.. now sold out! Thanks for the reservations, we'll see you Sunday at 7 pm. Reminder: the event is family-style, cash only, $45 a head, drinks and gratuities not included. There will be an abbreviated cocktail menu and all beer, wine and n/a beverages available. Should be a fun night!

This is the menu for our big Northern Thai pig-out on November 4th, subject to minor changes:

Aahan Muang: Northern thai Food

Krabong Thawt & Kluay Thawt: Deep fried pumpkin and deep fried banana with dipping sauce.

Phrik Yat Sai: Deep fried chilies stuffed with ground pork.

Naam Phrik Ong: ground pork chili paste with crudites.

Khanom Jiin Phat: Stir-fried rice vermicelli with soy sauce and oyster sauce, normally served at special occasions.

Laap Kai Neua: Minced chicken salad with herbs, spices and crispy chicken skin.

Yam Samun Phrai: Northern Thai "herbal medecine" salad.

Kaeng Awm Neua: Spicy beef soup.

Phat Makheua Yao kap Tua Fak Yao: Stirfried Chinese eggplant and long beans.

Plaa Tap Tim Phao Kleua, Jaew: Salt-grilled golden Tilapia with tamarind dipping sauce.

Khanom Muang: Northern Thai dessert tray.

Khao Niaw Neua: Mixed white and black sticky rice.

Phonlamaay: Fresh fruit.

Khao Suay: Steamed jasmine rice.

Just got back from a 2 week trip to Chiang Mai and Bangkok and am preparing for several events. My friend Sunny Chailert, a talented cook and Thai food expert, is in town visiting from Chiang Mai and will be a special guest at all these events.

There will be: a chef's demo at the Portland Saturday Farmer's Market on October 27th,

a class at In Good Taste on Monday October 29th,

and a northern Thai feast on Sunday November 4th at Pok Pok.

The first 2 you can find out about by going to their respective websites.

The feast on November 4th will be family style, one seating only at 7pm. This will be a cash only event @ $45/head, not including beverages or gratuity. There will be multiple dishes including dessert and rice. I will post the menu early this coming week. For reservations, please call 503 232 1387 between 9am and 10pm, Monday through Friday, and 3pm-10pm Saturday.

We will be putting some new things on the menu soon gleaned from my recent trip. Cha Ca is back seeing as it’s our “signature dish” according to the WWeek and demand has forced the issue..and it’s a pretty good dish; Puu Phat Phong Karii (whole crab stirfried with curry powder, eggs, chilies, onions, oyster sauce, garlic, Chinese celery) is back as a special-- live Dungeness crabs are back on the market at reasonable prices. The saute cook is getting his butt kicked nightly!

Hi all. The evenings are getting chilly! Time to introduce some heartier items to the dinner menu. We are adding a really good dish from Chiang Mai called Kaeng Hung Leh which is a Burmese influenced curry of pork belly and pork shoulder with palm sugar, tamarind, ginger, pickled garlic and Burmese curry powder. Another dish from CM, Kaeng Phak Kad Jaw, will be added. It's yu choy cooked in tamarind broth with pork ribs, shrimp paste, and dried chiles (we can do it without the pork and shrimp paste for the veges).  Also, by popular demand, the steak salad is back on. I guess that's one we just can't take off the menu.

And lastly, but not leastly, the Fish Sauce Wings have finally made it onto the lunch menu. meant to do it a while ago, but somehow for a multitude of reasons it's taken until now. BTW, Food & Wine magazine is threatening to feature the wings in their December issue.

 Hope all is well. Ok, andy

Our bar manager, Dave Kaufman of the luxurious facial hair, took me on an expensive shopping trip to the liquor store this week. As a result, our whiskey selection is continuing to grow. Of note is A.H. Hirsch Bourbon, distilled in 1974, bottled around 1989 and incredibly smooth. Good story: Pennsylvania distillery that stopped production in '74, barrels were eventually shipped to Kentucky and bottled and have been popping up on the market occasionally since then. It ain't cheap, but it is good! We also have a few Rye whiskeys and more scotchs and bourbons. Look for some interesting whiskey flights on the specials board.

