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♪
Mena: Eccentric, quirky, unique, weird.
Portland has a reputation.
It's also gorgeous, laidback, loudly progressive,
and this small but mighty community is creating
one of my favourite food cities in North America.
It's also one of the most vegan-friendly cities.
From its food carts to its comfort food,
to its high-end restaurants.
♪
Portland has a gravity to it, drawing unconventional souls
from across the country.
We found the epicentre of the plant-based food scene
to be radically diverse in terms
of ethnicity, flavour, style, and cuisine.
The food is vibrant and innovative.
There's a risk taking almost avant garde,
punk-rock approach to cooking.
And the chefs are infinitely collaborative and supportive.
Portland, if this is the new weird, count me in.
♪
(Traffic din)
(Upbeat rock music)
I'm Mena Massoud...
I'm travelling across North America
and eating my way through
some of the coolest cities to show you how beautiful meals,
talented chefs, and restaurateurs,
are making plant-based living delicious and obtainable.
So join me as I show you how the world is evolving vegan.
♪
Getting to Portland,
the first person I have to visit is my friend, Cyrus Ichiza.
I met Cyrus while writing my cook book,
and I believe
he's one of the most underrated chefs in America;
cooking authentic vegan Pan-Asian cuisine
for his weekly pop-ups at Aimsir Distilling.
You will not believe the dishes he's cooking up.
Chef...
I mean Cyrus, how you doing?
Good. Welcome.
Thanks. Thank you, man.
Good to see you again.
Beautiful distillery, this is very nice.
Cyrus: I feel very blessed
to be able to do my pop-up out of here right now.
Continuing to bring vegan-Asian cuisine to Portland.
Portland definitely seems like
it encourages people to be who they are.
And celebrate, you know, where they come from.
You know, they always say "Portland's weird" or
"Keep Portland weird"-- I think it's eclectic.
I think there's a diverse group of people here.
When you have a city with such a reputation of being
the weirdest, or being on the fringe of culture
you start to see more people
coming here to proliferate that idea.
I always say, "I come to Portland, I gotta see Cyrus.
I gotta get my fix of Chef Cyrus' food."
Thank you so very much.
As a matter of fact
I have some food coming out for us right now.
I'm pumped! I'm pumped about that.
Mena: Oh my goodness... wow.
Man, that looks delicious.
What do we have, Chef?
Hong Yao Chao Shou; this is chili and wontons...
♪
...plant based meat folded in a wonton, boiled and served
in the sweet chili oil sauce.
Any broth you make I know is going to be killer man,
because it's full of flavour.
I'll eat these any time.
That sauce.
(Laughs)
♪
Mmm... wow.
The flavours in there.
It kind of buzzes and tingles in your mouth right now.
Mena: I know.
Yeah man, you're nailing it.
Yes. Exactly.
That beautiful wonton, the beautiful chili sauce,
and the plant-based ground beef is almost kind of just--
It's the supporting cast member.
Cyrus: That's my number one mission,
especially with any of my food,
and of the cuisine, is I wanted to create
a seamless transition for anybody.
Whether you're vegan or not.
I want you to eat this food and be completely satisfied.
I think that's the only way 100% we can start getting ourselves
to a more meatless lifestyle in society.
Alright, what else we got?
Cyrus: Fu Pei Guen.
This is bean curd skin.
So it's really thin, soy paper.
On the inside we have some black fungus, otherwise known
as Wood Ear mushrooms, bamboo chutes, a soy protein,
mung bean noodles, and carrots.
Very protein packed.
Mmm. Yes... Yes!
Mena: Really subtle earthy flavour to it because I think
of the black fungus, and you feel really satisfied.
You know, taking a bite.
Cyrus: Even though these things are decadent
they are still really good for you.
Mena: Yeah.
And a lot of people forget about that.
Like centuries old cuisine is there for a reason.
It does something to your body.
It is medicine. Food is medicine.
Of course.
♪
Mena: How would you describe the Portland scene here?
You know, a lot of places that used to not cater to vegan food
now have vegan food all over the city.
Portland itself has changed from a very, like, you know,
'Porkland' to very like plant-based all of the sudden.
And it's wonderful, in that sense, of how things
just constantly change here.
And that's really the only thing you can count on now.
Mena: What do we got next?
Cyrus: Last, but not least, one of our most popular dishes;
Bao wong bunny dumplings.
Wow!
Bao wong means "in a bowl."
You actually form them to make them look like little rabbits,
which is funny, because I always tell people,
"Vegan's don't eat like rabbits."
(Laughing)
And so today we're actually going to eat a rabbit.
Okay?
Made out of plants.
