Taste of the Nation 2010

It was that time again - stuff your face silly in order to raise money for hungry kids. As odd as it sounds, it is a great event. 100% of the proceeds (General Admission ticket is $75) is given to charities. All the restaurants and wineries donate their food and wine, as well as gift certificates for a spin the wheel game. I volunteered again because it is a pretty good gig. This year I was the "line nazi" or as they called it - directional staff. Basically I made sure people did not enter the event until their time - the more you pay, the earlier you get in. After the VIPs got in, I took a quick break to sample some of the fare before the rest of the crowd got in. Best idea ever since some of the restaurants were only there for the early high floutin' crowd, plus a lot of the other vendors ran out of the best stuff early. Once I stuffed myself in record time, I was back on the job and letting my stomach come to terms to what just happened. This time I was trying to keep the General Admission crowd in order while also fitting as many people under the tents and out of the rain. Needless to say, if I did not take over, half of the people would have been soaked before they even got in. After a job well done and some more room in my stomach - I was flying free and caught up with my TOTN partners in crime. This time around they did not have to work since Jen scored a much coveted media pass for her food blog - Under The Table with Jen.


Let me start off with my most favorite bite of the night - Screen Door's Maple Bacon Profiterole (pre-caramel gooey topping).



My next favorite was a simple but truly amazing raclette from Steve's Cheese Bar. The wedge of cheese was slowly warmed to a gooey perfection, spread on fresh baguette slices and topped with salami and pickle. Actually the salami was made by Michelle's brother, Elias of Olympic Provision.





Other favorites not pictured included Wildwood's refreshing grated radish and sea salt mascarpone crostini, Bamboo Sushi's albacore sushi (raw and soy marinated), Chop Butchery and Charcuterie's duck proscuitto, Laurelhurst Market's steak tartare, and to top the night off a cappuccino from Cafe Umbria and salted caramel ice cream from Lovely's Fifty Fifty.

Between bouts of eating debauchery, Michelle, Jen and I found the best seats in the house -in Luxe Authohaus' Land Rover sitting on display.



One of our visitors was Richard, a christmas tree grower and exporter (originally from Ireland). He couldn't pass up the chance to join us in our fine ride. Plus the car was situated directly in front of one of the cocktail stations.



After a night of fitful sleep and crazy dreams (thank you spicy bay scallops), the party still wasn't over. I had yet to enjoy my take home rhubarb goodie from Baker & Spice.



Phew - now I can eat salad the rest of the week.

Taste of the Nation 2009

It is hard to believe it has been over a year since I volunteered for the Share our Strength Taste of the Nation event. This year Jen, Michelle and I were upgraded from garbage girls to ticket sales. Let me tell you, it was much nicer being in "front of the house" minus the rain that came pouring down mid-way through the event.

Although most of our time was suppose to be handing out passes, there were enough of us that we could enter the event by 6:45ish (plenty of time to make sure we got to taste almsot everything before they ran out).


This time around, my plan of attack was not well thought out. Since we only thought we had 15-20 min, we wanted to try as much as we could before heading back to our ticket table. It started off nicely with some BBQ ribs, corn dogs, deviled crab salad, peruvian potatoes and tuna tartare. Then I ate a belgian sugar waffle with bacon, brie and basil - yumm. This vendor (Bread and Ink Cafe) also had a dessert waffles with a coffee mousse. It was excellent but now I had moved from savory to sweet........my next mistake was eating a bland salmon-cucumber round and then pickled mackeral! All of things I enjoy seperately but when you are attempting to try everything in a short time span - not so good. I was finally able to get some water and some coffee before heading back to the table.

When we arrived back at the ticket tent - yikes...it was pouring!! There were rivers running through our stuff and into Michelle's purse.


After a little while, we were sent back inside to see if we could help out elsewhere. We took that as - "Go have fun!" At this point, I was over savory and still had many desserts to try. I was a little suprised to see how many cupcakes there were for the taking. We have two exclusively cupcake stores in town and then another restaurant did cupcakes too. Here is one of them, Saint Cupcake, with my favorite of the night - toasted coconut.



After some more wine, we definately felt we got our "money's worth"...even though we did not shell out the $75 ticket price. And thanks to the brilliant minds at Baker and Spice and their "take away bags", I was able to enjoy a rhubarb galette for breakfast this morning.

It was a good time again but next year I am going about this culinary experience very differently!!!

Taste of the Nation

Well, since we made the move I have been looking for fun ways to volunteer and get a feel for all that is Portland. What a better way than to give my time to a worthy cause aimed at fighting hunger. This annual event pulls together the creme de la creme of Portland restaurants, wineries, breweries, bakeries etc..
Going into the event, I knew I would get at least an hour to peruse the many booths and stuff myself to the gills, so off I went.
A week before the event, I attended the volunteer orientation and met a great girl named Jen. We hit off right away and it turns out she writes a food blog. She also invited me to a weekly dinner she and her "sister" put together at different restaurants. (That is a whole other post). Before we left the orientation, we knew we wanted to work together at the event since we were both scheduled for "recycling duty". And yes, it was as fun as it sounds.

On the night of the event, we arrived wearing comfortable shoes and prepared to dive into some trash. After losing the prime recycling station (we thought) to some other chicks, we were placed in the back hall away from everything. Let's just say we were very bummed at first but once the event took off, we realized we had it made. The station we thought we wanted turned into a mad house and it looks like the girls wanted to pull their hair out (ha ha). We (on the other hand) were not very busy and took turns walking around and got to eat to our hearts content throughout the night. A few of my favorites from the night, were the "octopus ceviche", coffee-crusted seared ahi, passion panna cotta, honey ice cream sandwiches, pinot noir granita with marionberry (just to name a few).

For a full rundown on our experience and the food, visit Jen's blog. HERE

Here is a picture of me and Jen hanging out with the recycling bins.


Here is one of the booths and the magnificent display of their fresh produce.


I would have liked to take a lot more pictures but I was very busy eating and drinking. Sorry!
I highly recommend you all attend (or volunteer at) the Taste of the Nation event in your city!!!