Feast Portland 2017
September brought the 6th Feast Portland and I was excited to volunteer at three events again this year and attend one event. The first main evening event was the Sandwich Invitational. It's fun to be there, because the crowd is excited for the first night event and they had a bracket match-up this year to determine the winner of the evening. The section I was volunteering in, had two of the most popular sandwiches, so the lines were long all night.
I was overwhelmed and subsequently a bit bored, by the sheer quantity of pork sandwiches, but my favorites of the night (not pork) were Lardo's Nashville Fried Chicken Sandwich and Souvla's (San Francisco) Lamb Pita Sandwich. There was a PDX Hot Brown, which was interesting, but it was cold and the most over the top was the Smoked Bologna on a donut from Blue Smoke in NYC.
Friday night, brought the Night Market at Zidell Yards, which was my first event attending as a guest. The event is latin themed and there is lots of alcohol and great views over the river.
The best bites of the night were Holdfast's Beef Tendon Nacho and Bar Ama (LA) had a potato cake with pork which they ran out of really fast, so I was glad to have gotten it early. Tillamook and 180 collaborated with a churro cup filled with ice cream and Federal Donuts (Philly) had a very tasty donut with apple sugar and pomegranate dust.
Smoked probably has the most pleasant surrounding, in a park in the Pearl. And it's all about the meat, all the chefs have grills, but the most impressive were these beef ribs.
There were at least three chefs doing oysters, but somehow I missed all of them and several corn on the cob plates, and I did try a couple of those. As a volunteer, I had limited time to eat, so I had to take advantage of the shortest lines. My favorites were Departure's Duck Fat Ice Cream and Crispy Turkey Wing, St. Jack's Smoked Beef Tartare with bone marrow, Bollywood Theater's Pork Vindaloo and corn, and Mother's Bistro Mac 'n' Cheese.
And Sunday morning, Brunch Village was the last large event that I volunteered at. It feels a bit more relaxed as opposed to the evening events. My favorites that I tried were Mae's BBQ Lamb Biscuit, Ruddick/Wood's Biscuit and Gravy, and Little T Baker's Brioche.