Mena: Made out of plants. Made out of a wonton.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh man, they're almost too cute for me to eat.
But what are the little brown spots they have?
I mean it's funny,
because they look like brown-spotted bunnies as well.
I like to go for as real as possible.
As authentic as possible,
in every way, shape, and form, Cyrus.
I know.
Cyrus: Usually this is a street food that's a gigantic dumpling
that's cooked with it's skin and everything
as a giant meatball inside of a steamer.
So this is essentially the same thing.
You just see that little bit of a meatball poking out.
♪
Mmm.
♪
Rabbits are delicious!
Mmm.
The wontons in this case are a little thicker, no?
Cyrus: It's more known for it's chewy, stretchy feel.
That texture on your teeth.
What should I be excited about as I start this journey?
Because obviously you've kicked it off with a bang
with this food.
Cyrus: Oh man...
The most ridiculous comfort food,
you definitely won't go skinny on your trip.
(Laughing)
Well, listen, this has been amazing.
I think you set the bar pretty high, as usual, Cyrus.
I always tell people,
"You come to Portland,
you got to find out where Cyrus Ichiza is.
Wherever he is, you got to go try his food."
This is delicious.
Cyrus: Thank you so much for that.
Mena: No, thank you, Cyrus.
You're always taking authentic flavours, reinventing them,
and kicking them up a notch.
♪
I couldn't visit the pacific northwest without touring
the coastal forest to look for
one of my favourite ingredients, mushrooms!
These are some secret areas that you kind of just know about.
You and a handful of other foragers essentially?
Elan: Yeah.
Mena: We're on route to an undisclosed location with
Elan Hagens, fungi forager and truffle hunter extraordinaire.
♪
Elan: I like going fishing and I love foraging.
Mena: Of course, yeah.
Elan: It's a treasure hunt.
So, it's like a gold rush for some things.
Mena: And the first rule of foraging,
tell no one where you're foraging.
Good girl!
Except your giant, truffle-hunting Schnauzer.
♪
Both: Wow!
(Laughing)
Mena: Incredible.
Elan: Never gets old, never gets old.
Mena: And I'm sure Oregon's filled with these.
Elan: Oh, we're just filled with so many of these,
and some of them only seasonal.
And then, some of them are, run like this year-round.
What are we looking for in this area, specifically?
Elan: What we predominantly are looking for,
because you're a newbie to mushroom-hunting,
is chanterelles,
because chanterelles are easy to identify.
And same with lobster mushrooms.
Mena: Elan's been playing in the woods,
wild-crafting and educating others about nature,
since she was a kid.
With the weather, climate, and natural beauty,
the local forests are a forager's dream.
The land is just packed with wild edibles.
And what am I looking for?
Chanterelles kind of look like
an orangey-beige colour, almost?
They're like an orangey-beige, and some are white.
Beware.
There are blackberries, I can tell.
Oww! Yeah.
Pricked already! You got pricked already.
That's just the best nature. Come on, Elan!
There's blackberries!
Now, keep looking in here.
Mena: Oh, I think I found something.
Yeah, right here.
Elan: Yeah, you totally did.
Mena: These are chanterelles?
Chanterelles.
Those are Pacific golden chanterelles.
So, hold the top
and then give it a good cut.
Mena: So, right from the root, yeah?
Elan: Yeah, so you get none of the dirt
that's on the bottom.
You give a chance for mycelium
and the things that are attached down here
to stay here
and regenerate, as well. Mena: Right.
Elan: And mycelium is actually what the mushroom is.
When we find a mushroom, we're finding the fruiting body.
Some of the different ways how you ID mushrooms
is by looking on the underneath,
and what you see here, these are gills.
And with the store-bought mushrooms,
the gills are kind of fluffy, like free-form.
Yeah. With chanterelles,
these are called fixed gills.
So, on almost all chanterelles,
you'll see them to where
you can't kind of like pick one off.
Mena: Right.
Elan: These are the Oregon state mushroom.
We have a state mushroom and this is it.
Mena: Oh, really?
One quick find, maybe some beginner's luck.
Hopefully, it holds.
Elan: I've been here before
and I have a feeling we're gonna find some lobsters.
But let's take a look down here, and like I was saying-- Oh!
Mena: Oh, man, that's a honker right there!
That's huge!
That is huge!
Elan: One of the best things
that I can teach you about lobster mushrooms
is that they start out as
a completely different mushroom called a russula,
and it's a giant white mushroom.
And they can be small white mushrooms, too.
And what happens is
a parasitic fungi takes over this,
called hypomyces lactifluorum.
Hypomyces lactifluorum.
Ooh, you're good. Yeah, you got it, you got it.
