Archive for the “Portland” CategoryA recap of my awesome vegan Portland meals, just in case you missed any… Nutshell * Flavour Spot * Blossoming Lotus * Farm Cafe * Tin Shed * Voodoo Doughnut * Kinta Malaysian * Veganopolis * Vita Cafe Hopefully this list will grow someday when I get to sample more of what the vegan mecca of PDX has to offer! Tags: PortlandI almost missed my chance to eat at the fantastic Vita Cafe. My short visit to Portland was nearly over, with nothing left to do but get me to the airport on time later in the afternoon. My clever friend remembered that Vita Cafe was one of the restaurants on my secondary list (I had a “must eat at” list and a “if I can fit it in” list) and she realized that it was directly on our way to the airport. How perfect. I was going to get to leave this town as full and satisfied as when I came in! Vita Cafe serves primarily, though not entirely, vegetarian and vegan fare. They’re organic, local, sustainable, blah, blah, blah…. you know the drill, most all of these places in Portland are doing the right things whenever possible, and I think that’s awesome. But seriously, as I’ve told you time and again, I’m really most interested in the eating of it all… so let’s eat!  Vita Cafe is almost synonymous for one of the dishes they are most famous for, their vegan biscuits and gravy. The biscuits are homemade… the most amazingly fluffy, tender, chewy and delectable biscuits I’ve ever had. Not being a Southern girl or anything like that, my primary schooling in what biscuits are supposed to taste like came in the form of the artery-clogging offerings provided by Kentucky Fried Chicken when I was a child. I know, gross, but you’ve got to admit their biscuits were tasty, especially back when you didn’t know any better. Now imagine that tastiness times about a million, now double it in size, subtract the lard and trans-fats, and add in a healthy dose of “made with love by people who care”, and you might just come close to fathoming how delicious these massive biscuits are. And I haven’t even told you about the gravy yet. The gravy can only be described as heavenly. I have no idea how it’s made, all they tell you on the menu is that it’s made from almonds, yes… almonds! It didn’t really taste all that much of almonds to me, it tasted like thick, sumptuous, nutty, slightly spicy & slightly salty gravy. Not too salty which I can’t hang with, but just right. A more well-spoken reviewer might describe it as “full of flavor” or “well seasoned”. I’ll just tell you that it rocked my world. The gravy comes heartily smothered over the two giant biscuits, turning the whole thing into a moist mountain of lumpy, chewy fulfillment. My words and not-so-great photo are not doing any justice here, this was truly one of the best things I ate on my whole trip and I will be fantasizing about it until I can return to Portland again and indulge once more. Now, you didn’t expect me to just order biscuits & gravy and head on home, did you? Of course not. The other items that caught my eye as soon as I was handed a menu were the corn cakes. You know how I am with corn, I am powerless against it in it’s many forms. Resistance was futile.  Here we have the Thai Corn Cake: with sliced bananas, ginger, cilantro and coconut syrup. Just when I was thinking that nothing on earth could possibly taste better than those biscuits, this giant plate of love arrived. Basically it’s a huge corn pancake with the bananas, ginger and cilantro cooked right into it. It was perfectly crispy around the edges and soft and warm in the middle, each bite filled with exciting and surprising flavor combinations. The coconut syrup took this not only out of this world but all the way out into the far deep inner reaches of outer space. It was creamy and thick and within a few seconds I had it slathered all over this beautific corn cake. Vita Cafe was a top-notch establishment with more vegan offerings for breakfast, lunch & dinner than you could shake a stick at. If I was a local, I’d totally be a regular (though I don’t know that I’d make it much farther into the menu than the biscuits). And thus concludes this installment of Foodeater Does Vegan Portland. I had such a great time and ate so many excellent meals… I hope you all have enjoyed tagging along on this fun vegan quest with me. I’m already looking forward to my next Portland visit! For now though it’s back to lovely Los Angeles for a while, and not a minute too soon considering just how many incredible L.A. meals I have yet to tell you about. I’ll just need a moment to digest… Tags: biscuits & gravy, Portland[Update 9/08] Veganopolis has closed up shop and moved to Chicago. There’s no way I was going to Portland to miss out on eating at a restaurant with a name like Veganopolis.  I’d heard mixed reviews about the place, some extremely positive, some not so nice. Still, the name was too cool to pass up and I liked how they described themselves on their website:
