Pechluck's Portland Food Adventures

Wedge 2012

The Portland Celebrates Cheese Festival "The Wedge" was back this year on the streets just outside Green Dragon. At a requested $5 donation to benefit the non-profit Oregon Cheese Guild, the entrance to this tasting farmers market of 25 cheese and artisan producers of the Northwest, as well as being able to enjoy in the street "beer garden" music and beers from Green Dragon/Buckman Brewing is well worth it. In addition, Murray's Cheese from New York (now experimenting with mini-stores at three local Fred Meyers) was offering 3 Cheese Seminars. Unlike last year where from entering the festival it seemed like I was in a neverending line from booth to booth, this year the festival was more organized and spread out, so that I could easily skip and move booth to booth, with never more than a handful of people between me and cheese samples.

Since I love cheese so much, I was already pretty familiar with most of the cheese producers present as I am already a customer at the Farmers Market or the grocery store. It is still a great opportunity to sample cheeses from these vendors that you may have seen and wondered about, try samples from their offerings that are not available to try before you buy (for instance Fraga Farm Goat Cheese and Willamette Valley Cheese had all their cheeses available to sample this day) or try new cheeses they didn't know they produced. The vendors also are selling the cheeses so you can do your cheese market shopping at the same time! Next time I think I will be more prepared and bring a little cooler bag.
 

New to me was trying out the Cheese Plate PDX food cart, as they were offering tastes of their own homemade crackers along with their own fromage fort and fruit or Cavi-art Seaweed "Caviar". Meanwhile, although I have loved Tumalo Farms Pondhopper cheese as it is spiced with beer, I found a new crush on their nutty Classico. I also enjoyed the sweet burn of Ssmith's Hot Pepper Sensation "Merlot" spread. Definitely filing all these away for the future.
 

My favorite cheese vendors of the day were 1. Fern's Edge Goat Dairy who I believe offers the best local chevres, though they are only at a few select local retailers. Their Apricot–Honey Chèvre, Pear Anise Chèvre, Blueberry Ginger chevre, and my favorite of them all the Fig Walnut Sweet Chèvre with fig, walnut, honey, offer a lot of depth of flavor along with the creaminess of the goats milk cheese that is better than any flavored cream cheese ever. 2. Cypress Grove and their always dependable tasty cheeses, such as Midnight Moon, Humboldt Fog, Truffle Tremor, and a new dill goat cheese called PsycheDillic that uses dill pollen.

The seminars from Murray's cheese included including one for beer and cheese pairing, one to educate you on the cheeses of the NorthWest region, and how to complement your cheeses with honey, jams, nuts and fresh fruits to make a killer cheese plate experience. I went with the beer and cheese pairing one, which was a partnership of Murray's with Rogue.

I loved that they gave out a little packet of class notes that we could write on, and best of all, which included a section of different adjectives to describe cheese and tips about how salt reinforces bitter (so you want to put saltier cheeses with sweet), pairing the beverage and cheese so they have finishes of similar lengths. The "what grows together goes together" might be a bit more difficult beer wise as a theme, but would be great for wine and cheese pairing. The matches that we tried and discussed included

• Good Chit Pilner with Mt Townsend Creamery Cirrus
• Morimoto Soba Ale with River's Edge Chevre Siltcoos
• Ore-gasmic Ale with Rogue Creamery Hopyard Cheddar
• Chipotle Ale with Willamette Valley Brindisi
• Chocolate Stout with Tumalo Farms Pondhopper
• Hazelnut Brown Nectar with Rogue Creamery Smoky Blue

Rogue Ales also hosted a Grilled Cheese Bar station that offered 3 artisan cheeses for the ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue, Rogue Creamery & Rogue Ales collaboration of Rogue Hopyard Cheddar, and Portland Creamery's Oregon Chevre. Paired with a couple more beers from Green Dragon, it was a perfect finish.

Bailey's Taproom- 2007-2012 5th Anniversary Gloriousness

Besides the fact that this Baileys Taproom 5th Anniversary celebration of an After Party included advanced ticketing only and limited to 100 people, and a 20 oz 5th anniversary snifter glass for your beer pours at the event and to take home, as well as open taps for all 5 hours and 5 beers not available on Saturday and (wait there's more!), there was also a glorious cornucopia of complimentary charcuterie from Olympic Provisions and artisan cheese from Cheese Bar, curated by Steve Jones, winner of the national 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational, there he was also behind the counter, diligently keeping the counter full of snackitys.

