Author Archives: Laura Morgan

Why We #DemandDogFoundTruffles!

Posted by Laura Morgan on January 07, 2019

The welcome warmth of the bonfire dried our hands and took the chill off while we giddily rehashed our first experience in the woods with Stella and Sunny. We were surrounded by Douglas firs rising above our heads, atop a hill overlooking historic vineyards and hazelnut orchards in the distance. Beneath our feet was Savannah Ridge, the small backbone of sedimentary rock laid down over millions of years by ancient oceans, lava flows, and most recently, the Missoula Flood. (As “recent” as fifteen thousand years ago.) The latter are facts only geologists and wine growers are passionate about.

Well, and us.

We were comrades who had just crisscrossed the spongy forest floor for two hours, bouncing from one spot to the next behind Stella, the Lagotto Romagnolo, and her intrepid owner, Sunny Diaz. Stella’s got a keen nose and propensity for praise. Sunny is driven by connection - to the natural world and to her foodie-inclined, forest-christened pupils. Stella is driven by treats, every once in a while that’s a small white truffle that she gets to before anyone else notices she’s unearthed it. Both are adept at finagling fruiting bodies from the earth and delivering them to the people best at wrangling their intoxicating aromas: the Pacific Northwest’s best chefs and bartenders.

Prior to the 17th century, truffles were eaten by peasants, hunted by farmers and pigs who learned to harness the sow’s natural predilection for these “diamonds of the earth,” as Brillat-Savarin would come to call them. Before they were considered aphrodisiacs by well-to-do diners, they actually were aphrodisiacs for the sows who mistook the volatile compound dimethyl sulfide found in truffles, for andrestenol, a sex pheromone in boar saliva. These days a white truffle shaved over buttery, cheese-laden pasta noodles almost elicits the same response from truffle lovers around the world as it did for the humble sows of yesteryear.

These days truffles are a very expensive delicacy in many parts of the world, with the white Alba truffle from Italy commanding up to $4000 US per pound and the Perigord from France coming in around $1600 US. Oregon truffles, by comparison, fetch only about $400 per pound. Why is that, you ask? Unfortunately, we’re considered “the bad boys of the group,” but not in the James-Dean-Rebel-Without-a-Cause way. While most Oregonians, including James Beard in the late 70’s, proclaim that Oregon truffles rank up there with the best in the world, we have suffered from a bad reputation on the world stage.

One factor for this is our market is much younger and less developed. In France, cultivation of truffles has been productive since America declared its independence from Britain. In fact, according to Wikipedia, back in the 1700’s the French figured out they could cultivate truffles by planting acorns from truffle-producing trees. Today 80% of truffles produced in France are cultivated, rather than wild foraged. On the other hand, it’s still a bit too early to tell if American truffle groves are sustainably producing because it takes at least 10 years to develop the mycorrhizal network that will sustain a crop.

Perhaps the biggest reason for our being snubbed, though, is because we have a habit of raking in the PNW. It’s perfectly legal here to head out into the forest with nothing but a rake and a prayer on the hunt for truffles. The problem with raking is that you’re harvesting all of the truffles in the ground, ripe or unripe, and unripe truffles are useless, culinarily-speaking. Unripe truffles taste like nothing and are lacking in the intoxicating aroma that is the reason we want to eat them in the first place! In Italy, by contrast, it is a law that truffles must only be hunted with the aid of a dog’s nose, ensuring only the most pungent are harvested. Since Americans don’t have a long culinary tradition of coveting only those most stinky, we have used both in our cooking to our reputation’s detriment.

However, Oregon truffles are on par with those from Italy and France and attitudes are changing due to the good work of people like Sunny Diaz and the folks at the Oregon Truffle Festival. Charles LeFevre, forest mycologist, New World Truffieres founder and OTF co-founder, was quoted in a New York Times article as saying, “... industry oversight to ensure the use of dogs, combined with cultivation efforts and careful management of the truffle habitat, could raise the value of Oregon’s crop (worth $300,000 to harvesters at the time) a hundredfold by 2030, and benefit the region’s economy through increased sales, exports and culinary tourism.” As Bob Dylan fatefully sung, the times they are a-changin.

