Samantha Bakall

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that America’s oldest tofu house calls Portland home. Starting in 1880, thousands of immigrants from Japan came to Oregon in hopes of finding work and a better life. Many came through Portland, and it wasn’t long before a Nihonmachi, or “Japantown,” formed in the city’s Old Town neighborhood. A growing number of young Japanese men, and eventually their wives and families, populated the area between Northwest Second and Sixth avenues. This new community created demand […]

Categories: Writing

While Sherry and her twelve-year-old niece, Sobeyda, were living in shelters across Portland and Vancouver, Sherry’s car was broken into and hundreds of dollars of clothes and medication were stolen. Both she and her niece contracted influenza B and needed to be hospitalized. They were harassed by a man also staying at one of the shelters. “We were sleeping there in the middle of a hundred people. I wanted to make sure we never got used to people living like […]

Categories: Writing

Winter is a magical season in Oregon, when much of the state slumbers beneath glistening powder, and the majestic mountains gleam like icy beacons. Skiers and snowboarders famously flock to the slopes of Mt. Hood as soon as the white stuff starts to fall, but winter fun doesn’t stop at the bottom of the hill. At nearly two dozen “Sno-Parks” (aka designated winter-recreation parking areas) around Oregon’s iconic peak, winter transforms alpine lakes, rivers and passes into new worlds of […]

Categories: Writing

“Have you ever tried kohlrabi before?” the tall, lean man asked over his shoulder, excitement growing on his face. Arthur Shavers looked like a schoolboy as he pushed his half-rim glasses up and focused his attention on the row of leafy greens waving in the breeze. He bent over, his fraying straw hat almost grazing the tips of the shimmering plants, and swam his hands through the crunchy leaves. His partner, Shantae Johnson, was already elbow-deep in greens, on the […]

Categories: Writing

Portland is widely regarded as one of America’s greatest food cities, but that’s due in large part to what lies beyond city limits: Oregon’s farm-fresh abundance. Home to evergreen forests, arid deserts, snowy peaks, grassy prairies, rocky coastlines and almost every ecosystem in between, this sprawling state is a wonderland of potential ingredients. Our bounty — from grass-fed beef in Eastern Oregon to sweet Dungeness crab harvested from beds of eelgrass off the Coast —feeds an ever-evolving and growing dining […]

Categories: Writing