Del-icious!

Magazines
Mix Magazine

I recently paid a visit to Portland, Oregon and as usual was completely blown away with the incredible food and drink scene there. One thing that really caught my eye this time was a wonderful magazine called MIX, (Portland's magazine of food and drink).

The publication is nearly monthly, (they have 10 issues a year) and features articles, recipes and interesting local stories.
The magazine is really beautiful, with great, atmospheric photography, a stunning layout and really interesting articles. If you live near the Portland area, there is a section on 'to do' including 'Turkey Rama' (a street fair, run and the world's largest turkey barbecue) and a waiter's race, everything with a foodie twist. There's also a great section entitled 'Walkabout', which highlights local hot spots for food, drink and shopping.

The highlight for me though, was the recipe features. From 'Friday night dinner parties' with recipes like "Sappy spice" grilled chicken and 'Jackie's lemon shortcakes with basil-scented bing cherries' to the informative 'meet the meats' feature partly written by a chef from Laurelhurst Market, (David Kreifels), a restaurant and butchers shop in Portland which I just noticed in Bon Appetit's great new restaurant issue. The recipes utilise cheaper cuts of meat such as skirt, flatiron and teres major, (a shoulder cut similar to tenderloin but much cheaper).

There's a really informative and interesting article on canning tuna at home, written with enough passion and genuine love for the fish as to make your mouth water. It includes a recipe for a tuna burger and the herbed caper mayonnaise to accompany it, to whet your appetite while waiting for the canned tuna.

There's also a really good article about beer featuring young beer innovators in the area, which is not surprising in a city my husband and I can't wait to visit for the beer alone. Stocking our beer fridge with such gorgeous brews as Dogfish Head saffron beer and Rogue dead man ale. There's the added bonus that this stuff is so much cheaper south of the border. ($6 for two beers in Scooters!) This trip alone, we came away with 24 bottles from Bridgeport Brewing for $25.

A city with food carts, fantastic (and cheap) beer, amazing restaurants, but mostly, young, innovative and enthusiastic foodie type people was bound to create its own magazine worthy of a place on my shelf amongst Gourmet or Saveur. (Some of Portland's 100+ food carts)