Restaurant Road Trip: Each week, Oregonian restaurant critic Michael Russell and reporter Sam Bakall will head out in search of interesting things to eat from Portland’s edges, ‘burbs and outer reaches. Have a tip? Let them know in the comments. It might just be the next place they visit.
Among the stranger quirks in the Portland-area restaurant scene are the half-dozen-odd Chinese spots that serve Korean dishes (and vice versa). I’ve eaten Korean-style black bean noodles, seafood noodle soups
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Restaurant Road Trip: Each week, Oregonian restaurant critic Michael Russell and reporter Sam Bakall will head out in search of interesting things to eat from Portland’s edges, ‘burbs and outer reaches. Have a tip? Let them know in the comments. It might just be the next place they visit.
Among the stranger quirks in the Portland-area restaurant scene are the half-dozen-odd Chinese spots that serve Korean dishes (and vice versa). I’ve eaten Korean-style black bean noodles, seafood noodle soups and kimchi at East Portland restaurants including Taipei Noodle Haus, Chinese Delicacy and Happy Garden, while Northeast Portland’s Frank’s Noodle House and its antecedent, Beaverton’s Du Kuh Bee, have menus that straddle both countries.
Much of this crossover comes from the proximity of the two countries. North Korea and China share a nearly 900-mile border, and there are plenty of overlaps between Korean and Northern Chinese food. But it’s an interesting trend nonetheless. So when a friend mentioned a Beaverton restaurant with another “secret Korean menu,” we jumped in the car to check it out.
Lin’s China Jade (4050 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton; 503-626-2487)is an American-Chinese restaurant off a large parking lot I’ve passed by a dozen times before, often on the way to Jang Choong Dong. It has a shallow-sloped, wood-lined A-frame roof that makes it look like it once housed a breakfast spot or diner. Inside, most of the customers were sitting in booths eating General Tso’s or sweet-and-sour chicken.
We leafed through a pile of menus sitting on a table near the front door, and there, under the large English menu, was a laminated one-pager written entirely in Korean. We ordered mandoo (Korean dumplings), a bowl of black bean noodles (jajangmyeon) and another of seafood noodle soup. The dumplings ended up being the restaurant’s standard, pork-filled Chinese pot stickers (not bad). The noodles, unfortunately, came out overcooked and soft in both dishes. (For jajangmyeon, I prefer Frank’s Noodle House, the hand-pulled noodle spot at 822 N.E. Broadway St., 503-288-1007.)
Beaverton easily ranks as Oregon’s best city for Korean food, and there are several great restaurants not far from Lin’s China Jade, including Nak Won, Jang Choong Dong and Spring. We can’t speak for the American Chinese food side of the menu, but the “secret” dishes we tried on this restaurant road trip didn’t wow us. Still, it’s always fun to find another Korean-Chinese mashup.
— Michael Russell