Hannah Wallace, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

A Q&A with Kat Thirakomen and David Fiske owners of Bangkok Belly.

When Kat Thirakomen and David Fiske opened Bangkok Belly on Belmont in November their idea was to offer dishes from Thailand that they missed and craved the most. Judging by the restaurant’s popularity, Portlanders will soon be craving these foods, too. The menu centers on skewers and salads, with seasonal specials like goong ping—grilled wild Mexican shrimp skewer with green garlic nam jim seafood sauce—and Yum Tua Waan, a sugar snap pea salad with housemade chili jam, cilantro, mint, shrimp paste, coconut, peanut, and fried shallot. The couple met in Bangkok and then moved to Portland to go to grad school—David in urban planning and Kat in business—before returning to Thailand, until recently. Now they live south of Sunnyside, in Richmond. We talked about the swing dance scene in Bangkok, what they love about this part of Belmont, and what “yum” means in Thai.

So your family has a restaurant business in Thailand. Tell me about it.

Kat: I’ve always been around restaurants, but the food here [at Bangkok Belly] is not the same as what we serve at my parents’ restaurant. [More on that later.] We have: a tight concept of the dishes that we love and miss from when we both lived there together for almost ten years. So: skewers and Thai salads. We toss herbs with different things like proteins—steelhead trout, pork collar to give two examples—and a variety of bright, sweet, tangy dressings. And we have a cocktail program that’s ingredient-forward. David spearheads that.

David: Thai spins on the classics is my approach to the bar program. So we have a really good Martini on the menu with a Thai basil shrub. And there’s an Old Fashioned with a little bit of banana liqueur and rum inspired by a famous Bangkok banana fritter.

Kat: This makes us different from other Thai restaurants in town. It’s a really small space with a small kitchen, so we keep everything tight. We also make everything from scratch using quality ingredients. We make curry paste from scratch, we make our own chili jam. Everything is fresh, using local ingredients you can’t find in Thailand when we can, and people have been tasting and noticing that.

What made you decide to choose Sunnyside as a place to open your business?

David: The space became available—the previous restaurant [Daily Fuel] was leaving. And we really fell in love with the space. It’s a 100-year-old building with tall vaulted ceilings and the original windows let in a lot of natural light. We also liked the size of it, and the layout seemed perfect for our concept. We like the open kitchen—we want it to be intimate and community-driven. What’s even cooler is that we uncovered the original floor tiles from when it used to be a Pantorium.

A what?

Kat: A Pantorium.

David: Essentially, it’s a fancy word for a dry cleaner. It was like a drapery dry cleaning service. One of our first Instagram posts had original photos of it. This building has had many lives. I knew it when it was a pizza restaurant, and then it got chopped up into two spaces. I’m from Portland, and I’ve always loved this stretch of Belmont. This is my favorite commercial stretch in Southeast. It still has an old Portland vibe, even though the businesses have changed.

Kat: What’s cool about this block is that the business owners are always around. We know the owners at Los Puñales, at AnnamVL—there are three generations there. Sugar Hill, Olivia at the tattoo shop across the street, the new owners at Aalto Lounge…

David: There’s also H Mart, and with that and AnnamVL, there’s a connection of Southeast Asian people and people who like Asian food. We felt that was another great reason for us to be here.

Do you guys ever get ingredients from H Mart?

Kat: We source from purveyors most of the time. But if we need more limes…

David: It’s definitely nice if we run out of something. It’s like our emergency pantry.

Do you ever get anything from the farmers market?

Kat: We have some seasonal dishes on the menu. Currently we have a sugar snap pea salad, which is our take on a winged bean salad. It has the same kind of crunch. We are sourcing it from a local farm, Pablo Muñoz Farms. And one of our purveyors is Organically Grown Co. We get a delivery from them every week. We try to use organic whenever we can. One of our skewers is oyster mushroom, and that’s from OGC.

How did you guys meet in Thailand?

David: Kat is from Thailand and I moved there in 2011 to teach English. I thought I would stay a year, and then I met Kat. I ended up staying for almost four years. We moved back here, both went to grad school, and then moved back to Thailand in 2018 for about five years. But we initially met through swing dancing.

Really? Is there a swing dancing scene in Bangkok?

Kat: It’s bigger than the one here, now.

David: It was just starting when we were there, and we both started learning at the same time.

Kat: One of my really good friends from middle school, went to the US for school and he brought it back.

He brought it back single-handedly?

Kat: Yeah, and then he found another American teacher who also loves swing dancing and they joined forces to build a scene together. And we were part of the scene-building.

David: Kat was learning from her friend, a Thai guy, and I was learning with an American guy who I met through some friends. When they joined forces, we met, and the rest is history!

Kat: We ended up teaching swing and lindy hop together in Thailand on Saturdays.

David: We were dancing like three, four times a week and when we first moved back to Portland we were dancing a lot. We don’t dance as much these days! But, you’ll notice that the music that we play in the restaurant has a lot of swing-style jazz and other music from that era.

Kat, tell me how your family’s restaurant differs from Bangkok Belly.

Kat: My parents do hot pot. Hot pot is when you put fresh vegetables, fresh meats, meatballs into boiling broth. It’s communal—you cook it together, family-style. Then you dip it in sauce. We don’t do that here, but I’ve tried to put a lot of how they run their business into our restaurant, like taking care of our team and customers as a first priority.

I’ve had hot pot before, but thought it was Chinese.

Kat: I think it originates in China, and other versions exist throughout Asia. Like in Japan with Shabu Shabu. Thais have their own take on that.

What do the two of you love about Sunnyside?

Kat: I like that the business owners are always around. It’s really nice to connect with the other business owners on the block. I also like the diversity of businesses and people on this block, too.

David: We’ve had a lot of neighbors that come in and who have become regulars. It seems like a lot of people that live in Sunnyside are proud to live here. There’s definitely a strong neighborhood and community vibe.

Kat: Everyone is so nice and friendly! People are so graceful and gracious.

David: It’s been really nice just to be welcomed and feel like we’re a part of the neighborhood. That’s really what we want this place to be–a neighborhood spot.

What do you think needs improvement in Sunnyside?

David: The only thing I can think of is that I would love for this street to have more streetside seating—like there is on 28th and Burnside. It would make it more of a great food block if the whole block had seating like that.

Bangkok Belly is located at 3342 Belmont and is open from 5–9 p.m. Wed.–Saturday. (4–8 p.m. Sunday). Follow the restaurant on Instagram at @Bangkokbellypdx.

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

A Q&A with Ophelia Schechter, team leader for Sunnyside’s Neighborhood Emergency Team, and SNA Board Member.

Ophelia Schechter and her husband, David, moved to Sunnyside in January of 2022. They’d been renting in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood prior to that, but moved to Portland from San Jose, California in June 2018.

With three kids, the eldest of whom is a first-grader at SES, Schechter is a stay-at-home mom who is also involved in the school. Lately, that’s meant “daylighting” the curbs around the school to encourage safer driving. Then, wanting to get even more involved in her community, Ophelia attended an SNA meeting a few months ago and heard we needed Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) volunteers. She promptly went to a city training and is now certified. After our May elections, not only is she the team leader for Sunnyside’s newly revived NET team, she’s the most recent addition to the SNA Board. We sat down with her on a recent Friday to find out what she loves about Sunnyside and what drives her involvement in the community.

You have a big family. Tell me about them!

There’s Elie (short for Elijah), who is seven and goes to Sunnyside [Environmental School]. Izzy is four, and Ariya is two. Elie will be in 2nd grade. This year, his teacher is Wayne.

How do you like SES?

Sunnyside is great. I love how supportive the teachers are and how involved the community is. Everyone in my family absolutely adores the Harvest Fair. In early elementary grades I really don’t think there’s a huge difference from other schools—other than the gardening class. But from my understanding, our school spends less time on the computer than other schools do, which is an advantage for my family because my kids are low screen users. The principal and vice principal at SES are advocating for less screen time in the class room. Additionally I am looking forward to when my kiddos are in upper elementary and middle school when they will have frequent field trips.

So tell me how you got involved in NET training?

I came to one of the Neighborhood Association meetings. I had heard something in passing about NET teams, and I didn’t understand what that was. Then I went to the meeting, found out that we don’t have a NET team and that there is a program through the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management where they train everyday citizens to volunteer in emergency situations and also ultimately train us to be ready to self deploy during the “Big One.”

What was your inspiration for wanting to be trained in that?

I grew up in California. Understanding that a major earthquake could happen at any time was our default assumption. Then I moved here and I knew nothing about the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Since most Portlanders aren’t from here, they also don’t know that we live in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. So I felt unprepared and I suspected most of the people around me were unprepared as well…So while I prepare my household and myself, I’ve had a lot of thoughts: Sure if I were to have enough water for that time that’s great. But I imagine that most of the neighbors around me are not going to be ready. And I’m not going to sit around watching my neighbors suffer! So…

How long was the training?

First off, you have to watch two hours worth of videos in order to qualify for the training. Then the training itself is four weekend days from 9–3. Three hours are sitting and learning about how NET teams operate. A little bit of radio, medical, and some search and rescue. Those trainings give you a few skills that could help in the field. What if you come across somebody who is not breathing? What if you come across somebody who is bleeding out? What are you supposed to do? In the final training you do “cribbing”—how to save someone who is trapped. There is a dummy under a huge concrete block and we have to lift it so you can take the dummy out from underneath the block. (You and six other teammates are doing this together.) We did a stop the bleed training where you learn how to make a tourniquet, also wound packing. They teach you how to use a fire extinguisher.

