Taste of NW
What happens when the best restaurants, food trucks, and food vendors from around the country come together for a weekend of great food, fun, and music? You get the Taste of the Northwest Food Festival!
At the stunning Washington State Fair in beautiful Puyallup, WA, the Taste of NW invites over 60 craft eateries and food trucks to share the local/international cuisine they know best. Plus live music, comedy shows, food competitions, and much more that any foodie would die for.
My mother and I were very fortunate to attend the festival's first day, and I cannot wait to tell you about all that we did and ate, so let’s go!
Pulled pork sandwich from Brank’s BBQ
After arriving at the festival and picking up our tickets, our first stop was close to the entrance but brought a familiar taste from my birthplace in Texas, Brank’s BBQ.
Brank’s is a family-run Texas-style barbecue restaurant in Summer, WA that goes very old school with its wood-smoked meats, homemade sauce, and weekly buffet.
As it was already noon and the festival was going on until 9, we didn’t want to fill up too quickly, so we decided to split their barbecue pulled pork sandwich with a side of coleslaw.
Honestly, there’s nothing to say about this pork sandwich except that it was perfect! The pork was beautifully tender, their sauce had a nice sweet-smoky flavor, the slaw was refreshing, and it made me want to hunt Brank’s down to Summer to eat there.
Although, my sandwich did get cold on me as I did get caught up in doing something that was unexpected, but also incredibly fun.
The Taste Cooks!
One of the main events that took place at the festival was a cooking competition where local chefs go head to head in a Chopped-style battle to see who does the food of the Northwest the best.
As the two of us sat down to view the first competition of the day, the announcer asked members of the audience if they would like to volunteer to be judges for the competition, to give non-biased results.
And, well, it just so happens that I was selected to be one of those three judges!!!!! It was the first time I had ever judged a cooking competition, so I was more than excited.
The competition featured Chef Joelicia Perry and Chef Ivan Carillo, both locals in Washington and both looking to bring their A-game.
For the competition itself, the chefs had 20 minutes to make a dish using chicken thighs, cherry tomatoes, and tortilla chips. They also had access to a pantry and a portable walk-in fridge full of fresh produce to help them create their best dish.
I’d love to tell you what each chef was doing as they were doing it, but unfortunately, I could barely see past the top of the stage from where I was sitting. Of course, that didn’t mean I can’t tell you about the food.
Chef Joe made these chicken and tomato lettuce cups with the chips crushed on top while Chef Ivan made tortilla-crusted fried chicken with an arugula-tomato salad and a sauce that I couldn’t tell you what was in it.
While both dishes looked and tasted amazing, I thought that Chef Joe could’ve utilized the chips in another way than just crushing them on top of her dish, and I loved the crispy texture Chef Ivan’s chicken had that paired nicely with the slightly spicy sauce that he made.
As a judge, I had to taste their dishes and rank them on a scale from 1-5 for presentation, taste, creativity, and use of the three ingredients, so both chefs could earn up to 20 points. I gave Chef Joe 16 points and Chef Ivan 19 points, and lo and behold, Chef Ivan won!
I have been watching cooking competitions like Chopped, Top Chef, and Hell’s Kitchen for years, so the fact that I finally got to judge a competition myself was one of the most exciting things I’ve done in a while!
Al Pastor Taco from Flaco’s Tacos
On the back of that incredible judging experience, we decided to walk along the festival grounds and scope out what sort of food vendors were out there, and that is when I stumbled upon the next stop, Flaco’s Tacos.
Flaco’s is a Mexican restaurant based in Chicago that serves up authentic, scratch-made Mexican fare that has received recognition from various news companies such as ABC @ 7.
What drove me to sample these guys was the smell of their incredibly authentic al pastor tacos, made the traditional gyro-style way by slowly turning stacked strips of pork over an open flame to char the outside and make the meat incredibly flavorful and tender.
I am already a big al pastor fan, so this was a no-brainer. The pork had a ton of smoky char flavor, and I got a bit of their tomatillo salsa verde on top which brought some nice acidity and freshness.
Beef Ribs from Taste of Samoa
While digesting that wonderful al pastor and after walking through The Square where various carnival rides and attractions were set up, our next stop was along the festival’s food truck alley, where 9 different food trucks lined up to serve us what they know best.
Taste of Samoa is a food truck based in Tacoma that brings the flavors of the South Pacific to our Northwestern American palates to enjoy.
For sampling, we decided to get their glazed beef short ribs served over rice. I am a big lover of glazed short ribs, so I was very excited to try it.