It turns what is a russula,
and actually, a mushroom that's not great-tasting--
not poisonous, but not great-tasting--
it turns it into something
that's choice and edible
and has this really distinct look to it,
which is the lobster look.
This is a honker.
I'm glad you're using my terminology.
Elan: It is a honker!
Mena: Yeah.
Smell this side right here.
Is it getting lobstery yet?
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah, it smells a little bit like the ocean.
Yeah, that's what a lot of people say.
It smells like the ocean. Not fishy.
Not fishy, but like the ocean. Not fishy at all.
And lobster mushrooms, I mean, look at it.
It's gorgeous, my goodness.
Lobster mushrooms do have a meaty texture to them.
This is so meaty that you can use it
as a meat replacement.
Mena: Mushrooms are rad.
Foragers often compare them
and their interconnected networks to community.
And how fitting, in Portland.
So, we're going to save
this honker fungus
and then, later on, share it with
a community of talented chefs.
♪
In downtown Portland lies
another one of those weird,
one-of-a-kind, Portland-only singularities:
a fully plant-based bar in the lobby
of an upscale hotel.
The Fortune Bar and its exquisite comfort food,
created by none other than chef Jewan Manuel
or better known as Plant Based Papi,
are located in the heart of the posh Sentinel Hotel.
Chef Jewan, how you doing? Mena.
So nice to meet you. You, as well.
Mena: This is a cool space!
Jewan: Thank you. Mena: So, what is it,
a restaurant, hotel? What's going on here?
It's everything. We sell everything here.
Yeah, yeah, we sell rooms. We sell food.
Mentioning food, I'm going to get back in the kitchen
and whip us up something
and then we can sit down and chat.
All right, love it. All right!
Mena: Jewan is a break-out star
of Portland's food renaissance.
He rose to fame
with epic line-ups for his early pop-ups.
A self-taught vegan chef,
his signature plant-based menu
aims to elevate bar food classics.
All right!
Whoa!
Look at this!
Tell us what we got, Chef.
First, we have our oyster mushroom calamari.
King oyster mushrooms, so there's a difference.
Huge stems.
♪
You hollow out the stems of the oyster mushroom.
Corn starch and rice flour
is, like, our special combo
to make it a little bit more crispy.
Mena: Yeah, and I gotta say, they look exactly
like calamari. I mean...
That was the focus.
♪
Mena: That is delicious! Seriously, I mean.
The batter is amazing!
And the texture, man,
of the oyster mushroom
is like that chewy texture of a calamari.
Does it say calamari on the menu?
It just says calamari, yeah. It just says calamari.
I bet you a lot of people can't even tell the difference.
You moved from LA to Portland.
Yep.
Obviously, both on the West Coast. Jewan: Uh-huh.
But Portland's very weird.
It's unique. It's unique.
That's what I was trying to say, unique, yeah.
It's unique, but even, you know, they have a sign that says:
Both: Keep Portland weird.
It's an amalgamation of really interesting people.
Jewan: Absolutely Unique people, unique vibes.
And one thing that I really appreciated about Portland
is people don't bother you here.
You can come here and be yourself,
no matter what that looks like, you know?
You'll see some person
riding a unicycle or whatever down the street
and it's just, like, that's just what they do.
You know?
And it becomes normal, in a sense.
So, I think the weird for everyone else
is just a Portland normal.
All right, I'm excited to try what's next.
Jewan: It's our Nashville Chicken Sandwich.
This is gonna get messy.
Like, I'm gonna have sauce dripping everywhere.
Let's bring that over here.
Bring that over here.
Just get that close to me.
Jewan: We actually use an oyster mushroom
to make the entire sandwich
and bread it
just like you would do any other battered chicken.
All right! Well, here we go.
Let's get this thing out of here.
(Chuckling) Mena: I don't need that.
(Crunching)
Get out of here!
(Jewan chuckling)
Mena: Mmm!
♪
Jewan: Since we've been here,
this has probably been one of our most popular dishes.
Mena: Damn it, Jewan!
Jewan: That was the goal. Damn it!
That reaction.
The texture is spot-on.
But the nice complexity of flavours
with the sauce, the coleslaw,
the pickles.
The bread is phenomenal.
Yeah, I mean, this reminds me
of a classic fried-chicken burger.
Man, this is a home run!
Thank you, thank you.
Mena: I'm so lucky
that there is a third dish here
that we're gonna try.
It's our loaded nachos here.
Jewan: Very popular.
(Chomp)
Mmm... mmm...
(Crunching) Mmm!
Jewan: We make our own cheeses
from scratch with cashews.
We chili-roast our jackfruit and dry-roast it,
which a lot of people don't do.