The Olympic Provisions contribution included their mortadella, pork and pistachio terrine, and the dry cured salami styles of Saucisson d'Alsace (one of my favorites sausages they produce because of the interesting tingle it has from the cinnamon and nutmeg), Saucisson Sec, and touch of spicy Sopressata (from chili flakes) and Chorizo Rioja (from paprika). All of these went well with any of the amazing barrel aged beers during the event- I don't know if you can ever mismatch any of these with anything, all of them are so tasty. The only item which was a little harder to eat was the sliced mortadella because of its size, though I understand it would have taken a lot of extra prep to slice them into baguette sized (and maybe top them with a toothpick and cornichon)- usually those slices are perfect sized for awesome sandwiches, not snacking on.

Meanwhile, Steve brought

• fresh Samish Bay Ladysmith (perfect for the tasty Upright Bailey's Fifth Anniversary Six with cherry, currant, and sweet vermouth in Pinot barrel and the Commons Cascadian Table Beer Amber with Brett Lambicus in Gin barrel), this was the mildest cheese and probably was the reason this was the first to run out
• the slightly funkier Mon Sire Raclette (I prefer it warmed and melted which softens the pungency while bringing out more flavor and cream, so paired these with sours and hoppier beers),
• the boldly sharp Hooks 5 year cheddar (which found its match in the Block 15 Imagine and other >10% beers such as the Stone 2008 Imperial Russian Stout in Bourbon barrel and the Uinta Labyrinth Imperial Black Ale in Rye Whiskey barrel),
• and Rogue Smokey Blue (also good with any strongly alcoholed beer) that had a smokey salty flavor.

Breakside Brewer's Dinner at Wildwood

There was a Wildwood restaurant event of a Brewer’s dinner with Breakside Brewery Friday, 6.29 in Wildwood’s back (and newly renovated event space) Wood Room. Wildwood’s Paul Kasten & Breakside Brewery’s Ben Edmunds recently collaborated to brew “Old Woody”, another one of Breakside's series in which Brewer Ben works with a restaurant chef to make an interesting beer. They then created a special pairing dinner to pair various Breakside Brewery beer with Chef Paul's gastronomic creations, including of course drinking "Old Woody". All this was at the reservation price of $65 which was inclusive of food, beer and gratuity... yes that's right, 6 courses, all paired with beer, tip included!

The menu included

1. strawberries and asparagus basil, spring onion, champagne vinaigrette, goat cheese, saba paired with solera-style lambic. Brewer Ben explained meant that this beer was made using the solera process in which 3 beers were used in succession in the barrel with a little purposely left as the new beer was added, so this beer is the culmination of the flavors from all three (Sour Double Wit, Soursop Wheat, and Sourdough Ale plus Brettanomyces lambicus to make it a lambic... despite all the"sour" in the beer names, it only has a slight sourness to it). Pairing wise, he also noted that the same sort of acid found in this beer was echoed in the goat cheese of this salad.
   
2. pastrami pork belly éclair spring onion, pickled chile cream cheese icing paired with newport summer ale although for the vegetarian, the pairing was mixed summer greens with cucumber, snap peas, and feta. Of all the items in the menu, this was one I highly anticipated, and I loved the taste of the pork belly eclair with the chili cream cheese (although I thought the amount of icing was a bit overwhelming for the beer, though it was tasty), a melding of the tang of the cream cheese with the softness of the eclair and the meaty with bit of fat of the meat inside. At the same time, I thought the nice fresh taste of the radishes and greens was quite complimentary with the ale too, perhaps even a better pairing... though I would not give up that pork belly eclair.
   
3. lamb carpaccio guajillo oil, grilled scallions, crispy chickpeas, cumin yogurt paired with session brown which for the vegetarian was a grilled asparagus and farro salad with scallions and lemon that used a slight grilled smoke taste from the asparagus to go with the malt forwardness of this beer- in this case both pairings of food dishes was excellent but the lamb was better, particularly with those awesome light as air crispy chickpeas and guajillo oil
   
4. crispy chicken confit wild mushroom and fava bean panzanella paired with old woody while the vegetarian had panzanella with wild mushroom and fava beans. Both these dishes were fabulously full of crispness and complex savory flavor to hold up with this collaboration beer that has a touch of sweetness from molasses. Panzanella, a stale bread dish, never sounded that interesting to me but now I know that crunch from the bread balanced with flavors of oil and vinegar and mushrooms sounds simple but delivers more than what you would think from the sum of those parts
   
   
5. pan seared rib eye filet fava purée, grilled porcini, pale ale glace paired with old bourbon woody while the vegetarian pairing was russet potato gnocchi with morel mushrooms, fava beans, and creme fraiche. I'm certain this is the beer that started really working out my liver (just looked it up as it's currently at Breakside Brewery on their board listed at 11%) but the complexity of flavor that every sip of liquid offered is well worth it, this is one fine beer. Ben also mentioned this beer's other alias, Old Whiskey Dick.
   
