Food Scene: Market Fest, ‘Donn of Tiki’ movie, new truffle species

Festival at Fifth Street Public Market

A free community festival, Market Fest, returns to the Fifth Street Public Market from Aug. 22-24, providing three days of music, food and a kids zone.

The festival features live music across three stages, with headliners Satin Love Orchestra, Summer Grooves Party Band, and Shelley James & The Agents of Unity. Local musicians and community groups will perform throughout the weekend.

Festival highlights include interactive art, a vintage car show sponsored by N Touch Detailing, Touch-A-Truck experiences for kids by Delta Sand & Gravel, along with art and wellness programming from MECCA and Healthy Moves. There will also be local food and beverage vendors, as well as a beer garden. 

Since its 2018 debut, Market Fest has drawn more than 25,000 attendees and raised funds for local nonprofits. A portion of this year’s vendor proceeds will benefit DevNW, a nonprofit focused on affordable housing, financial opportunity and community development.

The festival takes place at Fifth Street Public Market and on surrounding streets. Learn more at eugenemarketfest.com.

‘The Donn of Tiki’ movie to screen at Wildish Theater

If you’ve ever had a cocktail called a Zombie, Navy Grog, Cobra’s Fang or Three Dots and a Dash, you’ve had a drink created by Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt. Now, a movie about the life of Gantt, also known as Donn Beach or Don the Beachcomber, is being screened at the Richard E. Wildish Community Theater in Springfield, Aug. 19.  

The only way to see this film is at the screening locations on the tour. Just two blocks away from the Wildish Theater is The Monkey’s Paw Tiki Bar, which specializes in the drinks Beach made famous.

The new documentary, called “The Donn of Tiki,” was created by Surf Monkey Films using 2D and stop-motion animation, archival footage, audio from a 1986 interview with Beach and expert interview commentary. Beach had a huge influence on the early restaurant and drinks industry, Hawaiian tourism and overall interest in Polynesian culture among residents of the United States who fell in love with Beach’s portrayals of his travels through the South Seas. Most of Beach’s tiki drinks highlight various rums and rum blends along with tropical juices.

Filmmakers Alex Lamb and Max Well reached out to the owners of The Monkey’s Paw about a screening. 

“I thought we were going to have to go to Vancouver to see the movie,” said Teren Baker, a co-owner of The Monkey’s Paw. “Then all of a sudden, I got an email from them.”

The filmmakers suggested partnering with local rum distillers for a special drink menu. Baker and The Monkey’s Paw team chose Just Rum from Sandy, Oregon, and will incorporate it into some classic Donn Beach drinks for a special cocktail menu that is available just for the day of the screening.

“We’re doing a Zombie, of course, Missionary’s Downfall, a Navy Grog and a Nui Nui,” Baker said. 

They will also have a DJ playing exotica music, which is a type of music popular in the 1950s and 60s that blends jazz, Latin and world music with tropical themes. Director Lamb will be at The Monkey’s Paw at 3 p.m. with merchandise from the movie. 

“We are really excited because we’re huge Don the Beachcomber fans. We took a lot of inspiration from Don the Beachcomber with our drink menu.”

Baker said this movie should be on the watch-list for anyone interested in restaurant and cocktail culture and history, and food and beverage in general.

“A lot of modern cocktails are inspired by Donn Beach, because, in essence, he was one of the first big cocktail guys that was putting out something different,” Baker said. “It’s worth seeing his story. And then also, for film nerds, this is a chance to meet filmmakers who put out a movie and are touring it around.”

Lamb will be at The Monkey’s Paw from 3-6 p.m., then will head to the Wildish Theater for the screening. Doors open at the Wildish at 7 p.m. The film starts at 7:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A with Lamb.

Wildish Theater
https://wildishtheater.com
630 Main St., Springfield
541-868-0689

Oregon black truffles recognized as new species

Sniffer dogs and DNA sequencing have led biologists to discover three new culinary truffle species. The biologists, including scientists from the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, are studying fungal evolution and ecology. The researchers described their discoveries in a study published in the scientific journal Persoonia, published July 31. 

The Oregon black truffle is now recognized as a different species that was previously misclassified. Scientists thought the Oregon black truffles found in North America were the same species as those found in Europe, so they called both Leucangium carthusianum. 

This new testing revealed that Oregon black truffles are genetically distinct from their European relatives, so the North American variety now has its own species name, Leucangium cascadiense, a name honoring the Cascadia region in which it is found.

The other two newly discovered species are the Imaia kuwohiensis, a truffle from the Appalachian Mountains, and Leucangium oneidaense, found in New York.

Truffles are members of the fungi family and grow underground. White truffles are an important culinary ingredient in Italy, where they are known to grow. Black truffles, also known as Périgord truffles, grow in France and Spain. Oregon has native as well as cultivated versions of truffles. Culinary uses of the state’s truffles have helped grow an Oregon fan base for the delicacies, celebrated with the annual Oregon Truffle Festival. In Oregon, most truffles are found with the help of dogs that are trained to recognize the scent.

Prior to this research, Oregon was known to have four edible truffles: the Oregon winter white truffle, Tuber oregonense; the Oregon spring white truffle, Tuber gibbosum; the Oregon brown truffle, Kalapuya brunnea; and the Oregon black truffle, Leucangium carthusianum, now known as Leucangium cascadiense. The most commercially valuable truffle in North America, the Oregon black truffle, has sold for up to $800 per pound.