Mena: I think you nailed the jackfruit.
Really makes it feel like a pulled pork
or a pulled chicken,
and it looks like it, too!
Jewan: That was one of the things
I was very passionate about
when it came to, like, transforming the jackfruit.
Because I just didn't want to buy
the pre-made seitan things when creating my own dish.
I needed something special.
Well, let me tell you something.
It is special! Like, it's good!
I just think it all matters when it comes to vegan food.
Texture is everything.
Making sure that you don't cheat yourself on any layer,
because, for a lot of people,
they just think it's salads and rabbit food.
Does this look like rabbit food to you?
(Jewan laughing)
Does this look like what a rabbit would eat?
I don't think so.
I can tell that there's so much love and passion in the food,
and every ingredient in here is thought about.
We get meat eaters in here all the time that try our food,
and it's very important that we can wow them
with simple dishes like this.
Vegan comfort food is a great way
to introduce meat eaters to a plant-based--
Absolutely. Yeah.
--lifestyle, because that's what this is all about.
It's just about having conversations with people
and teaching them and spreading knowledge.
So, thank you very much.
Appreciate it, brother.
Mena: Plant Based Papi's ever evolving, inventive slate
has risen to the top,
because he took the time to perfect the classics.
I've had vegan calamari before, but that was next level.
You guys want me to pick some up and dip 'em
and put them in my mouth?
Because that's what I want to do.
So, if you guys want me to just keep eating these
I will do that, no problem.
♪
Portland's plant-based culinary community is super tight,
and many of the chefs have come up together.
Jewan's taking me to our next vegan haven,
the already legendary Mama Dut,
owned by his good friend Thuy Pham.
Jewan. Oh, my god. It's so good to see you.
Mena: Thuy Pham is one cool cat.
A former hairstylist who launched Mama Dut just a few
years ago and blew up on a tide of mass community support.
Hey, I'm Mena. Thuy: Hi, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
In just three years, she's been nominated for
the prestigious James Beard Award for Emerging Chefs,
and made it her mission to build community over food.
How do you two know each other?
I'd been doing my thing,; Thuy had been doing her thing.
I've heard so much about her.
And I remember the first time seeing her; I came to a pop-up.
I ordered food,
and I looked in the kitchen and it's just her.
(Laughing)
And I'm like, "Yo.
I heard so much about you. Nice to see you."
And she's just like, "Hi,"
and she's just back cooking food by herself.
It was probably the most amazing thing,
and I thought, that's me, in a way.
And ever since then we've been like this.
Two plant-based soulmates.
Jewan: It was kismet. Kismet.
Destined to happen. Yeah.
It was-- yeah. It was, yeah, kismet for sure.
Should we get in the kitchen and start doing some cooking?
Yeah, let's come on in and cook.
Mena: Alright, cool.
Thuy cooks unbelievable Vietnamese food,
bringing it back to its Buddhist, vegetarian roots;
something she says was lost over years of colonization.
We are going to make Vietnamese canh chua and--
Canh chua?
Canh chua , yes. Canh chua.
Canh chua. Canh chua is traditionally made
with catfish and other seafood,
and it's indigenous to Southern Vietnam
in the Mekong Delta area.
But my version is going to be, you know--
Catfish free.
(All laughing)
We're going to use mushrooms and just tons of veggies.
Mena: Beautiful ingredients.
Could you cut up these tomatoes for me?
They just need to be quartered like that.
Mena: Yes, 100%.
(Sizzling)
So, I like my food really spicy,
so we're going to just throw in some jalapenos.
Yeah, more, more. I love spice.
Thuy: And a light spice.
Jewan: I love the knife skills over there, too. I see it.
Oh, okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jewan.
Jewan: Yeah.
Take that.
Tomatoes going right in. I'm gonna pop the tomatoes--
Mena: Mama Dut, where did that name come from?
Oh, my gosh. Dut in Vietnamese means to feed.
Okay.
And so, I have a kid, Kinsley; they're 9 years old.
If I wanted Kinsley to try something I would be like,
"Come here, Kinsley. Mama dut ," you know?
"Come here, Kinsley. Mama, I dut ," you know?
When it came to coming up with a name,
I was like, call it Mama Dut.
Call it that-- it makes so much sense.
And then here you've got celery?
Thuy: This is called bac ha .
It is, um, taro stem. It's really great in soups.
Especially this kind of soup, because what it does is--
you see all the pores that are in it.
Mena: Exactly. It absorbs all the flavour.
Thuy: It absorbs.
And so when you bite into it, the broth will just seep out.
Wow, and it's delicious on its own, too.
It is very watery, like celery.
Yep.
But I can tell it's going to take on
whatever flavour you throw at it.