6. colston-basset stilton honey, candied walnuts, brooks cherries paired with bourbon barrel aged 1st anniversary wheatwine This was the only beer I didn't love (though I still like it) because I thought it had too much alcohol upfront (it does clockin at 12.7%) and I would have liked to have it sit a little longer to mellow out, but F thought the beer was perfect as it was/is.
   

All the food and beer pairings were really wonderful through all six courses without anything being a disappointment and in fact, even impressing us more than we expected. Overall it was an amazing experience as everyone around us was a beer and food lover, but we got to enjoy this in a relaxed but refined atmosphere.

Wildwood also has a great bar with seasonal summer concoctions I enjoyed while waiting between the end of work and beginning of this brewer's dinner. One of their summer drinks is the The Naughty Kitty with pimm's, india lemongrass, lime and strawberry puree, a sweet but not too sweet drink that definitely took me away from my worries quickly and smoothly. I also appreciated a little gift from the kitchen of pate with a little dop of mustard and bit of cornichon all vehicled into the mouth by a little toast... as if I wasn't already grateful enough that the Chef was willing to put together a vegetarian version of the six courses at my request. Enboldened by this bite, I decided I still had enough time to try one more cocktail that caught my eye- Oh Snap! Tanqueray, cointreau, mint tincture, lemon, and sugar snap peas puree, a fresh cocktail. As always, I have never been disappointed by Wildwood in presenting me with local and seasonal flavors that really embody the Northwest region.

Portland Beer & Cheese Fest

I was out in Colorado for work and we are starting our kitchen remodel, which meant my business caused me to I miss most of the 2nd annual Portland Beer Week (June 7-17, 2012). All throughout the week there were special events varying from Rye Beer Festival and Fruit Beer Festival and Brewers Nights and pairings of beer with various dinners in restaurants throughout Portland (including a progressive dinner with matched beers and courses). At least though I was able to catch the Portland Beer & Cheese Fest with pre-purchased tickets only (and it sold out!) from 1-6pm today at Commons Brewery.

The Commons Brewery only recently opened this year, and is hosting the location of this event. This festival features beer and cheese pairings, with the beers from 10 different regional brewers and cheese selection by champion cheesemonger Steve Jones of Cheese Bar. Also on location are included light savory meaty snacks from Chop Butchery and Charcuterie, recently just voted best butcher in Portland by foodie visitors of Portland Food and Drink. Cheese, Beer, and Charcuterie, yum!

Seriously though, that charcuterie board by Chop was sooo beautiful, and Steve always brings the best cheese. The only improvement I could have made is that I wish there were more surfaces (so cocktail tables, no chairs is fine) to be able to not have one hand of beer glass and one hand of plate of cheese = no hand left to eat, so it was a balancing act that ended up in a sad loss of a dropped Ladysmith cheese sample at one point and a couple of other close calls. I loved that the event was all presale so that the number of guests were managed, and there was a certainty of enough beer, cheese, and chop for all.

The pairings list include the following beer and cheese

• Solera Berlinerwiess/Grisette Blend with Sartori Bellavitano *Cow Wisconsin
• Upright Brewing Offen Weisse paired with Mountina *Cow (raw) Montana
• Gigantic Rauchweizen and the Bandit paired with Willamette Valley Cheese Co. Brindisi *Cow (raw) Oregon
• Double Mountain Das Boot Alt with Tumalo Farm Pondhopper *Goat Oregon
• Firestone Walker dba (double barrel ale) with Abbaye de Belloc *Sheep France
• The Commons The Flemish Kiss with Samish Bay Aged Ladysmith *Cow Washington
• HUB (Hopworks) Abbey Ale with Uniekaas Vintage Grand Ewe *Sheep Holland
• Oakshire Perfect Storm Double IPA with Hook's 5-Year Cheddar *Cow Wisconsin
• Widmer Brewing Pitch Black IPA with Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue *Cow (raw) Oregon
• Block 15 Figgy Pudding with Colston-Basset Stilton *Cow UK