After you’re done with this, if you’re interested in further training you can take additional classes like medical or radio. If you’re interested in sanitation—because when the earthquake happens we’re not going to have access to plumbing—we need to have sanitation. Then there’s food, and there are so many other things for you to be trained in so you are better prepared as a community. From my understanding the Mt Tabor/Montavilla team has a specialized medical team. And Laurelhurst is well-resourced and well-trained. So my plan is to work with those groups.

My plans as Sunnyside NET team leader is to get our NET team going again and assess our strengths and weaknesses. Stage 2 is trying to pull more people into the team—especially folks already possessing the skills we lack. Stage 3 is to work with team leaders in adjacent neighborhoods. Especially during the Big One, we should be aware of their plans and all work together.

In the future, I would love to have a fundraiser to distribute supplies throughout our community. My first priority would be to acquire lots of water jugs. Water is the most important supply and a huge challenge in disaster prep. They say you need to have one gallon per person per day and they want you to have water supply for 14 days. So it’s a lot of water! I’m fortunate—I have a garage. It’s so daunting—especially for people who live in apartments—to store all that water.

Why were you interested in getting involved in the SNA?

I would say a third of it because I’m already going to be the Team Lead for NET. I think it’d be a lot easier to communicate with the Board if I’m on the Board. A second part is after having children I realized that when I grow up, I want to be a matriarch. Part of that is advocating for other people—and focusing on children, the elderly, and the vulnerable.

Being on the Board also gives me more exposure to the rest of the people in my community. I really see Portland through the lens of a parent. I go to parks, show up to community centers. I go to all these events. I know that’s only one part of Portland, so I want to find ways that I can both see and advocate for other things.

Even in emergency management a lot of the literature out there assumes that you are an adult and that you are able-bodied. That’s not the case for most people. That’s part of the advocacy work, especially at the local level—reminding folks that not everyone is going to be capable of the things we’re asking them to do. If we don’t consider them now, they will be left behind in an emergency.

Do you have a cat or a dog?

Both. Harley is the cat and Woz, the dog. He is named after Steve Wozniak. (Did I mention that my husband David is an IOS developer?)

What do you love about Sunnyside?

The #1 reason why we chose Sunnyside is because of how walkable it is and how family friendly it is. I think it is a unique neighborhood because we are so central and yet it is quiet. I’m two blocks away from bars and 99% of the time we hear nothing. We also love the library and we are eagerly awaiting its reopening!

Is there anything you’d like to see change or improve?

The thing that I would want to see improve about Sunnyside is making it feel even more like a community. Having deeper ties between homeowners and renters is important. Also, a sense of pride about the area that we live in.

News from the Vice President

Happy Spring, Sunnysiders! This is my favorite season. The star magnolia in our backyard is blooming, and to me that signals the start of the season. Walking down Taylor Street this evening, I admired my neighbors’ hyacinths, daffodils and dogwood. This is when we realize all that rain was worth it!

At our March General meeting, we had councilor Steve Novick as our special guest. He talked about a few things that are before the Portland City Council right now.

Our streets are crumbling and we don’t have enough money to fix them. Councilor Olivia Clark has proposed a fee on residents ($12 a month per household and $8.40 per apartment) but that would only raise $47 million. That would either help repair existing streets (for example Hawthorne and Salmon), Novick said, or it could go to paving streets in outer neighborhoods that are not yet paved and adding sidewalks—but not both. Discussion ensued.

Novick talked about the discovery of $106 million in the Portland Housing Bureau and acknowledged that some of it is earmarked for particular programs. There are three schools of thought on how to spend the money that is not earmarked. Novick said we could:

1.) Create more housing (which is expensive).

2.) Prevent people who are at risk of losing their apartments or homes
by giving them temporary rent assistance.

3.) Spend money on shelters. We had some debate in the room on which of these values was most important, with several people suggesting
Single Room Occupancies (SROs) and tiny home villages as a less-
expensive option than building full-fledged apartments.

Mayor Wilson has suggested tapping $75 million from the Portland Clean Energy Fund to help renovate the Moda Center, using renewable technology to reduce its carbon emissions. There was some debate in the room about whether Governor Kotek should have agreed to cough up $300 million of public money when we don’t have enough money in the state to pay for schools or roads adequately.

At our Board meeting we talked about a few projects we’d like to do in 2026 or early 2027. These include a community potluck, a neighborhood-wide yard sale, and a potential Bingo Card with Hawthorne businesses that would raise money for the SNA. Stay tuned. We’ll post info to our social media channels! A reminder: on Instagram we’re @Sunnysidepdxna and on Facebook we’re Sunnyside Neighborhood Association.

Board elections will be at our May 13th meeting at 7 p.m. Please plan to attend! We have five positions up for election this year, one of which is an “open” seat. Please reach out to Chris at [email protected] if you are interested in running for a Board seat and would like to know more!