Thuy: Oh, absolutely.
This is pineapple juice to give it the acidity and sweetness.
That looks so good.
Mena: Yeah, very nice.
And this is very similar to Caribbean flavour, as well.
You've got the pineapple,
just like they use in the Caribbean.
A lot of the same vegetables.
If you think about the Caribbean flavours
and then you think about, like, Vietnamese flavour,
well, it's no wonder that we share lots of same ingredients
in our dishes because these areas are right on the equator.
Jewan: Equator, yeah.
So, you're growing a lot of the same ingredients
and we're just cooking it differently.
My grandfather made a vegetable stew very similar to this,
and he would actually use orange juice inside of it.
There you go. Oh, see, there you go.
Same identity behind that thing.
So, even her making this just, like,
brings up the memory of it.
Mena: While the soup simmers, we prep the star of the dish.
And you've got this beautiful vegan fish.
The skin, obviously, looks like the skin of a fish,
but I'm assuming it's seaweed.
Yes, it is seaweed. The flesh is a wheat gluten.
A wheat gluten? Like, a seitan almost.
Thuy: Mmm-hmm. Mena: Okay.
So, we're going to just drop these in here.
Mena: Okay.
♪
Yeah.
Jewan: Is this a fish sauce?
Thuy: This is vegan fish sauce.
I wanted to give that a taste, because vegan fish sauce,
vegan Worcestershire sauce, vegan oyster sauce,
those are all things that exist now, right?
That didn't exist, you know, a few years ago.
Thuy: And vegan fish sauce, believe it or not,
is very, very easy to make.
It's very salty, obviously, which is what you want.
Thuy: It's very salty.
Mena: I just took a little bit too much.
Yeah, yeah. I saw that facial expression.
I took in a little bit too much.
But that's what you want from a fish sauce.
Obviously, you want a little bit of salt.
Thuy: Yep.
Very nice. My mouth is watering right now.
I can't wait to try this.
Now, I've got to say vegan catfish
is not something I've had before.
♪
Look at this. Look at this. This looks fantastic.
Thuy: Let me show you how I eat this at home.
Please do.
(Giggles) A little bit of fish here,
put it on top of your rice;
take a bite of fish and get a little soup in there.
Mmm.
Mena: This has been braising for a while,
so it's nice and tender.
♪
Mmm.
(Giggling)
I don't think I've had vegan fish
that taste this much like fish.
♪
That's an absolute home run.
Oh, thank you.
Mena: Oh, my goodness.
That's so good.
Mena: This is filled with authentic flavour right here,
with the umami, I think, from the mushrooms.
Nice and spicy;
a little bit of sweetness from the pineapple.
You do feel like you're sitting
in a Vietnamese family home eating this, right?
You and Jewan have taken Portland to the next level.
You've raised it up a notch, seriously,
because I think people are going to see
how good and diverse the plant-based food is here.
Oh, absolutely.
So, cheers to you guys. Portland.
Thanks so much. And to Portland.
Thuy: Yeah, to Portland.
Mena: To Portland, and their ultra supportive chefs.
It's something that keeps coming up,
how much the people here value building community
over an increasingly diverse cuisine and authentic flavours.
♪
When people think vegan
one of the first proteins that comes to mind
is tofu.
Rightfully so because it's a staple in most plant-based diets
and over 2,000 years old.
And no one's been making it longer states side
than Ota Tofu.
The first tofu producer in America
established in 1911.
Passed down for generations they hand make small batch tofu
every day for restaurateurs and select customers.
You won't find this at the local grocery.
Hey, Jason!
How you doing? Good morning.
Nice to meet you.
Mena: It's now owned and run
by Jason Ogata,
who grew up eating tofu from Ota.
Right, wow! Very cool!
And wanted to keep Ota's roots
in the Japanese-American community.
He learned this method from Mr. Ota himself.
And today he's sharing secrets about this unique process.
If you can't even get the gloves on
I don't think you're off to a good start.
(Chuckling)
Handmade tofu is really like an art form in Japan.
Jason: Yes.
Mena: You know, that's been
passed down for generations and generations.
Definitely. And it is a dying art,
which is very unfortunate but we wanna make the best
tofu that we can so this is why we do it.
♪
So the first process of making tofu
is soaking soy beans.
And we soak them for about 10 to 12 hours.
These soy beans they are ready to go into our grinders
to start making soy milk.
Mena: Okay.
And so these are American soy?
Yes, these are American soy.
American soy right here!
After going through the grinder
the freshly crushed soy beans are pressure cooked
and loaded into bags to be pressed.
Jason: It just presses
out the soy milk.
