Edible Portland: Three New Articles Currently on Newsstands

Hungry to explore and support more of Portland's food artisan community, I spent much of this summer at farmers markets and food incubator events, meeting Portland's hardworking food artisans and eating their delicious, local, and sustainable creations. The result is three new articles in the relaunch issue of Edible Portland. Formerly owned by Ecotrust, Edible Portland continues under Free Range Media and now comes out six times a year (read the full story of the acquisition here).

The first three local artisans I could not not write about are Choi's Kimchi, Ancient Heritage Dairy, and The Bitter Housewife. Here are some excerpts and imagines from the stories I wrote. The full articles include recipes, too. Buy a subscription here or find Edible Portland in these fine stores:

Pickling Portland
Choi's Kimchi brings a fermented Korean staple to Portland

Originally published in Edible Portland

"Founded in 2011, Choi's Kimchi Company makes its kimchis using a generations-old family recipe by Chong Choi and her son Matt. "The earliest memory my mom always shares," says Matt," is the gimjang winter kimchi harvest in Korea. It's a really busy time, and she'd be running around helping and my grandmother would always have her taste the kimchi she was making and say, 'What does it need? Salt? More ginger?'"

Immigrating to the United States when she was 25, Chong quickly earned a reputation in her community for making great kimchi, whether for friends or family or church events..."

Who Needs Cows?
Portland's only urban creamery churns out award-winning cheese — with nary a cow in sight.

Originally published in Edible Portland

"Walking down the sidewalk in inner Southeast Portland, you may glance through a window and suddenly find yourself face to face with men and women in hair nets, white aprons, and rubber boots wielding hundreds of pounds of freshly made cheese. Without a cow in sight, Ancient Heritage Dairy opened Portland's only urban creamery in spring 2015, but if you speak with the Obringer family that owns the creamery, they'll say they're just carrying on tradition..."

Bite Into Bitters:
Relax! Ease into these classic drink recipes.

Originally published in Edible Portland

"Are you perhaps healthily obsessed with craft cocktails? Do you wish you could whip them up without finding and buying all manner of esoteric ingredient and liqueur? Genevieve Brazelton had the same thoughts exactly, so in 2012 she and her husband founded The Bitter Housewife, a line of cocktail bitters specifically designed to give depth to classic drink recipes, one dash at a time.

Bitters are still classified as a form of medicine in Oregon, which makes sense, if craft cocktails are the cure for what ails you. In its new, expanded Northeast workshop, The Bitter Housewife makes bitters by infusing high-proof spirits with Genevieve's signature flavor profiles. Her Aromatic Bitters, for instance, features bourbon infused with 17 botanicals. The result is a local take on Angostura bitters, the ubiquitous bitters used in drinks like old fashioneds and Vieux Carres..."

I'm a Featured 'Oregon Maverick' in the The Gorge Business News

It's weird being on the other side of the pen. After meeting at last year's Northwest Travel Writers Conference, business news writer Lori Kimbel gave me the honor of being featured in The Gorge Business News as an "Oregon Maverick." The article came out in July (one day after my birthday in fact), and it's really a thoughtful and fun piece. It's weird being on the other side of the pen, and it's also flattering. Thank you, Lori!

Check it out--------->

New Article: Eating the View, Northwest Travel & Life Magazine

There are many ways to connect with nature. You can go hiking, or rent a room with a view. You can also eat it. At the three restaurants below, dining becomes an adventure among the fields, mountains and coastline.

The Willows Inn on Lummi Island, WA 
"For dessert tonight, we're serving three courses of blossoms," said Blaine Wetzel, executive chef of The Willows Inn. Wetzel hails from Olympia and has become one of the Pacific Northwest's most celebrated chefs. Based on easily accessible Lummi Island, The Willows Inn is true destination dining: Every dish shares something about the small island, whether its oysters and venison, or berries, leaves or, even, branches. In fact, the morning after a recent meal, I took a hike and spotted several familiar ingredients...

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New Guide: An Eater's Guide to Portland, Eater Portland

After a lot of delicious work, we published An Eater's Guide to Portland on Eater Portland. Check it out to see the entire city's food scene introduced in one handy guide. Here are some of the highlights:

Welcome to the Land of Craftsman Cuisine

Straight up, Portland has something most other cities do not: the natural bounty of the Willamette Valley, mostly unblemished by development and pollution. This gives Portland chefs a huge arsenal of ingredients to play with—whether the cuisine of choice is regional Indian food or modernist Spanish tapas...

