Portland Dining Month Giveaway

February 23, 2018 in Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Restaurants, Travel Portland, Oregon Food Bank, Portland Dining Month

Irma is the lucky winner with comment #5! Congratulations Irma!

March is Travel Portland's annual Portland Dining Month with $33 unique 3-course meals offered nightly at 100-plus participating Portland restaurants. Travel Portland started Portland Dining Month in 2009 as a way to promote overnight travel to our fair city. Some of the many Portland restaurants that I love that are participating this year include Andina, Autentica, Biwa, Davenport, Departure, Kachka, Ken's Artisan Pizza, Little Bird, Ned Ludd, Olympia Oyster Bar, Radar, Trifecta, Xico and so many more.

New this year, Feastly Portland has joined Travel Portland’s lineup. The pop-up dining experience will feature 21 top chefs from around the world in to-be-released locations around the city. The focus this year is on ethnic cuisine including Ethiopian, Pilipino, Turkish, Puerto Rican and Nigerian dishes. Find out more at eatfeastly.com.

I have two gift cards -- one for Ataula and 1 for Ray -- that each entitle the bearer to a 3-course Portland Dining month dinner this March. All you need to do to be entered for this drawing to win BOTH cards is leave a comment here about some sort of food or drink (or food adventure) that you've had in another city in the US or abroad that you'd love to see in Portland. OR you can comment about something like this that you've never experienced firsthand but have dreamed of and would like to see here. I'm writing down a number now and will snap a photo of it. That numbered commenter will be announced at the end of next week and then I'll mail out the cards.

Whether you win or not I highly encourage you to make your reservations for Portland Dining Month via portlanddiningmonth.com. Travel Portland has partnered up with OpenTable and a donation will be made to Oregon Food Bank's hunger-relief efforts for every reservation booked through the website. Please share this any way you can/want. Thank you!

Portland Fermentation Festival attendee 2016, "I can't get the sound of the wailing, howling pickles out of my head! Never again. Those poor pickles."

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2017

September 14, 2017 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Keep Portland Weird, Portland Chefs, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Weird, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider

Online tickets are on sale now for $10! A limited number of tickets will be available at the door the night of the festival and will be $12/cash only.

Well, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler AND the pickles are getting longer. Wait, what?! The date for the EIGHTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as always -- we love Ecotrust!) has been set and we're happy to let you know that it can serve to jump start your Halloween weekend yet again this year on Thursday, October 26th from 6-9:30pm.

Below are all the details from the press release that we have set so far for this year's stinky good time!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

George Winborn gw dot winborn at gmail dot com

David Barber briney at picklopolis dot com

Heidi Nestler heidi dot nestler at gmail dot com

Eighth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 26th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust's Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music curated by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10 advance, $12 cash at door Children 12 and younger attend for freeTickets on sale!

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 26th at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.

Come celebrate pickling season at the eight annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual festival that brought out more than 400 attendees in 2016. Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, attend fermentation demo's and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and natto, to cheeses, hard cider and kombucha. We *just* learned that Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider is making okolehao for the festival this year! Nat always tries his hand at something awesome and experimental year after year for the festival. Check out the chicha he made for last year's festival!

Admission for the 6pm or 7:30pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10. Enjoy rooftop music by DJ Jimbo, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW

Photos from last year's festival Food Lover's Guide to Portland

Twitter: @PDXFermentFest Facebook: Portland Fermentation Festival www.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Perennial festival favorite — Choi’s Kimchi. Co-owner Matt Choi on the right and family and business friend Moah Son on the left. Matt’s mom Chong — co-owner of Choi’s Kimchi stopped by for a minute but she’d been up the night before until 4am makin… — Perennial festival favorite — Choi’s Kimchi. Co-owner Matt Choi on the right and family and business friend Moah Son on the left. Matt’s mom Chong — co-owner of Choi’s Kimchi stopped by for a minute but she’d been up the night before until 4am making kimchi so she was a littttttle tired and headed home. Matt was on last year’s and this year’s Panel of Fermentation Experts.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2016 Redux

March 20, 2017 in Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Homemade Food, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland food, Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Pickles

Well, we did it again — another wild, stinky and super fun Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust! This year’s Seventh Annual fest was chock-full of tasty funky fermented foods, smarty-pants exhibitors and attendees, an excellent Panel of Fermentation Experts, all sorts of fun DIY demo’s, rooftop good vibes thanks to DJ Jimbo (check out his festival playlists here and here) and Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider and much much more. Thank you all for coming out for it and joining the stink!

