Live Oregon

Wild Thing PDX serves up vegan-forward, plant-inspired bowls.

Wild Thing PDX

written by Kerry Newberry Like so many other diners with good intentions, you pledged to eat more vegetables this year. That’s easier to do with the recent addition of Wild Thing PDX to Portland’s Alberta Arts District. The first thing you need to know about this vegan-forward, plant-inspired bowl restaurant is that chef Sam Smith of Sweedeedee (and formerly Tusk) designed the core menu. “He’s such a wizard with vegetables,” said Kelsey Glasser, owner of wine bar Arden and the developer behind Wild Thing PDX. “Chefs can do amazing things with vegetables, but Sam really gives them the star treatment,” she added. Another talent currently leading the kitchen is Dominique Rodriguez, who worked at vegan hot spot Tiny Moreso and co-founded the vegetarian pop-up, Raiz. The signature bowls pop with satisfying flavors from The Wild One that layers ginger beets, urfa chili sweet potato, lemony brussel sprouts, crispy sumac cabbage…

Sibeiho’s Holly Ong and Pat Lau.

Sibeiho: Spice of Life

written by Kerry Newberry A few years ago, Holly Ong and Pat Lau cooked up one of their favorite childhood dishes: Singapore Chili Crab. But instead of traditional mud crabs for the signature seafood dish, they used freshly caught Oregon Dungeness crabs from Kelly’s Brighton Marina. “We are always looking to add flavors that remind us of our home using local ingredients,” said Ong. The sweetness of the crab played off their homemade spicy, tangy umami sauce in a way that delighted them both. “We thought maybe other people will want to try this too,” said Ong. In 2019, the longtime friends who met while working for Nike Singapore, began hosting private supper clubs. “It was a way to share family dishes from Singapore that we missed the most,” said Ong. Enter Covid in 2020, and the entrepreneurs shifted their focus from pop-up dinners to launching a food startup, beginning…

This interior space in Michael McCulloch’s pavilion brings together an absence of adornment and peaceful views of the outdoors.

DIY: Meditation Space

In 2006, Michael McCulloch completed a pool pavilion on the Portland property that the architect shares with partner, Maryellen Hockensmith. From the start, this wasn’t just any pool pavilion, as the site is an 80-acre working lavender farm that hosts a 1980 house designed by famed Oregon architect Pietro Belluschi. “We designed [the new pavilion] intentionally to be like a piece of the original building broken off and put out in the garden,” said McCulloch. The resulting structure is multi-functional, with two rooms that can be closed from one another and a bathroom in the middle. The front “expansive” section of the pavilion captures the site’s far-reaching views, as well as the nearby pool, while the rear “introspective” room has three walls composed of sliding glass doors that frame the natural crawl of the surrounding land. The entire building is constructed of Port Orford cedar, which was chosen “because it’s…

Oversized pendants with an open-weave pattern complement a leathered amazon granite slab on the island in this Bend kitchen.

Artistic Accents

Two kitchen remodels stay true to their owners’ artsy backgrounds written by Melissa Dalton Bend: For a stylist, a kitchen curated like a killer outfit For every kitchen remodel, Sarah Westhusing takes as many cues as possible from the clients to shape the new design, from learning their favorite hotels, to whether they can abide counter clutter. When the interior designer began working with Beny and Leslee Rabuchin on their Bend home in 2021—he’s a mortgage broker and she’s a stylist—Westhusing immediately noticed Leslee’s artistic flare. “She always has the most fun and playful outfits and hats,” said Westhusing. But the couple’s home, a ranch built in 1984, “and not a cool 1950s ranch,” noted Westhusing, was not fulfilling Leslee’s innate sense of style. Functionally, the kitchen layout needed some tweaks. A dropped ceiling and too many upper cabinets made it feel dark, and an L-shaped counter effectively cut off…

A variety of clams can be found on the Oregon Coast, including razor clams and bay clam varieties such as butter, littleneck, cockles and gaper clams.