Sounds good to me! I’d planned to spend part of the day at Powells, the ginormous bookstore downtown, so I stopped for lunch at Veganopolis first as it’s just a few blocks away. I decided to forgo the buffet and order something off the menu… the main reason being one of my all time favorite names in the language of culinary delights: Reuben.  It’s true, I’m a vegan Reuben sandwich addict and I have to try them whenever I’m am lucky enough to come across one in the wild… it’s like spotting a rare bird or one of those special flowers that only blooms for a day. The quest for vegan Reubens is particularly rewarding because no matter where you go, the restaurant will have it’s own unique interpretation of just what constitutes a proper one. Above is Veganopolis’ tasty version: Braised corned vegan ham, soy mozarella, house thousand island and sauerkraut piled on rustic rye.  It’s was pretty good. Not as great as the Follow Your Heart Reuben but it was still good in it’s own right. The veggie ham was tasty and very meat-like. I don’t know that I would have guessed that it was supposed to be corned ham had I not read that on the menu, but it was a perfectly suitable vegetarian stand-in for it’s real life fleshy counterpart. The thousand island dressing was a little too sweet for my taste, but the sauerkraut helped balance it out. The bread was fresh and the whole sandwich was grilled nice and crispy. The fries were roasted potatoes, the flavor was good but not having been fried the texture was a wee bit soft, though nothing a squirt of organic ketchup couldn’t handle. They’ve got a lot of other tantalizing sandwiches on the menu as well as a salads, vegan shakes and all kinds of other goodies, including their ever changing buffet. Veganopolis made for a very satisfying lunch spot and while it didn’t blow my mind, I don’t always need lunch to rock my world. Sometimes all I’m after is a good sandwich to fortify me for a full day of book shopping. I got my good sandwich, and I ended up with a bunch of great books too… I was a happy camper. Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 9… Kinta Restaurant serves what they call “New Malaysian Cuisine”. My Portland friends suggested it to me as soon as they learned I was on a mission to try as much of the awesome vegan & vegetarian places in their lovely city as I could. Kinta is not all vegetarian, they will add in chicken or shrimp by request. Most of the menu is totally vegan however, with exception of the egg noodles, though vegan rice noodles are available for any of those dishes instead.  If you’ve never tried Malaysian food before, imagine a well-crafted blending of Thai food, Chinese food and Indian food… well, that’s what it always makes me think of when I eat it. There used to be a great little Malaysian restaurant here in Hollywood years ago (on Wilcox if I’m remembering correctly) where I had developed a major obsession with their cashew curry. Damn that was good! Then one day they were just gone… that was well over a decade ago at this point and I hadn’t had Malaysian food since then, so I was very excited to have it again here and now in Portland. For starters we had the sweet potato fritters and curry puffs shown above, both delicious. The batter (made of chickpeas) on the sweet potatoes was thick and crunchy and lightly spiced with something unidentifiably great. I don’t know if these are made with an egg wash or not, so be sure to ask if you need to. The curry puffs (pastry shells filled with curried potatoes, shitake mushrooms and crunchy woodear mushrooms) were of an equally high yum factor, tasting a lot like an Indian style samosa. The dipping sauce was just ketchup, which actually worked quite well.  These refreshing drinks are a tart and perky tamarind & lime concoction, two of my all time favorite flavors. Reliable as always, here they did not let me down. I wanted many refills.  Here we have the Tropical Malaysian Curry Soup: Curry in house-mixed Malaysian spices. The way it works here at Kinta is you choose your entree item, be it a noodle soup like what I chose, a noodle stir-fry or a rice dish, and then you choose from an impressive list of fresh and mostly organic vegetables. They’ve got a standard list of items like bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, eggplant, etc… but they’ve also got stuff that gets added to the menu as it comes into season, including some of the more interesting Asian greens and veggies. The silly thing is that I don’t remember what all items I picked to go in mine, though for sure I got the broccoli, tofu, and beet greens. There was more in there as well that I’m forgetting. This soup was so delicious. Along with the cuisines of other countries mentioned above, Malaysian food also reminds me of Indonesian food, as it’s got a similar sort of pungency to the flavors that’s always quite striking. I’m gonna say that it’s a sort of flavor that’s got a bit of funky going on… it’s not exactly foul, but there’s a certain dark musky or mustiness to it that while being super delicious also always makes me think of dirty socks or B.O. Now don’t go letting me ruin your appetite or turning you off of Malaysian food… I mean, just look at that incredible soup… of course it was good! I’ve got nothing against funk when it’s done right. And I tell you with funk this good, I think Malaysia should change it’s official name to Funky Town.  