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours (thank you sooooo much to all of our kick-ass volunteers!) and as always we’re so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us year after year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.

We had some great coverage this year including this segment on KGW News with Cassidy Quinn. We’ve posted most of the other coverage on social media. If you’d like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out Facebook and Twitter pages.

Below are a whole bunch of photos from this year’s Stinkfest! If you have some great ones too please post them to the Facebook page or Twitter them with the hashtag #pdxfermentfest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and see you all again next year we hope! Stay stinky! Oh, and please let me know if I attributed anything incorrectly. Thanks!

Pre-fest KGW News coverage thanks to Cassidy Quinn. She, Nat and Claudia tried Nat’s chicha on camera AND Nat chewed and spit up some of the corn mash that this traditional Peruvian corn drink is made of. You read that correctly — they essentially d… — Pre-fest KGW News coverage thanks to Cassidy Quinn. She, Nat and Claudia tried Nat’s chicha on camera AND Nat chewed and spit up some of the corn mash that this traditional Peruvian corn drink is made of. You read that correctly — they essentially drank Nat’s spit! (I did too and it was actually pretty good — light, sweet and slightly roasty smoky) Nat always brings something wildly experimental to the fest every year and we love him so much for it.

We kicked off this year’s fest with a super inspiring and informative Panel of Fermentation Experts with left to right: Tara Whitsitt (Fermentation on Wheels), David Barber (Picklopolis), Matt Choi (Choi’s Kimchi), Nat West (Reverend Nat’s Hard Cide… — We kicked off this year’s fest with a super inspiring and informative Panel of Fermentation Experts with left to right: Tara Whitsitt (Fermentation on Wheels), David Barber (Picklopolis), Matt Choi (Choi’s Kimchi), Nat West (Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider) and Claudia Lucero (Urban Cheesecraft).

A little bit closer. Such a great panel! We ended it on each of their best pieces of advice for the beginning fermenter. The general gist: just do it. You don’t need fancy equipment or lots of know-how, this is a born of mistakes primitive way of pr… — A little bit closer. Such a great panel! We ended it on each of their best pieces of advice for the beginning fermenter. The general gist: just do it. You don’t need fancy equipment or lots of know-how, this is a born of mistakes primitive way of preserving food. Tap into that and have fun. Kick your intimidation to the curb.

Once the panel concluded the doors opened for the first of the night’s two tastings and madness ensued. A fun, yummy, wild ferments madness.

Portland Fermentation Festival co-organizers left to right: David Barber, me, George Winborn. We love you!

Nat West serving up his Peruvian chewed/spit fermented corn drink. Nat always makes really unusual experimental ferments just for the fest. Last year he sampled his Mongolian milk wine and the year before that he brought his fermented LEG OF LAMB ci… — Nat West serving up his Peruvian chewed/spit fermented corn drink. Nat always makes really unusual experimental ferments just for the fest. Last year he sampled his Mongolian milk wine and the year before that he brought his fermented LEG OF LAMB cider! Wacky and awesome.

Connie and Brian Shaw of Hood River’s Oregon Brineworks always bring the most delicious spread of their ferments. This year was no different. You can find their ferments all over Portland (at New Seasons, Green Zebra, Peoples Food Coop ++) — they’re… — Connie and Brian Shaw of Hood River’s Oregon Brineworks always bring the most delicious spread of their ferments. This year was no different. You can find their ferments all over Portland (at New Seasons, Green Zebra, Peoples Food Coop ++) — they’re soooo yummy!

Owner Sash Sunday of Olympia’s OlyKraut serving up all different kraut samples (also available in Portland markets) AND pouring shots of spicy spectacular pickle brine. YUM!! Next level ingredient for rad Bloody Marys.

George Tsesoukas of Soma Kombucha (based in St. Johns) pouring up tart and tasty kombucha samples. So many different tasty flavors.

Out on the mezzanine we had three demo’s throughout the night. Austin Durant of the Fermenters Club (he came up all the way from San Diego!) did this fun and inspiring DIY kimchi and gochujang making demo.

Right across the mezzanine at the same time Claudia Lucero led a fermented nut cheese demo. I definitely am going to try my hand at these now. So yummy, tart, smooth and creamy. She’s currently working on a book all about dairy-free cheeses! Her exc… — Right across the mezzanine at the same time Claudia Lucero led a fermented nut cheese demo. I definitely am going to try my hand at these now. So yummy, tart, smooth and creamy. She’s currently working on a book all about dairy-free cheeses! Her excellent One-Hour Cheese cookbook came out in 2014.

Festival veteran Heidi Nestler, owner of Pickled Things, sampled her sticky tasty natto at this year’s fest and…

Heidi also led a demo on pickled Japanese vegetables — — nukazuke, misozuke and kojizuke. I really wish I could have gone to that one.

While Heidi did her demo festival volunteer superstar Marty handed out natto samples at her table. Jimbo got to try natto for the first time! He loved it.

I’m bummed I didn’t get any photos of the lovely ticketing ladies in the atrium this year but I did get this one with three of them. Left to right: Michelle, Stacy and Loly. All dear friends.

Lion Heart Kombucha! I asked one little boy at the fest this year what his favorite festival sample was and he said, “ALL the kombucha!” Love it.

Tim Root’s incredible festival poster this year! We’re so lucky that he continues to do our poster year after year. So creeeeeepy awesome.

Colin Franger of Blue Bus Cultured Foods in Bingen, Washington. Colin has been coming to the fest for years sampling his yummy ferments and you can find a lot of them in Portland at New Seasons, Whole Foods, various co-ops and other markets. That’s … — Colin Franger of Blue Bus Cultured Foods in Bingen, Washington. Colin has been coming to the fest for years sampling his yummy ferments and you can find a lot of them in Portland at New Seasons, Whole Foods, various co-ops and other markets. That’s his green bean kimchi — got more than one sample ;)

Careen Stoll — another festival veteran — brought her gorgeous handmade crocks and mortars and pestles again this year. Check out her goods online http://www.fire-keeper.org/

While Claudia Lucero did her demo folks sampled her awesome fermented nut cheeses.

Jon Westdahl and Julie sampling all different Squirrel & Crow tasty tempehs, misos and one of my favorite festival tastes this year — cultured vegan butter. So good.

Festival co-organizer David Barber of Picklopolis sampling his always delicious sour dills. One of my favorite pickles on the planet.

My good friend and super talented animation artist Stephen Bodin put this cool image together for us to announce the festival a few months ago. Love it so much.

First time fest exhibitors Sue and Wendy of NW Ferments (they sell all sorts of fermentation starter cultures) sampling their tasty kombucha.

Rooftop good vibes (and tunes) were provided by DJ Jimbo and Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider. Crazily enough we were rain-free yet another year. The Fermentation Fest is always on a beautiful night. Really pretty view on the Ecotrust roof.

Grant from Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider poured cider on the rooftop all night long. Nat West of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider’s is my very, very, very favorite hard cider maker.

Matthew of Eva’s Herbucha (one of Portland’s first commercial kombucha makers) poured yummy kombucha from their tap to thirsty festival goers.

I always end these posts with a photo of festival co-organizer George Winborn (in the background) in the jetpack vacuum cleaner but this year David got the honor ;)

Thank you to every last one of you who came out and were a part of making this year’s SEVENTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival so special. Love, love, love you!

Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2016

August 23, 2016 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Keep Portland Weird, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

(Photoshop wizardry by my friend Stephen Bodin.)