And actually, good quality soy milk
produces yuba on the top. Okay.
Oh, wow! I love yuba.
Yuba is a film that forms when boiling soy.
But when dried it becomes beautiful beancurd skin.
I use yuba noodles instead of regular noodles
for a high-protein meal.
Jason: Now we are filtering again
to get pure soy milk.
Mena: Once the soy milk
is double filtered it's ready to be
turned into curds, then into solid tofu.
Look at that!
♪
This is the freshest soy milk you will ever see.
Jason: Yes.
I can't wait to try this.
Unlike big manufacturers,
Ota uses only three traditional ingredients.
Jason: The coagulant that we use
is called nigari.
Nigari.
Jason: Yes.
It is a Japanese coagulant extracted from ocean water,
actually-- sea water, okay.
Mena: Wow.
Jason: So out tofu is made out of
water, soy beans and nigari.
And nigari. That's it.
That's it!
We're going to make it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes
to let the curds really form.
Then we'll press it into tofu.
Okay, great.
This is such a cool process to see.
Even though tofu's the most popular protein
in plant-based diets
most people don't know how it's made.
It's like watching a beautiful performance
of soy ballet.
So this is the batch that we literally just stirred.
Jason: Correct.
Welcome to my office here.
About to make some fresh tofu.
With Jason's expert oversight
we line the pressing boxes with cheese cloth.
Nice and snug.
♪
And start loading in the steaming hot soy curd.
Watch out!
We got tofu juice splashing everywhere.
Watch out!
Use your legs.
I don't want you to hurt your back.
No, no. It's okay. I go to the gym.
Okay.
If I hurt my back doing this we got a problem, Jason.
Jason: Okay. We're good.
Mena: Wow.
Then we are going to fold.
Mena: Alright.
We fold the cloths over to get rid of the water
and get it ready for the press.
And let me tell you, this stuff is heavy!
Tofu's a workout!
(Grunting)
Okay! I got it. Alright.
How much does this weigh?
Tofu, it's hard work.
Yeah, it is hard work.
Jason: Yeah.
And then we're going to put it
and press it in the centre.
I just press this button?
Yep.
There you go.
Oh, yeah!
And then we have-- yeah, really one more step.
And then I can eat it?
Then we can eat it.
Okay, great, great.
Yeah.
That's why I'm here, you know?
Just quality-- taste quality control.
Not everyone gets to taste same day tofu.
Trust me, it's a life changer.
Oh, I know.
♪
Alright!
With the whey squeezed out it's time
to remove the formed tofu from the press.
Tilt it out.
Perfect.
Mena: Look at that!
It's steaming hot.
So we need to give it a nice cooled bath
and start cutting it into blocks.
The final stage and the pressure is on.
Nice sharp fast cuts.
Don't go slow otherwise it'll be raggedy.
Mena: Oh, no.
Okay, fast. Fast.
There you go. There you go!
Nice.
Natural.
Yep!
Mena: Oh, no. Oh, no!
♪
Good job.
Alright!
Mena: After cutting the pieces are cooled off
and packaged to be sold.
Ota also produces delicious fried tofu
and fresh soy milk made daily.
Seeing it made from scratch has been a special treat
and has given me a new appreciation
for an ingredient that's such a big part of my diet
and one that I'll share with the chefs
at our upcoming cookout.
Alright, so this is the tofu that we just made.
Jason: That is correct.
Nice. Well, let's give it a try.
Alright, awesome.
Mena: Very nice.
(Room din)
Alright.
(Room din)
Mm!
(Chuckling)
The tofu is so fresh
it kind of just melts in your mouth.
Jason: Correct.
Mena: Yeah, I still can't believe
that we just made this like five minutes ago.
That even when I went to japan
I don't think I was having tofu this fresh.
Thanks, Jason. I appreciate it.
Yeah, appreciate it, yeah.
Thank you.
Ota's devotion to making tofu the traditional way
is paying off and they're looking at expanding.
Portland might not be the biggest town
but it supports its own
and so Ota continues to flourish
hopefully for another century and beyond.
♪
It's time to get gnarly, baby!
At the core of Portland's core is--
well, Core, the Collective Oregon Eateries.
Hey, Chris!
Hey, how's it going?
How you doing?
Where Chris Hudson runs his
Gnarfest vegan market out of a foodcart pod.
New to Portland, opening a food truck's
been Chris's lifelong dream.
He's a lover of all things junk food
and also loves to challenge omnivores
to try his menu and not love it.
This is a really cool venue, man.
And today is vegan themed, right?
It's not always vegan themed but today is.
Today is vegan themed, yeah.
Not all the food carts are vegan.
There's only like two food carts here that are fully vegan--
mine including another one.
