Feast Fab Collab – and way to win tickets to Feast!

I have been attending Feast Portland for many years now, and am an enthusiastic supporter of the amazing 4 day food festival event that helps brings awareness and raise money for charitable partners fighting against hunger. Feast Portland also celebrates the delicious local bounty of the Pacific Northwest, ranging from producers of food products to those who transform ingredients into dishes on a plate or in a glass – restaurants and chefs and mixologists and more. Most of the events at Feast bring together various makers of food to collaborate to create a limited time offering for Feast. Of the 40+ events during Feast Portland, many are sold out, but there are still a tickets to some events, and there are ways to participate in Feast without a ticket, thanks to the Feast Fab Collab.

Feast Fab Collab 2018 Feast Mode Lager Beer (sold in cans) with 10 Barrel Brewing Co., a lager featuring pilsner malt, flaked rice and a subtle hopping for an ultra light and refreshing beer. $7.99 for a four pack of 16 ounce cans (so four pints), available at New Seasons Markets + Feast Fab Collab 2018 Olympia Provisions Chef Sausage Series with Salumist Elias Cairo + Ava Gene’s Owner Chef Joshua McFadden, a specialty Italian pork sausage spiced with garlic, fennel, chili flake, and stuffed with kale and provolone cheese, available at New Seasons Markets = perfection

Now in it’s third year, the Feast Fab Collab is a collaboration of products you can purchase outside Feast – in this case you can find them exclusively at New Seasons Market. The food items are limited edition just for Feast, and created in partnership with famed chefs and food producers also participating in Feast. And, you’ll still be doing good – a portion of gross sales from all Feast Fab Collab items are donated to Feast Portland’s charitable partners to be part of the fight against hunger too. This year the partners are Hunger-Free Oregon and Urban Gleaners.

For 2018, the Feast Fab Collab items include

  • Feast Mode Lager Beer (sold in cans) with 10 Barrel Brewing Co., a lager featuring pilsner malt, flaked rice and a subtle hopping for an ultra light and refreshing beer. $7.99 for a four pack of 16 ounce cans (so four pints).
    Feast Fab Collab 2018 Feast Mode Lager Beer (sold in cans) with 10 Barrel Brewing Co., a lager featuring pilsner malt, flaked rice and a subtle hopping for an ultra light and refreshing beer. $7.99 for a four pack of 16 ounce cans (so four pints), available at New Seasons Markets
  • Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches with Maya Lovelace (of famous Southern Appalachian pop-up Mae PDX and coming restaurant Yonder) and Ruby Jewel. The two flavors of mini ice cream sandwiches (it says mini, but they are still palm sized – it is only mini in terms of the ice cream sandwiches at Ruby Jewel are usually even bigger!) include Maya’s Southern Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich with chewy cornmeal cookies from Bob’s Red Mill and strawberry buttermilk ice cream using strawberries from Oregon Fruit Products. The second ice cream sandwich is Grandma Mae’s Sweet Molasses Ice Cream Sandwich inspired from Maya’s grandmother molasses and apple butter sandwich cookies. If I had to choose between them, I prefer the strawberry one with cornmeal but really it’s just personal preference because I like strawberry and cream more then molasses flavors. Each sandwich is $2.99.
    Feast Fab Collab 2018 Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches, the Grandma Mae’s Sweet Molasses Ice Cream Sandwich with Maya Lovelace, available at New Seasons Markets Feast Fab Collab 2018 Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches the Maya’s Southern Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich with Maya Lovelace, available at New Seasons Markets
  • Olympia Provisions Chef Sausage Series with Salumist Elias Cairo + Ava Gene’s Owner Chef Joshua McFadden, a specialty Italian pork sausage spiced with garlic, fennel, chili flake, and stuffed with kale and provolone cheese. I’m serving it below exactly as they recommended it, very simply just grilled the sausage and sliced it up with fresh pasta, olive oil and some garden cherry tomatoes – sounds simple but it lets the freshness of the summer tomatoes and all the flavor of the sausage really stand out! Maybe in retrospect I should have wilted some spinach, but at this point the sausage was oozing cheese and I wasn’t going to wait any longer to eat it. A package of 12 ounces of sausage runs $8.99.
    Feast Fab Collab 2018 Olympia Provisions Chef Sausage Series with Salumist Elias Cairo + Ava Gene’s Owner Chef Joshua McFadden, a specialty Italian pork sausage spiced with garlic, fennel, chili flake, and stuffed with kale and provolone cheese, available at New Seasons Markets Feast Fab Collab 2018 Olympia Provisions Chef Sausage Series with Salumist Elias Cairo + Ava Gene’s Owner Chef Joshua McFadden, a specialty Italian pork sausage spiced with garlic, fennel, chili flake, and stuffed with kale and provolone cheese, available at New Seasons Markets

The beer and mini ice cream sandwiches are available now at New Seasons Markets in Oregon and Southwest Washington states, and the Olympia Provisions sausage will be available this Monday September 3, just in time for Labor Day bbqs.

