After wrapping up a productive week and dealing with yet another Portland day filled with rain and snow, then opening up to partly sunny with rainbows, Kay and I decided to get out of the house and take a quick trip to the North side of town to attend the Portland Seafood and Wine Fest at the Portland Expo Center.
I wanted to show Kay the TriMet light rail as well, so we jumped in a Lyft and headed a few minutes downtown to the nearest stop at Portland State University. We hopped on the light rail, taking the Yellow line North.
After 15 or so stops and about 40 minutes later we arrived at the Expo and headed in. Because the show runs Fri-Sun the place was still relatively empty compared to what I expect it will be over the weekend, so we were free to easily walk around and sample the goods with no lines or waiting.
There were scores of wineries, breweries and distilleries, including one of my favorites that I'm a member of, Westward, which makes some of the best American Single Malt Whiskey in America. All of the vendors offered unlimited free samples (another reason why I wanted to take the light rail).
Another vendor that caught my eye was the veteran-owned 4 Spirits Distillery. More specifically, I was drawn for some strange reason to the Habanero Spiced Rum. Likely because it was something I'd never experienced and I wasn't remotely sure what I was in for when I tried it. It turned out to be pretty tasty and it would probable go well in a cocktail.
It wasn't all alcohol though as there were a ton of condiment, dip, and sauce vendors too. One that Kay and I both enjoyed and ended up buying was Ghost Scream's Vindaloo Curry Hot Sauce.
If you like curry and want it spiced up on a chip or veggie, this is the way to do it.
After walking through a half dozen aisles we finally got to the seafood section.
Not sure what I was thinking would happen, but unlike the alcohol portion of the “fest” with all of its free unlimited samples, the seafood side was a half dozen vendors selling food. No free samples (well there was one booth that had a pretty awesome salmon mouse sampler that we tried)…
The seafood all looked pretty good, but the one that really got our attention was the lobster roll purveyor… We of course each had to get a buttered toasted lobster roll stuffed with big chunks of the sweet meat.
Not one to ignore dessert, when I ran across Not Just Cheesecake's booth (having passed many multiple chocolate, pretzel and popcorn booths already) I had to enjoy a sample. One bite and I was drawn to the Caramel Pecan Cheesecake. The owner and I chatted for a bit when she offered 3 cheesecakes for a pretty good total discount over the price of 1. I told her no thank you and she asked me if it was because of the price. She had her small son in the booth with her and I felt like as an African American female business owner she was still kinda of figuring things out. We chatted a bit more and in the end I told her “No, your prices are spot on and you absolutely shouldn't lower them. You're going to kill it this weekend. I have no doubt you'll sell out. I would love three but I don't need three. But it's so tasty and I want to support you so I'll take one.” She was beaming and it was a great interaction for me too.
It didn't take more than an hour to get through the entire Expo hall, but it was a fun diversion. It was really good to get out of the house, kicking off what I expect will be another fun-packed weekend.
Stay tuned for more.