The 5 Best Bites From Feast Portland's Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting

After a spirited sandwich competition on opening night, the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting took over as the main event at Feast Portland, highlighting the best chefs and restaurants, producers, and artisans of the American Northwest.
 
From chef panels about the actual reality behind reality cooking shows  — for instance, the reason there are so many of them on television is because they do indeed get the highest viewership, and you'd better believe the networks care about that — to small bites from a number of chefs from Oregon and beyond, the two-day tasting event put a spotlight on some of the best food that has yet to reach New York, Los Angeles, or other major culinary centers. 
 
Below, check out a few of the best small bites we tasted this year at Feast Portland: 
 
Not surprisingly, Elias Cairo had one of the Grand Tasting's most covetable plates, full of complex meats that made us go back more than once.
 
 

@oppdx #FeastPDX #OBGT

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Duck breast wouldn't seem to lend itself to pastrami, but a version from Oregon's Falling Sky Brewery, topped with pickled marionberry, changed our minds. 
 

Duck breast pastrami and pickled marionberry on marble rye from @fallingskybrew #feastPDX #OBGT #whywefeast

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Wasabi tuna from the Stephanie Inn was cleverly paired with an aïoli made from Buoy Beer.
 

wasabi tuna with @buoybeer aioli #StephanieInn #feastPDX #OBGT

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Lincoln Restaurant chef and Top Chef Masters alum Jenn Louis teamed up with popular local ice creamery Fifty Licks for one of the most popular collaborations of the whole festival, a buttermilk fudge ice cream topped with flakes of bottarga.
 

@fiftylicks ice cream x @jennlouis: buttermilk fudge, lime zest, candied ginger, bottarga @lincoln_restaurant #feastPDX #OBGT

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Once again, pickling fruits paid off in this simple and savory contribution from the Joel Palmer House on the second day of the Grand Tasting.
 

Dungeness crab salad! with lobster mushroom over pickled pear #feastPDX #OBGT

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