Alternative Foods Tour at IACP Portland: An Amazing Start to 2010 Conference
When I received the sign up information for IACP 2010 in Portland (The New Culinary Order) I couldn’t believe my eyes. They had arranged a tour (thank you Ivy Manning) to 4 incredible places: Sweet Pea Baking, Bob’s Red Mill, Blossoming Lotus restaurant and Salt, Fire & Time. It compelled me to sign up right away. Then I heard that this tour sold out first. Wow.
I knew that as interesting as the tour would be, it would also be fascinating to see who had decided to attend this tour instead of Craft Brewing, Pigs and Pinot and From Land to Sea. It was an amazing group of people, all interested in what was offered.
We had a sweet start to our day at Sweet Pea Baking where we sampled an amazing array of treats, thanks to the suggestion of Crescent Dragonwagon. I teamed up with friend and colleague, Fran Costigan, to interview bakery owner Lisa Higgins. See the video here. (But please keep reading.)
From there we went to Bob’s Red Mill where the 81-year old, amazingly spry Bob was there to greet us and give us a tour of the gluten-free facility and the company store. (He told me that his secret is eating what they sell, especially thick rolled oats for breakfast that his wife cooks for him.)
The wonderfully friendly staff served us gluten-free brownies and teff lentil stew. We got bags of samples which they offered to pack up and ship for us for the cost of a USPS box. Great deal, less baggage and there were wonderful products awaiting me when I got home. (I hope to make time to experiment with teff and chia seeds.)
It was then on to lunch at Blossoming Lotus, a mostly raw restaurant. We were served wraps with both raw and cooked foods. The favorite, though, was the raw falafel wrap (pictured) inside a collard leaf. I did like the food but think that we were served too much. I was quite full and wasn’t sure that I could stay awake. But the best was yet to come.
Our last and most exciting, for me, stop was at Salt, Fire & Time which is a community supported kitchen (what an amazing idea) run by the young and enthusiastic Tressa. The tables were outfitted with bottles of kombucha. I loved the Rose Cardamom flavor. (And we got to take a bottle back to our hotel which served us well as we ate and drank our way through the rest of the IACP conference, not so naturally.) We were then served sauerkraut. A wonderful ending to a most remarkable tour. I left feeling satiated in a most delicious way.
Jill Nussinow says
Sarah,
It would have been even more fun if you’d been on the tour.
Traca,
You’ll have a wonderful time visitng these places. I think that you will especially love the community supported kitchen.
I will have more posts on the Portland adventure soon.
Traca | Seattle Tall Poppy says
Jill, great recap and I’m looking forward to checking out these spots next time I’m in PDX. Thanks!
~Traca
sarah henry says
Jill,
Since I didn’t get on this tour — sold out in seconds indeed — I’m glad you filled us all in on the trip. Love all the alternative offerings in PDX.