Meanwhile, back in the Doug Fir stand, Sunny describes black truffles as fruity on the nose, think tropical fruits with a musky amaretto and vanilla finish, to a group of foodies and industry folks. White truffles are a bit different: garlicky, nutty and faintly citrusy. We experience this immediately as Stella has zeroed in and starts digging at the base of a Douglas Fir. After a few seconds, anyone standing within a 3 foot radius is hit by the intense garlic aroma of an Oregon winter white (Tuber oregonense). Sunny plucks it out of the ground and Stella is rewarded with a treat from Sunny’s hip pouch, and off she goes again, nose to the ground, her long, neon orange leash trailing behind her. Next stop: a multi-course, post-foraging meal, made all the better by wine and my new forest-baptized compatriots.

Stay tuned for more truffle stories in the coming weeks, or sign up for a foray and create your own truffle-scented memories!

 

The Big Foody PDX Featured in Iwanowski's Travel Blog

Posted by Laura Morgan on July 13, 2018

We recently hosted German Travel Guide writers, Dr. Margit Brinke and Dr. Peter Kränzle on our Portland Makers Walking Tour and they wrote about it on Iwanowski's Travel Blog! Dr's Brinke and Kränzle are two of the coolest human beings on the planet and it was so interesting to learn that where they came from in Bavaria is similar in values and culture to Portland and the Pacific Northwest. They ride bikes everywhere, toil away in community gardens during summer and are serious about good beer. 

Read their story here: Excursion to Foodie Town

If you speak German (or even if you don't) please check out their blog (and Iwanowski's Travel Guides to the USA) and come visit us in Portland!

 

 

 

 

 

Honoring the Life of Anthony Bourdain

Posted by Laura Morgan on July 05, 2018

Honoring the Life of Anthony Bourdain

 

This writing will probably go out on or near the day Anthony Bourdain would have been 62 years old. Even though it’s been a couple weeks since news of his death woke me up on that strange Friday morning, and I never knew him personally, I still feel heartbroken at having written that first sentence. Why is that? More important, why is it that so many of you in “the industry” were also so affected by this tragedy?

 

Speaking for myself, Tony changed everything when he debuted on the Food Network late in my high school years. On ‘A Cook’s Tour’ he was eating his way through Asia, meeting people and participating in food rituals that were so far from my own frame of reference – so far from anything that I had ever experienced. I was blown away and immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. From that point forward, everything I’ve done is to put me one step closer to experiencing and learning from those food cultures that are foreign to me, as well as appreciating and learning more about my own. Admittedly, I read Kitchen Confidential shortly after that (and then anything else I could get my hands on) and again I realized - those are my people! That is where I belong! Everything he said appealed to me, which is why I pivoted my focus in college and work, into the food industry. I’ve done a lot of different jobs in “food,” but I’ve never desired to leave the industry since. I realized from mourning that I’m still as excited about discovery and driven by food as he made me all those years ago when I heard his voice on TV and in books for the first time.

 

I know now that most people in food feel the same. I haven’t heard from one person who wasn’t deeply affected by Tony’s passing. Whether it was A Cook’s Tour or Kitchen Confidential, or No Reservations or some other work, he spoke to people, whatever their language, in a way they could understand. If you’re a cook, it was with camaraderie - a grueling, but loved, shared experience. If you were a traveler, it was with poetry that kinda perfectly expressed the indescribable-ness of a person or a place. I guess what I’m trying to say is Tony gave a voice, demonstrated respect for people, especially frequently marginalized people, encouraged cultural reciprocity, and in doing so, made this a better place for all of us. I hope he knew that.

Great Seafood in Each of Portland's 5 Quadrants

Posted by Laura Morgan on February 03, 2018

Generally, when I get asked about where to get seafood on tour, people are looking for one thing: oysters. Specifically, raw oysters on the half shell washed down with something fermented. As I browsed through my phone’s picture gallery for inspiration for this post, I realized that when I’m craving something from the sea, oysters are also my go-to. Even though we’re only a couple hours from the coast, PDX isn’t traditionally a seafood town, but there really is so much great seafood here these days. This being Portland, you probably already know chefs all over the city are innovating when it comes to style and sourcing.

Disclaimer: to make this blog post manageable, I’ve narrowed down the long list to just a few places that are specifically seafood-centric, not-to-be-missed and excellent all around, one from each of our five quadrants.. Yes, we have five quadrants. Nowhere in this list is the whole snapper from Departure, or the chilled seafood offerings at Woodsman Tavern, or so many others, but go to those places too, you won’t be disappointed. Needless to say, this is not an exhaustive list; it’s just a good start.

