You can still try new things this weekend even while you avoid COVID-spreading situations like they're the plague, which they literally are. We've rounded up our picks for fun activities to partake in from home, plus a few super socially distanced events that abide by Governor Kate Brown's new social distancing restrictions (which will put a hold on in-person dining and certain other gatherings for at least two weeks statewide and a month in Multnomah County, starting Wednesday). Read on for details on places to get craft kits (like Crafty Wonderland) to Portland-based podcasts to check out (like Broccoli Talk), and from One Book, One Beaverton Past Event Like List to places to eat smash burgers (like Burger Stevens Like List ). For even more options, check out our guides to the best online events this week Like List and the best movies to stream Like List . 

Jump to: Food & Drink | Projects | Holiday Season | Other Picks & Happenings

FOOD & DRINK

Sample smash burgers from around Portland. The smash burger trend—patties flattened onto a flat-top griddle, diner-style, and sizzled in their own fat until the edges get irresistibly crispy and craggy—shows no signs of dying out anytime soon, and for good reason. Luckily, Portland is home to a thriving smash burger scene. The hit North Portland food cart Burger Stevens Like List reopened in the Prost! Like List food cart pod and opened its new Beaverton outpost Like List this week. Rough Draft Burger Shop Like List , the recently opened brick-and-mortar shop from the Seattle-based pop-up Rough Draft, also offers thin, lacy creations, and the food cart Farmer and the Beast Like List is earning raves for its signature Beast burger. (All three have vegetarian burger options, if that’s more your thing, though Rough Draft’s Impossible patty version is currently sold out.) Other ideas: Union Burger Like List , Güero, and Hit the Spot Like List . You might just have to try all of them out and determine your favorite.

Enjoy some delicious and healthy takeout. In this week’s edition of Takeout Club, Suzette Smith writes, "Keep celebrating this hopeful electoral turn by putting something healthy in your body!” She suggests two newish spots, Carioca Bowls Like List  and Seoul Paulo Like List , with some revivifying fare to help you do just that.

Grab takeout and watch Eater’s Guide to the World. Eater’s new TV show Eater's Guide to the World Remind Like List , narrated by Maya Rudolph, premiered on Hulu this week, and the first episode is devoted to some of the best restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. Before you hunker down to binge-watch it this weekend, check out our list of all the local restaurants featured in it Like List , almost all of which are still open for takeout or dine-in service, and plan your meals accordingly.

Other notable weekend events:

Mikiko Mochi Donuts Pop-Up Past Event Like List
Try the chewy-crisp mochi donut pop-up's November flavors, including matcha calamansi, chocolate raspberry, marionberry pie, black sesame, plum wine, and tamarind five-spice. The donuts will be available individually or as half-dozens until sold out.
Cup & Bar, Northeast (Saturday)

Tots & Tempranillo Past Event Like List
Savor the delightful high-low combination of two Oregon wines made with the Spanish grape varietal Tempranillo and squishy-crisp tater tots with a variety of dipping sauces and toppings.
Hip Chicks do Wine, Southeast (Saturday-Sunday)

PROJECTS

Make crafts with locally sourced kits. If the only thing stopping you from hopping on the late quar-craft train is tracking down supplies, turn to pre-assembled kits to keep you occupied (and to give you a head start on holiday gifts) while you're camped out at home this weekend. Assembly PDX offers materials for fiber arts, paint, print, and design, and other DIY projects (like metal stamping or this plush hedgehog) for delivery. Another option is Crafty Wonderland (look out for their virtual markets Past Event Like List on November 28 and December 12), which offers a plethora of embroidery kits in the likeness of Mt. Hood, Sasquatch, and other Northwest scenes. 

Submit a film to HUMP! The Stranger’s annual short film festival dedicated to the wild and wonderful world of amateur porn (the kind that values a cornucopia of genders, kinks, body types, ages, and fetishes) is hitting a computer screen near you in the dead of winter, just when you’ll need it most. But it needs films first! By January 8, send in five minutes or less of original smutty footage for a chance to be featured in the 16th annual online program. P.S. If you can somehow incorporate bubbles, a photo booth, and/or Carol Channing in your film, you’ll earn “extra credit” from the judges. Before you hit send, be sure to read all the stipulations and requirements here. If you need inspiration, HUMP!’s greatest hits are currently available to stream Past Event Like List  online.

Work on your NaNoWriMo project with fellow writers. We’re almost halfway through November, also known as National Novel Writing Month, where writers of all ilks sign up for the challenge of writing a 50,000-word manuscript in 30 days. If there’s one thing that task requires (other than a love of writing, a steady supply of coffee, and a strong will about you), it’s some group encouragement. The Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List has an all-levels writing class this weekend that might get you out of your mid-month slump. If you want to learn more about the event, check out this Portland Mercury interview with the founder, Chris Baty, from way back in 2005.

