Chop Butchery & Charcuteries artful salumi display
  • Chop Butchery & Charcuterie's artful salumi display

Wild About Game is: an annual game meats convention, mighty after-party, chef's competition, tradition, fifty-course sampling menu, and day-long boozefeast of Roman proportions. Dozens of vendors, from local charcutiers to South Carolina quail farmers, gather to showcase their products at the largesse of Portland's only distributor of wild game, Nicky USA. (See last issue's profile here.) The public, for the humble sum of $50, can endlessly sample high-quality meats like Iberico ham and chorizo, Olympic salumi, elk, pheasant, beef, and rabbit; Portland brewers, winemakers, and distillers keep fountains of their blissful stuff flowing throughout the day and long into the Maker's Mark-sponsored night. In the middle of this, this year, was a four-stage competition between Nicky's Portland and Seattle chefs, with heads butting over an assigned game meat. Somebody from Seattle won, even though Gregory Gourdet was whipping out fifteen-point flavor combinations no one had ever heard of, but on a day like this, the real winners are...no, I'm not going say it. The real winners were probably the people who had rooms across the street at the Timberline Lodge that night.

Many more photos after the jump.

Gruners rabbit choucroute garnie
  • Gruner's rabbit choucroute garnie

Gilt Clubs pheasant dish
  • Gilt Club's pheasant dish

Gregory Gourdet plating for hundreds
  • Gregory Gourdet plating for hundreds

Gregory Gourdet presenting to judges
  • Gregory Gourdet presenting to judges

Viridian Farms herb sampler
  • Viridian Farms herb sampler

Foietella - Foie gras-enriched hazelnut spread, like it sounds.
  • "Foietella" - Foie gras-enriched hazelnut spread, just like it sounds.

Jenn Louiss (Lincoln, Sunshine Tavern) banh mi with quail terrine
  • Jenn Louis's (Lincoln, Sunshine Tavern) banh mi with quail terrine

Greg Dentons (OX) foie gras in fresh marshmallow.
  • Greg Denton's (OX) foie gras in fresh marshmallow.

Chops masterpiece: duck galantine
  • Chop's masterpiece: duck galantine

Goats milk caramel
  • Goat's milk caramel

Portland and Seattles competing chefs with NICKY USA President Geoff Latham
  • Portland and Seattle's competing chefs with NICKY USA President Geoff Latham (black shirt, left of center)

About three minutes into the after-party
  • About three minutes into the after-party