PORTLAND BAKERIES

Many of the best bakeries in Portland, Oregon, are Asian-owned, including some that have been in business for decades, serving as community hubs where people come to eat, drink and socialise. Others, meanwhile, are more recent success stories, drawing crowds with their Japanese milk bread, Filipino pandesal or eye-catching pastries.

- SAMANTHA  BAKALL

The Forest Park area, on the northwestern edge of Portland, is covered by leafy parks, with the area below St Johns Bridge a popular picnic spot for locals. Elsewhere, in the Boise neighbourhood, JinJu Patisserie has been drawing crowds since it opened in 2019 — including out-of-towners, some of whom drive hours to get here.

Owned by Korean-born Jin Caldwell and Kyurim Lee, it started out as a wholesale chocolate business in Las Vegas (Jin is a master chocolatier), where the duo worked as pastry chefs in some of the city’s biggest kitchens before moving to Portland.

That experience is visible in JinJu’s display cases, which overflow with buttery, flaky croissants, as well as buns, tarts, handmade chocolates and intricate desserts.

Portland’s Old Town Chinatown has over the decades been home to Chinese and Japanese communities, and while it’s largely known as a tourist area, a smattering of longstanding Chinese-owned restaurants remain. A short walk south of here, in a former Victorian townhouse, is St Barbra Pinoy Bakery, founded by culinary-school friends Bob Osilla and Dennis Adams in 2016.