Here we go again! The date for the SEVENTH Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust (as always -- we love Ecotrust!) has been set and we're happy to let you know that it can serve to jump start your Halloween weekend this year on Thursday, October 27th from 6-9:30pm. We also encourage you to come out and sample a lot of briny and full of flavor food and drink to help brighten your mind and outlook so that you get out and vote on Election Day less than two weeks later. Do it!

Below are all the details from the press release that we have set so far for this year's stinky good time!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Organizers & Media Contacts:

Liz Crain lizcrain at gmail dot com

George Winborn gw.winborn at gmail dot com

David Barber briney at picklopolis dot com

Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 27th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust's Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music curated by DJ Jimbo 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, October 27th (Just days away from Election Day! Vote! Please encourage others to vote!) at Ecotrust for Portland's annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring miso, try miso. Brink sour pickles, try sour pickles. Come out for Portland's premier fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting annual event.

Come celebrate pickling season at the Seventh Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented foods and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual festival that brought out 600-plus attendees in 2015. This year's special pre-tasting event will be a panel of fermentation experts including Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider (He's bringing chicha to sample at this year's festival! All of the corn will be chewed pre-ferment!) and other local food and drink fermentation experts soon to be announced.

Admission for the 7pm or 8pm Thursday tastings and fermentation demos is $10. For $20 attend the 6pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation in addition to the 7pm tasting and fermentation demos. Enjoy rooftop music, food and drink from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Bingo Sandwiches and others TBD.

Festival coverage past and present:

KGW Photos from last year's festival at Food Lover's Guide to Portland Cooking Up a Story KBOO Food Show Portland Monthly Willamette Week Portland Mercury OPB

Twitter: @PDXFermentFest Facebook: Portland Fermentation Festival

The Dapper Foodists -- Portland Fermentation Fest co-organizers George Winborn, me and David Barber right before the Panel of Fermentation Experts.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2015 Redux

November 09, 2015 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Homemade Food, Keep Portland Weird, Portland DIY, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Pickles, Uncategorized

I was out a town for a week right after this year's Portland Fermentation Festival so I apologize for the delay in putting this post together. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out a couple weeks ago and made the SIXTH annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust a huge stinky success!

This year we had all sorts of new tasty treats including our first international neighbor to the north exhibitor. Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments came all the way from Vancouver B.C. to take part in the fest, we also welcomed our first New York Times covered guest -- panel of fermentation experts participant Tara Whitsitt of Fermentation on Wheels and we had our first festival playlist curated by my favorite fellow -- D.J. Jimbo!

We put the Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours (thank you sooooo much to all of our kick-ass volunteers!) and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us year after year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you.

We had some great coverage this year including this spot on KGW News Live at 7 segment with Cassidy Quinn. We've posted most of the other coverage on social media. If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Below are a whole bunch of photos from this year's Stinkfest! If you have some great ones too please post them to the Facebook page or Twitter them with the hashtag #pdxfermentfest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you and see you all again next year we hope! Stay stinky! Oh, and please let me know if I attributed anything incorrectly. Thanks!

Keep on rockin' in Neil's free world and in our fermented world. — We had to switch the initial Portland Fermentation Fest date when we found out that Neil Young was coming to town that very night. My good friend Steve Bodin made me this image for that press release. Let's just pretend Neil came to the festival and rocked out on an electric pickle.

Festival cuties working the door at Ecotrust. My good friends left to right Wendy Wilson, Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt and Jimbo Sandberg.

Before the fest I got some pics of exhibitors including festival royalty Nat West and Sarah West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider.

Aaaaand festival royalty Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi.

We're so lucky that super talented Portland artist Tim Root makes the festival poster every year. Love, love, love this year's poster!

We kicked off the festival again this year with an hour-long panel of fermentation experts.

Festival co-organizer George Winborn was the moderator and on the panel left to right was Tara Whitsitt, Matt Choi, Nat West, David Barber and Tressa Yellig. AKA all of the fermentation smarty pants.