But we did ask all the other carts
to do a vegan special, you know,
try to get some recognition for local
vegan vendors, get some recognition for
the pod itself
and obviously for ourselves.
Should we eat some food?
-Let's do it. -Alright.
♪
First up on our pod tour Broken Rice
serving up killer Vietnamese street food.
Chris: I think you should try
the vegan pork belly buns.
Oh, yeah.
The vegan pork belly does sound good.
That sounds good, huh?
Yeah, and maybe the vegan egg rolls as well.
Okay, alright.
Mena: Those both sound good.
Alright!
Chris: I think I'm going to try one of these.
Mena: Okay, let's do it.
(Crunching)
Mm.
Oh yeah, the feeling is awesome.
And it's a nice little heat from the sauce.
Got some tofu in there it looks like, a little bit of
shredded vegetables.
Good first pick.
Yeah, right on.
Good first pick.
And then these bad boys, man, I love this,
I'm so excited for this.
Chris: Sweet.
(Upbeat music)
Mm!
So much flavour.
Mm, yeah baby!
(Chuckles)
♪
Next, to heat up this tour, Mama's Peruvian Bowls.
Are you like, a spicy guy person? Do you like---
Oh, I'm very spicy. I'm very spicy.
Yeah? Good.
So we got Tacu Tacu.
The Tacu Tacu has rice and beans.
We throw it in the pan, we flip it a couple times,
then we put it in the bowl.
You have the onions, tomato, and mushrooms stir fried on the wok.
Then here's your hot sauce.
Oh my gosh, you're nervous! You're nervous.
We're about to scream over here.
Oh, this too much?
You're like, that's too much, right?
I would go for it.
♪
That's bomb, it's spicy!
Yes!
Woo!
(Laughter)
That is spicy.
Alright.
♪
Mm. Mm!
It is like your classic stir fried rice
with a Peruvian twist, right?
The nice red peppers, the onions and mushrooms,
and that amazing salsa.
Thank you.
Oh wow.
Oh yeah.
I got just a little bit.
Yeah?
Is that it's right there, it's perfect.
Yeah. Well thank you very much.
You're welcome, thank you for coming over.
Alright, we're going to continue our food tour, Chris.
Sweet, let's do it.
We got the main event, baby.
The main event, Chris's down and dirty Dang.
Alright, Chef. So I'm in your house now.
So what are we cooking?
We are going to do some loaded fries
and my signature burger.
Mena: Your signature burger?
Chris: Yeah, it's called the Dang burger.
Mena: The Dang burger?
Chris: Yeah.
Mena: Nice.
'Cause I kind of baste my patties, you'll see right here.
And I flip 'em.
Mena: Ooh.
So this is actually a clarified vegan butter.
Ooh!
Burger butter.
Oh, get out here, while.
It gives you this richness.
Yes, baby.
I can tell it's clarified butter because we're cooking burgers
and it smells like popcorn.
This is a dirty, Gnarly burger!
♪
Local fermented pickle.
♪
Bomb, you know the way to my heart, Chris.
Yeah?
Yeah, oh yeah. Everything you're putting on there so far,
that's Mena right there.
Look at that.
Chris: That's the burger.
Alright, so we got the curly fries grown up.
As I grew up as a child, so did the curly fries.
And now they're this.
Look!
Look mom, a grown up curly fry.
Ooh!
Chris: This is my special 1K sauce.
Alright.
It's a rip on thousand island.
Yeah, yeah little bit of relish in there I see.
Just douse me in that.
Chris: We got some grilled onions.
Mena: I can't wait to eat this, man. I can't wait.
Chris: Let's do it.
♪
Alright, look at that. Oh my goodness.
This is my sauce that I've been working on
for probably about five years.
Chris, you don't need to explain anything to me.
(Laughter)
Because it's a thick potato, it goes a lot better the sauce,
man. So I think you, you know, I think you nailed that.
Mm!
How did you go plant-based in the first place?
I grew up kind of just not a big fan of meat, steaks,
or pork chops, or chicken or turkey.
Like I just, that wasn't my thing.
Wow, that's, that's a very unique kind of reason
that I don't hear a lot.
Usually people say the environment or the animals
or their health.
Right, that all came later for me.
Yeah. Alright, and this is your signature burger, yeah?
Yes it is.
The Dang burger.
Yeah.
Nice, love it. I mean, really, hot dang.
♪
(Chris chuckles)
That's so, so moist, delicious.
You got that flavour of the griddle.
♪
Mm!
(Laughs)
People that I've met at restaurants I went to where
their mission is just showing people how great
a vegetable can taste.
How great like, a natural food can taste.
Yeah.