All of these products will also be featured at the Friday and Saturday Grand Tasting Presented By New Seasons Market, who is the main sponsor of the two Grand Tasting events. Thanks to their generosity, I am raffling off TWO tickets to the Friday Grand Tasting event!

So here’s how you can win tickets –

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Giveaway to see The Trip to Italy at Cinema 21

Are you feeling like it can’t be the end of summer already, because you haven’t been able to do all the travel and vacation you had hoped for? I’m definitely feeling that way. How can I have still not gone to the Coast yet all year? It just keeps getting put off for other things going on.

On my bucket list has always been to visit Italy. I hear that it’s hot and tourist season, but they also have a lot of festivals and outdoor events. I guess it is going to continue forward on my list of to dos for sometime in the future. In the meantime, might I recommend to you a mini mental and culinary escape to Italy without having to pack any bags or sit on any planes?

The movie The Trip to Italy is opening to pretty strong reviews already, with its official open on August 29 at select theaters, find your nearby theater using this link here: http://thetriptoitalymovie.tumblr.com/find-a-theater.

I am giving away FREE tickets to attend an Advance Screening of the movie The Trip to Italy at Cinema 21 in the trendy Nob Hill neighborhood in Portland at 616 NW 21st Ave. This free screening will be held on Monday August 25, 7 PM

I haven’t seen this movie yet, but given it’s current 88% critic / 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I think this is still an enjoyable movie to cool off from the summer heat. A positive review from NPR here and Sundance review from Variety here seems to back up that gut feeling I have, as do snippets such as snippets like “Brilliantly funny, hilarious, and touching” – Entertainment Weekly and “A hilarious tasty treat” – USA Weekly.

Also, I find bromance/watching guys hang out extra amusing, maybe because I’m not a guy so the things they talk about are fascinating and boy, these two just go off on tangents and keep going and going and going. They really embody that what makes the experience of a trip and memories is not only about where you go, but who you are going with. Particularly, this pair is witty and smart but also dorky. Adorkable.

With the money you are not spending on the movie, can I recommend getting a nice Italian dinner afterwards at nearby restaurant… for instance, Cafe Mingo or Serrato only a block or so away. Other favorite Italian places I like in Portland include on the east side of the river Ava Gene’s, Accanto, These other restaurants close earlier so maybe you do date night part 2 the next night at options like GrassaNostrana (which also has a convenient parking lot), Tabla or a Cena.

After seeing The Trip to Italy, perhaps visit Ava Gene's for dinner, so you could try their pane. For instance, this Pane of squash, mint, ricotta salata, barrel aged colatura, carta di musica Oven and Shaker Cauliflower Pizza, Oven & Shaker, Cathy Whims, Wood fired pizza, Portland After seeing The Trip to Italy, perhaps fill your tummy with Radiatore with tomato braised chicken, crisp skin, ricotta, basil, from Grassa by Rick Gencarelli Coffee and dessert idea after the The Trip to Italy movie at Accanto: Rose panna cotta with strawberries and lambrusco

Synopsis

Michael Winterbottom’s largely improvised 2010 film, The Trip, took comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—or semifictionalized versions thereof—on a restaurant tour around northern England. In this witty and incisive follow-up, Winterbottom reunites the pair for a new culinary road trip, retracing the steps of the Romantic poets’ grand tour of Italy and indulging in some sparkling banter and impersonation-offs. Rewhetting our palates from the earlier film, the characters enjoy mouthwatering meals in gorgeous settings from Liguria to Capri while riffing on subjects as varied as Batman’s vocal register, the artistic merits of “Jagged Little Pill,” and, of course, the virtue of sequels.

Winterbottom trains his camera to capture the idyllic Italian landscape and the gastronomic treasures being prepared and consumed while keeping the film centered on the crackling chemistry between the two leads. The Trip toItaly effortlessly melds the brilliant comic interplay between Coogan and Brydon into quieter moments of self-reflection, letting audiences into their insightful ruminations on the nuances of friendship and the juggling of family and career. The result is a biting portrait of modern-day masculinity.

