Pok Pok

You know how you have friends you don't speak to very often, either because they live far away or because your lives are just so hectic?... but yet, when you do speak to them, you can just pick up where you left off? Well, I am extremely blessed to have a few of those friends. Friends that don't blame you for not calling for 6 months; friends that may have taken different paths in their lives and may be at a different point in their life than you, but are always happy to see when they do or gladly talk to you when you make the time? One of those friends is an old friend of mine from high school named Thao aka "Shortie" (yes, that's a childhood nickname and yes, we still call her that :)

Thao was actually my very first new (and first Vietnamese) friend in high school. We had to sit next to each other in P.E. (don't ask me why, but we sat in alphabetical order) (surprise surprise to you people on the East Coast, we also both have the same last name :) and while I thought she was mean at first (don't kill me Shortie :) we quickly became friends and as I busted my ass in hockey and dodge ball for an "A," Thao skipped class every other day and got the same grade!!! She literally did not break a sweat the entire year :P

We reminisced about that phenomenon during a long overdue dinner at a restaurant in SE Portland called Pok Pok last night. I had heard about it from a friend, while Thao had seen it featured on the Food Network and when I looked it up, realized it was given the 2007 Oregonian Restaurant of the Year award. Whatever happened in '08 and '09, I have no idea... but we still thought it was worth a try!

Pok Pok features a Southeast Asian street food menu, with special emphasis on dishes from North and Northeast Thailand. Thao and I agreed that we should try their most famous dish, Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings (thank god Michael wasn't with us - I don't know how "fish sauce" in the name of its most famous dish would fly with him) and paired it with the waitress' recommendation of Papaya Pok Pok (papaya salad) and Kuung Op Wun Sen (a claypot with prawns).


The chicken wings were marinated in fish sauce, garlic and sugar, deep fried and tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic. Supposedly, this recipe comes from Pok Pok's daytime grill cook's home in Vietnam... we wondered where Ike is originally from in Vietnam because neither of us had ever had aVietnamese dish like this before! It was a very interesting take on chicken wings and a very good one at that! Meanwhile, the papaya salad was good, but nothing special.

And the prawns baked in a clay pot were a Chinese influence on Thai food, baked over charcoal with pork belly, whiskey, soy, ginger, cilantro root and black pepper.


Overall, if you're looking for authentic Thai food, there are definitely better places in Portland (try the new Thai Fresh on SE Division), but if you're up to trying some new dishes in a cool atmosphere (we sat inside their "Whiskey Soda Lounge," but you can also sit outside under heated lamps and order snacks from their shack), Pok Pok is worth a visit.

As for me and Shortie, she finally revealed to me she did extra credit to get that "A" in P.E. WHAT?! I didn't know that was even an option! Maybe during our next dinner, she'll explain to me how she did extra credit without exerting any physical activity!