Highlights of Portland Dining Month (June 2012), upcoming Zoo Brew

The month of June is dining month, where multiple restaurants around Portland offer a sampler of their menu via a prix fixe 3 course meal for $25. Some of the restaurants whose offerings as listed on the Portland Dining Month website particularly stood out for me include

• 23 Hoyt- offering a First Course of Spring greens salad with Portland Creamery chevre, Oregon hazelnuts and currants, Second Course of House-made fettuccine with braised duck ragu and pecorino Toscano, and Third Course of Strawberry shortcake with black pepper biscuit and balsamic syrup. I'm a sucker for duck.
• Acadia Bistro- offering First Course of rhubarb salad with spiced oat granola, fromage blanc, mango, endive and arugula with a “put up” strawberry vinaigrette (sounds so delicious with that mix of flavors and healthy!), Second Course of Chicken Clemenceau (mm rich and meaty) with Brabant sweet potatoes, foraged mushrooms and English peas, and Third Course of Vanilla bean bread pudding with white chocolate-Frangelico sauce and pecans
• Biwa- whatever homestyle Japanese dishes they are serving in the Omakase is ok with me, I've always wanted to try this restaurant
• Clark Lewis- offering First Course of Bruschetta with fresh ricotta, arugula and shaved porcini, Second Course of Housemade Tagliatelle with SuDan Farm Lamb ragu, rosemary and pecorino toscano, and Third Course of Buttermilk panna cotta with Oregon strawberries and shortbread cookies. Yeah, I'm a sucker for lamb too.
• Clyde Common- First Course of Late spring greens, pickled grapes, smoked almonds Second Course of Clyde Common porchetta, roasted fingerling potatoes, pickle relish Third Course of Lemon-buttermilk pudding cake, walnut-thyme crust, rhubarb preserves, cream. Did you read that... porchetta. Mmm.
• Olympic Provisions NW- because I already love their charcuterie, having a meal there can only be just as awesome, whatever they are offering... Leave the vegetarian at home.
• Oven and Shaker- on my wishlist since they opened yet I'm still waiting to enjoy the drinks and pizza here. Their offerings include choice of 3 salads, choice between 5 different pizzas, and a dessert of their housemade gelato and sorbetto
• Country Cat- First Course of Salad of Snow Peas, Cast-Iron Cornbread, Goat Cheese, & Wildflower Honey, a Second Course of Two Pieces of Cast-Iron Skillet Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy of Third Course Manhattan Chocolate Cake. Meow you had me at fried chicken...
• Wildwood- any and every time I have gone, they have been delightful.

Also, if you make you reservation through OpenTable (which I love and have been using for years to see availability of restaurants and make reservations. Sometimes when travelling I will use this on my phone to find restaurants nearby and make a reservation right there in the car- pulled over or before I start driving of course), OpenTable will also make a donation to the Oregon Food Bank as long as you use this link.

Anyone up for dinner this month?

Also to mark the beginning of June is the upcoming Zoo Brew this coming Friday June 1. It is an event where the zoo is open from 5-10pm exclusively for adults, along with adult beverages courtesy of 30 local breweries and 7 cideries that use the regular token system to buy tastings (or 4 tokens for a full filling of the glass I think), so you can enjoy animals, workshops, and carnival games while voting for favorites for beer themed prizes. Proceeds from Zoo Brew benefit the Oregon Zoo's animal welfare, conservation, education and environmental sustainability programs and activities.

Pics from Eat Mobile Festival 2012

This year, the location for the fifth annual Portland Food Cart Festival, Eat Mobile Festival 2012, moved a few blocks over to the OMSI parking lot. This gave this festival of one admission price ($18 for General Admission and $47 for Pre-Tasting VIP which gives an extra hour before GA) and then graze at each of the carts (1 sample a cart) the physical space to expand to three rows of 52 carts. In the middle and back row (towards the waterfront), there was also room for cocktail tables and sitdown tables, with butcher paper stamped Eat Mobile 2012, in order to eat, another great improvement. But, the row without tables, the one closest to the street, was the most comfortable to move around thanks to the lack of tables (though this left people sitting against the chain link fence they put up surrounding the parking lot) so it was easier for lines to each cart stand to logistically be queued in a straight line. They still seemed to be oddly pinching on the number of garbage cans, which seemed far and few between.

