Rachael Ray Portland Love Fest, Includes PFD

Say what you want about Rachael Ray, she has been giving Portland quite a bit of attention lately.

The November issue of Rachael Ray Magazine features a roundup of grilled cheese sandwiches. Matt Breslow, owner of The Grilled Cheese Grill over on N.E. Alberta gets listed as one of the best. (Yes, I know I’m late to this party). Another piece is “A Food Lover’s Guide to Berries” by Portland author Janie Hibler. Then, “The Search for America’s Best Pizzeria“. Our own Apizza Scholls made it into the final four on the west coast.

But the best part is an article called “10 Tips to Eat Well On Vacation“. The advice is excellent, and pretty much the same thing I tell people, especially when it comes to rating sites like TripAdvisor and Citysearch:

BE WARY OF REVIEWS BY LAYPEOPLE
Crowd-sourced comment sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Citysearch and our own Travel Notes can be useful—if swallowed with a shakerful of salt. Here’s how to tell which posters to trust:

Step 1: Pick a restaurant, start scanning the reviews, and focus on users who write detailed reviews and remember what they ate.
Step 2: Play food-FBI agent and run your own background checks, viewing these posters’ profiles and scrutinizing past comments.
Step 3: Disregard comments by those who have reviewed fewer than five restaurants, who adore or hate everything they eat, and whose glowing or critical write-ups emphasize decor, service or scene rather than food.
Step 4: The remaining reviewers should give you a fairly reliable take on whether the restaurant lives up to its rep.

Like words from my own mouth. However, my favorite advice is a little further down:

READ THE RIGHT BLOGS
The vast expanse of online food chatter is full of white noise and misleading information. But some trustworthy voices shine through: We’ll eat wherever these food-obsessed bloggers tell us to.

portlandfoodanddrink.com: Food Dude is a former California restaurant industry insider who insists on anonymity and is responsible for this exhaustive accounting of Portland, Oregon’s thrilling food scene. It includes a clickable map of reviewed restaurants.

I’m innocently reading along and come across that little jewel. After I picked myself off of the floor, I laughed out loud. I’m not sure what a “restaurant industry insider” is, but um ok, sure. All I can say is to be mentioned is quite an honor.