OrganicGirl ordered the Macadamia Curry: – Malaysian curry spices infused with Macadamia nuts. Wow, this was out of this world! I think she got it with the onion infused tofu, eggplant, amaranth greens and I’m thinking perhaps those little brown guys in there are shitake mushroom. This dish was particularly rich in the funkified goodness of secret Malaysian curry magick that I described above, and the macadamia nuts gave the entire thing a most wonderful, full-bodied silkiness. Outstanding. Overall I loved Kinta…. loved the food, the concept, the friendly service and plenitude of vegan options. The simply prepared food was simultaneously beautiful to look at and a pleasure to eat. If you enjoy Asian and especially Southeast Asian food, or even if you’ve never tried it and are open to full and exotic new flavors, move Kinta to the top of your Portland food list for a rewarding foodie experience. Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 8! Tags: curry, malaysian, PortlandThe magic is in the hole! Or so they say over at Voodoo Doughnut, the place itself being a teeny-tiny little hole in the wall the size of a large walk-in closet. Voodoo Doughnut is a well established and somewhat legendary donut shop in downtown Portland. They’re open all night and are an obvious choice for grabbing yummy sweet treats after shows or when the bars let out. I’ve been told the scene there late at night is quite fun and exciting, a real taste of Portland. Truth be told however, I wasn’t there to check out the scene, I was there for the vegan donuts I’ve heard so much about.  We stopped by there in the afternoon and there was a line out the door snaking around the side of the building. There was a brewfest going on just a few steps away by the river, so that may have had something to do with the crowds. The line moved quickly though, especially considering there was only one woman both serving the donuts and running the cash register, and soon enough I found myself with a front row view of the display case. The vegan donuts are nicely segregated on a plate in the spinning display case so you can easily see which ones are available. Maple bars have always been one of my favorites in the non-vegan donut world, so of course that was my first choice to try here (that’s the one on the back right of the plate, the one that’s not chocolate, or a bar for that matter). It was pretty good, the fact that it was vegan made it better. I do like my donuts to be of the lighter and fluffier variety, while this donut was more of a cake donut, very thick and dense. The flavor was great, the maple frosting delicious, but the actual donut itself was too much for me to get through much of, and I was thankful to have a bottle of water with me to wash it down with otherwise it would have stuck in my throat. I also tried the donut that you see there at the front left of the plate. I don’t know what they call this one, but it had a very sweet white frosting which was coated in toasted coconut. I loved both those flavor toppings, the white stuff was sticky and gooey in a very good way and well, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with toasted coconut. The donut itself was the same as the maple bar, so again it was thicker than I would have preferred and hard to get down without a beverage. I guess it’s true that for some girls, size does matter. And lube always helps.  They were both very tasty donuts, even though I was only able to get through half of each before feeling totally stuffed and over the craving to have donuts again anytime soon. If they had been a lighter type of donut I could have easily made my way through three or four. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the mindblowingly light and airy donuts I had at Madeline Bistro back in May (which I still haven’t gotten around to blogging for you yet but you can get a peek over at VegYogini’s blog), because those donuts were so incredible that there’s no way you’d know they were vegan, nor would it matter. In my mind those are the vegan donuts that all others will be measured against. I can’t say that the Voodoo Donuts came close in comparison, but I can say that they were quite enjoyable for what they were, and any place that will provide me with fresh made vegan donuts be it 12 noon or 12 midnight is alright by me. Here’s a cute 10 minute documentary about Voodoo Doughnuts called Gimmie Doughnut (some of which is NSFW) Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 7! Tags: donuts, PortlandI’ve been super excited to share this meal at Portland’s Tin Shed Garden Cafe with you, so I hope you’re sitting down, comfortable and not distracted… this food requires your full attention. The Tin Shed is located in, you guessed it, a converted tin shed. There’s also a beautiful patio garden area where patrons are welcome along with their dogs… the restaurant even serves special doggy meals including a vegetarian rice and garden burger! Of course, I wasn’t here for no dog food.  