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What comes to mind when you think of the flavors of the Pacific Northwest?
The best, of course.

Well, besides that obvious fact, what are “the best of the best” in terms of the foods and flavors of the PNW?

While not necessarily known for a quintessential food genre, such as Hatch chiles from New Mexico or lobster from Maine, we certainly can hold our own in just about any and all category of fine food.

Fresh, fresh, fresh!
Fresh produce, fresh fish, and fresh flavors flashing every which way.

Here are some of our favorite flavors:

Salmon
You absolutely will never find salmon anywhere else in the world like you’ll find in the Northwest. Smoked, grilled, baked, poached, pickled…the sky is the limit and the salmon are spawning in that direction.

Oysters
While these little gems may be smaller than their East Coast counterparts, they are also sweeter, with just that much more brine and a lot more irresistibility.

Cheese
We may not have the cheese-making capabilities of Italy or France, but we make a mean cheddar cheese. Home to the infamous Tillamook Dairy Coop, we’ve been producing award winning dairy delights for over a century.

what's been happeningBeer
The PNW is known for its craft beer. In fact, good old Portland houses more craft beer breweries per capita than anywhere else in the country. And all that hops isn’t just for the hipsters.

Hazelnuts
We’ve been growing these otherwise known as “filberts” nuts in such abundance that we officially deemed them the state nut in 1989. We are the best at toasting and roasting these savory bites and tossing in salads, serving among cheese, and simply crunching and munching on them than any other region of the country. Hazelnuts truly belong to the Northwest.

BerriesWedding Season
Marionberries, blackberries, raspberries (both red and white), blueberries, strawberries, lingonberries ~ you name it, we take the cake (or the fresh berry pie!) This region of the country offers more berry varieties than anywhere else (we sound like a broken record) and hosts berry picking events and festivals all throughout the summer. Fresh picked blueberries the size of grapes are not uncommon to discover while foraging through the crop on Sauvie Island.

Mushrooms
It could be the damp climate, the green and wooded forests, and the rich, aromatic soil, or it could just be US, but we really do flaunt quite the fungus. The variety of mushrooms offered in the hunting grounds, the fresh markets, and on menus around the region outweighs that of anywhere else. Morel, Chanterelle, Turkey Tail…no problem.

We really do food “best” here in the Pacific Northwest. We are blessed with the bounty of what the region has to offer and we are proud to boast, just a little, that we are, indeed, the “best of the best.”

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