 

Enter to Win!

I will be traveling out of town for work so won’t be attending the free screening, but don’t let that hold you up and I still wanted to present this opportunity to you!

There are 28 tickets I can give away, so in your only mandatory task (commenting on the blog) to enter, list how many tickets you would like – if I have more than 14 or more entrants I will give them away as pairs only, but since this is last minute maybe you’ll get lucky and do a double date?!

Seating is first come first serve, but if you get a ticket you should arrive at 6:30 as you will be let in before the general line!

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Are you going to see the movie?

Did I miss naming your favorite Italian restaurant- tell me about it! Are there other movies that combine food and travel that you love and want to recommend to me?

Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post – I just thought this was a wonderful opportunity to give something away to you readers out there! I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

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March Portland Dining Month: 3 Courses for $29 + Dinner for 2 Giveaway!

Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post, and the Gift Certificate was won by me from a Rafflecopter via Portland Bloggers/Watershed Communications, and I am passing it on to you. I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

I’m so excited! This is my first giveaway on the blog! I’ll be giving away via Rafflecopter to a random entrant a gift certificate for two to have a Portland Dining Month dinner! Giveaway has ended

Portland Dining Month is back, moved up from what has been previously been the month of June to now be in the month of March! During this month, almost 100 restaurants in Portland will be offering a special menu of 3 courses for the low price of $29. In most cases, this prix fixed menu may have multiple options for the three courses.

Portland Dining Month 2014 is in March- 3 Courses for $29

I’ve been participating in Portland Dining Month as a diner for several years. Last year, in 2013 I visited and recapped as example Portland Dining month experiences dinners at Firehouse Restaurant, Quartet, Accanto, Urban Fondue, Fratelli (since closed but still a great example of what a great way to discover and make yourself visit restaurants Portland Dining Month is), and H50 out of my initial 2013 Restaurant Highlight list.

Images from Prix Fixe dining at Firehouse, Urban Fondue in 2013

Meanwhile, in 2012 Portland Dining Month experiences include the posts I did at Oven and Shaker, and Clyde Common. Except for Fratelli, H50, and Clyde Common, all those restaurants I named are back in the 2014 Portland Dining month list.

Images from Oven and Shaker in 2012

As I do every year, I like to share a few of my personal highlights of restaurants/prix fixed offerings in March that catch my eye. I usually will pick restaurants based on food options in their 3 courses that sound good, as in some cases the restaurant will offer dishes are special for Dining Month, or you are getting a tremendous value on the price of normally dining there. Of course remember that the menus are subject to change by the restaurant at any time.

There are many excellent choices- about 100 in fact- of restaurants participating in Portland Dining Month. I just couldn’t highlight them all!

  • With March also being the month of Mardi Gras, it only seems right to consider Acadia with its New Orleans/Creole food from Louisiana on your dining list and it’s generous 4 (four!) courses that include Louisiana BBQ Gulf shrimp, Crawfish tails, Louisiana caught sea bream, and Creole bread pudding. Just don’t go on March 4, which is when they have a special and separate Fat Tuesday celebration planned if you have your sights set on the Dining Month menu.
  • Accanto on Belmont was one of my favorite dining month experiences last year with its fresh pastas and very seasonal, unusual ingredients (they introduced me to Wrinkle Crinkle Crumple Cress). Their second course pasta course options of Cacio e pepe with Meyer lemon tagliatelle and Pecorino or Capellini with chili, garlic, anchovy and pea shoots sound amazing. I had the second dish last year, as you can see below. Also, next door you can check out Genoa instead if you want something a bit more upscale but still at the $29 for 3 courses price point, huge bargain here! Reservations available on OpenTable both for Accanto and for Genoa.
  • Aviary is a good value at this price with its sublime French and Asian influenced offerings on NE Alberta. This is a great chance to try out a previous Restaurant of the Year award winner and they offers pretty creative food. Reservations available on OpenTable.
  • Everyone thinks of Besaws for brunch, but they use their own farm to also source the dishes on their dinner menu and are worth checking out – they have a special chicken roulade dish they don’t usually have for Portland Dining Month.
    Besaw's Portland, photo by Sunpech Photography Besaw's Portland, photo by Sunpech Photography
  • You get your choice of Heirloom beet salad with walnuts, grilled chicory and Hannah Bridge cheese  or Oregon black truffle salad with crispy pig’s ear, frisée and poached egg as firsts at Bent Brick, so I’m already sold. I also have to tell you they have incredible cocktails here. I would be disappointed in you if you visit here and don’t try at least one cocktail. Its sibling restaurant Park Kitchen in the North Park Blocks is also participating and whose 2nd course option of Milk braised pork with Your Kitchen Gardens leeks, curds and whey alone is $29 on their regular menu. Reservations for Park Kitchen available on OpenTable.
    the bent brick, neighborhood tavern, northwest portland On The Veranda Cocktail from the Bent Brick, Portland OR with mint, strawberry, simple syrup, rhubarb cordial, sage liquor, white verjus, and gin
  • You can get a pretty good deal at the sweet Cocotte Bistro, where the third course offering of Poulet En Cocotte with milk-fed half-bird, farro risotto, market produce, poached farm egg, jus is normally already $25 on the menu! You can add a wine flight for $12 or a dessert for just $5 more.  Reservations available on OpenTable.
  • Shouldn’t be a surprise that Departure is a recommendation of the participating restaurants given the incredible flavor combinations and innovation that Chef  Gregory Gourdet offers on the pan-Asian menu. For their menu, they are offering choices for main course of Crispy rockfish with green papaya, roasted garlic and sweet chili glaze  or Grilled beef coulette with toasted broccoli, Korean chili and fermented black bean jus. One of the dessert options is a tasty sounding Pineapple icebox cake with banana ice cream, candied almond and spiced caramel. Reservations available on OpenTable.
  • Higgins offers classic Northwest cuisine and is one of the founders of Northwest cuisine. If you haven’t been yet, you should go at least once to this Portland institution, especially since the dishes they are offering include an Alsatian country-style terrine of duck and pork with dries cherries and hazelnuts for their first course. All the dishes are part of Higgins’ 20th anniversary celebration menu comprised of dishes from it’s March 1994 opening.
  • For some traditional Japanese, check out Hokusei where you can be transported to another country for a dining spell. The second course of Nijimasu teriyaki: Oregon steelhead with rye bourbon teriyaki sounds very alluring, and their third course are five pieces of nigiri if you are not a big dessert fan and would just rather have more food!
  • Ever since revisiting Imperial during Feast, I’ve been back several times and have been pretty enamored of various specials they offer. They have a special entree for dining month of Braised lamb shoulder with cauliflower “cous cous,” olives, preserved lemon and curried cashew brittle. No matter what, get that Parker House roll. It is worth that extra $1. I also recommend the cocktail below, A Radish Walks Into A Bar that uses radish gastrique as a nod to Chef Paley’s win of Battle Radish on Iron Chef. Also participating is Paley’s Place, his more upscale restaurant. Reservations available on OpenTable both for Imperial and Paley’s Place.
    A Radish Walks into a Bar cocktail, ransom old tom gin, carpano antica vermouth, radish gastrique, lemon, and cracked peppercorns, Imperial PDX, Vitaly Paley
  • Little Bird recently revamped their menu to offer more of a French perspective than before, as I covered recently when I stopped by for their new burger. One of the offerings for their second course is the Chicken Fried Trout you see below with gribiche, herbs, radishes and pickled carrots that I wrote about beforeReservations available on OpenTable.
    Little Bird Bistro's Chicken-Fried Trout, gribiche, fines herbes, radishes, pickled carrots
  • Ned Ludd is very Northwest and seasonal, and I love the beautiful atmosphere there. Pricewise, you are getting a bargain with 3 courses for $29 here since their entrees are typically in the $20 range already
  • Both the NW and SE locations of Olympic Provisions are participating, usually their entrees at dinner are already in the $20 range so you are getting some savings here with 3 courses. I would not be surprised if you walked out after dinner with a salami or two. For their third course, they are offering a Saucisson au chocolate, aka chocolate salami with French style dark chocolate ganache and warm baking spices, nuts, candied ginger, and red wine, which Portland Monthly previous highlighted the intensive recipeReservations available on OpenTable.
    Portland Farmers Market PSU Olympic Provisions
  • If you haven’t been to Oven & Shaker, check out all my previous reviews of their excellent seasonal pizzas
  • I’m a big fan of Picnic House, as you might have guessed from these previous raves I’ve written. I don’t know what they are offering for Dining Month, but whether it’s on their prix fixe menu or not, do not, do not miss getting dessert. That chocolate bundt cake is my favorite chocolate cake in Portland. Also, don’t you want a selfie with that monocled bear? Reservations available on OpenTable.
    Picnic House, Portland, picnic restaurant Picnic House, Portland, picnic restaurant chocolate cake, chocolate sour cream bundt cake with chocolate ganache Picnic House, Portland, picnic restaurant
  • Punch Box Social is stepping it up because besides 3 courses, their Portland Dining month dinner offers a cocktail- a choice of either Monk’s Vacation (Portland potato vodka, green chartreuse, pineapple juice, lime juice and simple syrup shaken and served chilled with a lime garnish) or Heart of the Union (Union gin, triple sec, beet syrup, lemon juice and orange bitters shaken and served over ice with a lemon wheel). Reservations available on OpenTable.
  • I have Ración at the top of my Portland Dining Month list- they have a 3rd course offering of Wagyu culotte steak with heirloom carrots, smoked apple cider, turnip and cocoa. Usually you have to have everyone at your table spend $50 for the chef’s tasting menu, and with Portland Dining Month you are getting 3 of the 5 courses for $29. Look for a recap in the next couple weeks! For a similar deal what is usually a spendy multiple course, check out Biwa who is offering their omakase (all chef’s choice, so be ready and open for anything) for $29 a person instead of the usual $40.
  • Serratto is on the list offering seasonal slow food that brings together local Northwest with France and Italy and the Mediterranean that results in something familiar and comforting but yet new (I visited and reviewed them here as part of a Bloggers Group). Given how much I loved the courses during that visit, I think their entree options of either Braised Carlton Farms beef cheek with porcini-potato gnocchi, smoked cipollini onions, braised leeks and carrots or the vegetarian Ravioli with forest mushroom, caramelized onion and goat cheese filling, grilled asparagus and preserved lemon cream sound incredible. Reservations available on OpenTable.
    Serratto Bloggers Dinner, Ahi Tuna Tartare 'Nicoise' chopped egg, capers, olives, housemade potato chips, tarragon aioli
  • The excellent fare at Smallwares is also complimented by some great cocktails. They make sure that there is a vegetarian option for each of the courses of the prix fixe, so if you can’t enjoy the Braised pork shoulder with squash puree, roasted mushrooms, smoked honey and Chinese mustard, the vegetarian option of Spicy tofu noodles, Thai basil, pickled pineapple and salted black bean promises a lot of flavor without the meat. Reservations available on OpenTable.
    Smallwares PDX, restaurant The Gin, with plymouth gin, mango, yogurt, rose water, cardamom, shaked and served on the rocks, Smallwares PDX
  • Tabla offers the best tarjarin in Portland and that is one of the five pastas they offer as a possible primi pasta course (after a choice of 6 possible starters and then third course featuring 4 entrée options). Next to the half order of tarjarin below you can see the starter from a previous visit of a gorgeous Fall Vegetable Salad. A good choice if there several of you and you want to enjoy Portland Dining Month prices but have a good choice of different things to eat still. Other participants of Portland Dining Month offering many options for the prix fixe include Firehouse Restaurant (which I recapped a visit here) and Gracie’s. Reservations for all three of these available on OpenTable.
    Tabla Bistro, Fall Vegetable Salad with turnip greens mousse, feta, market vegetables, mustard seeds  Tabla Bistro, Tajarin with truffle butter, parmigiano reggiano