One of my first stops because I recall good things about their cart last year was PDX Six Seven One, serving Guam food.  They had a meat and veggie option: the veggie option of Linechen Gollai, Spinach served ina  spicy citrusy coconut milk, and a meat option of Estufao, Carlton Farms pork shoulder simmed in a marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, onions, garlic, and bay leaves served with white rice. PDX 671 would go on to win the Judge's Choice Award. Their cart location is at D Street Noshery.

The one I actually voted for though for People Choice award was Briskets, who offered two options of brisket- and sides of mac n cheese, maple bacon beans, slaw or potato salad. I wish they had a sign up which had advertised their awesome sample concoction... I was already on my 2nd glass of wine and the list of details eluded me when they told me verbally. But, it was awesome. They are only open M-F for lunch at their NW 19th and Quimby location though, so I'm not sure how I will get to them for more given I work in Beaverton.

I really liked Timber's Doghouse PDX (located @ SE Woodstock) too- they had an amazing setup with their sexy ladies in their red tank top black skirt uniform, and a table that included dog water bowls and unicorns. Their sampling of burger (meat or veggie, pictured is veggie sample) with fresh greens topped with what they dub "Momentary Indiscretion" (they have a clever menu- this burger topping equals grilled mushrooms and onions, chantarelle salt, asiago, roasted garlic, and truffle aioli) was one of my favorite samples too, but unfortunately ran out pretty quickly: when I came back with friends with the regular admission entrance, there was nothing left.

Another one I enjoyed was the Mini Monte Cristos (they also offered Empanadas of spinach and gruyere with black olives) from BLT- Breakfast Lunch Today (NE Alberta).

I liked the cute setup of the sign for Bagel & Box (located at N Lombard), which advertises their Brunch Bindle of  1/2 dozen bagels, 1/2 lb of cream cheese, 1/4 lb smoked salmon salad, sliced tomato/cucumber/red onion, 1/2 dozen donuts, a quart of home fries, a quart of fresh OJ, and a checked table cloth... how adorable is that? I want an excuse to get one now. They were one of the few carts that really shined in taking advantage of Eat Mobile to advertise... it obviously worked for me! Their offering of an apple cream cheese with rosemary, white pepper, and bacon bagel bite also convinced me that their bindle will be tasty enough to offer at brunch. Later I saw them offering tastes of their home fries, but I had already had my 1 sample.

Other Misc Photos:

• Batavia's Indonesian cuisine (from the 3rd and Washington downtown cart pod)
• Visiting from Corvallis, OR was Creperie du Lys, offering both a sweet and savory crepe bite of either chocolate hazelnut spread or smoked salmon spread with sour cream and capers.
• Buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy and smoky collard greens from Blues City Biscuits (from D-Street Noshery cart pod)
• Oregon Bay Shrimp ceviche from El Gallo Taqueria (SE Woodstock)
• Little bites of dessert from Sweet Jane's at the front table of the Mara's Ladle food cart (SE 41st Hawthorne)
• Shut Up and Eat's famous meatball sample of their Italian comfort food (SE 50th) never disappoints
• Hog Time's fries with pulled pork and queso fresco and a touch of spicy aioli (from the 3rd and Washington downtown cart pod)
• The Oregonzola fries at Violetta, courtesy of their rolling mobile truck version "Etta" (Violetta is located at Director's Park, Etta by definition travels around since it's an actual food truck, not a cart that theoreticaly can move...



• I stopped at Fifty Licks as usual for ice cream... but also discovered a love for a new ice cream food truck, Scoop (N Killingsworth). I did have two of these- both the Salted Caramel and the Strawberry Balsalmic, both excellent. They also offered Trailhead Expresso and Basil Pineapple Sorbet to round out the four flavors



• Taco Pedaler is an actual cart on a roaming bike that pedals to a location to deal out their locally sourced tacos... they bike pulling these carts you see them prepping on behind!



