In the kitchen at North Portland Chinese restaurant XLB, former sous chef Mike Bautista and former line cook Xrysto Castillo used to stir fry ho fun, toss wontons in chile oil, and pleat the restaurant’s namesake soup dumplings. It was here that owners Jasper Shen and Linh Tran asked them what their goals and aspirations were. After discovering they had a similar background, Bautista and Castillo realized they shared dream of opening a Filipino food cart. Shen encouraged them to join forces.
That dream is now a reality: a cart parked in the Lil’ America food pod, a project from Shen and Tran’s restaurant group Win Win. Makulít, a
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