First, special thanks to K&M Wines for providing my friend and I with guest passes to this event at the Benson Hotel on March 25. From 5-9 pm on March 25 and 26, at the "North Meets South" Food and Drink Jubilee you can enjoy samples of delicious food bites prepared by various northwest chefs while washing them down with tastings of wines, spirits and beers from international and local producers. This event is a showcase of food and beverage, and also a fundraiser for the Salud!, an organization created by a group of Oregon winery owners and Tuality Healthcare physicians to provide help in addressing the hurdles faced by seasonal workers who cannot meet their basic health needs with only a few months’ income to stretch over a full year.

Also, specifically as events for Friday night were a Culinary and Spirits competition that consisted of a "Risotto Throwdown” and "Cocktails Throwdown" which was judged by some official judges and also some patrons representing the people's pick. The risottos were prepared right on stage by five chefs using a secret ingredient that was unveiled to be bacon (with Carlton Farms as one of the event sponsors this can't have been a surprise- and is also why the samples from the various restaurants often utilized pork). For the risotto throwdown I was one of the people's choice judges!

The five chefs working hard over burners to make risotto included Andy Arndt at Aquariva, Roy Breiman of the Cedarbook Lodge, Pascal Chureau of Allium Bistro, Gabriel Gabreski of a Cena Ristorante, and Serge Selbe of the Benson Hotel (pictured are Andy and Roy).

The risottos: my favorite was #5 with the risotto with sangiovese (giving it the rose color) along with bacon crispy throughout the risotto but also a little cup of bacon. This also turned out to be the People's Choice Winner. IMHO, this offering was very closely followed by entry #2 with the balance with the butternut squash, bacon, creme fraiche in the risotto and the brightness from the apple. Risotto #1 had a great idea with the egg yolk but as he was first, he also didn't know how many servings he was dishing some of them didn't have yolk (I grabbed one that did), but the yolk to tasting ratio was off- I'm sure if he had known beforehand he could have spread it out among the tastings for the people's choice. #3 brought local in season ingredients of mushrooms and leeks into his take, while #4 infused the risotto with a lemon flavor.

Here are some more visuals of the offerings at the "North Meets South" Food and Drink Jubilee at the Benson Hotel, in order of my favorites. Cederbrook Lodge offered these tasty bites of crunchy toast with cuts of pork shoulder, and with how warm the small room was packed with people, this was a nice break and a smart one to serve the crowds. Look at those beautiful bites, at those thick cuts of pork shoulder

H50's offering of ceviche was very welcome after all the heaviness of the risotto and pork around the room, though a small portion. Thirst Bistro's polenta with truffle oil was good enough to have on its own – but if you have it at the restaurant you can get duck confit instead of shredded pork that is a bit too heavy in sauce for that polenta, though I understand taking advantage of the Carlton Farms sponsorship of pork.

Screen Door offered two tastes, the first being pimiento cheese on a homemade sesame cracker, just a nice light bite with a tiny kick. Screen Door's other offering was smoked Carlton Farms pork tenderloin with molasses bbq and dirty rice. The pork tenderloin bbq was really tender and flavorful, dirty rice meh. Given the environment, cooking that pork tenderloin on the spot must have been hard work but well done

Aquariva's offering of fried aracini with Sicilian tomato jam… the aracini was ok, but the tomato jam was a great punch of flavor. Meanwhile, just across from them was A Cena also doing Sicilian risotto croquettes (aka aracini). Their Aracini was really good, but the sauce didn't hold up. These two must be combined to get the best of both worlds

I appreciated my first bite of the night of risotto when I first entered, by the Heathman who presented a sampling of Tenuta Castello Canaroli risotto with confit pork shoulder and cerasuolo gastric. London Grill also presented a rice dish, with forbidden rice with sauteed shrimp. Not pictured, another great savory sample was soup from Allium Bistro, a confit pork belly and split pea soup with maple syrup gastrique that while sipping the hot soup from the cup and looking at a copy of their menu, was very successful in marketing and making me curious and willing to try a place out in West Linn.

