Last spring I got a call from a producer of Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods asking if I wanted to help out with an upcoming Portland episode. She'd seen my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland, had checked out my blog and wanted me to help choose subjects and themes for the upcoming Portland show. We had a lot of back and forth for a few months before they came to Portland to shoot last summer.
I know a lot of the folks that they ended up featuring but I'm sure that there will be some surprises as well. People and businesses that I recommended include Steve Jones of Cheese Bar, Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Geoff Latham of Nicky USA, Earnest and Sumiko Migaki of Jorinji Miso, John Cleary of Newman's Fish Company, David Barber of Picklopolis, The Frying Scotsman, The Big Egg, Andrea Spella of Spella Caffe, Gabe Rosen of Biwa, Gena Renaud of Yume Confections and Naomi Montacre of Naomi's Organic Farm Supply. These are the folks that I remember talking about but I know there were more.
When the crew came to town last summer I got to tag along for a day. I haven't seen any of the show yet but if you watch it imagine me crouched between storage racks behind the sound guy when Andrew is making a very strange sounding ice cream (hint: smoke and bones). I even got to introduce myself to Mr. Z and we talked a bit about Vassar our alma mater. Now, more than a year later, the show is finally airing -- next Monday night on the Travel Channel. I'm really looking forward to tuning in.