SOUTHEAST

Year of the Fish, Carts on Foster, corner of SE Foster & 52nd , Open Tues – Sat 12-8pm

The food carts on SE Foster and 52nd make up one of the only pods in SE Portland that have escaped development in the past couple years. In fact, this cart used to be on SE 50th before that lot was converted into an apartment building right off the hip, foodie-centric corridor that is SE Division. Back to the food, though. The cod fish and chips, tuna melt, clam strips.. you just can’t go wrong. All good. And the gluten free options really are gluten free as the owner has a dedicated fryer just for them. There’s also a beer garden right here and what better to wash it all down?

IG: @yearofthefish

 NORTHEAST

Olympia Oyster Bar, 4214 N Mississippi Ave, Closed Mondays – Hours vary

Named for the Olympia oyster, the only oyster native to the Pacific Northwest, this little bar is reinventing the American oyster experience. They are equally committed to serving excellent cocktails and organic wines and, because of its location and the communal tables within, it is an excellent place for visitors to people watch after a day of boutique shopping on Mississippi. Also, February 2 – 9 OOB’s chef Maylin Chavez, and a group of her passionate seafood conservationist friends are putting on a series of dinners and events in PDX called Shuck Portland to raise money and awareness for disappearing wild oyster reefs. If you’re in town, you should try to make it to one of the events! (link under Events below)

IG: @olympiaoysterbar

NORTH PORTLAND

Fishwife, 5328 N Lombard St, Closed Open Tues – Sat – Hours vary

This place is low-key, family friendly and to be honest, won’t catch your eye from the street outside. Once you’re inside though, it has that old school diner/clam shack on the beach sort of feel. Their menu items (think clam chowder, assorted fish and chips, shrimp cocktails and Louies, etc.) are good and the service is great. This place can get busy with local neighborhood families so call ahead to make a reservation and avoid the wait.

SOUTHWEST

Headwaters, The Heathman Hotel, 1001 SW Broadway, Open Every day – Hours vary

Inside the beautiful Heathman hotel is swanky Headwaters, a celebratory seafood restaurant from Vitaly Paley, Portland restaurant veteran and James Beard Award winner. This is a great date night option or a great place to have dinner and drinks before you head next door to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, one of Portland’s last historic performing arts venues. Keep in mind though, if there’s a show going on next door, this place is going to get packed. Make sure to check out Vitaly Paley’s Russian Tea Service in the building as well. It’s a fun thing to do with a small group and the food and tea are exquisite.

IG: @headwaterspdx

Roe, The Morgan Building, 515 SW Broadway, Open Wed – Sat, 5:30 – 10pm

Are you looking for a dining experience that is multi-coursed, thoughtfully sourced, painstakingly prepared and outrageously good? Perhaps also a little hidden, exclusive, anticipated? Then plan well ahead and make reservations at Roe. Roe is run by Trent Pierce, multi nominated James Beard chef and fifth generation PNW restaurateur. At Roe, the seafood-focused, French and Japanese influenced menu rotates weekly and is served in several courses with optional wine pairings. This is a special occasion restaurant or just a must-try-before-you-die whether you’re visiting Portland or live here.   

IG: @roepdx

NORTHWEST

Bamboo Sushi, 836 NW 23rd Ave (several locations), Open 5-10 every day

Bamboo is a great place to find high-quality, artfully prepared sushi, especially their NW location because of the great district it’s in – plenty of shopping, bars, restaurants and entertainment. The best thing about eating here, though, is their commitment to sustainability and in fact, they were deemed the first sustainable sushi restaurant in the world back in 2010. Their philosophy of responsibility spans from transparently sourcing from sustainable fisheries, including their refusal to serve that sushi house staple, Bluefin tuna, all the way to building design and waste.

IG: @bamboosushi

Events:

The crab’s finally in and oysters are in season - seafood is in the spotlight this week in PDX! Check out the following events going on this week in the city:

Shuck, Feb 2 – 9, 2018

Atlas Obscura Oyster Tasting and Maritime History, Feb 7, 2018

PDX Seafood and Wine Festival, Feb 2 & 3, 2018

A Winter Day on the Oregon Coast with Nan Devlin, Director of Tillamook Coast Tourism

Posted by Laura Morgan on February 01, 2018

From the tiny town of Seaside, the end point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, to the cranberry bogs of the southern coast, with plenty of lighthouses and sand dunes in between, there truly is something for every visitor to the Oregon coast. To help our readers make it a perfect day on the coast, we spoke with Nan Devlin, Director of Visit Tillamook, to get a few tips on preparing for your trip. Nan is lucky enough to have accumulated a lifetime of experiences here, but her current specialty is Tillamook County, the 70 or so miles from Manzanita in the north to Neskowin in the south. In Tillamook County you can find several coastal towns, each with their own unique personality, as well as access to gorgeous public parks. Here is also where you’ll find iconic Haystack Rock, the Tillamook Creamery, and thousands of gray whales passing through on their way to warmer climes each winter.