After the panel we stacked the chairs and in came the crowd of hungry folks for the first tasting. Eat or be eaten!!

Cuties Connie and Brian Shaw from Hood River's Oregon Brineworks brought an incredible spread just as they did last year.

Including their garlic dills, beet kvass, ginger gold kvass, fermented hot sauce, fermented ketchup and more. So good!

Cassidy Quinn of KGW News came and interviewed us at the beginning of the first tasting and she tried some of David's Picklopolis black pepper fennel kraut. She loved it of course.

Emily Squadra's spicy Mexican kimchi and Korean kimchi were both spicy full-flavored hits.

The loveliest Allison Jones of Portland Monthly checking in on the media list and my good friends Koko Wadeson, Jess Bull and Loly Leblanc rocking their door/ticketing shift.

Todd Graham of HandTaste Ferments in Vancouver B.C. handing out samples of the awesome chickpea tempeh that he demo'd on the mezzanine.

Jenny Hogan of NuCulture Foods with her crazy tasty and creamy cashew spreads. A lot of markets in town carry them. Try them -- so good!

Festival alum and sweetheart Claudia Lucero, proprietor of DIY Cheese Kits by Urban Cheesecraft and author of One-Hour Cheese doing her labneh cheese demo. Really popular demo.

Olive Evelyn Bailey of Lion Heart Kombucha serving up all kinds of delicious fruity kombuchas. I tried the raspberry and it was deeeeelicious!

Tabor Bread baker and baking teacher Sarah Black with gratis sourdough cultures and yummy YUMMY natural starter whole grain rye bread.

My friend Kelli Brandt in the foreground trying Colin Franger in the background's Blue Bus Cultured Foods super tasty Shakedown Beet and Kraut-chi.

And then the second tasting commenced! My friends womaning the door left to right -- Stacy Goodwin, Loly Leblanc, Michelle Gilmore and Michele Knaus.

The rooftop in full swing with tunes by D.J. Jimbo, cider from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and sandwiches from Bingo Sandwiches. Beautiful night. Beautiful city.

Another rooftop festival cutie -- my good friend Jess Bull.

Crock maker Jon Westdahl on the right, Dario Barone of Sacred Summit and Julie of Squirrel and Crow.

Lovely Sasha Sunday and her crew with all kinds of OlyKraut tastiness including Smoke & Kale, Cumin Jalapeno and Sea Vegetable krauts.

Another festival royalty -- Queen Heidi Nestler of Heidi Nestler Cooking Classes doing her always well attended natto demo on the mezzanine.

The super sweet duo from Eva's Herbucha in the eye of the storm.

My good friend Loly Leblanc made a bunch of friends of the festival these awesome fuzzzzzzzy pickles to wear this year!

Beautiful Careen Stoll of Careen Stoll Ceramics with her beautiful handmade crocks.

Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider sadly packing up his milk wine. Every year Nat pushes the fermentation boundaries and brings something wacky that you can only try at the festival. Last year he brought LAMB cider. This year MILK wine. Weird and… — Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cider sadly packing up his milk wine. Every year Nat pushes the fermentation boundaries and brings something wacky that you can only try at the festival. Last year he brought LAMB cider. This year MILK wine. Weird and wonderful.

Closing time with my lovely ladies -- Loly Leblanc, Kelli Brandt, me and Michelle Gilmore. Most fun!

Every great Portland Fermentation Festival concludes with George donning his jet pack. All stinky things must come to an end.

Thank you to every last one of you who came out and were a part of this year's sixth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We love you!

Willamette Week's Eat Mobile 2015

April 17, 2015 in Eat Mobile, Food Carts, Portland Food Carts, Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized, Willamette Week

I get asked what my favorite Portland food carts are A LOT and I have a few spots that I always say but I don't really eat at carts all that often. I used to when I worked downtown but now that I don't they just aren't a regular thing for me beyond this one by my writing studio. That's why I asked my friend Brett Burmeister of Food Carts Portland to write the food cart chapter for the second edition of my Food Lover's Guide to Portland and lucky for me he did.