I mention Opentable reservations because if you make you reservation through OpenTable,  Downtown Portland will also make a donation to the Oregon Food Bank as long as you use this link. I love OpenTable to see availability of restaurants at times I am interested in, to easily make reservations using online, and also collect points for dining certificates. A great majority- 68 last I looked- of the participating Portland Dining month restaurants accept reservations over OpenTable.  Last year, more than $1,800 was donated to the Oregon Food Bank to assist with their work of distributing emergency food to hungry families- we can do better this year!

Check out the Downtown Portland Portland Dining Month website for a map of where the various participating restaurants are located to be convenient for you, as well as menu listings. If you are interested specifically in which ones have vegetarian or gluten-free options, Portland Monthly has put together a list.

Let me help you enjoy Portland Dining Month by giving away one gift certificate for you a dinner for two! This gift certificate was something I won courtesy of Portland Bloggers and Watershed Communications and rather than using it myself, I am passing it on to you!

Giveaway has ended Use the Rafflecopter below to participate- this will run for 1 week, so a random winner will be chosen next Friday at 12:01 am! Come back to tweet about the giveaway in order to enter daily! Winner must respond within 24 hours and the gift certificate will be mailed. The gift certificate is good for two people to enjoy Portland Dining Month dinner at one of the participating restaurants.

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Disclosure: I am not being compensated for this post, and the Gift Certificate was won by me from a Rafflecopter via Portland Bloggers/Watershed Communications, and I am passing it on to you. I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

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