Fried Cheese Pizza: A Unique Gem in Portland's Food Scene

Hidden gems are often found in the unlikeliest of places, and for food enthusiasts, one such gem can be found in Portland, Oregon. A place called Junkyard, tucked away across the Morrison Bridge from downtown Portland and across the street from the Oregon Ballet Theatre, is a must-visit destination for those who dare to try something new and exciting. The brainchild of two sandwich-making fanatics, Craig and Nick, Junkyard has been serving up unique sandwiches that will leave even the most discerning palates singing.

Bunk Sandwiches: A House Cured Delight

One such creation is the bunk sandwich, a labor of love that showcases the duo's dedication to using only the freshest ingredients. From cured meats like pork belly to Vietnamese banh mi, every component of this sandwich is carefully crafted to create a truly unforgettable experience. "We just make whatever we want," declares Nick Wood, chef and co-owner of Junkyard. "There's always something different." This approach to sandwich-making has earned Junkyard a loyal following among Portlanders who crave something new and exciting.

Pork Belly Rub: The Secret to Success

So what sets Junkyard apart from other sandwich shops? According to Craig, it all comes down to the pork belly rub. A carefully crafted blend of spices, including chili flake, black pepper, fennel seed, brown sugar, salt, and a hint of nutmeg, this rub is the key to unlocking the full flavor potential of the pork belly. "You can put pork belly on anything, and you're going to be all right," says Craig, who has spent years perfecting his recipe. By using only the freshest spices and applying just the right amount of pressure, Junkyard's chefs are able to coax out the deepest, richest flavors from even the most mundane ingredients.

Russian Dressing: A Game-Changer

No discussion of Junkyard would be complete without mentioning their take on Russian dressing. While many might settle for a bland, mass-produced condiment, Junkyard's version is anything but. Made with mayonnaise, ketchup, whole grain mustard, egg, pickles, salt, and red wine vinegar, this dressing is the perfect accompaniment to the pork belly sandwich. But that's not all - Craig adds a secret ingredient: bacon fat. "A little bit," he says, "just enough to give it that extra kick." This clever twist has earned Junkyard fans everywhere.

The Mini Panini: A Masterclass in Sandwich-Making

So what happens when you combine the pork belly rub with some dark rye bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and a liberal slathering of butter? Magic, pure magic. The mini panini that emerges from Junkyard's kitchen is a masterclass in sandwich-making, showcasing each component perfectly balanced to create a truly transcendent culinary experience. As one enthusiastic fan puts it, "You get the subtleties of the pork mixed with the really nice rub... it's like a party in your mouth." With Junkyard on their radar, Portlanders will have no choice but to return again and again to sample this culinary gem.

A Visit to Junkyard: Tips for First-Timers

So you've heard about Junkyard and are ready to give it a try. But how do you navigate the menu? According to Craig, the best approach is to simply "load the trunk" - meaning, don't be afraid to try new things! With options ranging from cured meats to Vietnamese banh mi, there's something for every palate. And if you're feeling adventurous, consider taking a seat at the counter and watching as the chefs work their magic. It's an experience you won't soon forget.

