Over on the Accidental Hedonist, nominations are being accepted for the second annual food blog awards hosted by that site. I’m glad to see this year they’re having judges. I think it will make for a fairer result that will be more about quality and less about popularity. I’ve had enough of cheerleaders as student body presidents in my life.
Anywho… I thought I’d put out my own little “Best Of…” for Portland food/drink blogs. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I read all of these whenever they put out new content. (If you’re not using one already, I highly recommend an aggregator like Bloglines. I believe you can import all of my existing feeds. Email me if you need help.) I hope you become regular readers as well and are maybe even encouraged to start your own blog. Of course, if you just want to mouth off about Portland’s food scene, don’t forget about PortlandFood.org.
On to the results…
BEST SITE TO WISH YOU WEREN’T LACTOSE INTOLERANT: Pacific Northwest Cheese Project
I’ll tell you straight out. This is my favorite local blog. Why? It’s focused allowing it to explore with some depth its subject matter: Northwest cheese. Not only are there tastings and reviews of cheeses and cheese shops, but there are interviews with cheese makers and visits to farms. This is a little scary to say out loud, but this blogger is actually doing … journalism.
BEST SITE TO MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD AN EXPENSE ACCOUNT: Portland Food and Drink
Food Dude and I got off to a rocky start with me chastizing him for ratcheting up the rumor mill. But I’m a regular reader and commentor there and no one is covering Portland’s high end dining scene better. I still won’t take the tagline “THROWING OURSELVES ON THE GRENADE OF BAD FOOD TO SAVE YOU” seriously until Food Dude starts exploring random taco trucks and eating Vietnamese at Chinese restaurants with me, but his entries have improved a lot over time and the site has grown into a multi-blog with several interesting perspectives on different subjects from wine to cheese to bagels to tipping.
BEST SITE TO MAKE YOU THINK IT’S WORTH MAKING A MESS IN THE KITCHEN: Je Mange la Ville
Michelle may eat the city, but I want to eat at her house. She even makes boxed brownies look good. The site is mostly her experiments in the kitchen with recipes and commentary. Most of Portland’s food blogs, surprisingly, cover restaurants more than cooking. This is one hell of an exception.
BEST SITE TO HIGHLIGHT YOUR INADEQUATE ORGANIZATION SKILLS: Portland Blog
This site is only part food blog. It also covers news, events, and general Portland entertainment. This is the kind of site that makes my wife feel at ease. She’s anal as all get-out and this blog is tidy and easy to read. Each review starts with a listing of bolded highlights — name, location, web address, hours, cost, etc. Then you get a concise and useful review.
BEST SITE TO ENJOY THE FACT THAT DR. ATKINS IS DEAD: Renaissance Culinaire
“A pastry student, blogging my way to Pastry Chefdom.” That says about all of it, doesn’t it? Want to see pictures of delectable pastries with sauces, custards, and frostings so decadent you want to rub them in your naughty parts? Here’s your site. Lots of great pictures and recipes. My only worry is that there hasn’t been a new post since October.
BEST SITE TO IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE MAN AND BEAST LIVE IN HARMONY (UNTIL YOU SMELL BACON COOKING): Asian Vegan
I don’t dig on tofu. Tofu would have to have a hell of a lot of personality, way more than one of those Tofurkeys, for me to eat it. Even if fried gluten doesn’t get your groove on, there are some tasty looking eats over here, largely Asian-influenced dishes where not even one bee was harmed in the making of a recipe. The blogger and his wife (him from Vietnam, her from Malaysia) have recently announced that their restaurant, Kinta, will be opening on Belmont, too. So don’t expect a lot of posts in the near future…
BEST SITE TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO BLOG MORE: altportland
VJ’s site was one of the first amateur food sites I found in Portland and I’ve been linking to it as long as my site’s been around. She is also an active member of PortlandFood.org and I’ve had the pleasure of eating with her. Her site languished for a while and wasn’t so much a blog as a repository for brief restaurant and market reviews, among other things. (She has a passion for beer, eg.) Even as a static site, it was useful, but now that she’s making up for lost time with nearly a post a day, I’m starting to feel inadequate!
BEST SITE FOR LEGAL STIMULANTS: God Shot
Yes, legal. That’s trimethylxanthine — C8 H10 N4 O2 for you fellow geeks out there. (Caffeine for you non-geek, Wheel of Fortune watching, can’t-even-get-a-piece-of-the-pie Trivial Pursuit losers out there.) Chris is a professional barista who is an expert in caffeine’s most popular vehicle: coffee. Blog entries range from theories on blended coffees, to experiments in brewing temperatures, to reviews of local coffees and coffee houses, to the latest annoyance in the coffee world.
BEST SITE TO HELP YOU DRINK YOUR CARES AWAY: Barfly
I don’t drink, but I’m not above laughing at drunk people. The blog has several contributors from BarFly who at least on a few occasions seem to have posted before sobering up. They often highlight upcoming events and review previous ones. The overall site has articles, categorized reviews, and message boards.
BEST SITE TO FIND GREAT HEAD: Guest on Tap
I’m talking beer. Get your mind out of the gutter! (Or get thee to 82nd Ave.) Guest on Tap is run by a Grateful Dead loving marketing professional and winner of the winner of the homebrewers competition for Best Pale Ale at the GABF. The site has a goal: “To develop a beer community of honest discussion about quality beer in a region. One in which every aspect of beer, brewing, distributing, selling, and marketing are discussed openly and honestly among the people of the region where the beer is consumed. To empower the people of this beer community to make better choices in the products that they consume, to help direct the ongoing growth of the Portland beer scene, and to think about what went into getting their beer to their glass.”
Loved loved loved this “guide.” Quick question tho’: what’s missing? What kind of food (cooking, eating n’ drinking out, etc.) blog could Portland really use next?
This is a pretty old post of mine. There’s been an explosion of food blogs since then. I’d say the best food blogs for Portland are the ones that are focused on a specific subject.