My Favorite Dishes from Smoked! – Feast Portland

Sep 27, 2016

One of the best things about the Feast Portland food festival was that I really got a true taste of Portland; The community… the love for all things local… the rain and the shine.

During the 4 day food festival, guests braved the heat and sun, and then the drizzle and the chill too as temps heated up to the 80s during the day and dropped to the 50s by night. It was both summer and fall all at once, and it was a perfect little slice of Portland life. There were big events, “fun size” events, lectures, drink tanks, panels and cooking classes.

How can you Feast? In every which way. There is an event type and size for just about everyone. While the Friday-Saturday Grand Tasting showcased a bunch of local purveyors and local businesses, Smoked! the most popular main event, was an opportunity for Portland chefs to show off their stuff.

Coquine’s Smoked Almond, Salted Caramel, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Starting on a Thursday, hungry foodies flew in from all over the country to sample from Oregon’s delicious bounty. Locals noshed and nibbled on familiar local favorites from Olympia Provisions, Nong’s famous Khao Man Gai chicken dish (which is on my list of must-try Portland dishes), Tillamook desserts and cheeses and of course, Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok treats.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai

During Smoked! I donned my best all-weather boots and rain jacket for a twilight dinner of BBQ bites and various wines…

30 mins into the fest and I’m already getting full. Uh oh!

Stand outs for me included many Portland based chefs…

Departure’s Gregory Gourdet who made a delicious Snake River Farms Pork belly chop, fermented chili & peach…

Pork belly chop

Stephen Gerike’s Backbone stew with Tasso cured pork with a dressed salad and an onion biscuit with molasses Lardo…

Backbone stew

Joel Stocks and William Preisch from the supper club Holdfast made a tasty smoked mussels a la crawfish boil bite.

I told them, “You had me at mussels, and then you had me again at crawfish boil!” It was a perfect bite.

Smoked mussels

The Russian restaurant Kachka has been on my must-try list for a while. My friends and I all agreed, this little sammy was one of the most memorable bites at Smoked. Bonnie Morales presented a Snake River Farms Beef tongue “Big Mac” with pickled green almond, little gem lettuce and roasted tomato…

Beef tongue “Big Mac”

Another favorite worth the line was from chef Hugh Acheson of 5&10.

He had a cremini-Lamb burger with charred scallions, Boursin, pickles and tomato on a potato roll.

Lamb Burger

The next Feast Portland is scheduled for September 14th-17th, 2017! Make sure you get your tickets early and mark your calendars! This festival is proving to be a hot little ticket so they will most likely sell out pretty fast. After attending the events, I can definitely see why.

Next year, I plan to check out the popular Night Market, Brunch Village and Sandwich Invitational events as well as a cooking class or two just to round out my experience.