Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Over the last few years, as the level of creativity cooked up by local chefs has garnered increasing national attention, Portland’s inventive food scene has come to a boil. Celebrating Oregon’s bountiful ingredients, as well as the masterminds who work with them, Feast Portland (Sept. 20-23) not only highlights local foodie talent, but infuses the city with some of the coolest kitchen personas from around the country. Presented by Bon Appétit, this buffet of James Beard Award-winning talent will pack Stumptown full of dinners, demos, classes and tastings.

Main events at the belt-busting festival include Thursday’s Sandwich Invitational (a delectable beer-paired contest featuring entries from Bunk Sandwiches, Podnah’s Pit BBQ and Kenny & Zuke’s, among others) in downtown’s Director Park; Friday’s Feast Portland Night Market (a Southeast-Asian-style celebration of street food with contributors from Portland, Austin, NYC and London) at the Ecotrust Building; and the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting (with demonstrations by Naomi Pomeroy from Beast, Paul Qui of Austin’s Uchiko, and many others) in Pioneer Courthouse Square Friday and Saturday.

Packages with passes to the entire Feast, as well as individual event tickets, are available for purchase online now. Space is limited, and while Feast may never have too many cooks in its kitchen, there’s only so much room for discerning diners.

There’s plenty of new eats in Portland these days, as detailed by this story in The Oregonian. But the newcomers don’t outshine some of our veteran chefs, many of which continue to draw national attention —  such as this article in Travel & Leisure.

Portland continues to flex its foodie muscles, appearing in my Twitter and Facebook feeds more frequently lately. I love living in such a tasty city. Here are a few recent mentions in case you’re wondering what you’re missing.

• Food & Wine magazine named Portland one of the best places in the world to eat and shared this 48 hour cheat sheet so you can give it a try, too.
• Bon Appétit put Laurelhurst Market at the top of their list of the 10 best new restaurants.
• For the 100th episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” viewers voted on the most memorable moments from the last six years — and Portland won!

Portland’s food carts are getting noticed more as well. They are amazing little mini-restaurants that specialize in a particular type of food and offer generous portions for a reasonable price.

• Budget Travel named Portland the city with “the world’s best street food.”

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