• An actual conversation that took place between us and some strangers: "Hey, where did you get that chicken wing" "Oh, these spicy garlic chicken wings are from ::pointing:: These Guys" "From where? ::looking around behind:: which guys?" "Yeah... the tent there that says THESE GUYS" "Oh... ha ha..." These Guys Brooklyn cart (SE Milwaukee) offered samples of their smoked meats via smoked Carlton pork shoulder and spicy garlic chicken wings



• 808 Grinds (Sw 9th Washington downtown cart pod) offered their 808 Fried Chicken and 808 Crunch (Chex Mix concoction)... one in my eating party found their concept for their 808 crunch apparently somewhat revelatory because he mentioned it several times afterwards as future inspiration. I just had enough going on as I had to restrain myself from taking a second portion of their fried chicken when I went back in line with my friends and there was a line behind me of others anxious awaiting for their truck doors to swing open so they can have their bite of fried wonderfulness.



• Lardo's generous sampling of their pork meatball banh mi- people were lining up almost the length of an entire row to get their hands on these. (Lardo is located at the Good Food Here cart pod)



• The Mini Sandwich Shack (SE Powell) generously was offering four options of sandwiches

Most of these carts are not used to having to prep and serve over 2000 people a day, and here at the Eat Mobile festival the attendance easily was over that, and all within 3 hours. This sweet cart of Breakfast Lunch Today was hand rolling individual empanadas in the last hour of the festival, trying to still feed hungry interested patrons. Because I sympathize with all these small business owners having to create all this food and so quickly getting in the weeds when the general admission opens, I purposely did not visit some carts that I already have tried their food- such as Pizza Contadino, Oregon Ice Works, Koi Fusion, PBJ's, Emame's Ethiopian, Gaufre Gourmet, Somtum Gai Yang, Flavourspot, Brazi Bites, The Dump Truck...

There are also other samplings I did not photograph, such as the always tasty healthy juice shakes of Sip, the beer chili of Robb's Really Good Food, spicy chicken of Cackalack's Hot Chicken Shack (awesome name), and clam chowder of Chowdah, the lil ice cream of Fifty Licks... all of which I really enjoyed despite lack of photographic evidence.

Thank you to all the food carts and Willamette Weekly for putting together this event again, of which proceeds benefit Mercy Corp's Northwest's local economic development program that assists entrepreneurs in securing funds for small businesses (including food carts). I also appreciated Vitamin Water providing complimentary thirst quenching for all the food, and the music provided by the DJs and the performance of the Pynnacles kept me rocking.

Photos from The Wedge: Portland Celebrates Cheese Festival

The Wedge comes to Portland every other year to celebrate Northwest cheese. The block in front of Green Dragon was blocked off so that you could sip a beer with your tastings as well at this farmer's market-style event that let you sample at various cheesemaker artisan booths.  Overall, I believe there were 18 cheesemakers present along with a few other booths related to cheese (such as smoked salmon or Olympic Provision meats to go with your cheese plate, or educational via the Oregon State University or Urban Cheesecraft or  Dairy Farmers of Oregon).

We came home with eight cheeses, so that naturally illustrates what worked with both our palates and rated high. These included Beehive Cheese Company's Habanero Apple Walnut Promontory and also their Barely Buzzed which is rolled in espresso and lavender; Willamette Valley Cheese Company tempted us with many cheeses but the cumin gouda made the cut; Fairview Farm Goat Dairy bringing the Icelandic Skyr style in with cranberry and one with strawberry made the biggest impression on me; Rollingstone Chevre (traveling in from Idaho so not quite Northwest but hey welcome) tempted us with a jar of Basil Pepper Provencal and a 3 Pepper Chevre log (as well as other chevres varying from orange + almond and sundried tomato pesto to cranberry walnut or basil pistachio tortas); and Fern's Edge Dairy with a fig walnut sweet chevre (other tempting chevres included Chantarelle garlic, Pear Anise, Apricot Honey, Blueberry Ginger! And, the signature Mt Zion also was quite a treat).

Runner ups included La Mariposa's Cinco Esquinas and Chubut, Golden Glen Creamery dill & garlic packed a flavorful punch, Samish Bay Cheese with their unique and impressive lineup with Ladysmith (a fresh cheese) that included one with arugula and another that had a rind with cocoa + chipotle (on the left in one of the photos), Portland Creamery's new entrance to the market with a Pumpkin Stout chevre and Sweet Fire chevre, and Black Sheep Creamery Basque Style Cheese and Tin Willow Tomme.

Tillamook, one of the main sponsors, brought their little orange car (Loafy) and all these buttons and cheese. I'm a big fan of the vintage white extra sharp cheddar and smoked black pepper and white cheddar. They were handing out stacks of coupons for all their products- cheese, butter, ice cream... Enjoy these cheese photos and those from other wonderful cheesemakers.

