Portland Content Creators, Readers, and Lessons From Salad Week

Yum Mama salad at Gin Thai Brassserie, one of the featured restaurant special salads this year for Salad Week.
The Yum Mama salad from Gin Thai Brasserie, which we ate and loved earlier this week.

Well, today marks the final day of 2026 Portland Salad Week. It’s been a great week, and we’ve especially enjoyed being introduced to a number of new-to-us salads. For today, we bring you recommendations from local content creators and you, our readers. Plus a few final thoughts and lessons from Salad Week, including some on the elephant in the room.

Continue reading “Portland Content Creators, Readers, and Lessons From Salad Week”

Small Bites: Tamalada, Crispy Cones, ZabPinto Thai, and More

Making tamales during a tamalada in 2019 in Portland, Oregon.
The tamalada from 2019.

Tamalada in Portland is back! I attended a tamalada—a group tamale-making party around the holidays—organized by Hot Mama Salsa and Three Sisters Nixtamal pre-pandemic (2019) and loved it. We learned how to prepare the masa, fill the corn husks, and steam the tamales—and we got to take some tamales home. It was fantastic!

So you can imagine how happy I was to see that these same two women-owned and led businesses have brought it back this year. This time it will take place at Hot Mama Salsa’s headquarters in Southeast Portland. There are two sessions on Sunday, December 14: 2pm to 3:30pm and 4pm to 5:30pm. It’s $65; you can reserve your spot and pay them on Venmo. DM them with questions. 333 SE 2nd Avenue, Portland

Continue reading “Small Bites: Tamalada, Crispy Cones, ZabPinto Thai, and More”

Small Bites: bb.q Chicken, Layoffs, Frontera Sur, and More

Chicken dishes from bb.q Chicken on this edition of Small Bites.
Photo credit: bb.q Chicken.

bb.q Chicken celebrates 30 years. The folks from Korean fried chicken chain bb.q Chicken reached out to me to inform me that this September marks bb.q Chicken’s 30th anniversary. And not only that, it’s also the birthday of their beloved mascot, ChiBBoQ. To celebrate, they are rolling out a nationwide promotion: free delivery September 4 to 7 and free ddeok-bokki (one of the best street foods ever) September 8 to 12. 2850 SE 82nd Avenue #2 and 917 SW Alder Street, Portland

Continue reading “Small Bites: bb.q Chicken, Layoffs, Frontera Sur, and More”

Small Bites: Off The Griddle, Wellspent Market, Pamana, and More

kick-fremont-fest-2021-portland-oregon
Scenes from a past Fremont Fest. This year it’s happening August 2, 2025.

Off The Griddle on Alberta has soft opened. A new vegan spot in the old Chilango space called Off The Griddle has opened their second location. They offer vegan brunch and lunch dishes, and a full bar (would love to see more NA cocktail action on it). Here’s the menu. They’re open 9am to 3pm, 7-days a week. And their grand opening down the line is going to be a big party. 2215 NE Alberta Street, Portland

Continue reading “Small Bites: Off The Griddle, Wellspent Market, Pamana, and More”

2025 Portland Salad Week Recap: The Good, the Surprise, and You

And there you have it—Salad Week 2025 has come to an end. We had a great time planning, researching, tasting, and enjoying salads in the Portland metro area, and sharing it all with you. Here’s our 2025 Portland Salad Week recap, plus our readers’ salad recommendations.

We hope you enjoyed this salad-centric week!

Continue reading “2025 Portland Salad Week Recap: The Good, the Surprise, and You”