So while we roamed Bite of Bend and had a few snacks, towards late afternoon, we needed a proper meal and we needed to get out of the oppressive sun. So we headed for some sit down noodles at Soba. It’s a little mini-chain in the area. They sell various asian style dishes. You’re bound to find something that everybody likes. You can pick rice, noodles, soup, and whatever flavor you want and whichever protein happens to float your boat that day. J got the shrimp yakisoba because he wanted broccoli. It only came with two pieces of broccoli, but otherwise, he was happy with this. It was very mild.
I had the vietnamese chicken rice bowl. It was like a vermicelli bowl, except it was brown rice and the only veggie you got was lettuce. But it was essentially the same nuoc cham sauce. The chicken was perfectly grilled chicken breast and it was delicious. You get plenty of food for a small price. It’s nothing mindblowing, but it’s a nice, cheap, solid meal. You order at the counter and take a number, and then they bring the food out to you. The food came out fairly fast. If you’re not in the mood for pub grub or the really expensive fine dining options on the Bend downtown strip, give Soba a go.

People are going to think that I planned my vacation in Bend on purpose at this time to coincide with Bite of Bend, but I swear I did not. I only found out about it the weekend we arrived in Bend. And it just ended up that we were going to be back in Bend in time for the festivities. Bite of Bend is a local food festival. But really, it’s just an excuse to get drunk outdoors and eat street food. Aren’t all food festivals that? There were food vendors, sellers hocking their wares, live music, a beer and wine tent, and a top chef competition. This one vendor, who was selling sauces, was giving away 25 cent samples of pulled pork on tortilla chips with a little of their sauce on top. All we knew was, they were the cheapest, most filling, and delicious snacks there! We certainly got our $1 worth!

Sushi seems like a crazy thing to be trying to dish out at an outdoor food festival held during the summer. But we weren’t complaining. These ended up being really cheap too. It’d cost you a lot more to go to a restaurant, or even pick this up at a grocery store. And I felt quite comfortable with them being on ice.

The same spot also had little bites of appetizers too – crab cake and skirt steak.

Dumplings too!

Cheap, fresh, street sushi! Come and get it!

Bite of Bend actually was an all weekend affair, so on Saturday night, we did go in for a sneak peek. And since we were hungry for dinner, we did get some of this “thai” food. I’m not sure what about it made it so thai, that’s why I didn’t really consider it thai food. But I love me any street meat on a stick and a plate full of noodles.

Here they are grilling up the sticks. I always wonder what makes these suckers so orange/red. They’re not spicy, so where does the color come from and what purpose does it serve?

Speaking of thai, there were three thai vendors at Bite of Bend. That’s a lot, don’t you think?

Any good food festival has to have bbq, and we had a few here in Bend. Trails End BBQ came from the nearby town of Sisters, and had a pretty impressive setup. Another vendor had a much smaller rig, but they still had a nice pile of meat going on.

These people were selling sourdough scones with honey butter! They looked delicious!

And while there were fancy treats, there were standard treats as well. Little mini donuts! Definitely John Belushi’s favorite vendor of the entire festival!

Wurst, anyone? They even have curry ketchup!

Bend is also starting to have their fair share of food trucks (aren’t they all?). Spork was offering up this variety of options. $2 pork tacos! So cheap!

But the grossest thing we witnessed at Bite of Bend was this stuffed banana vendor. He would core out a hole in a banana and then stuff it with crazy things, like nutella or chick-o-stick. This was a level of decadence beyond me.

Once we got back to Bend, the weather was just sunny and hot. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun was pounding. And we had to go downtown to check out Bite of Bend. On our last morning there, we had to stop in for some powerful and cold refreshment at Thump. We got a Toddy style iced coffee. It’s a method of cold brewing coffee, and there is a brewing system that you can purchase that was invented by a dude named Todd. I believe Thump said they cold brew theirs for 16 hours. It’s similar to our first cold brew coffee love, new orleans style, but without the chicory. All this time and effort is so that you can reduce the acidity and the bitterness that hot brewed coffee can produce. This was a good cup of cold brew.
The shop is pretty cool. They have “wishes” hanging from the ceiling and they’re pretty cute. But something about it was just off for me. It wasn’t exactly the most warm and welcoming and the baristas had some palpable attitude. It wins a lot of “best of bend” awards for coffee shops, and perhaps that’s gone to their pretty little caffeine-filled heads. Right around the corner, there was an awesome little coffee shop and roaster, called lone pine. If they had cold brewed iced coffee, we would have totally gone there. In fact, J wanted to take our Thump iced coffee and go drink it there, and just give some dollars so we’d be able to sit there. We’ll definitely do that next time.