Meet the Creative Vegan Pop-Up Rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine - Eater Portland

Surong comes from Hannah Che, writer of The Vegan Chinese Kitchen, who serves beet dumplings, lotus effect sticky rice, and herbal broth brined tofu skin

by Waz Wu Jan 20, 2023, 1:10pm PST

Last October, diners gathered successful Malka’s eclectic eating country not to devour crispy atom salads oregon matzo shot khao soi, but thing wholly different. Osmanthus syrup-drenched lotus basal slices, stuffed with saccharine sticky rice, arrived astatine tables alongside cumin-spiced lion’s mane mushroom skewers, served with peanut condiment connected mismatched plates. Beancurd tegument rolls bathed successful an earthy brine of ginseng, mushroom, and prima anise, portion five-spiced cakes made of yuca and taro came with a crown of Sichuan adust cookware brassicas, accented with the honey-like sweetness of figs.

Hannah Che, the nutrient blogger-turned-vegan cook down Surong, melds accepted Chinese cooking with section nutrient to make dishes that are distinctively Chinese, yet uniquely tied to Oregon. This meal was Che’s archetypal exploration into the Portland pop-up world, a period aft her cookbook The Vegan Chinese Kitchen deed bookstores. In 2023, Surong whitethorn go 1 of the hottest caller pop-ups successful town, acknowledgment to Che’s originative and elegant presumption of Chinese vegan cuisine, honoring its accepted roots portion offering an inspiring caller perspective.

The sanction of the pop-up came from the pistillate who taught Che to cook: her mother. Surong is an etymological mashup of some Che’s individuality arsenic a cook and what she’s trying to bash done nutrient — Su virtually translates to “vegan” and “vegetarian” successful Chinese. Rong is Che’s puerility nickname, arsenic good arsenic the quality successful ronghua, meaning ‘to blend.’

At Surong, the cook blends her ain originative twist into acquainted Chinese dishes, incorporating Oregon-grown vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts. Che views this arsenic a balancing enactment that is partially practical, arsenic galore Chinese ingredients would person to beryllium imported, but besides successful alignment with the holistic quality of traditional Chinese medicine, which emphasizes seasonal eating and mindful sourcing of ingredients.

No 2 Surong pop-ups are alike. Che changes the paper based connected what’s successful play and however she interprets and balances ingredients done the principles of accepted Chinese medicine, including the 5 spirit elements: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and pungent oregon spicy. While it is akin to Western spirit profiles, Che emphasizes that these elements play a deeper relation successful presumption of the qualities of each dish. “It’s not astir seasoning, but the innate spirit and quality of the ingredient,” she says, referring to qualities similar chill versus lukewarm and damp versus dry.

While ingredients similar ginger and goji berries are well-known arsenic Chinese herbal medicine, the conception of nutrient arsenic medicine applies to each plants — which Che tries to seizure with her dishes. “Even ingredients that radical don’t see medicine, similar yams, lotus root, and Napa cabbage,” she says. “They each person yin oregon yang energy.” The cook says her relation is to determine however to interact with the ingredients, arsenic antithetic cooking techniques, similar steaming versus frying, make antithetic yin oregon yang energies too.

For the upcoming Surong pop-up coinciding with Lunar New Year, the cook volition service a five-course tasting paper of auspicious foods showcasing 5 wintertime vegetables: daikon, carrot, beet, fennel, and ginger. Dumplings, a accepted Lunar New Year crockery served to usher successful wealthiness and bully fortune, volition get 2 ways: arsenic a daikon-eggplant-tomato wonton soup, and arsenic beet-and-shiitake crystal dumplings. A awesome of prosperity and household reunion, pearl sticky atom meatballs are connected the paper excessively — Che makes hers retired of tofu tegument and carrots, serving them with carrot hoisin. Chinese vegetarian roast “goose,” made of layered beancurd tegument and thinly julienned vegetables, is simply a accepted Buddhist crockery with roots that tin beryllium traced backmost to the Song Dynasty. Che recalls seeing this crockery successful restaurants each implicit China; however, her mentation volition usage fennel alternatively of bamboo shoots. For dessert, the cook volition marque a mashup of her favourite blistery Chinese desserts, combining douhua (silken tofu pudding), reddish legume filled tangyuan (glutinous atom balls), and taro sago (tapioca).

While Chinese nutrient tin beryllium meat-heavy astatine times, Che’s conception is not astir veganizing meaty dishes; instead, Surong is astir embracing different broadside of Chinese cuisine that is vegan-friendly by quality and profoundly rooted successful centuries aged Chinese philosophies. Although the cook respects mock meats and eats them astatine home, vegetables are the prima of the amusement astatine Surong, on with tofu and beancurd skin.

Che initially started her blog The Plant-Based Wok arsenic a originative outlet to stock her nutrient photography. When she began sharing recipes of her own, her blog caught the attraction of publishers. From the start, she had a wide imaginativeness of a cookbook that focused solely connected vegan Chinese cuisine.

With the thought of entering the edifice manufacture stewing astatine the backmost of her mind, Che enrolled successful culinary schoolhouse successful Guangzhou. She experienced the afloat multitude of Chinese culinary creativity done vegetarian buffets, homestyle cooking, and good dining.

But it wasn’t conscionable the flavors that inspired her. Growing up, Che was influenced by her mother’s involvement successful shiliao — a subdivision of accepted Chinese medicine that uses nutrient arsenic preventive and curative therapy — but surviving successful Guangzhou and Taipei deepened her involvement successful accepted Chinese medicine and its culinary principles.

When Che returned to Portland successful November 2021, she began moving arsenic a enactment navigator astatine respective restaurants, including vegan dim sum store Jade Rabbit and Din Tai Fung’s Tigard outpost, earlier landing astatine Malka. As Che gained much assurance successful the kitchen, Malka proprietor Jessie Aron encouraged her to prosecute pop-ups.

Che says her inspiration comes from Portland’s galore restaurants that are representing a circumstantial cuisine successful an inventive way: Malka’s Southeast Asian flavors, Han Oak and Toki’s Korean food, Gado Gado’s Chinese-Indonesian menu, and Thai cuisine astatine Paadee and the different Akkapong Earl Ninsom restaurants. “It’s authentic to the cook who is making it,” Che says. “That’s what authentic to maine truly means — authentic to your ain inheritance and lived experiences.”

Follow Surong connected Instagram for pop-up details and reservations.