Overall, it was a great way to get introduced to more cheesemakers and their offerings- I liked everyone in a different way, and I'm glad to see cultivate more recognition when I go visit the cheese cases. There are incredible offerings right here in the Northwest that  deserves a Cheese Trail map that would compete head to head Vermont's Cheese Trail.

 

Fire & Brimstone Beer Event

The Hop & Vine, a bottle shop of beer and wine that also serves as a drinking and light eating establishment, had a special beer event last weekend called Fire & Brimstone. I was really excited for this event because the beers offered were all smoked beers or chili beers. These are beer profiles I really really like. So there I was, at the beginning of the festival, among the first dozen there...

After taste-testing all that were on tap, for the smoked beers the ones that rose to the top included the Emlisse Rauchbier that had a smoky porkyness to it, the Oakshire Lil'Smokey's combination of smoke and coffee flavor was appreciated, and Caldera Rauch Ur Bock had a very liquid bbq profile. For Chili, the Calapooia Chili beer, an amber ale with fresh Anaheim, Serrano, and Jalapeno peppers was my favorite in that it offered an initial cool pepper freshness followed by the heat at the end in each mouthful.

Here are some photos from that event as we enjoyed all the beers on the patio, along with some snacks. Not pictured was an awesome pickled plate that included pickled pineapple!

Beer N Burgers 2011- Recap of Burgers x 7

The event is hosted by Portland Monthly in partnership with Fred Meyer and benefits Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. For $17, attendees can try tastings of beer from 10 local breweries and sliders from 7 local brewhouse chefs competing for the title of Best Burger- which the audience gets to vote for (the cost is $12 if not partaking in beer).

The list of brewhouse participants:

• Alameda Brewhouse
• BridgePort Brewery
• Buckman Brewery
• Burnside Brewing Co
• Deschutes Brewery
• Full Sail Brewing Co
• Henry's Tavern
• Laurelwood Brewing Co
• Ninkasi Brewing
• Widmer Brothers Brewing

The burgers are slider sized, but not really. For the second year in a row, I brought home leftovers instead of throwing out the burgers just because I was too full to finish them/wanted to save room to try them all. I didn't want to be wasteful of my food, and this time I was more clever in that I brought several ziploc bags in my bag. Now onto the burger food photos...

Laurelwood Public House & Brewery, the winner last year, came this year with a TEXAS BBQ BURGER: Smoked brisket, horseradish coleslaw, crispy Walla Walla onions, and Laurelwood’s signature Free Range Red BBQ sauce. Laurelwood Public House & Brewery offered a choice of either the organic pale ale or the organic free range red- I chose the Red in my sample cup

Burnside Brewing Co had the most hype as you watched them prepare their BURNSIDE BURGER: Liquid nitrogen-dipped and duck fat fried beef patty with ketchup, grilled onion, bacon, and cheddar powders, served with dill pickle “caviar”. The condiments teased us as we watched the prep show- dehydrated and food science executed onion, ketchup, cheddar, and duck fat all in powder, along with that white tub of dill pickle caviar...Unfortunately, I think everyone was disappointed that the flavors from those toppings didn't come through, and the burger was slightly dry though I could taste the extra savoryness from the duck fat.

It turned out my favorite and the one I voted for would be BridgePort Brewing Company's BIG ISLAND LITTLE BURGER: Beef and pork belly grind, char siu glaze, house cured pork belly, spicy sambal slaw, cilantro chimichurri, and tangy pickled red onions served on a toasted BridgePort Bakery Portuguese Sweet roll. It was a lot going on, but the sweetness and the herby earthiness of the chimichurri (which seemed more like a pesto to me) and the umami of the pork belly also all individually were good. 

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I also really liked the beer they were serving- the citrusy lined ale of Summer Squeeze which has infusion of lemongrass and yuzu.

In a very respectable second place for me was the Widmer Brothers Brewing THE GASTHAUS BURGER: Local Oregon beef, butter lettuce, Inaba Farms tomatoes and caramelized onion topped with smoked blue cheese & Nelson IPA fondue, served on a toasted brioche bun. Messy, but I do love cheese.There were three beers you could choose from and I went with their Okto, a seasonal ale for the fall.