In conclusion, Junkyard is a must-visit destination for anyone who loves great food, unique flavors, and a healthy dose of adventure. Whether you're a seasoned foodie or just looking to try something new, this Portland gem has something for everyone. So pack your bags, grab your appetite, and get ready to experience the best of Portland's culinary scene - all in one delicious package.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enNorwegian meatball wrap's are up.Dehydrated Idaho Russets.Rehydrate with water.Extra virgin olive oil.Okay. Kosher salt.We need our mashed potatoes and our flournow.We're going to ball it up.We're going to roll them out.So for every left so you make, you have to gothrough this whole process, correct?So if you tried to pick this up, it wouldjust break off, it would tear.And you have your Harry Potter sword andyou're going to be able to pick that up.This place is magical.This is the left of wand.And then you come over to the griddle andyou roll it out.It's going to cook usually about 35 secondseach side.Once it gets cooked.It will hold together enough that you can useit as a wrap.Okay. Our next game plan is we're going tomake our toast.Gravy.Yay! Toast.Yay, Toast. This is a roux.So kind of brown. The butter and brown.The flour a little bit.Milk, white wine.Great. Madeira wine, kosher salt.Our toast. Cheese, Nutmeg.Next, meatballs.Start with our rye. Breadcrumbs, Milk andcream.Eggs. The toasted flour that we end up withfrom making pizza.We save it and use it.Well done. Caramelized onions, salt, blackpepper, allspice, ground beef and groundpork. Chill this for three hours, and.Then we're going to bake them.Off for eight minutes.About 475 toasted our left side greencabbage.And then this is the recall, which is asweet and sour purple cabbage with carawayseed caraway with it.This is the gravy that you saw.Yes. Meatballs.Roll it up. Kind of like a burrito.Cut it in half.How have I existed this long without havingthis delicious, tender, nice meatball?Yeah. Toast sauce.Lights out. Wow. That's good.So I'm here in the southwest area ofPortland, Oregon, to check out a place wherethe chef came from a long background in thecorporate world.And finally, one day, he said he's going tobreak free.That's right. He's going to do things on hisown terms, do things his own way.He's going to cook from his favorite seasonsand his favorite regions.Wait a second. That'd be a perfect name fora restaurant.This is Seasons and Regions Seafood Grill.Salmon salad on the fly.The seafood is so fresh and.It's always delicious.Got monkfish linguine.There's a lot of good mom and pops inPortland, and this is definitely one of them.It's just out of this world and out of thebox, which is how chef and owner Greg Schwabrolls.We take the best of the season and we useworld cuisine recipes.So what that means is that we can dowhatever we want.If you want to make it, you can do it.You can do it how you want to do it.It kind of switches it up depending on what'savailable, which is pretty great.But I haven't had a better show in Portlandyet.With crab cake pick up, place.The fish in the torpedoes, always superfresh.The sauce is outrageous.It's got great spice, it's got great depthof flavor.So what are we going to make?Northwest Seafood.Spino Okay, okay.We're going to make our Spino broth first.Olive oil, carrots, onions, celery puree,garlic, thyme, pepper flakes, black pepper,ground fennel.Marjoram. Oregano bay leaf, kosher salt.Next up, sugar.Red wine, vinegar, red wine, lemon juice,basil puree, anchovy paste for a little morefish flavor there.Clam stock, tomato paste, diced tomato,crushed tomato water.How long is this all going to cook down for?Two hours.I assume that you're able to just mix in theseafood that you like when you have it, whenit's fresh? Yes. What are we running today?We're going to top it with a Dungeness crabcake.A crab cake goes on top.Yes. That I haven't seen.Precooked onions, egg roasted red pepper,parsley, Tabasco for heat, Worcestershiresauce, old bay seasoning, Dijon, and nowlocal Dungeness.Yep. Just a little binder of the breadcrumb.Make that into one big crab cake for me, andthat'll be fine.There you go.So we're going to give our ring of just alittle spray, some panko, the crab, and thenpanko on top.We're going to pan fry this.Actually, we're going to deep fry it.Time to build it.A little clarified. Butter salmon, a littlerockfish, salt, spring mussels, white wine,lemon juice.Some of the Spino bass that we built.Fantastic. Mussels are open.A little more salt pepper, a little parsley.It smells fantastic.Crab