Brujula

Melixa moved from her hometown of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to the historic capital city of San Juan when she was just 17 to study art at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. To support her studies, Melixsa quickly found herself at home working in some of Viejo San Juan’s most vibrant and exciting restaurants. Newly hungry to combine her art and design skills with her passion for great food, she picked up again at 19 and headed to New York, NY to pursue a more formal culinary education. And well, plans change sometimes! Melixsa quickly realized that there was a thriving and more diverse culinary education surrounding her at every turn in the city’s dizzying restaurant kitchens. After a few years of paying dues and learning as much as she could, she jetted off to London in search of even greater culinary horizons. Wouldn’t you know? Life in London lead to Melixsa on a whole host of further journeys. First she went for a bit of farm life and traditional cooking in Lithuania; then next to Israel. Learning from as many friends and grandmas as she could, she immersed herself in the traditional breads, dishes and spices of the region. Fast forward to 2012: missing home, the tropical sunshine and the sparkling Caribbean sea, Melixsa gathered up her hard-earned culinary know-how and went for it! Melixsa quickly made a name for herself back home when she opened her first restaurant, the inspired Paprika on the west coast of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla. One of the first restaurants on the island to feature the dishes of Israel, Palestine and North Africa, she quickly attracted acclaim and following from locals and not-so-locals alike.

Kasey grew up in a large fishing family from the small town of Depoe Bay, Oregon. A love of cooking and sharing food was forged very early for Kasey always helping and learning in the warm kitchen of his Grandma Bev. Growing up, not simply satisfied with summers of deckhanding and cleaning fish, Kasey started his first “food cart” at the age of 12--his very own muffin business! Every early summer morning, he tied a big basket of warm muffins to the handlebars of his bicycle and headed down to the docks to sell. After high school, needing desperately to get out of the small town and see some things, Kasey found himself for a few years in rural Tuscany taking cooking classes and working on an historic agricultural estate. Then on to Greece, Poland, France: everywhere culling knowledge about ingredients, methods and approaches to cooking. In 2003, Kasey moved to Honolulu where he quickly became enamored with the myriad food cultures and the way they seemed to harmonize uniquely in the islands of Hawai’i. Meeting the love of his life turned what was to be Kasey’s three-month tour of Hawaii into more than a decade of calling Honolulu home. Deciding to finally formalize his culinary education, Kasey graduated from the Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapiolani Community College in Honolulu and was a member of the school’s nationally-recognized Culinary Competition team. While attending school, Kasey worked in kitchens throughout Honolulu and came to understand that while he greatly appreciated the formal skills he’d gained from this education, his real passion was for the foods he was learning from friends, family and coworkers: Local, Hawaiian, Filipino, Korean (to name a few). These cuisines became his focus and full-time passions!

Life holds interesting turns for us all and somehow (fate? Coincidence? the stars aligning?) Melixsa and Kasey both found themselves suddenly in Portland and just happened to meet each other while working in the kitchen of a natural foods store. Their shared love of exploring and cooking foods from around the globe quickly ignited a great friendship and through cooking together, sharing stories and recipes they formed a unique bond (and some great meals)! Of particular interest to them both was the many historical, cultural and culinary ties between the islands of Puerto Rico and Hawai’i. The same or similar ingredients yielded sometimes totally different dishes—and sometimes, they found, these dishes were carried between the islands and now had different names or slightly different preparations. Kasey and Melixsa soon realized they had to help bring these connections and this shared history to the people of Portland and beyond. And so, Brújula was born! Brújula is Spanish for Compass—a way of navigating between these islands and a way to find connections to the many varied experiences of life. This is what Brújula does! We bring the many diverse culinary traditions of Hawai’i and Puerto Rico together in something you’ve never tasted before . . . a brújula ! It’s Melixsa’s Puerto Rican family empanada dough recipe filled with such delicacies as Hawaiian Kalua Pig with Pineapple Chutney, Filipino Pork and Peas, Ras-al-hanout pulled lamb, Puerto Rican Bistec Encebollado . . . the creations never cease! We invite you to share in our stories and to share your own with us as well! We use only the highest quality non-gmo ingredients, make everything entirely from scratch by hand and with lots of amor and aloha! We thank you for letting our Brújula take you on a little journey with us.

Amor & Aloha,
-Melixsa and Kasey