I love that you're working to change the way people think
about what plant-based food can be.
That you don't have to sacrifice anything, you know,
to be plant-based.
You know, if you're feeling that comfort burger,
those gnarly fries, we got it here.
Yeah, oh absolutely.
There's people out there that don't even know this exists
in the vegan world.
So thanks, Chris. I appreciate you.
Right on. Thank you, I appreciate you.
♪
Man that's good.
The juiciest burger, mouthwatering fries,
the kind of food that's been at the forefront of introducing
meat eaters to the vegan Renaissance that's been
happening for years now.
♪
The urs and chefs in Portland were so unique.
I felt like I'd been invited into this
great diverse community.
And that we had to get everyone together to break bread.
Hey Mena, nice to see you.
How you doing?
It felt like the Portland thing to do.
I went mushroom foraging with Elan, And we got these beautiful
lobster mushrooms.
So we thought you could incorporate them.
Oh my goodness.
Elan: Yeah.
I have never seen a lobster mushrooms so giant.
Oh my goodness.
I call them honkers.
Honkers.
Honkers! Oh wow.
As everyone gets acquainted, Cyrus recruits me and my
underrated sous chef skills to help create one of his
signature dishes, Mapo tofu.
So what is Mapo tofu traditionally?
Mapo tofu is a dish created with the eating of less meat
in mind.
So they used all the like, spare parts at the butcher shop,
minced that up, and used that to create the savoury base.
And so instead we're going to use the lobster mushrooms
for that texture and that flavouring.
♪
Fragrance is one of the key and unique things about Mapo tofu.
You have the fragrance of the fermented black beans,
the Szechuan peppercorns, which has such distinct levers.
Smells incredible already.
(Laughs)
Wow!
It's wonderful.
Mena: Yeah.
We're going to make good use of that lobster mushroom.
Elan: Oh yeah.
A little bit of my house chili oil.
I make it at least a couple of times a month
'cause we go through so much of it.
It has all the different Chinese herbs and spices in there.
Oh my gosh.
I need a jar of that, man.
I brought you two.
You brought me two jars?
(Laughs)
Oh my god.
Cyrus: Thank you.
Mena: The tofu we're using is super fresh of course,
direct from Ota Tofu factory.
♪
Time for service.
Oh, oh, oh! Chef.
I got some treats for y'all.
Thank you so much.
Chris: Looking forward to it.
Thank you.
Mena: You're welcome.
It looks so good.
Mena: It's so amazing to share this meal amidst the trees
in that famous Pacific Northwest Forest.
Listen.
(Nature din)
We're eating in Portland, there's birds chirping...
In the woods.
The sunlight is beautiful.
Thank you Cyrus.
Thank you Cyrus, yeah.
Mena: You nailed it.
I mean dude, thank you so much.
So what's the one thing, Mena,
you can take away from Portland
since you've been here?
Oh, that's a good question.
That's a good question, Joe.
I think you guys just have the most unique flavour profile
out of any city I've been to.
Mm.
Like, the amount of love you put into your food, right?
And so you produce incredibly unique
flavours and you can tell,
thought's been put into everything, like,
at Fortune, everything.
Even though it's fried it's the best fried food I've ever had.
Because you pay attention to everything that you've done
and at Mama Dut I can tell that
it's authentic Vietnamese cuisine.
Cyrus, I've been tasting and eating your food for a few years
now and every time the flavours blow me away.
And you, Elan, you know, foraging mushrooms,
going out and finding
the best ingredients.
Like, we literally used your mushrooms in this dish.
Elan: Yeah.
It's pretty incredible just what you guys do here
in Portland.
We're so blessed to have such a close relationship
to our local farmers here.
And we live in a region where you can grow so many
different varieties of food and vegetables.
Absolutely.
If there's something that
you want to experiment with, you can bring
seeds from wherever and farmer here will plant that for you.
I feel like Portland is a place where if you're just
a scrappy, punky, punk
that wants to do your own thing, everyone from
the community as long as it's delicious, is like
"Absolutely and please give me more."
There's no competition.
-Yeah. -Yes.
We support...
We share resources and information.
I win, you win, we win.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I think the best way I can put it is that Portland
is a culinary plant-based breeding ground.
(Laughter)
Right?
Alright.
Cheers.
Rest: Cheers.
To Portland community and plant-based food.
Yeah.
Cheers to plant-based food.
Cheers.
Mena: I feel truly privileged to have
spent this time in Portland with
an incredibly eclectic and talented group of chefs
who welcomed me into their community.
Portland, I hope you keep it weird because the food coming
out of this town is some of the best I've ever had.
♪
(Whirring)
(Click)
(Musical din)