cake, chive on top.And that's all she wrote. That's really good.That broth is fantastic.Typically, when you have Spino, you know youlike to have some bread or something to dipit into, and this crab cake on top isperfectly crunchy, which would be kind oflike the crusty bread going into it.Works incredibly well.Thank you, chef, for wrecking it, becausethis is what I'm going to expect now is alittle salty, crunchy crab right on top,Something I didn't see coming, but Idefinitely would eat all day for the rest ofthe week.Excellent. Starting now.We've got Spino.Oh, the Spino is good.The crab cake is delicious.It's always so flavorful.Can't be beat.So I'm here in Eugene, Oregon, home of theDucks, University of Oregon.Now, what else can you expect when you cometo Eugene?An hour and a half off the coast of Oregon.Exactly. Great fresh seafood.That's because they got this jointfisherman's market.Every time I come in here, they'll bebringing fresh fish in.You know, whether it's going to be salmon oralbacore or halibut.They live right there.They cook them right there, and they serveit right here.And I eat it.Brian, he just is an expert on fish.That's because Ryan Rogers is the real deal.Hardcore fish in an Alaska for decades whilerunning this joint since 97.All the fish that's here is coming from.Mostly all from.Oregon. You have all your buddies and all thehookups and yeah.It's like it was swimming yesterday.Some of it still is.See the crab and the crab tank and then theycook it up for you fresh.It's just amazing.Crab dinner with fries and slaw.They cook the crab and a crab pot right outthe front door.You can't get any fresher.All right. Wow.That'll work for you.But that is hot crap.That's outrageous. Without question.The most seafood flavored crab really, Ithink, has to be the Dungeness.Some lemon juice.I'll take a little dip in some butter.That slaw.Nice crunch really refreshes the palate.That's the freshest experience you can get.It's juicy.It's succulent.You don't even need the butter.It's so wonderful.Dungeness crab.Dinner. Dungenous crab is especially sweet.And it's got such a really good flavor youcan't get it fresher.I like the fisherman's market because there'sjust.Nothing else like it.It's extremely unique.Kind of a crazy place.You got tanks making noise and coolers andpeople buying fish.Dude's cooking right there.It's different food than you can get fromanywhere else.You can get fish and chips with any kind offish.Any kind of fish. Seriously?Can't get.Bored. You can always try something new.The Cajun crawfish pie.Time for pie.What's that you're putting on top?Sour cream. And what do you have over hereon the salad?We got smoked.Salmon house salad.Dude, that's outrageous.You smoked this in house?Of course. You're so gangster.Let's look at this.Mm. Great crust.Not soupy. Not too thick.Tender. There is tender and succulent, andthe texture of them is awesome.I didn't know about the sour cream thingyou're doing, but it's excellent.This is crazy, man.Oh. It's perfect.Just enough spice to have a little kick.This is to die for.It's so flaky.It just can't get any fresher unless youcaught it yourself.If I'm hungry.I just say we're going here.This is a full.Seafood culinary experience from the livetanks to the fresh seafood market, doing thefood dishes like that.How much you think we can fit in the back ofthat car?You know, I'm only about.Eight hours away from my town.I sit up. So I'm here on the 99 E.Highway, about 17 miles from Eugene, Oregon,97 miles from Portland in this little farmingcommunity. Now, this is an unincorporatedtown called Lancaster.And the lady that owns the town, well, herson happens to own the only restaurant intown. Now. You think that's interesting?Wait till you see the menu.This is Junkyard, Extreme Burger and Brats.Okay. I've got a Wisconsin and a Chicago.I'm a big eater and I like big hamburgers andbig hot dogs.And this is definitely.A you can expect to get messy.We never suffer from a lack of food when wecome here.And that's how owners Craig and Kim Zumwaltlike it big and bold.After working in Nashville's music biz,Craig headed back home and opened this placein zero six.How many people live here in Lancaster?Probably about 30.Wow. Is this a trailer?It's a race trailer.And then you built the shed on next to it?Yes. Awesome.Okay, I've got a party in your mouth and afried cheese pizza.Today I'm having the fried cheese pizza.The best part is the cheese.And that's what the crust is.And what are we going to make?We're going to make Crustless pizza.It's a fried cheese pizza.The Temple of Health. You