The sugarcane juicing machine finally has some sugarcane to juice! We juiced the first bundle yesterday and are running a cocktail special with it: Naam Oi (which is Thai for sugarcane juice)  with Barbancourt Rum and fresh lime juice. The sugarcane is stupid expensive right now so we're not selling the juice by itself as we'd need to get about $6.00 a glass!  Hopefully the Fresno crop will start soon (or so they tell me at the produce company) and the price will come down.

Hope all is well, andy

With the change in weather will come a change or two here at 2pok. We will now be seating upstairs in the new dining room for lunch, meaning we can accomodate larger parties by reservation and walk-in if there is room. A call ahead of arrival the day of for large groups would probably be wise for you and very helpful for us.

We will be getting out the heaters for the patio starting this week as the evening temperatures are starting to drop into the sub 60 degree range. We will enclose the tent and porch and lean-to  to help keep the wind and rain off in the next couple of weeks. We will keep on seating the outdoor areas for lunch and dinner as long as the weather holds out, or until people stop wanting to sit outside. We will then use the covered and heated areas for waiting areas or table service for the cold months.

We are starting to get requests for holiday parties already, so if anyone is interested in having a large group in, please contact Alethea between 9AM and 5PM , Monday-Friday. We are open to the possibility of renting the whole downstairs dining area on Sundays for private functions.

Hope all is well. Ok, Andy. 

New menu items introduced on Wednesday, first opportunity to make some changes since the Dining Guide came out. It's been a bit hectic around here, to say the least but it has started to even out a bit. Hoping all you regulars who have been staying away to avoid the post-ROY hordes will make your way back soon; we miss you!

Beer Lao (brewed in Laos), imo the best SE Asian beer made, is being distributed in Portland again. Needless to say, we are stocked. Also, Beer Chang from Thailand has finally made it's way to these shores and into the coolers of Pok Pok. For those of you who have been to Thailand, here is your chance to revisit the infamous "Changover". 

A good friend from Chiang Mai, Sunny Chailert, will be coming here in the fall. We hope to teach a class together and possibly do a big Northern Thai feast at Pok Pok on a Sunday.  Also, we will be putting together short culinary tours of Chiang Mai for folks heading that way on vacation. If all goes well, we should have a package together by the fall. I will post that info when it gets more solid. 

Hope your summer is is going well. see you soon. Ok. Andy

New menu goes into effect tomorrow, 6/8/07. Added a couple dishes, deleted a couple dishes. Steak salad is back on, crab fried rice is off, added a really good squid salad for dinner, and one of my favorite lunch items: Khao Kha Muu, which is whole pork leg stewed in soy and spices and served chopped on rice with stewed pickled mustard greens and an egg that has been hard boiled in the braising liquid. 

The Khao Soi has now completed it's transformation with the addition of fresh natural chicken on the bone which, along with the house pressed coconut milk, makes it pretty much as close as I can get to my favorite noodles from Chiang Mai. We have been making coconut milk with a simple machine I brought back from Thailand, which is a smaller version of the one used in all the fresh markets all over the Land Of Smiles. It presses fresh grated coconut through a screw and mesh assembly to produce a sweet, nutty, subtly flavored milk that can't be compared to canned. Cooking the fresh chicken on the bone adds a depth of flavor that boneless can't. The bad news is that it makes the dish more expensive, the good news is that it is available on the dinner menu (making it available on the premises all open hours) now and is a bigger portion. 

Upstairs dining room opens on Monday!  

That's all for now, thanks for tuning in.  

We have gotten the go-ahead from the OLCC for full service out on the patio and in our new dining room upstairs. Outdoor seating begins on Monday, June 4th at 11:30am.

For the summer, the patio will be table service only. The full lunch and dinner menus will be available during those hours. Between lunch and dinner service (2:30 pm-5:00 pm), the shack menu will be available along with libations from the bar. We will not be taking reservations for the patio. 

The shack will become a to-go window only and will not be taking orders for people who want to eat here. To eat on the premises you will now be able to sit down and get served rather than going to the shack window. For to go orders, you may either come to the shack window and order or phone ahead as usual. We now have a POS terminal in the shack so credit payments can be accepted on the spot. No more "cash only" or being sent to the host/bartender to pay by card.

The new inside dining area, the Living Room, will be available to parties of 5 or more by reservation, just dinner to start by Monday June 11th. It's not a huge space (only 4 tables), each table can seat 6 or 8 people and we can configure for up to a 12 top at one table. We will start taking reservations for the Living Room next week. Please call the restaurant between 9am and 10:30pm for reservations. 

