A local group has set up a Filipino food tour, dubbed Sobrang Sarap, with special dishes at restaurants across the Portland area timed to coincide with National Filipino Food Month.
Founded by ALIST owner and community organizer Amanda Mailey, artist and Magna Kubo general manager Beatriz Lugtu and Baon Kainan co-owner Geri Leung, the event includes 16 restaurants, food carts and pop-ups from Troutdale to Beaverton. Each restaurant will highlight one of four ingredients or dishes — ube, adobo, calamansi and pancit — per week in April.
“We were inspired by the multitude of different Filipino food items being served in Portland,” Leung said in a phone interview Monday. “When we opened Baon Kainan three years ago, it was a time when Filipino food was really starting to ramp up. We’ve seen more restaurtants, bakeries like Shop Halo Halo, Sunrice with its kiosk at the Moxy (Hotel), Justin (Dauz) popping up with Balong. It felt like the right time to show what Filipino food is all about.”
Sobrang Sarap, which translates to “very delicious” in Tagalog, is sponsored by Travel Portland and the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon. The food tour culminates with a ticketed, family-friendly celebration from 3 to 7 p.m.on Sunday, April 28th at Kolectivo, 959 S.E. Division St.
The event highlights 16 food businesses across the Portland metro area, including Magna Kusina, Magna Kubo, Fork and Spoon, Tambayan Restaurant, Grind Wit Tryz, Sugarpine Drive-In, Hunny Beez, Baon Kainan, Makulít, Kalesa Coffee, Chik and Chuck’s Coffee, Shop Halo Halo, Sun Rice, Kalo Kitchen and Balong. Meanwhile, the Filipino Bayanihan Center will feature and stock approximately 50 portions of the featured ingredient for each of the four themed weeks in its Kalusugan Community Pantry, a weekly no-cost pantry of non-perishables and seasonal vegetables.
Beginning on April 1st, participating locations will feature a Chef Challenge dish on their menu made with one of Sobrang Sarap’s signature flavors. Week one is for ube, the purple yam often used in Filipino desserts. Week two focuses on adobo, a dish with many permutations typically including meat, seafood or vegetables marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. Week three is for calamansi, the distinctive Filipino citrus. And week four focuses on pancit, an umbrella term for a variety of noodle dishes. Chefs are given cart blanche to create any dish they desire under each ingredient’s umbrella.
Sobrang Sarap takes place throughout April at locations from Troutdale to Beaverton. Visit sarap-pdx.com for more information.
— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com