Sooooo, I'm really looking forward to the eighth annual Willamette Week Eat Mobile (Wednesday, April 29th from 5-9pm) because I'm going to taste my way around TWENTY FIVE different PDX food carts. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Also at the event: music from DJ Short Change and Clarinet Cat Box and tasty beer from Baerlic Brewing Co. Strangely enough, I've never been to Eat Mobile -- really looking forward to it.

Here's a video from last year's. For EM volunteer inquiries contact aboucher at wweek dot com and for sponsorship or press inquiries contact sbarnhart@wweek.com.

Here's the scoop poop straight from WW. Tickets are available now and there are only 400 this year so get them while you still can:

This year, instead of bringing the carts to the people, the festival brings the people to the carts. Guests will enjoy samples from carts at two SE Portland pods, Tidbit and A La Carts Food Pavilion (Himalayan Food cart at this pod is one of my VERY FAVORITES!! So good.). Tickets are available here and admission is $40 and includes a wristband for more than 25 food samples, two free drinks, live music and shuttle service between pods.

"This festival is a flagship event for Willamette Week and we're excited about the change," said Steph Barnhart, events and marketing manager. "We want to allow the cart owners to do what they do best in their natural environment, and let guests taste something from nearly every cart at two pods we love."

Attendees will get samples from carts as the vendors compete for the coveted Carty Award, selected by Eat Mobile guests and judges. Guests will also vote for one pod to win “Best Pod Experience.”

GET TICKETS Willamette Week's 8th annual Eat Mobile Wednesday, April 29th 5-9pm

Mr. Mark Bittman and me at the James Beard Public Market fundraiser dinner at Leftbank Annex.

Mark Bittman at the James Beard Public Market Fundraiser in Portland January 22, 2015

January 23, 2015 in Bon Appetit Management..., James Beard Public Market, Mark Bittman, Portland food, Portland Food Fundraiser, Portland Food Politics, Portland Food Products, Portland Food/Drink Event, Portland Restaurants, Ron Paul, Uncategorized

I'm a very lucky lady. I got to be Mark Bittman's date when he was in town for the James Beard Public Market fundraiser dinner at Leftbank Annex last night. Greg Higgins of Higgins Restaurant put together an incredible Pacific Northwest bounty meal comprised of recipes inspired by Mr. B's latest book How to Cook Everything Fast which Higgins joked in his intro. to the event was probably "the longest book on fast cooking." It's a whopping 4+ pounds after all. (My favorite dishes that I've cooked from the book so far: miso glazed catfish with mushrooms, caramelized cod and Vietnamese-style fish sauce brussels. Mmmmm!)

The James Beard Public Market has been in the works now for nearly 15 years and it looks like we'll finally have a market sooner than later. There have been all sorts of recent developments including the securing of the space at the west end of the Morrison bridge from the county for development, the partnership with the Norwegian design firm Snohetta to design it, the partnership with Bon Appetit Management Company to develop the teaching and demo. kitchens and on and on. In other words, things are moving right along now and gaining momentum. There are so many great local food folks involved including board secretary Janie Hibler, outreach and operations director Ann Forsthoefel, board members Lisa Sedlar and Greg Higgins and many, many more.

The dinner met the night's fundraising goals and the highlight was Mr. Bittman's inspiring speech which you can listen to here if you weren't able to attend:

The sound is pretty crappy but if you crank it up you can get most of it. There were a lot of bodies in the room and a lot of wine glasses if you know what I mean.

I'm really looking forward to one fine day when we have a large urban, indoor/outdoor year-round public market. I grew up in Cincinnati with Findlay Market and I really get how important these hubs can be to local culture. I want it! I want it now! Patience. It will soon be. Help make the James Beard Public Market dream a reality. Let's do this thing.

Leftbank Annex all pretty for the event. Three Leg Torso playing on the stage just out of view of the photo to the right.

Mark and Bon Appetit Management Co. CEO and co-founder Fedele Bauccio before the dinner.

