A New Portland Pop-Up Is Recreating Food From Ancient Rome

Caraway Alexander’s Roman Empire is how citizens of the Roman Empire ate. “I’ve always really been interested in history,” they say. “Like the nitty-gritty of how people existed, what their markets were like, what their day-to-day was like. I find that really fascinating.” Currently a chef at the Tavern at Heathman, Alexander has worked at a wide range of Portland restaurants, including Akadi, Bollywood Theater, and Gado Gado. During a stint at an Italian restaurant, they began to look into how ancient Italians ate.

“I was really surprised that it was so drastically different from how we know Italian foods today,” they say. “There’s no tomatoes, there’s no eggplants, there’s no coffee, there’s no chocolate, there’s no peppers, there’s no pasta.” The ancient Romans used honey for sweetness, fish sauce for salt, and olive oil for fat. They also used spices that are no longer common in European cooking, like celery and lovage seeds.

After months of experimenting with Roman food, Caraway has launched a new project called Salona that is surely the only ancient Roman food pop-up in the Portland area. At their first event at the Mayfly this Sunday, May 18, from 2 to 6 p.m., Caraway will be serving dishes like pork belly with a red wine reduction over spelt porridge and chicken wings that are crusted with barley, fried, and served with a grape must. There’s also a salad with oenogarum (fish sauce, red wine, and olive oil), which Caraway describes as, “The original salad dressing. Like the first one.”

Caraway is planning more pop-ups in the future. Follow Salona on Instagram for updates.

Now for more news to know:

Carts on Foster is coming back

The food cart pod formerly known as Carts on Foster, which closed in 2023, is coming back under new ownership and with a new name. Now dubbed the Foster Food Carts, it still occupies the same lot on SE Foster Road and 52nd Avenue; Bridgetown Bites reports that it has room for 20 carts and will also feature a covered stage for music, stand-up, and other performances.

A Southern-ish chain is coming to the Portland area?

We confess to not knowing much about Huckleberry’s Breakfast and Lunch, but it’s apparently a California-birthed, “Southern-inspired” chain that, KOIN reports, is going to open three locations in the Portland area. Huckleberry’s has nearly three dozen locations across several states and is known for its beignets, stuffed French toast, and “N’awlins” sandwiches.

Famous Seattle bakery offering classes in Portland

Sea Wolf, which has been one of Seattle’s premiere bakeries for about a decade, is dipping its toes (paws?) into Portland. The bakery announced this week that it is holding sourdough classes on June 5 at 5 p.m. at the Woodblock Chocolate manufactory. “The class offered is introductory-level but goes into details that will help more advanced bread bakers through the key points of bread baking: hand mixing and folding, shaping, proofing and baking,” the announcement says. Tickets for the class are $120 and can be found here.