HOLIDAY SEASON

Make your own party crackers (not the edible kind) to open with loved ones on Thanksgiving. If a Zoom call with your extended family has replaced your preferred gathering table in light of the rise in COVID cases, why not send your far-away dinner guests homemade party crackers (those confetti- and trinket-filled doodads that explode when you pull at the ends) to open together for a moment of merriment before dinner? This tutorial seems easy enough, but Google is your oyster. In addition to wrapping paper, tape, ribbon, cracker snaps, scissors, card stock, and a moderate-to-strong passion for crafting, you’ll need things to put inside. This can be anything from stickers and pins (these pins and stickers from Powell's are cute, as are these witchy buttons from Portland Button Works) to candy (the individually wrapped confections at Rocket Fizz should do) to little bits of colorful paper (Scraps is queen). If you drop those babies in the mail by this Monday, they should reach their destination in time for Turkey Day.

Donate food to people in need. Food security is essential all year round, but with the cold weather kicking in and with that surplus of nonperishables we know you have laying around from your first quarantine grocery haul, now is an especially great time to drop off supplies at your nearest community fridge and/or food bank. The former, volunteer-provided fridges that operate on a “take what you need, leave what you can” model and sprung from early COVID-19 mutual aid efforts, can be found in neighborhoods all around town, from Irvington (on NE 7th between Fremont and Beech) to Tabor (on SE Stark & SE 75th Ave) and lean toward things like fresh produce and prepared sandwiches. (You can check out donation needs by location here.) You know the drill with food banks: they need things like canned beans, freeze-dried foods, and other items that won’t go bad. 

OTHER PICKS & HAPPENINGS

Catch up on Portland-based podcasts. Chances are your screen time has gone way up these past many months (we're right there with you), and podcasts are the perfect way to give your weary eyeballs a break without sacrificing your thirst for content. Lucky for you, Portland is filled with comics, journalists, experts, and other people who love to talk into a microphone. We've been queueing up Broccoli Talk lately, a podcast for cannabis lovers hosted by Broccoli Magazine's Lauren Yoshiko and Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey, who delve into everything from equity in weed legalization to the crossover of cannabis and nail polish. There's also Read it and Weep, which focuses on "weird, bad, and popular" movies through the lens of comedians Alex Falcone, Ezra Fox, and Anthony Lopez. Bookish folks might enjoy The Archive Project, which features rebroadcasts of lectures hosted by Literary Arts with the likes of Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi and Min Jin Lee. And for a variety of candid conversation, live music, and original comedy, Luke Burbank's Live Wire (which has a few Portland Book Festival Past Event Like List events on deck, like a live interview with 99% Invisible hosts Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt on Friday Past Event Like List and a reading with acclaimed poet Natalie Diaz on Monday Past Event Like List ) never disappoints. If you're obsessed with murder podcasts, give Bundyville (a co-production between Longreads and OPB) and Murder in Oregon (which investigates the brutal murder of Michael Francke, the director of Oregon’s Department of Corrections, in 1989) a listen.

Other notable weekend events:

One Book, One Beaverton Past Event Like List
Selected as one of 2014's 10 best nonfiction books by TIME, Bryan Stevenson's memoir Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption (which was recently adapted into a film starring Michael B. Jordan) chronicles the civil rights lawyer's Alabama case defending Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. For this year's edition of One Book, One Beaverton, pick up a free copy at the Beaverton City Library or the Murray Scholls Branch, read it, then pass it on to someone else and attend a series of virtual group discussions together with other community members. 
Beaverton City Library & Murray Scholls Branch (Saturday)

Pokémon Go-vember Past Event Like List
Every day at 6 pm, Portland artist Mike Bennett and 2025th Street will drop an original Pokémon cutout in a secret location in town. Gather your Pokémon hunting crew and try to find as many as you can.
Various locations (Friday-Sunday)

Shelter in Place Past Event Like List
This exhibition, viewable from the sidewalk outside the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, combines film, photography, and dance by Black Jewish artist and activist Adam W. McKinney to explore the social tenets of the Jewish holiday Sukkot. 
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Northwest (Friday-Sunday)

We Got Each Other's Back Past Event Like List
Together with artists Heldáy de la Cruz, Julio Salgado, and Edna Vázquez, interdisciplinary artist Carlos Motta's three-part video installation features portraits of openly undocumented queer artists and activities in the US whose work condemns this country's history of unjust immigration laws.
PICA, Northeast (Friday-Sunday)