There are many great food blogs in Portland, the encyclopedic Portland Food Map, the gonzo Portland Food Coma, the photo driven Portland Town and dozens more, but for the most part they are about recommendation and celebration, not critical thinking. Hospitality marketing guru Dawn Hagin loves Portland's food, but doesn't pull her punches. Her blog, Appetite Portland, reminds me of cookbook author Corinne Trang's description of dinner around her half Vietnamese/half French family's table: one was expected to talk about—and criticize—the flavors of the food as you were eating, and such scrutiny was considered respectful to the food and the person who cooked it. In her introduction to the blog, Dawn refers to Portland as a "culinary 'big city in a small skin'," and it is clear that she is enjoying her self-assigned task of eating her way through town. Even when she's a big fan of a place, like Bar Lola, she will remind you that their pork belly appetizer, "While good, ... lacked the profoundly delicious nature of everything that followed. Slightly too charred, the belly couldn’t match the lusciousness of the “Japanese Big Mac” I enjoyed recently at Pai Men [Miyake]." It is the combination of creativity and editing that makes for anything truly great. Although everyone won't agree with all of Hagin's opinions, the fact that she is expressing them strongly, and constructively, is a testament to how highly developed the food scene in Portland has become. The more our creative communities develop, the more critical we will become of them, and that's a good thing.

Tags: Food and Foodies, live in portland, people to watch, work in portland, writing