Food & Wine USA - (07)July 2020

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66 JULY 2020

clockwise from top left: Pig ear salad

and mee goreng; Chinese sausage and

shrimp dumplings; Mariah Pisha-

Duffly mixes a drink at Gado Gado.

“The whole world changed, and it hap-

pened so quickly that it took us a min-

ute to figure out what to do. Having to

lay off my staff was the worst day of my

life. I just wanted to curl into a ball and

be with my wife and daughter. But I

couldn’t afford to do that, or I would

have no restaurant to come back to.

We (my wife, Mariah, and I) quickly

realized it made no sense to serve our

regular menu for takeout. We originally

started as a pop-up, so we decided to

return to our roots. We put Gado

Gado on pause and launched Oma’s

Takeaway, with a different menu every

night. The food is totally different—it’s

essentially stoner food. We even open

at 4:20 p.m. Right now, we are cooking

whatever we want. We make things like

homemade dan dan noodles with a

blood sausage ragù, burgers with chile-

onion jam and buns griddled in coconut-

herb butter, and a mazemen ramen

Alfredo. It’s not a viable business yet,

but we are making enough to keep the

lights on.” —THOMAS PISHA-DUFFLY

why we love them

Gado Gado translates to “mix mix,” which

describes the energy at chef Thomas

Pisha-Duffly’s venture, where the food of

his Indonesian grandmother meets his

U.S. upbringing. It’s kitchen magic: deeply

savory pork and blood sausage corn dogs

with hoisin-spiked mayo; clams cooked

with Coca-Cola and lemongrass, punched

up with pickled chiles. The namesake gado

gado—sweet potato, green beans, and

tempeh in a peanut sauce—makes it extra

fun to eat your vegetables.

their pivot

portland, or

PLAYFUL INDONESIAN FOOD

WITH GIGANTIC FLAVORS IN

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

GADO

GADO