Here’s what we asked Nan:

1. What book could you recommend that would fill visitors with the spirit of the northern Oregon Coast for their trip?

This is a tough one because not much has been written about this area, other than Astoria by Peter Stark. However, there is a terrific non-fiction book called The Next Tsunami by Bonnie Henderson that reads like a mystery novel. It's about how scientists discovered the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the Pacific Ocean and much of the scientific discoveries were made from Seaside to Netarts Bay. Also, we published 25 Hikes on the Tillamook Coast, and it's written like a love letter to the trails here.

2. What is a unique souvenir and why is it special?

 

3. In your opinion, what is the perfect winter day?

A walk in the forest or a nature reserve in the morning, a walk on the beach in the afternoon and a great bowl of chowder in the evening.

4. What would be your anniversary restaurant on the northern Oregon Coast?

Meridian at the new Headlands Hotel in Pacific City - or drinks and a light meal at MacGregor's Manzanita.

 

Now go enjoy your time on Oregon's beautiful coastline!

 

**Edited for additional detail.

 

It's beautiful, it's brooding, it's the Oregon Coast in Winter

Posted by Laura Morgan on January 18, 2018

The Oregon Coast, or the People’s Coast as it is proudly claimed by locals, is broody, devastatingly beautiful, and at this time of year, more than 50 shades of gray.  Every single one of the 363 miles of Oregon’s coastline are open and free to be enjoyed by the public, officially since 1967, which along with the impressive network of state parks that beeline the coast, is what makes a visit to Oregon’s coastline truly must-see-before-you-die. But right now, it’s winter, what do we eat when we get there?

Dungeness Crab

Luckily for us on the west coast, this is exactly the time the Dungeness crabs are plump and ready to pull out of the ocean. James Beard, the father of modern American cuisine, and native Oregonian once said, “Dungeness Crab is sheer, unadulterated crab heaven.” (See below for James Beard’s beloved deviled crab recipe.) Or, as Bethany Jean Clement, food writer for The Seattle Times, put it in her story this time last year, “At its freshest, Dungeness crab tastes only as oceanic as the wind off the water, more delicate and closer to sweet than anything from the bottom of the sea should imaginably be.”

Commercially speaking, Dungeness crabs weren’t filling out their shells yet on December 1st, Oregon’s official crab harvest opening date, and are now in pricing negotiations with buyers, so commercial harvest for Dungeness still hasn’t started as I’m writing this. Recreational harvest, however, is up and running and people are able to crab pot up and down the Oregon coast from the mouth of the Columbia River to Cape Blanco in the south.

I could tell you how to go crabbing, but the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has you covered.

For more resources, including required licenses and rules of harvest, visit Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife here: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/licenses_regs/

For updates on closures and openings when you’re planning your trip: http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/FoodSafety/Shellfish/Pages/ShellfishClosures.aspx

 

Fish

Dungeness crab isn’t the only thing you can find coming out of the ocean right now. Lingcod, Rockfish, Sole, Flounder and Black Cod can also be found fresh at fishmongers all over Oregon. In my opinion, though, black cod is what you’re looking for.

Also known as sablefish in Jewish delis on the USA’s east coast and in many parts of the rest of the world, it is delicate, fatty and perfectly flaky when done. Probably the best fish, aside from a gorgeous Pacific Northwest salmon, that I’ve ever eaten, for one very simple reason: smoking. There is nothing better in the world than a rainy day spent next to the smoker with the promise of flaky, savory smoked black cod in your near future. I’ll post my recipe with pictures of this (and our other adventures in Portland and beyond) on our Instagram page. And if you’re in Portland, go pick up some black cod, already smoked to perfection for you from Portland Fish Market (4404 SE Woodstock Blvd.) or Flying Fish Company (2340 NE Sandy). Both shops have other seafood treats as well, like oysters on the half shell and fish & chips, or other take away items for your perfect winter picnic or dinner in.