This glorious plate of food you see above is the cleverly named Tim Curry: Tofu, roasted garlic, yam, zucchini, mushroom & sweet onion in a coconut-curry sauce, served over a bed of spinach & topped with roasted peanuts, raisins & avocado. This was what my friend ordered (the sour cream is not vegan), but of course she let me try some and… oh mama… will you just look at this thing? The only reason I didn’t order it was because I didn’t think it would feel breakfasty enough, and that’s what I was craving. Once this was served though it all totally clicked into place and I fully understood the logic of it’s sweet & savory curry morning appeal, and was appropriately jealous.  I sure wasn’t jealous for long because just look at what I got: this is the veganized Big Hit Burrito: Scrambled eggs (substituted with really great tofu), sausage (which they subbed with a tasty vegan sausage, not the typical freezer variety), roasted garlic, yams, zucchini, mushroom & onion in a flour tortilla topped with pesto sauce and tomato. I regret not getting a photo of its insides for you because they sure were pretty, but also so delicious that any thoughts of stopping to take a photograph once I’d gotten started eating were out of the question. This is probably the best breakfast burrito I’ve ever had. As for that gorgeous contrast of orange and white to the left of the burrito, those are the homemade grits topped with vegan cheddar. The cheddar looked and tasted so real that I had to ask twice to make sure it really was the vegan cheese. I don’t know what brand they use but I was impressed. The grits were very tasty and a nice change of pace. Now here’s the point where it turns even more decadent… but how I could I see something like this on the menu and not try it?  The Belly Pleaser: Coconut milk, jasmine rice, fresh ginger & vanilla simmered into a porridge and topped with fresh mango & cinnamon. You don’t even need me to tell you how delicious this was do you… you just know by looking at and reading about it, right? Allow me to tell you that in your wildest imaginings it doesn’t taste as incredible as it did in real life. My belly sure was pleased. It reminded me of the “arroz con leche” (rice with milk) that my grandmothers cook in Bolivia used to make when I was growing up, but with the wonderful coconut milk infusing the whole thing and the spice of ginger perking it up and blending perfectly with the sweet mango. Wow. And this was just the half-order! While not a vegetarian restaurant Tin Shed is very veggie & vegan friendly. They’ll substitute tofu in any of their egg dishes (their tofu rocks) and any of the burgers can be made with a garden burger. There’s also a selection of salads, sandwiches and dinner plates, a full bar and a happy hour if you’re into that sort of thing. The crowd here is hip & young, with lots of tattoos and babies in strollers, willing to hang out and wait for sometimes more than an hour for a table as there’s usually always going to be a wait… and judging by this excellent meal we had, it’s probably always going to be well worth it. Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 6! Tags: breakfast, brunch, Portland
It’s this one entree though that’s been driving vegan Portland eaters wild with glee, the Herb Crusted Tofu with Mushroom Marsala which also comes with some bad-ass garlic mashed potatoes. I’d heard it was excellent and I was all set to try. Once we got there though, I was thrown a curveball in the form of a nightly specials menu which listed something which sounded even more enticing…  Tempeh Masala: Tempeh marinated in East Indian spices, pan-fried crisp then served with braised summer vegetables, tandoori jasmine rice, stela cherry chutney (also served with dilled yogurt which isn’t vegan so they left it off for me). This was so good, and not really at all what I expected it to be like. I was thinking it would have a more recognizable Indian food taste to it but I didn’t get that from it, but wow, what I did get was awesome. The texture was almost meatloaf like, though with a nice thick and crispy crust. Juicy and delicious with all kinds of exotic spices I wouldn’t be able to identify. The cherry chutney was both sweet and tart at the same time, a divine jam covering all the bases. I’d just had these stela cherries fresh at the farmers market earlier that day, how nice to see something like that moving from farmer to plate. The vegetables were tasty though relatively simple. The serving was huge, with two GIANT tempeh slabs and a healty mound of rice. I barely got through one portion of the tempeh and had a lot of leftovers to take home. My friend’s reaction to this dish was that it reminded her of Thanksgiving with cherries instead of cranberries. Along with our main courses we’d also ordered the appetizer which OrganicGirl (who’s been here a number of times) was very excited about getting, and I can see why:  Rosemary-roasted Hazelnuts: Special house recipe involving brown sugar and tabasco. And that’s all they’re telling. These were amazing… just perfectly roasted and coated in this yummy sticky sweet hot goodness, all infused with an almost overwhelming taste and sent of rosemary. These were flavors I’d never think to put together, which is why I don’t run a great