EVERYONE left with a copy of Mark's How to Cook Everything Fast.

Mark giving his inspiring speech. Link to the audio is above.

Mark and James Beard Public Market executive director Ron Paul at the end of the night.

The happiest and luckiest person I know at the end of the night. Yep.

Learn more about the James Beard Public Market at www.jamesbeardmarket.com

Tim Root's sweeeeeet ass poster for this year's Portland Fermentation Festival

Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival 2014

September 30, 2014 in Ecotrust, Food Fermentation, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized

Since 2009 my friends David Barber, George Winborn and I have put on the annual Portland Fermentation Festival with/at Ecotrust and every year it gets bigger and better. We're only two weeks out from this year's festival -- Thursday, Oct. 16th from 6-9:30pm at Ecotrust -- so I'm taking a moment to let you know all the stiiiiinky details in one place.

Most importantly, online tickets are on sale now ($10, $20) and you can purchase them here. Secondly, you can still apply to be an exhibitor -- more info. here. Beyond that I'm pasting the press release below and some recent media links. Here's the Facebook event page.

This year we're having a panel of experts kick of the fest rather than one guest speaker. The inaugural Portland Fermentation Festival was in 2009 with Sandor Ellix Katz as guest speaker and we were lucky enough to get him back to speak at last year's fest. Sandor is one of our heroes and favorite people so we asked him to speak again at this year's fest, knowing full well he'd probably be too busy for it, and that we were being a little greedy. Just want to share these words that Sandor wrote back to us in response:

"sorry can't make it this year. have fun and keep me posted on future festivals. i'm heading to the boston fermentation festival next month and austin (tx) festival in november. you were the pioneer fermentation festival and they keep spreading....."

Let's all be super proud to be a part of "THE PIONEER FERMENTATION FESTIVAL"! We can't wait to see you all in just over two weeks at the STIIIINK!

PRESS RELEASE Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 16th 6-9:30pm Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center Rooftop food and drink sales and music from DJ Pickle Barrel 721 NW 9th Ave. Portland, OR All ages, open to the public, $10-$20 Children 12 and younger attend for free www.portlandfermentationfestival.com

Open-to-the-public, all ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kraut, try kraut. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland's fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing, and tasting event of the year. We are very pleased to announce that this year's special pre-tasting event (special ticket must be purchased to attend this panel) will be a panel of fermentation experts. Nat West of Reverend Nat's Hard Cidery, David Barber of Picklopolis, Eric Finley of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie and Josh Grgas from Commons Brewery will answer questions and talk all things food/drink fermentation. Bring questions!

Come celebrate pickling season at the Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust. Taste and share live, fermented food and drinks made by professionals and home fermentation enthusiasts at the annual event that brought out more than 500 attendees in 2013.

Talk to fellow fermenters, exchange cultures and recipes, get advice from local food fermentation enthusiasts, and sample everything from sour pickles, miso and kefir to cheese, hard cider, and mead. Enjoy rooftop food and beverage sales from Reverend Nat's Hard Cider, Commons Brewery and Bingo Sandwiches and music from DJ Pickle Barrel as well as fermentation demos from Claudia Lucero author of One-Hour Cheese, Gabe Rosen chef-owner of Biwa, Eric Finley butcher-owner of Chop Butchery & Charcuterie and Heidi Nestler teacher of Heidi Nestler Cooking Classes.

Tickets will be available online at portlandfermentationfestival.com on September 30th! Admission for the 7 or 8pm Thursday tasting sessions is $10. For $20 you get to attend the 7 pm tasting as well as fermentation demos and the 6pm panel of experts on all things food/drink fermentation.

Visit the website above for more information on how to enter your fermented goods and cultures for the event.

MEDIA COVERAGE THIS YEARBuzzFeed Portland Monthly KBOO Food Show Portland Tribune

MEDIA COVERAGE OF FESTIVALS PASTCooking Up A Story My redux on this blog with photos OPB Willamette Week KBOO Food Show

CONNECT WITH THE PORTLAND FERMENTATION FESTIVALportlandfermentationfestival.com Facebook Twitter

Oh, just me and me checking out my gigantic book cover in the window at Powell's City of Books. That's all. Thanks Buddy Bodin for twinning me!