 

Recipes

Beards’ recipe for Deviled Crab, so simple, but so, so good.

 

In the meantime, stay tuned to The Big Foody PDX for new Northern Coast food and drink tours coming online end of summer 2018! We’re so excited to share the beauty and deliciousness of the Oregon Coast with you!

 

RESOURCES FOR SOURCING SEAFOOD SUSTAINABLY

Oregon Seafood Watch

Oregon’s Seafood Consumer Guide 2017 from OSU’s Sea Grant Program (what to look for at the fishmonger)

Dungeness Crab Buying Guide from FishChoice​

Deliciously Drinkable Portland

Posted by Laura Morgan on November 02, 2016

Fall really is in the air now. Halloween is over, the leaves flamed out and are beginning to drop, leaving most sidewalks in Portland cushioned with various shades of brown. Urban chickens have slowed laying while many of Portland’s artisan food and drink makers are steadily churning away, some switching over to fall-inspired preparations. Fall-time in Portland is associated with rainy day pastimes such as mushroom hunting in the mist-soaked forests of the coast range and then relaxing in your favorite bar, restaurant or at home with something warm in hand. Within the city itself, locals spend time hiking in Forest Park, one of the largest urban forests in the country, escaping to nature – a very typical Oregonian pursuit. Of course, the best way to end an excursion into the woods is with a delicious snack and a hot drink or glass of wine afterward, this is why we went hiking in the first place, isn’t it?! Lucky for us, there are plenty of ways to do this in Portland, which is what we’ll be talking about on the blog this month – all things deliciously drinkable! So stay tuned for recipes, tips for great places to get a drink in Portland and a spotlight on the most imbibable seasonal products.

PRO-TIP: Go to Forest Park when you’re here! There are several ways to get into the park, but for a truly Nob Hill experience Portland-style, enter the park by walking or biking up NW Thurman St or parking in the designated parking lot on NW Upshur. Follow the Lower MacLeay trail at the MacLeay Park Entrance one mile up to the Witch’s Castle, as it’s locally known, or up to Pittock Mansion for a bit more of a workout (it’s all uphill from this point, but still only 5 miles round trip). When you get back to the trailhead where you started, walk up the stairs onto NW Thurman and a couple blocks down the street to The Clearing Café & Bakery for a chai latte or glass of wine (and one of their house-made pastries)!

Happy Fall from The Big Foody PDX!

Welcome to Portland, OR!

Posted by Laura Morgan on September 09, 2016

Welcome to September in Portland! Finally we're getting a bit of the cool, drizzly weather that Portlanders love and long for during the hot slog of summer. Not that we don't appreciate leaving the house without jackets and boots or jumping with wild abandon into our favorite swimming holes, but that heat can be so oppressive! Luckily for visitors, too, umbrellas are finally cool again in this city!

Not to worry though, before the leaves start to change there are still some beautifully mild and sunny days ahead of us. It's also prime time for apples, pears, tomatoes and corn on urban farms and in rural parts of Oregon. In fact, everyone here in the Great Pacific Northwest tend to go out of their minds at this time of year celebrating our incredible bounty with farm dinners, special menus and food festivals galore. From the Taste of Latinoamerica at the Portland Mercado, to Feast - the food fest to end all food festivals - there is so much to do in Portland right now.

Not the least of which is the launch of The Big Foody PDX and the Central “Eats-side” tour which offers guests the opportunity to taste some of Portland's most iconic products and meet some of the movers and shakers who produce them as well. Historically the city is a blue-collar, industrial town that is surrounded by an abundance of breathtaking natural beauty, and nowhere is our industrial past more apparent than in the Central Eastside Industrial District. In recent years, however, city planners, long-time industry groups and local food and drink business owners have begun to open up the traditional meaning of “industrial” to include the creative, artisan and tech industries as well.

With the addition of multiple new public transportation hubs and the construction of Tillikum Crossing, the city’s newest pedestrian, cyclist and mass transit bridge, it is also easier and more fun than ever to spend time in the Central Eastside. From downtown’s hotels to world-class restaurants and truly-Portland shopping experiences, you can find it all here. So join us on a tour, we’ll show you around one of our favorite spots in the city and introduce you to some really cool people along the way!

*Insider tip – if you’re a photographer, or even just an avid instagrammer, the Central “Eats-side” tour is a great opportunity to get some urban photos - from street art, to some of the best views of the city from the ground – you’ll quickly learn why we’re known as Bridgetown and the most delicious city in America.