Vegan Iron Chef PDX. Other stuff.

Since Portland was once upon a time my home away from home away from home, and I was planning on moving there some day, I still feel this happy vegan connection to it, despite the fact that I’m no longer thinking about moving there. Tomorrow is PDX’s inaugural Vegan Iron Chef, and I wanted to try and catch some of it while it’s being live streamed here at 5pm PST, but I’ll be at a Mexican themed raw vegan potluck instead.

I didn’t realize that Concordia University (in Montreal) had an Iron Chef competition earlier this year. Considering how fantastic the food was nearly everywhere I went in Montreal, I can imagine how great it was. Looks like they are hoping to make it an annual event, so looking forward to following it next year.

I picked up fresh garbanzo beans today, mostly out of curiosity, than necessity. But they have a very distinct flavour to them. I’ve never made anything with them previously, but I think I’ll buy more and make a raw green hummus out of it next week.

I’ve still been going out to eat more often than I should, primarily to Remedy and La Shish Taouk (in Mayfield Common). La Shish is my favourite sit down place, mostly because of the fresh pita bread, hummus and baba ganouj, and it helps that it’s on the west end, open late and close-by. I introduced my dad to the place last week, and he liked it quite a bit. We split a vegetarian plate and an order of moussaka (this one was mainly just chilled spiced eggplant with chickpeas). I’ve got to admit, I didn’t like the moussaka much, but I think that’s because I wanted something sharp and tart rather then something on the sweet side.

I’m taking an early morning trip to visit the City Market tomorrow. Finally, a Saturday I’m not out of town or volunteering for something all day!