Portland February 2010
I forgot to mention going to Portland in February, since then I’ve been busy with school and work. Thankfully I have four consecutive days off, and it feels wonderful. It also occurs to me I should update my 101 in 1001 days list at some point, considering September(the end month) isn’t that far off, and I have managed to accomplish many of the goals on my list, as well as accept that some goals had to be modified.
My vegan friend and I went to Portobello for our fake Valentine’s Day (on Feb 17th,) it was wonderful, and delicious as always. We went there last year for fake Valentine’s Day, and every time I’m so impressed with what they come up with. I’m really excited to see what the Chef (Aaron Adams) ends up creating at Vegan Iron Chef (in PDX of course) this summer.
I ordered the gnocchi (as usual) and my friend had an enviable portobella mushroom steak. We started out our meal with a french bread and pate. Oddly enough I found myself getting full really quickly. I think it must have had something to do with the massive portion of pate we got. We ended our meal with a delicious sweet pecan tart. I just love that place.
Anyway, I had a nice time. I had hoped to check out the SkiBowl at Mt. again one more time, but the snow this year was pretty pathetic up there. Word on the street was we’d just be sliding around on ice. Decided to skip it, if I head out there again during winter, I’ll definitely try and check it out.
As per usual, a lot of time was spent at Sweetpea Bakery, who recently got an AMAZING sandwich menu. While I loved the ready made sandwiches Sweetpea used to have, this new selection is just too good. Between the two of us I think we went through the entire menu. They are fairly pricey but well worth it (and beats a combo at a fast food place any day), I could see myself getting one as a weekly treat. Maybe you think to yourself… they are just sandwiches, I can make them at home… you would be wrong.
Now we went to a few other places, a visit to PDX doesn’t happen without a visit to Diablo’s for Diablo burgers or to the Avalon for ridiculous arcade fun. There is one driving game that I especially love because it tells me that I should not have a license or that I shouldn’t drive without insurance (I barely have a learners permit, so it’s right!)
After one of our visits to Avalon we stepped into Paradox for snacks. I picked up a mini pumpkin pie, it was a whole lot of spicy pumpkin flavour. T got the carrot cake, but neither of us really liked it. It seemed kind of on the stale side. I was so unexcited about it, that I didn’t bother taking a picture.
We went with a few friends to an East Indian restaurant in Beaverton. It was nice enough, but I have no idea what it’s called anymore. I think of all the places I’ve been Edmonton and Montreal are tied for first place on quality of Indian food. Pushap in Montreal was nearly never fail amazing, but Edmonton has such an amazing selection of almost always good cuisine, that it might be a bit ahead.
Afterwards we went over to Voodoo Donuts, which is always a fun trip, cannot go wrong with donuts. Previously I had only been to the downtown location, but this time we went to the one on Davis. It had pinball! It wasn’t the first or last time this visit I ended up stuffing my face with donuts. Sweetpea Donut Saturday’s and a few visits to Voodoo, made sure I met my yearly donut quotas.
The last night I was in town was hard as always. I get so sad when I have to leave. But we went to the food cart commune and for the first time ever, I had a little empanada from Whiffies. Tasted 100% bad for me (in that delicious way) and we shared an order of Poutine from Potato Champion. I really just like their fries. There is something sharp about their fake cheese I don’t like, luckily my dining companion loves the stuff so nothing is wasted.
Then it was off to Edmonton for a couple of days, a quick family trip to Cafe Europa for brunch, and then back home to Saskatoon.