Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars

September 13, 2017 by 2 Comments

This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars. Tepuy Dining is named for a famous flat topped mountain in the Amazonian Jungle, and is a Venezuelan inspired Traveling Pop Up led by female chef Adriana Urbina (Food Network 2017 Chopped Champion). Tepuy was featured as one of “the best Venezuelan places to eat in NYC” in 2015 by Eater New York times. I was really intrigued about the idea of pairing Venezuelan flavors with Northwest ingredients and Hazelfern Cellars wine.
Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars

If you haven’t heard of Hazelfern Cellars before, they are a relatively new entry into the Oregon wine scene. Based in Newberg, Oregon, this family owned vineyard officially started making its small lot wines in 2014, growing from the original 5 gallons of Pinot Noir and a Portland basement has grown to over 500 cases of wine. One of the things that really stands out about Hazelfern is that head of the family and winemaker Bryan Laing is a huge food lover as well, and is really in tune with balancing flavors and textures in wine just like balancing flavors and textures in food.

Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars Harvest Dinner with Tepuy at Hazelfern Cellars

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Ecliptic Brewery’s Food

September 11, 2017 by 7 Comments

Ecliptic Brewery‘s is one of my top recommendations for where to have great beer and food in Portland along with my other top picks like La Moule, Higgins (which I’ve highlighted before in a blog post), Saraveza (which I’ve written about before), and Ex Novo. When founding Ecliptic, experienced brewer John Harris specifically wanted to make sure that the food he served wasn’t just around because it’s the law to have food available – he wanted to make sure it matched well with the beer to provide good complimentary and contrasting flavors. The menu of beer and food proves that with its variety of beer available and food available. Everything I’ve had at Ecliptic has always been good, which makes me confident in recommending Ecliptic Brewery’s Food and Beer as among my top 5 in Portland. In particular, they have the best selection of food options if you are vegetarian.
Ecliptic Brewery's vegetarian/vegan option to their burgers - this Farro Burger with a wheat-garlic patty, tahini, arugula, spicy pickled carrots
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Travel Tuesday: Visiting the Portland Japanese Garden

September 5, 2017 by 6 Comments

The Portland Japanese Garden finished a more then $30 million dollar expansion that now includes a Cultural Crossing Village, “castle” wall, and the new Umami cafe offering Japanese tea and snacks. Located in the West Hills of Portland, you can easily combine a visit to the Japanese Garden ($14.95 admission) with a visit to the free International Rose Test Garden as well. Parking is extremely limited and the best bet is to take public transit via the Red or Blue line MAX train to the Washington Park stop (aka, the Zoo) and then take a free Explore Washington Park shuttle to both gardens.

The new Cultural Crossing Village you can see while visiting the Portland Japanese Garden

Here’s a little Travel Tuesday Portland Japanese Garden photo trip to give you a glimpse of what a visit could include.

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Bite of Oregon 2017

September 1, 2017 by 8 Comments

This year, the Bite of Oregon 2017 food festival, which usually tastes place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in August, has shifted to this weekend – Labor Day weekend September 1, 2, 3, and 4 – so it can be 4 days and has moved away from the dusty grounds of the park to the Rose Quarter.  The festival is still outside so you are still dining al fresco, but now boasts lots of shade, more tables, and it still benefits the worthy cause of the Special Olympics Oregon. Bite of Oregon  is a huge fundraiser for the Special Olympics Oregon which can help sustain the activities they offer of Special Olympics Athletes all year round.
Entrance of Bite of Oregon 2017 Entrance of Bite of Oregon 2017

As every year, expect to be able to progressively eat through various vendors who offer sample sizes ($4ish) and whole sizes of food you can purchase at Bite of Oregon 2017. With the more compact Rose Quarter location there is now a central area where you can imbibe at the Oregon Wine Pavilion with 7 wineries, 4 distilleries, or 28 beers from 14 different featured local breweries the Craft Beer Garden to enjoy along with your food.
Chicagoland Chicago style deep dish pizza

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Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2

August 31, 2017 by 4 Comments

I still go to Nodoguro every couple months, but I don’t always post recaps anymore since I know it is difficult to get into some of the dinners if you don’t follow Nodoguro’s mailing list and social media so you know the exact night tickets for the next month get released (most ticket/reservations sell out within 24 hours). One tip is if you are lucky and are able to be flexible, look for Cancellation Tickets from those who purchased that month by checking their website daily – they will put them back up for sale. I’ve written about Nodoguro so many times it almost felt a little unfair to other dining establishments, but I decided to make an exception for this recent theme for July up to August 4 – which is a return to Twin Peaks!
Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2 Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2

This Twin Peaks dinner is a revisit to the cult favorite show that made TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Shows of All Time list. Nodoguro previously did a Twin Peaks theme in 2015 which I also recapped. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the new third season on Showtime yet: neither have I (I don’t have Showtime) and this dinner still seemed more based on the initial two seasons.
Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2 place settings Nodoguro Twin Peaks Dinner 2 place setting

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