 

Good News,
We have gotten the go-ahead from the OLCC for full service out on the patio and in our new dining room upstairs. Outdoor seating begins on Monday, June 4th. Upstairs dining begins Monday, June 11th. Cocktail service on the patio has already begun!

For the summer, the patio will be table service only. The full lunch and dinner menus will be available during those hours. Between lunch and dinner service (2:30 pm-5:00 pm), the shack menu will be available along with libations from the bar. We will not be taking reservations for the patio.

The shack will become a to go window only and will not be taking walk up orders for people who want to eat on the patio. To eat on the premises you will now be able to sit down and get served rather than going to the shack window. This is to relieve some of the pressure on the shack staff so they can concentrate on making the food well and to alleviate log jams during busy hours.

For to go orders, you may either come to the shack window and order or phone ahead as usual. We now have a POS terminal in the shack so credit payments can be accepted on the spot. No more "cash only" or being sent to the host/bartender to pay by card.

The new air conditioned dining area, the Living Room, will be available to parties of 5 or more by reservation (yeah, we’re going to give it a shot) by Monday June 11th...just dinner to start until we sort out the bugs; lunch to follow soon afterwards. It's not a huge space (only 4 tables), but each table can seat 6 or 8 people and we can configure up to a 12-top at one table. We will start taking reservations for the Living Room next week. If you want to make a reservation please call the restaurant, starting next week, between 9am and 10:30pm Monday-Friday and Saturday after 4 pm.

All these changes are going to take some adjusting to, for us as well as you, but hopefully will make for a smoother, more consistent operation on our side, and a better experience from the customer’s point of view. I’m doing all I can to make the transition go as swimmingly as possible!

Thanks, Andy.

Pok Pok will be closed Monday, May 28th for Memorial Day. Happy barbecuing!

Hi all,

We have just got a menu change done today. You can go to the menu section of this website to see the new dishes. There are some that may be a little more challenging (Sup Naw Mai, Plaa Op, Kaeng Om Neua) and some that will be immediately accessible (Phat Makheua Yao, Khao Phat Puu now on the dinner menu) and some that may be a different take on something you may have had before (Yam Wun Sen). Some have been succesful as specials or past menu items (Cha Ca La Vong, Som Tam Phonlamaay). 

We are also running a dessert special, the Whiskey-Coke Float (whiskey-vanilla bean ice cream in cola with a splash of whiskey: redundancy with the whiskey is good, i can attest to that personally).

New dining room is still a couple of weeks out: we are now waiting for OLCC approval for the new seating.

The electrician hooked up wire to the air conditioning today and as soon as the HVAC guys charge the system, we will have cooling! The hot summer days, and even the warm spring days for that matter, will be more comfortable in the basement. Should be ready by the weekend.

Pok Pok reopened today after a 2 week hiatus during which we replaced our kitchen floor and did some other maintenance. The new dining area is not ready yet, but should be ready in about 3 weeks. We will post more info as soon as we can. Upon completion, we should be able to accomodate larger parties by reservation only. We won't be accepting reservations until the we know exactly when the space will be done. With good weather will come outdoor seating with table service and (hopefully) adult beverages. see you soon!

Hi All,

We will reopen as planned on Monday the 30th of April. Regular hours will be in force. Unfortunately, the new dining room is still a couple of weeks out due to construction delays, so look for another update around mid-may on that.

I have just returned from a brief trip to Thailand, buying gear for the the expansion and learning some new dishes. We will be getting a "khruang kan naam oy" (sugarcane juicer, in English), so we will be having fresh sugarcane juice when the machine is up and running and the sugarcane is available. Look for menu changes in the next couple of weeks and the sugarcane juice probably by June. 

Thanks, andy 

The Ataulfo mango (also known as Phillipine Mango) is back in season. They are primarily grown in Mexico for the north American market, the season goes from march to september. Ataulfos are yellow, oblong and when ripe are very sweet and unlike the most common variety found in the supermarket are not very fibrous in texture. They are similar to varieties found in Thailand. We serve them at Pok Pok Thai street style on sweet sticky rice, with a slightly salty and sweet coconut cream and sesame seeds: Khao Niaw Mamuang. You can get them to go or in the dining room.