors.” The first three episodes, which run approximately 20 minutes each, explore the cuisines from the Central Asian country of Georgia, the Mexican state of Oaxaca, and Myanmar (also known as Burma) in Southeast Asia.

Stories told by members of these immigrant communities were included in each episode, giving us a glimpse into the understandably complex POV of what it is to be both an immigrant and a resident of the U.S. A thread that wove its way through all their stories is how they miss their home country but they are glad to be in the U.S. for the opportunities present here.

As for how the episodes developed, the Director said they did not choose the market first, but looked for people first and asked the where they shopped in Multnomah County. Whenever there was a good fit, they moved forward with production. She also remarked on the music that supports the film—that she “geeked out” on music choices and made a point to use music from the featured region rather than something random.

Along with the screening, we got to enjoy some of the dishes featured in each episode; we heard some beautiful live music; and after we watched each episode there was a Q&A with some of the people who were featured on film, as well as some on the production side of things.

The crowd was incredibly diverse and everyone seemed to really enjoy the episodes. A group behind me was super supportive of the production team and it was really nice to feel that love (you just couldn’t help it!). I was happy to see the various guests from the episodes there to answer questions from the audience, which gave us additional insight into their culture and food experience. Everyone was engaged with the episodes and I think we all learned a lot.

The Episodes

The format of the episodes breaks down into three parts: Shop, Cook, and Dine.

• Shop: Host Jess meets up with guests to shop at a local market that sells ingredients relevant to the meal they plan to make.
• Cook: They then head to the guests’ home to prepare the food made with ingredients they purchased.
• Dine: Dinner is served along with casual—and sometimes candid—conversations about their culture, their home in the U.S., and geopolitics.

Episode 1: The Republic of Georgia

• Guests: Nino and her mother, both born in Georgia.
• Focus dishes: Adjarian khachapuri; various salads made from things like cabbage and beets, stuffed roasted eggplant, lamb kebabs. It was emphasized that their meal was a Supra, a kind of feast where participants share both food and time with each other.
• Grocery store: Babushka Russian Deli & Bakery, 835 NE 242nd Drive, Wood Village.
• What we enjoyed: A cake, “Kolokola,” made at the Babushka bakery.
• From the Q&A:
  Q: What makes Georgian cuisine distinct compared to its neighbors?
  A: Historically, when we go back and look at Georgia, it was conquered by the Romans, Greeks, Turks, Iran. They ruled in Georgia for many years, and that has influenced the cuisine. What you’ll get is kind of a melting pot of different countries that have ruled in Georgia. It’s a mixture of Middle Eastern, Eastern Asia, and Europe influences.”
  Q: What about walnuts?
  A: Walnuts are like peanut butter to Georgians. They’re in soups, in salads, they mix them with everything, they’re in desserts. I think they grow in that region plentifully compared to other nuts.

Episode 2: Oaxaca

• Guests: Amalia and her daughter Jasmine (note: Amalia runs the Tierra del Sol food cart in the Portland Mercado and at the Rocket Empire Machine on NE Glisan); Amalia immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s and her daughter was born in the U.S.
• Focus dishes: Tetelas de frijol, guaje salsa, cactus salad.
• Grocery store: Supermercados Mexico, 17420 SE Division Street, Portland.
• What we enjoyed: Tetelas de frijol (one of my favorite things to eat that the Mercado).
• From the Q&A:
  Q: What is the spiciest chili you have?
  A: The spiciest chili is the habanero chili. We make a salsa at the food cart that we call “criminal” [audience laughter]—it is very, very hot.
  Q: Where did you learn how to cook?
  A: When I was young I did not like to cook. When I came to the United States I saw the need to cook, and when I had my children I started to do the cooking, but I knew nothing about it. Every time I wanted to do a dish from my town, I got on the phone and called my mom.

Episode 3: Myanmar

• Guests: Stephen, his wife Honey, and son Noah, plus two friends, all from Myanmar. Steven and his family arrived in the U.S. in 2022.
• Focus dishes: Beef curry, radish soup, green tea salad (Laphet Thoke)
• Grocery store: Mingala Market, 2548 SE 122nd Avenue, Portland.
• What we enjoyed: Radish soup.
• From the Q&A:
  Q: Are there any ingredients from Myanmar that you haven’t been able to find here?
  A: For ingredients—any that are really hard to find, we can get them shipped here from Myanmar. Especially my wife, she is arranging all the time. She asks her sister. Generally we can get what we need here. Most of the time, it depends on the way we are cooking, because we are in between Bangladesh, India, China, and Thailand. It’s a little bit different way of cooking but ingredients mostly the same, so we can get these things at other markets, even Fred Meyer where there is an Asian counter. Also, because Burmese takes a little bit from India and China, it depends on how you want to cook. If you want to get Chinese style, you can shop at an Asian market, or if you want it more spicy you can get ingredients at an Indian market.
  Q: What are you favorite [dishes] from Myanmar?
  A: Green tea leaf salad. Everybody loves it! 
  Q: [To Noah] How does it feel to have your family’s story shared with all these people?
  A: Good!

Heartfelt Thoughts From Jess

The series host, Jess, expressed her thoughts and feeling about her time with Food Foray during the Q&A in response to a question from the audience.

Q: Jess, what was it like going through that whole journey and how to do you feel like you changed from the first to the third episode?

A: I have learned so much, not just about culture, but about humanity and how we connect—and myself. And you know, life is going to be hard. But somehow humanity pushes through and is able to share through beautiful ways that transcend mere words.

And it goes into food, and it goes into time together, and it goes into that real space where I got to learn and take into myself these other beautiful humans and their culture, stories, and families. It has changed me in a way that I don’t have words for yet, but am working on. But I am so grateful for it, and I wish everybody could have this type of experience. [her voice cracks, overwhelmed with emotion]

My heart was so full doing this and I won’t be the same. I think if anyone actually challenges themselves—go into a market you are not familiar with, go around a culture you are not familiar with, find someone to talk to! And get to know who they are and be grateful for whatever you can take away from that, because it’s more than who you are before that. And that’s everything.

You can check out the Food Foray trailer below:

If you’d like to see the three episodes that are already produced, head to the Hollywood Theatre on the afternoon of Saturday, June 29, where they’ll be playing during the EcoFilm Festival. The Milagro Theatre may also show them. Other film festival participation is in the works.

How To Help, Spread the Word

It was clear at this event that the producers and host are eager to make more of these episodes. In fact, they have a couple more in mind with guests from Syria and Nepal. However, they need funding to produce more episodes, and are seeking sponsors and grants to make the productions possible. As for sponsorship of specific episodes, here is how to do that, plus the benefits of sponsorship:

They are currently looking at wider distribution of Food Foray, too. Currently MetroEast has a presence on cable and a Youtube channel, but they’d like to find distribution partners to share this production farther and wider than they currently can. If you can connect them with distributors, or have other collaborations in mind, please reach out to them at via email.

Another way to help is by supporting the communities featured in Food Foray, as well as spreading the word about the series and sharing articles about it—like this one—on social media. Every little bit helps.

Big congrats to MetroEast for their excellent new food-focused docuseries, Food Foray! I look forward to new episodes and greater distribution.

Food Foray: A Food Journey Through East Portland
An original docuseries by MetroEast Community Media
829 NE 8th Street, Gresham
MetroEast Community Media website | Instagram | Facebook

Updated October 27, 2024.