The short ribs had a wonderful sticky glaze that was full of flavor, the rice was tender, but my mother and I did find that the beef was a bit tough to eat, especially since we only had plastic forks and no knifes to eat them with.
The ribs still tasted good, I just wished they were more tender.
Elephant Ear from Duris
After those hearty beef ribs, you might think that the two of us were stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey by that point, but we kept going.
We were then in the mood for something sweet, something that we could snack on while watching the next competition for The Taste Cooks, and that is when we came across Duris.
Duris Concessions is a concession stand in the state fairgrounds that has been serving up incredible elephant ears for the state of Washington to devour.
For anyone unaware, elephant ears are circles of fried dough that are usually topped with powdered sugar, but at Duris, they went above and beyond but dusting theirs with cinnamon and sugar.
If you’re going to a fairground of any kind, then some fried dough concoction is bound to pop up, and the elephant ear I had was to die for. Tender dough with a slightly crisp outside and tons of salted cinnamon sugar that made it a nightmare if you have diabetes, but a delight if you love fried dough like that.
Mac and Cheese from Singing Chef Kitchen
Our next stop took us to a unique cooking demo that brought us live singing as well, The Singing Chef. At this event, food truck chef, Chantel Jackson, demonstrates a delicious dish that we can make while also providing some entertainment with her singing voice.
There were a few showtimes throughout the day, but in the one we went to, Chef Chantel cooked up what she called Fleetwood Mac and Cheese while also singing a few popular songs from Fleetwood Mac.
For said mac, she did one regular version that had 7 different types of cheese in the sauce as well as a vegan mac made with oat milk and a powdered vegan mac and cheese sauce packet that she makes herself, stating that it was inspired by the flavors of hummus.
I thought that she had a great singing voice, the normal mac and cheese was incredibly flavorful and loaded with cheesy goodness, but the vegan mac didn’t wow me as much as I had expected. It just didn’t deliver on that homestyle classic mac and cheese flavor that I love.
Despite this, it was a nice way of combining food and music.
Fried Mac and Cheese from Deano’s Grill
We had a bit of time before the next The Taste Cooks battle, so we decided to get ourselves a little snack from a Mediterranean stand, Deano’s, who brings authentic gyros and some famous burgers.
However, we weren’t interested in a gyro or anything large like that, what we wanted was small, cheesy, and crispy at the same time. You see it above this text, it was fried mac and cheese.
Golden triangles of cheesy goodness bring home the taste of childhood where we had the kind of mac and cheese that comes from the blue box, you know the one, all encased in crispy, golden breadcrumbs.
Cambodian Street Corn
Needing a break from all that mac and cheese I just had, I decided to look for some vegetation to relax my stomach, so I was delighted when I spotted a stand selling Cambodian street corn.
Fresh sweet corn on the cob is an all-time summertime classic, so I knew I had to get an ear so I can gnaw away at the cob.
I had never had Cambodian-style corn before, but what I found out was the corn was coated in a type of coconut glaze that managed to stick to the corn, and not so much to my fingers, to give me a sweet, nutty flavor that complimented the sweet corn very well.
Bratwurst Sandwich from Ziegler’s Bratwurst Haus
After watching another great cooking competition that featured pork chops, collards greens and kimchi, our next stop on our food journey came about from our shared love of German food and a great place to get it from, Ziegler’s.
Ziegler’s Bratwurst Haus is located in Lynnwood, WA, and serves up amazingly authentic German brats and brat sandwiches for the people of Washington to devour.
We were given a simple grilled beer bratwurst in a bun with some sauerkraut and mustard, and it was the perfect combination. The sausage was incredibly juicy and flavorful and it was only made better by the kraut and the mustard.
Deep Fried Oreos from Deano’s
My mother and I knew we could not end this wonderful day of the festival without something sweet, and while there were certainly no shortage of sweet treats to go around, such as cotton candy shaped like various animals, there was one fair snack that we had to try ourselves, and that was fried Oreos.
These fried sandwiches of joy were, again, brought to us by Deano’s, who also had an array of sweet treats like beignets for us fairgoers to enjoy, but as stated, we were interested in the Oreos.
These golden pillows of delight were drizzled with a decadent chocolate syrup that only made the taste of those cookies and cream sandwiches that much better, and getting them warm from frying was a surprising delight as well.
Overall, the Taste of the Northwest was a fabulous festival that I will be sure to attend next year, the year after that, and the year after that.