I appreciated the cheese from Whole Foods, which included Marco Polo from Beecher (everything from Beecher is good, face it), which blends green and black Madagascar peppercorns into the cheese. Star Bar offered sliders at the same table as Ninkasi, though I was too full to have the slider (we had passed them accidentally because they are right by the entrance, but after the coat check/where you can get free Whole Food canvas bags)- so don't overlook them until your way out if you are going tonight. Speaking of, as you headed to the ballroom from the stairs, you passed by the various beer tables just standing on their own… and then the main room had all the food, wine, spirits, stage with the entertainment… seemed like the beer was being told to play second fiddle at this event, for shame.

I didn't take a photo of the wonderful vegan truffles of Missionary Chocolates- but I bought a box of 4. Another dessert offering was Enchanted Cupcakes, which was beautifully presented but really wish there had been milk and coffee to have it with. Enchanted Cupcakes didn't bring these to sample, but they also make Smores cupcaes (chocolate graham cracker came with milk chocolate ganache and marshmallow frosting that is lightly toasted), Margarita cupcakes, and Mojito cupcakes (with lime cake either infused with tequila and tequila seven minute frosting with key lime wedge and sprinkle of sea salt, or lime cake with a bit of crushed mint, rum seven minute frosting with a sprg of mint and cane sugar sprinkles). Would be so fun for a party…

From top to bottom, Red Velvet Cupcake, Lemon Mreingue Pie cuppcake, Lavendar Vanilla cupcake, Toasted Almond Cupcake (my favorite), and Strawberry Vanilla cupcake, from Enchanted Cupcakes. In the second pic, check out the Snowball cupcake with chocolate cake, "twinkie" filling, marshmallow frosting and a coating of shredded coconut on the left

Meanwhile, Grandma Chonga was sampling and selling salsas and guacamole where I was shocked to learn my foodie friend is not only not a big fan of mushrooms (!!) or fish but also not guacamole. If you read this blog, you know I don't ever discriminate- and even F, despite being vegetarian, will try anything that is vegetarian (even if it means I am miscellaneously ordering a dish and telling him to eat natto). If I was more of a chips and salsa type of "here's something to snack on", I would have gotten the smoky salsa-que, which combines salsa with barbecue to be both sweet and spicy, a perfect alternative to the too sweet fruit salsa but too acidic salsas that favor tomato.

Elements Tapas Bar and Lounge offering of Panceta corte, cumin and pimenton rubbed pork belly slow roasted and seared, with a kumquat mostarda glaze and chives on top were a good concept though they got a bit tough waiting to be eaten in the chafing dish- choose which toothpick you grab wisely.

In the first photo, in the front, croque monsieur (with truffled chips not pictured), in the back pancetta wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese, from Gracie's Restaurant. Some people were loving the dates but I think I can do better at home, while the croque monsieur would have benefited from a panini grill instead of cold with congealed cheese. However, both ladies of the table were wonderfully cheerful as they had to keep restocking the pitifully small serving platters… come on, they were just normal white plates. El Gaucho's salmon with capers on toast and beef with mushrooms in au jus were lost in mass produced food land.

Overall my friend and I had a great time, although as I've already mentioned, the logistics of spacing out the event was terrible which resulted in a lot of body heat in a small room. For an event that was supposed to be $85 a ticket (which was then halved in a Groupon and then just the last couple days as long as you purchased before Friday), it didn't seem very well planned for the comfort of those showcasing or event guests attending. 

Because of the tight space at North Meets South, the mood really wasn't very conducive to sales as you were already bumping elbows without carrying anything and you can barely juggle your beverage glass and plate food that often needed a utensil. There were almost no areas to put anything down, with the exception of maybe a "half a wine barrel" sized table… that was right next to the garbage can and probably was there to gather used dishes, so everyone was forced to eat in front of vendor tables or aisles. This whole event probably really only worked in favor of the restaurants providing samplings in getting their names out. I should probably get off this soapbox- as a user experience planner I can't help but notice the lack of experience planning here though. Maybe Saturday's and the industry only event Sunday are where they focused their organization.

Well, at least there was still some great samples to be had, so we did enjoy ourselves, and hey, I love risotto, and I love pork, and there was plenty of those that I had that night. Again, thanks Ken and Mauro for sharing your guest passes.