Portland is obsessed with Filipino food. But does it know that? This month, a "food tour" organized by three Filipina locals could cause that long overdue grand moment of realization.
As part of Sobrang Sarap—which means "very delicious" in Tagalog—16 Filipino fooderies are serving specials to show off emblematic staples of Filipino cuisine. The dishes are meant to change weekly, following a plan of highlighting, in order: ube, adobo, calamansi, and pancit. So that's purple sweet yam, simmered marinade, a Filipino citrus adjacent to the kumquat, and finally the versatile, unpredictable prompt of noodles.
Don't panic! We're still in ube week; there's time.
Organized by Baon Kainan food cart co-owner Geri Leung, artist Beatriz Lugtu, and marketing and business consultant Amanda Mailey, the Sobrang Sarap food tour traces a trail from Beaverton (where Magna Kusina's smoked meat sibling Magna Kubo opened last summer) through Portland to Sugarpine's drive-in restaurant in Troutdale.
Along the way, you'll find well-known names like Makulit, Baon Kainan, Grind Wit Tryz (which took over the former Nico's Cantina spot on NE Cully earlier this year), Balong (popping up at the República restaurant family's Cadejo Cafe), and the already mentioned Magna Kubo and Magna Kusina, which were both created by lauded Chef Carlo Lamagna. You'll also find Sun Rice's residency at Moxy Hotel downtown in the mix.
"There aren't a lot of us, but there are enough of us if we work together,” Mailey said in a press release about the food month.
Each spot is encouraged to take their own dash at a dish, drink, or dessert made from the week's featured ingredient. Here in ube week, you'll find ube champurrado at Fork and Spoon PDX "served with evaporated milk and fried dilis 'anchovies' atop," ube karioka (it's like a deep-fried rice doughnut) at Makulit, and even ube and foie gras whoopie pies at Magna Kusina.
Baon Kainan will be closed during ube week, but another Sobrang Sarap participant, Kalesa Coffee, is hosting the cart's ube bibingka cake! For a limited time, Kalesa Coffee will be offering double your ube, as they're also steaming up their own ube mochas. Incredible.
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In addition to just making everyone some snacks (!), the food month's obvious goal is to raise the name recognition of lesser known Filipino businesses and give foodies a little more information about the chefs they already love. The Sobrang Sarap site contains in-depth stories and profiles of each participant, as well as explanations about important aspects of the culture and cuisine. For example, Filipino adobo wears a name derived from Spanish marinades (because colonialism), but maintains flavors and recipes from original, indigenous Filipino dishes. So don't go in there expecting chilis.
April has been Filipino Food Month in the Philippines since 2018; created to focus on the culture's cuisine as an art of equal importance to other heritage-instilling practices like folk dance and architectural preservation. It's worth noting that Sobrang Sarap is sponsored by both Travel Portland and the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon.
Sobrang Sarap continues through the month of April at participating locations. Check out sarap-pdx.com for locations, hours and other info. The specials will be most reliably found on the participants various Instagram accounts—as is the way of things now.