restaurant and they do. p.s. Here’s the recipe for Farm Cafe Roasted Hazelnuts at Let’s Get Sconed! I mentioned the ambiance, and as you may have noticed by the dark and blurry photos, it was rather dark in there. The restaurant is in a small converted house and it’s lit up inside by lots of candles and low lighting. The effect is magical and romantic and this would be a fantastic place to go on a date or with a small group of friends for special occasions. It’s very open with a small patio in the back where we initially waited to be seated. Apparently they get very busy but we didn’t have to wait long at all, though we did get there pretty late at around 10:30pm. The Farm Cafe definitely lived up to and exceed my expectations, even though my expectations were to eat one thing and I left eating something else entirely. If I lived there this would for sure be on my list of places to eat when feeling fancy or flirty, or both. Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 5! Tags: Portland, tempeh
I’m not a raw foodie, but I certainly eat a lot of raw veggies and fruits by default. My last experience at a raw food restaurant was less than stellar. They do serve some cooked foods here as well but it’s the raw stuff that’s their specialty. Ordering something cooked here would be like going into a Thai restaurant and ordering Italian. So it was with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity that I approached my lunch at Blossoming Lotus. Everything on the menu sounded good. I was having trouble deciding what to order, and not really knowing what to expect made the choice even more difficult. It was a no-brainer therefore to order the ‘Live Sampler Platter’, which came with everything that sounded most yummy to me on the menu. I figured if there was ever going to be time to impress me with raw food, than this was it. And impress me they did! Allow me to break it down for you…  In the picture above, from top left we’ve got: Move to your right over the tomatoes and find yourself at: Next, wedged comfortably between the cucumbers and avocado is the: Last but certainly not least head over to the tastefully beet & sprout adorned…  Because you really need to get the full effect of all this, here’s another view of the same plate from the other side. I’ll understand if all the foodporn pervs out there need a moment to compose yourselves before going on. Another of the star attractions at Blossoming Lotus is their vegan soft-serve ice cream. At the end of our meal though I was so stuffed and satisfied that I just couldn’t see myself putting down an entire serving of ice cream (tempting though it was). Instead, my two friends and I opted to share the equally popular ‘Live Fudge’, made with raw cacao.  We’d planned to take it to go, but I noticed that it was meant to be kept chilled and was rapidly starting to melt in the bag. So we quickly passed it around, getting a couple of bites each out of it. Please excuse the blurry photo… we’d eaten our little bundle of joy before I even thought to photograph it, so I grabbed a quick shot of the display counter. Wow, Live Fudge is amazing! I’ve never had such a concentrated sensation of chocolate before, it was so rich… and tasted darker than the darkest chocolate but not at all bitter. The taste was incredible, rich and thick and gooey, and I’ll be damned if it truly didn’t feel alive. I’m not even kidding when I tell you that I got an immediate rush after eating it, feeling for a little while afterwards much more alert, awake and aware. An appropriate sort of reaction to be having I suppose in an organic, raw food place situated inside of a yoga studio. Like I told you back at the beginning, I’m being non-committal on picking favorites from this vacation. I will say however that eating at Blossoming Lotus was definitely one of the highlight meals, especially so because I wasn’t expecting it to be. For sure I’d recommend them as one of the “must have” vegetarian/vegan restaurants to try when in Portland, a fantastic thing to do for yourself after too many days of waffles and vegan donuts (more on that yet to come). They’ve also got another location on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, so if you go there please take me with you. Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 4! Tags: Portland, raw |
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One of the restaurants I was most looking forward to eating at while in Portland is The Farm Cafe. As their name describes, they get their ingredients fresh from local farms whenever possible and offer a rotating seasonal menu. It’s known for having great local microbrews and an extensive winelist along with plenty of ambiance, but not for having a lot of vegan food as there’s only one vegan meal offered as an entree.
I’m noticing that each time I start one of these Portland posts, I want to tell you that THIS was one of the best meals I had on my trip. The problem is that, if you could call it a problem, everything I ate was delicious. I’m having a tough time picking favorites, but if forced to rank my meals this one at Blossoming Lotus would definitely be a top contender.
