foodportunity.

Last night we experienced Foodportunity at the Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland. The event was filled with food enthusiast, restaurant owners, chefs, food bloggers, twitter fanatics, and many more interesting faces that added character to the event. Walking up the stairs to the second floor, not fully knowing what we were getting ourselves into, our wrists were quickly banded and we were led to the “name tag” station. Joking about who we were going to be that night, we leveled with just being ourselves as I was certain I wouldn’t respond to anything but the name on my birth certificate. The event was set up in three adjoining rooms, filled with tables, covered in some of Portland’s best food, wine and well-worth the calorie desserts!

Hats off to whoever designed the layout of this event because with the first table being the Artisan Cupcake Company, my self-control flew out the window at rapid speed at the first sight of their ever-indulging desserts. From designer cupcakes topped with edible sculptures like sushi, a bicycle, flowers and the well-known angry bird to the satisfying lemon raspberry tarts. Simply Amazing!

Next, we were greeted by a cowboy, seriously. With a table full of a savory beef appetizers, the “cowboy” who represented Whole Foods told us about the cattle he personally raises and we quickly agreed with the quality he spoke of as the taste was impeccable.

The table following was a quick lesson learned for me. Never pick up a sample without knowing what food you just agreed to eat. With a fork in hand and a coleslaw-like substance hanging off of it (Beaker & Flask’s butter bean-octopus salad), I regrettably asked the fated question, “What is this?” With a list of fancy ingredients, I admittedly could not tell you what it involved because my hearing dropped in my stomach at the word, Octopus. Already committed to the taste-testing, I forced my mouth to connect with my fork and pleaded with my brain to not fully understand that I was about to eat “Ursula“. The lemon zest complimented the extreme seafood taste and much to my surprise, was pretty appetizing. I may not be ready for a full plate of the Little Mermaid Villian, but I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

From beet shooters to an amazing rendition of a garlic humus turned foam, our pallets were treated with some of Portland’s most creative dishes. The night was spent mingling with others and trying to engage in networking conversations without being a creeper. The ‘creeper’ issue was difficult as most of the night was spent glaring at people’s chest to try to make sense out of each others chicken scratch on their name tags to figure out what brought them to this event. The challenge was to read it fast enough before they caught you. After a couple uncomfortable moments, my name tag made its way to the bottom of my blazer. I have fine hand writing, thank you very much!

After indulging in what I decided to believe was calorie and fat-free dishes, we made our way into a conference room to listen to a panel of social media experts. Among the panel was Mike Thelin, a local food writer, Cooking Channel contributor, and food event maven. Joining Mike on the panel was Carrie Welch, formerly the Vice President of PR for the Food Network, Nick Zukin, food writer and host of www.portlandfood.org and executive chef Gregory Denton of Metrovino (excerpt taken from Chalkboard News). The panel was insightful, informative and offered up some great tips on how to survive and thrive in social media. Sitting next to us in the panel discussion was Keren Brown, founder of foodportunity, who undoubtedly pulled off a successful event! Full of lots of great tips and tricks, as well as, full stomachs, we also left with a great prize from the Artisan Cupcake Company! 12 designer cupcakes, just in time for Jeremy’s son’s 4th Birthday today!

All in all, foodportunity was a great networking event where we were given the chance to drop our blog in the hands of other food-loving bloggers and restaurant owners & chefs, as well as make some great connections with others in our area. Here are some more pictures from last night!

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