This weekend marks the annual Bite of Oregon event in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park. It’s a great opportunity to try offerings from several Oregon restaurants, dessert vendors and Portland food carts along with a slew of Oregon craft brews, wines and even a few spirits (the distilled kind!). Best of all, the event benefits Special Olympics Oregon, so while it may not  be calorie-free, one can indulge more or less guilt-free knowing one is supporting a good cause.

Friday night we arrived at the venue eager to check out some of the unique and tantalizing dishes. The park stretches along the west bank of the Willamette River, and the booths and tents were set up among the trees with plenty of strolling room between them and lots of tables and chairs for diners. We didn’t really spend any time checking out the wines and beers — clustered together at either end of the park — but there again it appeared that the planners made sure there is plenty of seating for relaxed visitors.

We found quite a range of cuisines, from Vietnamese to New Orleans to Northwest seafood. My initial impression was that most of the vendors were from the greater Portland area as opposed to the entire state, and I would have been happy to see more food (“bites”) and fewer beverages. Most places offered plates ranging in price from about 4 to 8 dollars; and while they were generally pretty generous portions, I found myself wishing for some smaller plates at lower prices to allow one the chance to try a wider variety of foods without becoming overly full. We each shared bites of our individual choices: I loved my wild smoked sockeye salmon salad from Fish Out of Water, Harry had a spicy plate of jambalaya from New Orleans Cookery, and Jenny sought a reminder of her days in Paris with a ham and cheese crepe from Crepe Tyme (not surprisingly, she found it good but not up to her memories of the real deal from France).

There were all kinds of dessert options, and several featured wonderful fresh Oregon fruit (berries and peaches, especially) — awfully hard to pass up. We enjoyed our goodies while watching one of the preliminary rounds of “Iron Chef Oregon,” wherein Chef Adam Capella of Black Butte Ranch in Bend beat out Portland chef Greg Priest of Albertina’s in a contest featuring calamari steaks.

We purchased a weekend pass and are planning to return again Sunday afternoon to try more of the delectable dishes and sample the live music on several different stages. I’ve already decided to sample some special epicurean bites at the Oregon Bounty Chef’s Table featuring seasonal ingredients and recipes from some of Oregon’s best chefs. And yes, it’s all for a good cause!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor