Summer Supper From Urban Gleaners Is a Good Time for a Great Cause

Goi Cá at last year's Summer Supper.
One of my favorite dishes from last year’s Summer Summer was Goi Cá: turmeric catfish, mint, basil, scallion, greens, onion, apples, peanuts, fish sauce, and black sesame rice cracker, from Richard Văn Lê of After Ours/Matta/Mémoire Cà Phê.

Summer Supper returns to the Redd in September! This thoughtful tasting event features over a dozen talented and well-respected Portland chefs who will create dishes made from gleaned ingredients. It is also a way to celebrate Urban Gleaners’ 20th anniversary. Part of the mission behind Summer Supper is to fight food waste and food insecurity in our community, and this event is an excellent way to showcase that.

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Small Bites: República Returns, Dat Banh Mi, Better Half, and More

República returns with the high quality food they are known for.
Deliciousness at República.

República returns. It’s true! They’ve decided to open back up for daytime service, Thursday through Sunday, 11am to 2:30pm. Founder Angel Medina posted the news on his Substack:

Quesadillas. Tacotes. Guisados. Pozole. Maybe a surprise or two along the way.

No timeline. No promises. As long as you keep showing up, we’ll keep doing it right.

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National Shutdown: Restaurants Open and Helping in the Portland Metro

Tomorrow—Friday, January 30, 2026—is a National Shutdown day across the country, in response to the killings by ICE. The campaign’s subtitle is “No Work. No School. No Shopping. Stop Funding ICE.” It’s a kind of general strike.

However, in Portland there are a lot of small businesses that simply can’t shut down for the day, due to economic reasons. And while “no shopping” might mean “don’t spend your money anywhere,” it’s generally understood to mean that shopping at small, independent businesses is ok.

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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

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