Wednesday, May 20, 2009

(Stuffing my) Pa Pa Pa Portland Face Pa Pa Portland Face

ok, yeah, I'm a geek. Can't/won't help that. As I'm sure you already guessed, I went to Portland. Woohoo. Very fun and FILLING. As a disclaimer, there were 4 of us eating all this food. There was also a baby, but he brought his own stash of food, though I think he was very tempted by our food.

WARNING: This post will have you spacing out like you're watching TV because it has so many pictures. You won't see any pics of the Portland scenery, it's all food.

Before I get started, I must shower the stumptown vegans with praise. Their blog educated me on the Portland vegan scene. I read the entire blog, got very very hungry and sad because I knew I couldn't go to all the places I wanted to go to - though happy for Portland vegans because they have lots to choose from. Milkshake cart and french fry cart, we will meet some other day. I was very happy with the choices we made in restaurants & pizza.

The day before we went, we dropped Kobie off at the kennel.

We arrived in Portland around noon and ate lunch at the Hungry Tiger, Too. They have 2 menus, one just for vegan food. If only that would be the standard everywhere.
Squash filled wontons with a spicy sweet sauce and coconut milk on top. crunchy and tasty.
Polenta fries with spicy sauce and sour cream
Tofu Scramble special

Mac n' Cheeze. It was very mild tasting, could have used some nutritional yeast and spicy mustard. T(empeh)LT with tater tots. I ate way too many of them.

Vegan Mini Mall. I was in too much of a food coma to take a picture of it. I think the tater tots might have been my downfall because I wasn't even slightly interested in getting a doughnut at sweetpea. Fear not, Andy bought one and I ate 1/2 a few hours later. The best yeasted doughnut ever.

I bought a bright red Food Fight! tote bag. For the past few years, I tend to get tote bags instead of T-shirts when on vacation. I also give them as xmas gifts hoping they will be used.

Portobello Vegan Trattoria

After a walk in the park and a nap at the hotel, we headed off to Portobello. I was very excited to go out to a 100% vegan italian restaurant.

Chao Cheeze & baugette. The chao cheeze is made by the people that make fieldroast. I really like this cheeze.Flavored oil with bread and veggies for dipping. I forgot the name of this appetizer, begins w/ a B. It was really good w/ bread.

Onto the main course...

Ravioli. mmmm... can't go wrong w/ this. The white flecks are salt, not my camera acting up.

Giant delicious Beanball on top of zucchini noodles. Picture blurry, Bethany hungry.

Gnocci. Very tasty. Do I even need to say how good this meal was?
Portobello on top of mashed potatoes w/ broccolini. This was so good, that Andy was possessive about eating his 1/2. I think he loves mushrooms more than he says.
Broccolini. Yeah, you've seen it before, but I wanted to let you know about every detail of our feast.
Pot o' Potatoes. Mmmmmm... Why can't all mashed potatoes be served in a cute little pot?

Asparagus. Tired of looking at pictures yet? Too bad, there's more.
Tiramisu. Oh, yeah!

Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Tarte. This was really really rich and had an intense coffee flavor.


Hotel Deluxe After dinner, we had drinks in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Deluxe. I had my first cosmo, and it was ok. I ended up trading w/ Andy because he couldn't handle the super spicy somethingorother he had ordered. It was an interesting combo of really spicy Hot Monkey pepper vodka, passionfruit, and other stuff plus about 99% more allspice liquor than needed. potent, but it sort of grows on you.

Our friends ordered Laphroaig (mentioned in "American Gods") and a champagne cocktail that had a stick of crystalized sugar for a stirrer.

The Hotel Deluxe was a very nice hotel, but we really wanted to stay at the hotel that used to be a school. Chalkboards in every bedroom.

Hammy's Pizza. I wasn't really hungry when I ordered. I just wanted to experience pizza delivery. The pizza was good. I'm not sure it's possible to compare to Seattle's Pizza Pi because they are so different.

Greek Vegan minus the mushrooms plus pineapple. (Mushrooms, artichoke hearts, green & red bell peppers, roasted garlic, & Greek olives on a pesto/marinara base topped with homemade vegan parmesan (contains nuts))

Paradox Cafe. The Vita Cafe was moving, so we went to the Paradox. I thought it was fabulous.

Tree Hugger. Sort of disturbing that you're on the menu, Jeni.
French Toast. mmm...
Seasonal Benedict. You gotta love tofu covered with pesto and spinach. Yes, the potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside and deliciously soft /firm on the inside.
Fiesta Burrito. Well, that's the end of the road. I hope you didn't fall asleep or drool too much.

~~~~~

While we were away, I'm pretty sure this was happening at home. The shadow is Chippy watching Peepa do yoga.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The scotch was Laphroaig, mentioned in "American Gods".

Sarah said...

wow it all looks awesome? what was in that burrito?

Suzanne said...

Yum! This is making me hungry for all that stuff again - esp. the potatoes and the french toast. They were delish!

jd said...

Love this post!

Portland is vegan fantastic, isn't it?!

Chessa said...

Woo-hoo, Bethany, you introduced me to at least three new restaurants to check out soon! We're in portland like twice a month, and the husband and I try to get out for a date night while we're there - and now we have a bunch of new places to try!!! You are the bomb, especially for all the photos. I feel like someone finally heard my desperate wish for a vegan Italian restaurant and came through with Portabello! Can't WAIT to try that one.

wingraclaire said...

Whoa! I was jealous when you were merely eating out in Seattle; now you've made Portland amazingly tempting also. Pizza delivery? I might have to move.

Jen Treehugger said...

So many good things in this post Bethany!! Everything looks totally amazing I'm frightened I'm gonna electrocute myself from drooling on the keyboard so much!
What an awesome time you had - and who wants to see silly pictures of parks and historic monuments and other such nonsense.....food is a much better choice of vacation snap shots.
:)

Did you know my dad lives in Portland? Not that I've been there yet but I am planning a trip there in the next couple of years.

Kobie's so sweet - I love it when dogs stick their heads out of car windows. Hope he didn't miss you too much. Peeper doing yoga - lol! Too funny.

Oooh and don't I sound tasty!
:)

beastmomma said...

Sounds like a very tasty trip!!!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

i love the title of this thread - but now I have that friggin song stuck in my head! GAH!

Soooo much tasty food, I don't know what to pick out. I want to go to portland!!

My friend is planning to spend a year in canada and I had this great idea to go see her when she was in vancouver then travel downwards for a couple of weeks, including portland as a stop off! Maybe one day it'll happen!

Charlotte said...

awwwesome! i didn't fall asleep, but I did drool. A lot. That pizza looks amazing, and so does everything else. Seems like you had a really good time!

Helen said...

Lovely lovely food!

I love the retro mismatched plates that Portobello has!

Amy said...

Awww, poor Kobie!

Awesome eats! I'm superbly jealous! I wish we had a Portland :( Alas we don't. We do have a Melbourne but it's not Portland and is way too far away from me to visit any time soon.

Felicity said...

The food looks sooo good. I wish there were restaurants like that here.

For the Love of Guava said...

aww.. the kobester looks all sad to be left behind!

Now... why oh why do I ever check your blog in the almost lunchtime lunch spot??? [wipes drool] That all looked SOOOOOOOO good! We need NEED to do a weekend foodfest in Portland!! Okay off to drool more over your links!

nomNomNOM... I knew Treehugger would be tasty! :) heheee..

Andrea said...

It's hard to believe a city can have more vegan places to eat than Seattle, which amazes me every time I go there. Have you ever been to Chaing's Gourmet in Seattle? They have a separate menu for vegetarians.