Food Lover's Guide to Portland 2.0 Launch Party ++

August 06, 2014 in Book Event, Book News, Food Lover's Guide to ..., Portland Food Products, Portland Food/Drink Event, Uncategorized

I went camping on Memorial Day weekend this year and during that trip I made a pact with myself to spend as much of this summer outside as possible. I succeeded! It's been an incredible and very lucky summer for me filled with trips back and forth to the coast, day trips to rivers, lots of barbecues, camping and long hot summer nights spent around campfires, on beaches, in backyards. It's been amazing. And now I've been reeling it in and getting back to the business of books and writing and food -- all of which I love. Wish summer could last just a little bit longer though.

The second edition of my book Food Lover's Guide to Portland comes out in less than a month and the day that it launches Hawthorne Books is throwing a big launch party for it at my friend's Reverend Nat's Cidery & Public Taproom -- Monday, Sept. 1st 6-10pm. It's going to be a whole heck of a lot of fun with Nat's hard ciders for sale, food donated from folks featured in the book, music from DJ Jimbo of XRAY.fm and more. I really hope that you can come out for it and help me and Hawthorne Books celebrate.

So far, you can look forward to tasty treats from Boke Bowl, Cheese Bar, Toro Bravo, Ken's Artisan Bakery, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Ruby Jewel Ice Cream, Fleur de Lis Bakery, Full Circle Creamery, Hotlips Soda, Slow Food Portland, Berry Good Produce, Bowery Bagels and Remedy Wine Bar. AND there will be a cake with an icing-based cover of my book courtesy of Hawthorne Books from Helen Bernhard Bakery. If you have something tasty you'd like to donate to the party spread please contact me at info at liz crain dot com. Thank you!

Three other events to quickly mention that I also hope you might make it out for:

Powell's Books Food Lover's Guide to Portland panel with me, Gabe Rosen, Nick Zukin, Nat West and Brett Burmeister Thursday, September 11th 7:30pm @ Powell's City of Books

People's Co-op Harvest Festival fermentation demo with me, David Barber and George Winborn in promotion of the upcoming Portland Fermentation Festival Wednesday, September 17th demo 3-5pm @ People's Food Co-op

Fifth Annual Portland Fermentation Festival Thursday, October 16th 6-9:30pm @ Ecotrust

See you soon at one or more of these events I hope!

Festival co-organizers me, George Winborn and David Barber with this year's special guest speaker Sandor Ellix Katz.

Portland Fermentation Festival 2013 Redux

October 30, 2013 in Ecotrust, Edible Portland, Food Fermentation, Food Preservation, Portland Farming, Portland Fermentation ..., Portland Food/Drink Event, Sandor Ellix Katz, Toro Bravo Cookbook, Uncategorized

We couldn't be happier about this year's fourth annual Portland Fermentation Festival. We got Sandor Ellix Katz back as guest speaker, we had more exhibitors sharing fermented foods and recipes than ever, we took the party to another level literally on the rooftop with D.J. Pickle Barrel, Reverend Nat's Hard Cider and Upright Brewing, we had advance tickets sales and the talk and first tasting sold out and we had demo's on everything from natto to nightshade-free kimchi.

It was a stinky good time and thank you so much to everyone who participated and attended! We put Portland Fermentation Festival together every year with a shoestring budget + heaps of volunteered hours and as always we're so grateful that Ecotrust puts up with us every stinking (literally) year. Thank you again Ecotrust! We love you. Thank you to festival sponsor Willamette Week and to this year's poster designer Tim Root as well.

If you'd like to keep up with local fermenty goings-on please check out our website, Facebook and Twitter.

I was able to take a good amount of photos at the festival last week so here they are in no particular order. I know that I missed some exhibitors and I may have even mixed up some names and folks. If so please let me know and sorry in advance. Alright, on to the photos. See you at the stink next year!