Clams Are for Digging

Just below the surface, the Oregon Coast is teeming with various clam types written by Julie Lee Don’t mind getting a little sandy, muddy and wet? Clamming might be for you! Anyone can dig for clams, and little equipment is needed: a clam shovel, a clam gun, a bucket and some patience. A shellfish license is required as well. The best clamming on the Oregon Coast is done during low tides, and it’s recommended to check with Oregon Health Authority’s website to ensure clam harvesting is open; they follow strict guidelines and constantly survey for potential biotoxins. Razor clams are a foodie’s delight and prized by clam diggers for their size and sweet-tasting meat. Clatsop County is bountiful with this seafood delicacy, with 95 percent of all razor clams deriving from a tight eighteen-mile stretch of beach. Bay clams, a broad grouping that encompasses everything that isn’t a razor clam,…

Oregon clam linguine is simple to make, gourmet in its presentation and delicious to the taste.

Keep Clam and Carry On

written by Thor Ericksonphotography by Tambi Lane The brightness and hum of the fluorescent lights inside Bi-Mart was an awkwardly refreshing break from the dark and rainy weather of Lincoln City. I stopped in to pick up a shellfish license and a “clam shovel” (called a trenching shovel anywhere else in the world). One of the cashiers pointed me in the right direction. Under his red Bi-Mart vest, he wore a t-shirt that said “I Dig Clams” across the front. I knew I was in the right place. The next morning at low tide, shovel and bucket in hand and boots on feet, I set out to Siletz Bay. After asking a few fellow clammers where to go, I ended up north of Schooner Creek where the purple varnish clams (named for the hue inside the shell) were said to be plentiful. I searched the wet sand for the telltale…

Lyf Gildersleeve, president of Flying Fish Company in Portland, takes his son, Miles, and the family to Oregon lakes for old-fashioned angling.

Trout Fishing in Oregon

One man’s journey from child angler to fishmonger businessman and sustainable seafood advocate written by Julie Lee Trout is Oregon’s most popular fish to catch and eat, with several trout species, both indigenous and adopted decades ago, to pursue. The most common is rainbow trout, which is widely stocked and distributed throughout the state. Redband trout are native to Central Oregon and historically found throughout waters connected to the Deschutes River. Paulina Lake, also in Central Oregon, boasts the state record trophy brown trout, weighing in at more than 28 pounds. Trout is generally found in cool streams and lakes, making Oregon a hot spot for this culinary delicacy. Historically, trout was a favorite of Europeans who noted catching it on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in 1792, but rainbow trout is native only to North America’s lakes and rivers and a favorite of anglers. Lyf Gildersleeve, president of Flying Fish Company…

Smoked Trout Pâte is always great to have at the ready for hors d’oeuvres or a luxurious snack.

Fisherman’s Blues

written by Thor Ericksonphotography by Tambi Lane “I’ve got one!” my friend Thomas yelled from his fishing float tube. “Stop paddling!” he yelled, while frantically reeling in the rainbow trout that he had been waiting for all weekend. Thomas’ flippers had fallen off and were now most likely at the bottom of Paulina Lake. I had hooked up a rope to his float and was paddling furiously, towing him back to shore with my kayak in the sudden rain and ferocious headwind. On cue, my eight-year-old son, also paddling against the wind, threw up his paddle. “I can’t do it anymore,” he said, joining the increasingly impossible tow rope. As I paddled on, feeling as if I was training for “The World’s Strongest Man” competition, I reflected on my friendship with Thomas. Despite the day’s mishaps, Thomas is one of the best fishermen I know. In fact, he’s exceptional at…

At Fish Sauce, send your palate on a trip with, clockwise from top left, chuối chiên; pork bánh mì; bún vermicelli; gỏi cuốn; Botta’s Favorite with grilled shrimp, fried egg, jasmine rice and núớc mắm; and the Fortune & Glory cocktail with rum, mint, hibiscus and lime.

The Global Flavors of Portland

In America’s darling of the dining scene, the world lands on your fork written by Julie Lee When the culinary scene in Portland amped up in the early 2000s, the keystone to international recognition was flavorful dishes that chefs created which were ingenious to anywhere but the Northwest. The secret to the recipe, though, was the collective passion to source local ingredients. Of the more renowned chefs, Andy Ricker became internationally famous for what he could do with a chicken wing. Pok Pok was one of the first of many foodie favorites that started as a food truck, garnered international acclaim, and put Portland front and center on the gastronomic map for occasional diners and food snobs alike. In the pandemic’s wake, the restaurant industry has suffered dearly, with decades of hard work and fame wiped out. While Portland lost some renowned chefs including Ricker, many food carts, restaurants and…