Also in the high mess to eat category was Deschutes Brewery's THE YELLOW BELLY BURGER: Spicy pesto, candied yellow pear tomatoes, whipped goat cheese, and Obsidian Stout braised pork belly perched atop Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub’s classic spent-grain fed Coleman Ranch beef patty and elegantly gift-wrapped with a whole-grain mustard ciabatta bun. Yeah, they can barely get the description to fit on their sign! From one of the photos, you can see from this angle you can almost imagine this looks like the tomatoes are two eyes, and it's a goofy burger face... Heh heh heh. I think I'm delirious from the heat and food.

I also really liked the beer Deschutes brought- they also had 3 options and I went with The Cyclist, a hefeweizen and lemonade brew. It was really refreshing with the tangy citrus really coming through to give a nice summer tartness to the Hefeweizen like a preinfused Shandy.

Just as competitive as all these delicious burgers above was the more simple and classic Alameda Brewhouse's TILLAMOOK CHEDDAR PEPPER BACON BURGER: Frank’s Choice free ground beef, Zenner’s thick cut pepper bacon, Tillamook cheddar cheese on a Kaiser bun. I liked how they didn't throw a boatload of condiments on top- they let the wonderful seasoning of the beef with just a bit of bacon and cheddar say all they needed. Their assembly line was efficient and showed they had thought carefully about the logistics of serving out food so there wouldn't be lines.

Finally, the 7th burger... Henry's Tavern brought the HENRY’S HITMAN BURGER: Brioche bun topped with a burger patty, pesto aioli, provolone cheese, mixed greens, pickled sweet pepper, and jalapeño stuffed olives. I skipped the Henry's Tavern beer for Buckman Brewing experiments of the Ginger and the Chamomile beers

I hope they continue to look for improving space to hold it in- this year I appreciated how it was more spread out in the Fred Meyer parking lot rather then on the streets outside the Whole Food (who was last year's co-sponsor), but it was also Portland's first past 90 degree day... in fact the recorded high temp I believe was 97. Everyone was baking as the heat reflected back up from the asphalt, even as we all tried to hide from the microwave of the sun in some of the shade they tried to provide but just didn't have enough of.

Overall though, this event was organized well with the red and white checkered tablecloths and jars of flowers and fanned out Portland Monthly's that made this event once again classy and beautiful to the eye as well as filling to the stomach, all for a good cause. 100% of net proceeds will go directly to the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon Summer Meals Program that helps provide funds for organizations to serve meals to low-income children during the summer when school is not in session.

Beer 'N' Burgers 2011

Bite of Oregon 2011

A visit on Sunday... laid back, not too busy with people, and the weather was sunny and warm with a cool breeze but not hot. It's still not quite Taste of Chicago in that it actually offers "bites" or tastes of food, but it was better organized this year at least. The Groupon priced it at two for one which made it irresistable to come visit.

I always check out the Chef's Table, where more high end restaurants offer a sample for ~$4-5 of a dish for a few hours on a specific day of the Bite of Oregon weekend. I attended on Sunday with my eye on the Bon Appétit times when Executive Chef Micah Cavolo, Chefs Mark Radford, Rogelio Berumen and Frank Salazar put together this description of a dish...I liked how he grated right on my dish/hands.

Traegar Smoked Food Forest Farm’s Berkshire Pork Porchetta, Served Open Faced on House -made (gluten free) Focacceta Rolls Drenched in Smoky Pork Jus Topped with Nero and Ricotta Cheese

Other samplings from the Chef's Table booths included The Reserve Vineyards, Chef Jason Nussbaumer doing Huli Huli Pork Sliders with Grilled Red Onions, American Cheese, Sweet Pepper Aioli & Asian Spiced Yukon Gold Potato Chips and also Il Piatto's Chef Eugene Bingham Gnocchi with Pancetta and Parsley Pesto

Grilling chicken... standing downwind makes sure I smell delicious all day and when I go home. These are used for Bambuza Vietnamese Bistro's Honey Glazed Grilled Chicken Skewer, their beverages also looked refreshing

Was a scavenger of friends' Strawberry Shortcake and Marionberry Shortcake from Hoffman Dairy Garden

A free cupcake while listening to music, the Newmans at 988 booth making Fresh Oregon Dungeness Crab Cake with Lemon Aioli, and "drumsticks" from Sweet Lemon Vegan Bistro

We also tasted great wine at Rizzo and Tesoaria, of which Rizzo's supersweet Muscat and the cherry of Tesoaria's new Sangiovese stood out particularly.