We Fell in Love with the Place...

Our hotel room at the Jupiter. My mom thought the mural was a window. What a loon.

Our first night in Portland-We walked to Hungry Tiger Too and I ordered the corn dog basked while Andrew got the BLT (both vegan-a course) and then we shared. It was a satisfying meal after a day of waking up at 4am and then trains and planes and more trains. Tater tots are truly comfort food. This was the first time I had them in waaay to0 long.

We were so excited about Voo Doo Doughnuts. It was neat inside and there were people filming something there-a camera's dolly set up outside the place...anyway, the doughnuts! We had the girl pick a dozen for us-lots of vegan options they have. My fave was the one with the purple pixie stick like sugar on top, it was all grape-y and raised deliciousness. There was also a chick-o-stick topped doughnut and a voo doo doughnut a course-with cherry red filling and pretzel pins.

Stumptown coffee is truly perfect!!!!!! Wish we'd have brought some home with us...

At Rocco's Pizza they appeared to be only selling pizza by the slice. We were hesitant to order because we like to indulge ourselves on whole pies and didn't think one slice would be enough food after a day off walking around the city, riding the streetcars, and hours at Powell's. The vegan pizza is called The Compost Pile-which wasn't the most enticing name but this stuff was great-had just about every veggie on it and I was full about halfway into this.

We had been dreaming about this place for so long and finally we are here! A vegan strip mall, kids! Food Fight was just as awesome as I expected, this is Andrew outside of the grocery (he was chewing in most of the pics I took of him-a good thing!) We got some Dandies marshmallows (that were snacked on during our travels and later melted into amazing rice krispie treats). Sweetpea Bakery was our breakfast stop, got some Stumptown coffee a course and some muffins-we were most surprised by the nutritional yeast shaker at the cream counter-maybe that was what made us realize that we had to LIVE in Portland. We also went to Herbivore Clothing where Andrew picked up a hoodie and I got a T-shirt dress with an elephant on it that says "I'm Vegan and I Love You" across the chest. We didn't go to the tattoo parlor...maybe next time.


Our last full day in Portland was spent on our hotel-rented bicycles and I seriously rode to the end of my physical capacity (so many hills!) We were weak and sweaty as we hobbled our way up and down Alberta looking for an ATM machine...not in that bohemian neighborhood. We did eventually find a health food store that let us get cash back on our purchase so then we crawled over to The Homegrown Smoker BBQ, which was basically a big smoker in a corner lot with a couple of picnic tables. We shared this meal of Tempeh "ribs" and soy curls and coleslaw and macaroni and cornbread and went back for some barbequed beans. The picture does it no justice because I was playing with the functions on my camera when we took this...but mmmmmm.

So now we really want to live in Portland. Nice people, vegan food, mild winters, beautiful landscape, art and culture, perfect coffee, vintage shops on every block, serious farmer's markets...I'm going to cry.

Food to eat!

Didn't I mention this mac and whatever? (I say mac and cheese but I realize it's not cheese and words like chreese or cheeze are just silly.)

okra from this recipe:http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8908.0 but I did not deep fry it- just a little saute action. The chickpeas were influenced by a chickpea salad that the Earthen Jar serves, it's just chickpeas and peas and onions and a little cumin and we have sooo much dill so I had to throw some of that in as well.

And more from Vegan Brunch! (what did we ever do without it?)

Andrew has been making these bagels regularly. We use them for Tofurkey sandwiches and as toasted buttery goodness in the morning. We eat the hell out of em.

Vegan omelet?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just made these. Just. For the first time. I have a feeling that I'll be making them all the time. Really, really, really, really, really good.