Recapping Feast Portland: The Guts, The Glory, The Smoke.
By Eat Beat Team September 23, 2015
Photo: Karen Brooks
Smoked: Meat your best new Feast event. Flames were flying like Dante’s Inferno with “tomahawk” pork chops more deadly than the namesake axe. We offer vegetarians the same tsunami-safety advice we got from the New Yorker: Run!!! Chris Consentino, San Francisco’s offal lord and unofficial Portland chef, said it, like the Devil’s Advocate himself: “That’s why they call it SMOKED.” —KB
Photo: Karen Brooks
Best pork move: We ate so much pork at Feast that our skin turned pink. So it was a relief on many levels to encounter Justin Woodward’s super scrumptious “corn, clam and pork” pudding. There was pork in there, somewhere, but it was the corn’s creamy warmth and complex nuances that stood out. This is high-bar cooking, what you hope to find at a festival for food fanatics (insider tip: it’s still on the menu at Portland’s Castagna). —KB
Photo: Karen Brooks
Aaron Franklin, Sandwich Invitational: It didn’t bring home Feast gold, but somewhere in eternity, they’re hoisting a trophy for “Gramma’s Open ‘Face’ Meat Sandwich!” The Texas barbecue king was all-in, flying in a herd of cow heads from his Austin headquarters, which he roasted and shredded and heaped over little more than a toasted roll. —KB
Photo: Kelly Clarke
Best Insider Advice: “You gotta get over to John Tesar. Nobody knows who he is. There’s no line,” whispered Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly's Barbecue Editor, as we searched for our next Smoked! bite. He was right, locals were queued up for a half hour in order to get a taste of Laurelhurst Market great meaty goods, but if they would have just turned 180 degrees, they could have scored a mouthful of the Knife at the Highland Dallas chef's epic fire-roasted short ribs—meltingly tender beef bites hunkered over a bed of creamy grits-like farafa—with no line what-so-ever. Now that’s some Texas ‘cue. –KC
Photo: Kelly Clarke
The Fry King of Portland: LA’s Eggslut got salty with a slow roasted pork shoulder sammie dragged through oozy egg yolk dipping sauce and St. Jack’s Aaron Barnett made us work for his bone-in bite of Peking quail and bacon club. “I just really wanted to have a sandwich with a leg hanging out of it,” deadpanned the chef. But, hands down, the Sandwich Invitational's tastiest, crispy-fried wonder was Vitaly Paley’s soy saucy pork belly, topped with zingy house kimchee, Fresno peppers, and spicy mayo all tucked inside a burn-your-fingers hot fold of bubbly fry bread. We’re talkin’ pure crunchy, fatty, awesomeness. —KC
Photo: Allison Jones
Streetcar Named Delicious: The Night Market site at Zidell Yards glowed—a twinkling vision of Santa’s Workshop if staffed completely with fish sauce-and-pork-obsessed chefs instead of elves. The decorations are always stunning, from the lanterns and lights to the Noble Rot crew’s eye-popping Daisy Dukes and floofy ‘70s Charlie’s Angels wigs. But nothing beat the aerial view of the entire event from the city’s new Tilikum Crossing pedestrian bridge, which lured many festivalgoers for a post-prandial stroll. —KC
Photo: Kelly Clarke
Worth It!: The only thing longer than Langbaan’s line at Night Market is the months-long wait for one of the red-hot restaurant’s actual tables. Earl Ninsom and company delivered a show-stopping bite of toothsome noodles and tender grilled beef, in a bright, herby Southern Thai curry with sweet jackfruit and a wicked smoky, slow-burning bite. —KC
Photo: Allison Jones
Favorite bite at Night Market: Chicago's Fat Rice crispy treat with nori, pork floss, fish sauce caramel, and fried shallots. Savory rice crispy treats are a revelation—the opportunities for gourmet munchies in this post-legalization world are endless. Consider me inspired. –AJ
Photo: Karen Brooks
Best 3,000 calories consumed in 60 minutes: Down every maddeningly chaotic long line, something terrific waited at Sunday’s brunch village. Croissants from Vancouver BC’s Beaucoup Bakery positively rippled with good butter, chocolate and almond crunch. Portland’s Boke Bowl went the distance, with daikon cakes, spicy black bean pork sauce and baby Marionberry-bean baos. New York kitchen star Andrew Carmellini handed over his humble clouds of lemon ricotta pancakes with amazing grace and morning smiles. Forty percent tips all around.
Photo: Allison Jones
How to Do Feast Like a Health Nut: Resident health editor Allison Jones hit up both fitness-oriented Feast events, BurnCycle's Eat Sleep Burn Friday morning rooftop ride above the Hotel DeLuxe—complete with morning cocktails, Greenleaf Juice, and a Dave's Killer Bread toast bar) and Jacobsen Salt Co's Feast Detox (see next slide). Yes, plenty of chefs and food writers will get up in the morning to work out—especially when the weekend was so full of great food (and the free booze didn't hurt). -AJ
Photo: Allison Jones
Feast Detox Became a Thing: Jacobsen Salt Co's southeast HQ played host to a Saturday morning full or detoxing before the retoxing, including yoga with YoYoYogi, Kure juice shots, foot soaks from Loyly, and plenty of caffeine from Coava. This one is shaping up to be an annual event with tickets open to the public next year. -AJ
After four straight days of eating and drinking their way through Feast Portland's 4th annual food festival, Portland Monthly magazine's Karen Brooks, Kelly Clarke, and Allison Jones came away with plenty of photos and favorite moments. Click the slideshow above for more.
