Bite of Bend 2008

I was able to attend the Bite of Bend 2008 for a little bit before the rains came on Saturday and I made it back on Sunday for a few hours. I was impressed with the improvement from this year's layout compared to last year. I was also pleased to see more restaurants dishing out their goods as well as offering a few tasters for only a buck.

There are still some improvements that I'd like to see implemented. While the list of restaurants is increasing, I really would like to see more restaurants and maybe some rules around what they offer. I talked to a couple restaurant owners and apparently for most restaurants, it's not profitable. Why wouldn't Lay it Out Inc (the company that runs the Bite) let restaurants come in for free. The main focus of the Bite should be food from restaurants. Make the catering companies and taco trucks pay extra for entrance into the fair.

All the restaurants should offer tasters for a minimum fee and should not have an item/dish over $5. This way we can afford to get a bite from a variety of restaurants that we normally would not visit or have not had a chance to visit. I tried a bunch of different items from the places that offered $1 tasters. But Taste of Thailand (or Thai on the Fly) was serving up HUGE portions starting at $7. If you got one of those, you wouldn't be tasting anything else for the rest of the day.

Chicken tamale and the chili verde from El Burrito - FANTASTIC!


I recommended to my friends that I bumped into that they go give the chili verde a try.

Crab cakes from the Blue Olive and right next to them was a Chef's Association tent (I forget the actual name) and they were dishing out shrimp cocktail for a buck. The crab cakes were soggy due to all the salsa on top which you can see from the one on the right. The wife liked the crab cakes but I didn't care for them. The shrimp in the shrimp cocktail was still frozen making them taste like one of the worst icicles ever.


Lobster chimichanga and the portobello chimichanga from Hola - AMAZING!
If I only had $3.50 to spend, I would spend it on the Lobster and Prawn chimichanga from Hola.


One of the only downtown restaurants to have a booth was Typhoon offering phad thai and chicken satay. For $1 you get one skewer and for $2 you get 3. The chicken satay and peanut sauce were really good but small.


The army of Stilt walkers were out if full force as usual but I sort of missed the poodles like last year.

The Iron Chef Competition still needs improvement but the new MC did a very good job keeping the audience captive even though no one could see anything. I liked that they brought one of the dishes into the crowd so everyone could see what the judges got to taste. Please, will someone hook up a couple of monitors so the audience can see what the chefs are doing? Dave has a pretty good idea of taking the stage down and having bleachers so the audience can view what the chefs are preparing. I still want to see tv screens next year.

And where are the results? Who won? I have heard that the Fireside Red has claimed this years Iron Chef competition but no one has the results posted yet. Congrats to Fireside Red.

I'll partially retract my earlier comments of the upcoming disappointment. While there is room for improvement, this was by far the best Bite of Bend so far.

Early Comments:

The Bite of Bend 2008 is set for Saturday and Sunday June 21st and 22nd in Downtown Bend. There is info about the Iron Chef Competition posted online by AdHoc and HackBend. The Source has published the official EVENT guide to the Bite (though it is only available in this week's insert instead of online) and of course the official Bite of Bend website is available.

What sucks for me is that NO ONE has a list of the actual food that will be present at the Bite of Bend. I mean, isn't that what the Bite is supposed to be about? I would LOVE to see all the restaurants have a booth with samples of their trademark dishes. Might as well let the neighborhood kids set up a lemonade stand and sell homemade cookies. I'm half expecting to see a Girl Scouts booth. Mmmm thin mints!

Last year I expected to see more restaurants but when I arrived, the food was not the top priority. Instead there were mostly caterers and taco trailers. Pretty much the same participants as munch and music/movies. I guess it makes sense to have these people show up as they are already prepared to serve food on the go with their trailers and portable BBQ grills and all. But I would really like to see more restaurants this year.

Just call this the Iron Chef of Bend instead of the Bite and I'll be happy. The Iron Chef competition was a disaster for me as a attendee. I couldn't see anything, didn't get to sample anything, and the MC annoyed the piss out of me. This year it appears that they have swapped out the MC and have actual foodies on the Judges panel.

Look for my review/rant/disappointment next week.

Bite of Bend Blew Chunks

Bite of Bend 2007

I was looking forward to the Bite of Bend this year especially because it was going to be in Downtown Bend. Last year's Bite was in the Old Mill. It was a HOT day without any shade so being Downtown should be more fun like when they run the festivals down there.

Uhhh, after walking through the cramped in food court we were asking ourselves where are the restaurants? For the most part the only "restaurants" that showed up were caterers, taco stands, Thai, and some BBQ. There were a few places like Baldys, Staccato, Hans, and 28 that were offering samples of their meals.

The whole festival was poorly organized, boring, and disappointing. I left hungry and sad. I am still trying to figure out what happened. It's the Bite of Bend, doesn't that mean that Bend restaurants should be there dishing out samples of their cuisine? Where were the good restaurants? Was it because the event was downtown that most of the downtown restaurants decided on not having a booth?
Oh and the beer "garden" was the worst. It was written up in the Source as Beer, Wine, and Spirits...what are spirits? I thought that spirits referred to hard liquor but there wasn't any, just beer and wine.

Slow moving lines and few options when you finally made it to the front made me pissy. That's really the best you could do? Why not just fill a garbage can with ice and sell PBR pounders for a $1?

If I was a tourist and went to the Bite of Bend, I would start to get my plans to move here and open a restaurant together. Cause if this is the best Bend has to offer, any restaurant would be successful.

$2.50 Fish Taco from La Costa's taco stand:


$6 Duck and Prawn skewer from Kokanee Cafe:


$5 Pulled pork sandwich from Oregon Dan's BBQ:


$1 Lemon Tart from Staccato (she gave me two since these were the size of a quarter at best):


Highlight of the day was the $1.50 Beef Tongue taco from Rico's taco stand/gut truck:


Photo of the Iron Chef competition with an annoying announcer and no way of possibly seeing what's going on. How about a TV monitor or even a mirror so we could see what's up?


There were many people on stilts walking around and then these two ladies that were dressed as French Poodles. I'm confused. I don't know what this is or how it made me feel:




Lame.