Continue reading the complete guide----------->

Where to Start on Eater Portland's Top Maps

As you know, Eater publishes and updates a rather massive database of maps—each focusing on one of the city's signature foods or dining trends, from tacos to bento boxes. For those who want to get to Portland's culinary heart through its ribcage, we've compiled the crème de la crème, the top one or two listings, from each of these maps here....

Portland Food 'Hoods to Know

SOUTHEAST DIVISION/CLINTON: Pok Pok kicked it all off in a shack in 2005, and now nearly every restaurateur in the city has jockeyed for a spot on SE Division Street (so much so that the growth has spilled out a couple block south on SE Clinton Street, too). Here, between the reckless construction, you'll find many crucial restaurants...

Portland Glossary of Terms

Amphora-Aged Cocktails: Clyde Common's Jeffrey Morgenthaler is credited with inventing the barrel-aged cocktail, a fully mixed batch of cocktails aged in a wooden barrel to gain flavor—as a winemaker might age wine. Today, Ava Gene's bar manager Douglas Derrick takes this further: He's teamed up with a local winery and amphora producer to make amphora-aged negroni, only available at the restaurant.

Northwest Bounty: This is the annoying term that everyone seems to use to describe what makes food in Portland different. What makes it annoying is that it's true: Bigger and better ingredients come from the Pacific Northwest. Taste it, and you will understand.

Reservations to Make in Advance

LANGBAAN: You've almost certainly never had Thai food like this before. Langbaan serves historic regional Thai dishes—some from ancient royalty's cookbooks—and is perhaps the hardest Portland restaurant to get into. It's a hidden restaurant inside of PaaDee and books out months in advance. Make your reservation now to taste an incredibly well designed prix fixe menu.

Follow the News

Continue to the full guide----->

New Article: How I Became a Certified Barbecue Judge, Eater Reports

Originally published on Eater.com

At three o'clock Sunday morning, assistant pitmaster Geff Hoekman wakes up in the parking lot of the Mill Casino in Coos Bay, Oregon. He steps out of the Uff-Da-Q team cargo trailer into the chilled coastal night air, heavy with smoke and the smells of cooking meat from 45 barbecue teams. He tests his smoker to make sure the fuel is burning evenly, consulting thermometer probes stuck deep in the meat inside in search of hot and cold spots. He and his team drove eight hours and spent $1,000 to get here, and on the line is $4,000, plus all-important bragging rights. He'll wake up every 45 minutes to repeat the ritual until dawn.

Read the full article---------->

New Article: Boise's Urban Wineries, Northwest Travel Magazine

When was your last "Aha!" wine moment? That moment when you drank a wine so special, you haven't seen wine the same since? Touring Boise's urban wineries and tasting rooms, you're certain to experience at least a few meaningful "Aha!" moments—if not the big one itself. Even with just seven tasting rooms, Boise offers a snapshot of Northwest growing regions, from Idaho's up-and-coming rieslings, malbecs, and syrahs, to the surprise Oregon pinot noir and Washington cab.

When it comes to urban wineries, the first thing to know about Boise is Garden City. Garden City is about a mile from downtown Boise, and it's home to all of Boise's urban wineries. Visiting in warm weather? Bicycle there on the Greenbelt, a well-maintained bike and pedestrian path that hugs the Boise River and rarely crosses traffic.

Continue to the full article----->
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New Article: Idaho's Most Iconic Foods, Northwest Travel Magazine

Arriving hungry in Idaho, I thought what I assume everyone visiting Idaho for the first time thinks: Where are the taters? Fun and bizarre potato creations have defined Idaho's culinary story for years—for instance, you'll find the blooming potato (an ingenious way to fluff-ify a potato) and baked potatoes topped with vanilla ice cream. Most restaurants serve the potato simply, whether mashed or baked, because the extra flavorsome Idaho potato is a delicacy unto itself.

The chefs, winemakers, farmers and friendly Idahoans I met painted a surprisingly diverse culinary landscape. In fact, the whole potato thing can seem like a never-ending bad joke, once you know how many Idaho delicacies are out there.

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