Han Oak occupies
an industrial
building in Portland,
Oregon, where chef
Peter Cho, his wife,
and their 2-year-old
live as well.
Han Oak’s Brunch
Tray: soy-braised
cod with poached
vegetables, savory
kimchi waffle,
and other assorted
banchan.complex, when I visited, close to the Lunar
New Year, felt like Blade Runner on antide-
pressants: Chinese pop music and red lan-
terns in the trees, happy railroads ferrying
small children, ponds overflowing with
turtles. It is also the home of Johnny Lee’s
Side Chick, the product of the 30-year-old
chef ’s obsessive pursuit of perfection in a
single dish, Hainan chicken rice. It’s one of
those seemingly simple foods that reward
the deep dive of food nerd-dom: Chicken
is slowly poached and then served with
rice cooked in the resulting broth. Unlike,
FAST-FOOD
EXPANSION- The Halal Guys, Everywhere
I’ve always wanted a bumper ˆ
sticker reading “I’d Rather
Be Eating Shawarma.” The
explosive growth of this chain
with roots in a famous
N.Y.C. food cart guarantees
I can do so nearly
anywhere.
BEST OF
201794 /GQ/ 05.17
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: AARON LEE; KARI YOUNG. OPPOSITE PAGE: ANNE FISHBEIN.