This Should Be Oregon's Official Food, According To Reddit
When you think of Oregon, it's likely that your whole concept of the state begins, and maybe ends, with Portland. After all, it was enshrined in its own TV series, "Portlandia," as a world capital of hipsterdom, and at this point it's hard not to envision the entire state being overrun with skinny jeans-wearing, flannel-clad, ironically-bearded urban farmers all tending their own organic kale patches or herding small flocks of rare heritage goat breeds.
Many of Oregon's best-known foods, it's true, do come from Portland and are a product of 21st century foodie culture. There's Voodoo Doughnut, the chain so trendy it boasts its own craft beer and record label (vinyl, of course), there's Portland-based Stumptown Coffee (via Eater), there's boutique ice creamery Salt & Straw, home of such non-mainstream flavors as olive oil and blue cheese, and of course, Portland has microbreweries out the wazoo. It may come as a surprise, then, to realize that a recent Reddit thread determined that the best foods in Oregon don't come from Portland at all. What's more, these foods not only predate hipsters, but may even be older than their precious vinyl records.
Oregon's beloved berry is the people's choice
One Redditor recently solicited suggestions for the best foods to be found in every state, and the Oregon contingent was not short on answers. Several suggestions were floated, including Tillamook cheese, Dungeness crab, salmon, and such local produce as strawberries and hazelnuts (known to some as filberts). There was one particular fruit, however, whose name kept popping up over and over: the marionberry,
According to NPR, the marionberry is a true Oregon native, as it was created at Oregon State University. It is actually a hybrid type of blackberry, although it contains a tiny bit of raspberry in its makeup and is usually described as tasting like a blackberry/raspberry cross. Among the marionberry products shouted out on the Reddit thread were pancakes, pie, and marionberry-glazed salmon (this last entry gets double Oregon points). There was one person, however — possibly a transplant from the East Coast — who pointed out the similarity between the name of Oregon's favorite fruit and that of the District of Columbia's troubled former mayor. They couldn't resist quoting Marion Barry's famous line, uttered when the then-mayor was arrested while allegedly smoking crack in a DC hotel room (via The Washington Post): "B**** set me up!"