guys should have agym right next to this place.All right, let's hit it.Take our pineapple right over here to thegrill.Boom. I'm going to take our parmesan about,like, so.Cheddar, onion, little gorgonzola.All the members of the cheese family areshowing up for this pepperoni.Throw a little mozzarella on there.More cheese. More cheese.Now we're going to run that homemade pizzasauce right across here and a little olive.Now we're going to throw on our grilledpineapple, then our in-house pesto thickerdome. Voila.Cooks for maybe two and a half, threeminutes.So we're going to top with some slicedtomatoes.We're going to cut it.Wow. That holds up a lot better than Ithought it was going to.This right here is just a gigantic thing ofthat crunchy fried cheese that you love onthe outside of a quesadilla.The fact that you put toppings on it, it'scrazy.Look at that. Fried cheese.Can't beat it.Hey, here, Carrie. Here's your fried cheesepizza.It's extremely addicting.You have to share it. Everybody wants to tryit.I have never seen a fried cheese pizzaanywhere else.Junkyard is unique foods that you just can'tfind anywhere else.This is a hidden gem.I'm telling you, dude, we've seen some crazystuff on triple D.This is up there. Crazy Craig and the carcarrier.Loving it. Very nice.Just across the Morrison Bridge fromdowntown Portland and across the street fromthe Oregon Ballet Theatre.Now I give you these specific drivinginstructions because I drove by the jointtwice. Is this place bunk sandwiches wheretwo dudes are scratch making the not soordinary sandwiches made by a couple of realfood fanatics.All right, I've got a cured meats, Tommy.Habits.How the Reubens doing?And Nick Wood coming your way.Who met at a fine dining joint.I hired Nick. He was my sous chef, and wealways.Just really enjoyed making sandwiches, so wedecided to open a sandwich shop.Holly, We just make whatever we want.There's always.Something different.Like bunk own house cured pork.Belly. You can put.Pork belly on anything, and you're going tobe all right.From a po boy. Oh, my God.It's so good to.A Vietnamese banh mi.Very fresh even there.Ruben, I'm dying to try the pork belly.Reuben All.Right. Fantastic.This is the best Reuben in town.Not something you see on every sandwich menu,but I'm down with it.So we got a pork belly.The cure is just.Going to be these. The dry ingredients.Let's start off with a little bit of thischili flake, some black pepper fennel seed.And we're just going to buzz that.I think this is one of the biggest mistakespeople make is is not using really freshspices.Yeah, a little brown sugar in there.So, yeah, this is like 50 over 50.Salt and sugar is what I do.You meant 50, 50.5050. Yeah, for sure.Put a little bit on the bottom first.You're just going to pack that bad boy rightdown.Into it a little bit on top of there.Rub it down real good. A little garlic andwe'll put some this time on there.We're just going to grate a little nutmeg.A little bit of nutmeg.A little more Patty.Patty. Yeah. Just rub it in.It's good to sit for a couple of.Days, and then we're going to roast it offslow, cook it.It cooks for, like, four hours.Now we're getting into Russian dressing.Pretty simple. It's just mayonnaise, ketchup,whole grain mustard.I'm gonna put a little egg in there. Choppickles.That's a great looking dressing.Just a little salt and black pepper, red winevinegar, a little bit of Worcestershire.The last thing I do for my Russian dressingis I just stir in a little bit of bacon fat.Because a little bit.Just a little bit.Maybe I should try this.This deliciousness niceness.Mm. Wow.Oh, dude, I don't even know that it's fairto call that Russian dressing.I mean, you got to call that liquid Moscowor something sexy.So we have our cured.Pork belly now.Cool it down and slice it.Make a.Sandwich. Jelly. Wow.Sorry. I'll put it back.I'll wait for the sandwich.We take some dark rye Russian dressing on alittle Swiss.Swiss. Okay. And then our pork belly, alittle fresh ground pepper, our sauerkraut.Brush this down with some butter.Talk about.The mini.Panini. Toss this on there.And you put the slammer on the clamour thatcooks for.Just a few minutes. We just crisp it up alittle bit and then we put it in the oven tofinish it. That's it.Look at that bad boy.Mm. Oh.You get the subtleties of the pork mixed withthe really nice rub.You put on it slow, cook it, render down thefat.Mm.You guys are great, man. When I come back toPortland, I'm coming to bunk.Right on. Load the trunk when you go to thebunk.We got a table here. I'm going to make.Up all my bunk words and send them to you.\n"