Every year in Portland, for one weekend in September, all of the best food vendors in Oregon come together in one place. The festival is called Feast and it’s put on by Bon Appetit magazine. (Can we please have one in Seattle????) This is my second time going to the festival and it’s so much fun. It takes over one entire city block and numerous places all over the city.
I went to the Grand Tasting which is usually their main event on Saturday. It includes over 80 different food & wine vendors from all over Oregon. My favorite, hands down, was the Salt & Straw Gramercy Tavern’s cheddar apple pie ice cream. It was definitely to die for. Who would think that cheddar fudge and deep fried apple pie, topped with caramel magic shell would go so well together? The other surprising thing I ate was the antelope tartare from Nicky Farms. I tried this after I heard someone say, “This is the best thing I have ever eaten.” And it was pretty close. The drinking chocolate from Ranger Chocolates was also insanely good. I loved the shaved ice by Wailua Shave Ice and was really happy that they had a non alcoholic version, as a non-drinker. About half of the items at the event are wine or alcoholic.
I also got to hang out with and meet Jess from the Seattle Dessert Blog Seattle Dessert Geek, which was really fun and she gave me some great tips for next year. Also, the past few years the photography related events have sold out really fast, so I am going to make sure that I get tickets for those events really early. I also met a lot of other food bloggers and press, it must have been because I was taking photos. Not as many was I would have liked of course!
The other event I went to on Sunday was the Because Breakfast event. These events are called the “Fun Size” events. And I don’t think it is because the items are bite sized, since all items are, but I think it is because they limit the amount of tickets sold. I went to the Brunch Village the last time I attended, which was amazing, but also super crowded and the lines were very long. It was already sold out by the time I got my tickets. At the Because Breakfast event, it was so much more mellow, not at all crowded, small lines if any, and all the food was amazing. I kept hearing from people how much more they liked it than Brunch Village. I was really happy of course that General Porpoise donuts were there, because I LOVE them, especially the vanilla cream filled ones. Stumptown coffee was there of course, and they were promoting their new sparkling coffee drinks. I also really enjoyed the savory crepes from Suzette and the savory pancakes from Micheal Scelfo from Waypoint, who must have been a guest chef all the way from Cambridge. Petunias was at both events and amazing because they are a gluten free AND vegan bakery.
All in all it was really fun. Next year I will, as I mentioned, get my tickets early, and perhaps even apply for a press pass, which would allow me to enter events early. I was encouraged to do so my some of the people I met there. I hope you enjoyed the photos!