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The cat's out of the bag: For the past six months, "Nong" Poonsukwattana, proprietress of downtown's transcendent food cart Nong's Khao Man Gai, has been working with restauranteur Kurt Huffman on developing a new fast-food, street-food concept that expands Poonsukwattana's menu to more items (about a half-dozen or so) that highlight her cooking talents outside her famous chicken and rice.
Karen Brooks first leaked the news in a throwaway line in this month's Portland Monthly, though Huffman says that the pair are still searching for the right location — "we want it to be the perfect venue so we're taking our time looking for our sweet spot." (In other words, peppering Nong with questions about "when" and "where" won't garner any answers just yet.) But it sounds like an exciting partnership: Like the Motown of PDX restaurants, Huffman's Chefstable group has launched a string of back-to-back hits, including St. Jack, Gruner, and Ping. More information as it becomes available.
· Nong's Khao Man Gai [Official site]
· All Previous Nong's Coverage [Eater PDX]
· All Previous ChefStable Coverage [Eater PDX]
Image of Nong's courtesy Helen Y. via Yelp