This week, we are featuring our newest hot food vendor at the market, Ippai PDX. Brought to you by the very talented Jane Hashimawari, formerly of Castagna and Wafu, Ippai PDX is healthy Japanese comfort food featuring Pacific Northwest products and locally grown vegetables.

Jane grew up in Southern California learning to cook and comfort herself with delicious and healthy Japanese food such as Japanese curry (カレー) and chirashi (ちらし) bowls, onigiri (お にぎり), and pickles. She moved to Oregon five years ago to attend culinary school, quickly rising to the top and landing internships and jobs at places such as Biwa and Castagna. Jane helped launch Japanese restaurant Wafu in 2011 and left earlier this year to start Ippai PDX. It has been quite the ride so far and she hasn't looked back since.

At first glance Ippai PDX's menu seems overtly simple. Curry over rice, a veggie bowl, and onigiri (triangular Japanese rice balls stuffed with a filling). But take a closer look and you will find that Jane's culinary talent and the hidden complexities of Japanese cuisine shine through, right down to the quality of her ingredients. Take Jane's chirashi veggie bowls, for example. Chirashi, in a culinary sense, means variety. Jane's chirashi veggie bowl is a variety of different vegetable dishes on top of rice. She makes kinpira-gobo (a delicious crunchy stir-fry of carrot and burdock root), creamy sesame kale, a fresh vegetable sauté with miso-mustard sauce, and lip-smacking good Japanese pickles. A little of each of these dishes are carefully placed atop a bowl of steamed haiga rice. Filling, delicious, and healthy, you can add a perfectly cooked egg for some extra protein.

The quality of ingredients used at Ippai PDX is impressive right down to the rice. Jane prefers haiga rice in her dishes. Haiga rice is special because unlike white rice it still has the nutritious rice germ attached to the kernel but unlike brown rice the tough outer husk has been removed. You might say it is rice that is one step between brown and white; it is healthier than white rice but easier to cook and digest than brown.

Jane's dedication to supporting local and regional agriculture while she creates delicious, healthy comfort food is nothing short of inspiring. Her onigiri often features smoked salmon bought that same day from other market vendors. Vegetables are purchased from local farms, again supporting her fellow market vendors. Ippai PDX offers unique farmers market fare that is healthy, tasty and filling, all at a price point that is affordable and supports our local economy. Try it out this Saturday!