The hubby and I were in Portland last weekend for two and a half days (about). We had a lot of fun, and I learned that if you're vegan, Portland is a great place to be. There were more food options than I've ever seen before, so we basically ate our way through the city. And some of the best options we couldn't even hit, since they were food carts that are open weekdays. Too bad, really. We'll have to go back in the middle of the week.
We took the Amtrak train down, and were staying right downtown at the Ace Hotel (very cool hotel, if you're ever in town).
Portland has fantastic public transit, but really, its a small city, and especially in the downtown area, a person can walk everywhere. Friday night we just grabbed some snacky food at the restaurant attached to the hotel, Clyde Common. This place is one of the it places in Portland, because it was busy every night we were there, including Sunday night. Even the hotel lobby was busy, as it's attached to a Stumptown Coffee (sorry, not a coffee drinker, so we didn't go there and thus I have no opinion). Clyde Common has some awesome pimenton popcorn (pimenton, I've learned, is Spanish paprika) and good drinks. It was an early night, as the next day we both had our long runs of the week to do.
Saturday brought wind and off/on sun/rain. I ran five miles through the downtown/Old Town/Chinatown/Pearl District, including a short run down the riverfront where they have a big park. It was a pretty good run—Portland, compared to Seattle, is really, really flat. So it was also a pretty fast run (fast for me).
We headed to the Saturday Market after our runs, where I had a fantastic tofu scramble from a vendor there. Tofu scramble! It's really hard to find that in a restaurant here, much less a street vendor. I could barely eat the whole plate, it was so much food (for $6!).
We found a beautiful drawing at the Market, too, that the artist, Sienna Morris, is shipping up here. She does really neat work, drawing things using only the numbers on a clock. It's this interesting take on pointillism.
After the market I wanted to check out a vegan bakery that is really popular in Portland called Sweatpea Bakery. I believe it's in the East Burnside neighborhood, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, we walked in and most people were having lunch, but as we'd eaten at the Market, we got instead a lemon bar, a Charlie Brown bar (this was the hubbys, as it was mostly peanut butter—ew) and a slice of cookies and cream cake, all vegan. Hubby also got a bowl of tomato-basil soup that was really good. I was in it for the sweets though. Best lemon bar I've ever had, pre- or post-vegan.
Turns out, the bakery is in a vegan mall, so next door we found Herbivore, the clothing company (I got a couple awesome t-shirts) and down from that, a vegan grocery store that we didn't go in (too much food from the bakery). Around the corner was a place called Bartleby's, a neat little letterpress/card shop. I think there were some other stores in there, too, that weren't open on Saturdays.
With the long run done, we could go out on Saturday night, but walking back downtown I tweaked my knee somehow, and so was gimping the rest of the night, putting a bit of a damper on our plans. Before dinner, I took the hubby to Powell's Books, where we wandered (slowly) around until we were hungry.
Dinner was at this Peruvian place called Andina, which was really cool because they not only have a special vegetarian menu with at least five different things that can be made vegan (this is so rare in a restaurant, I'll take just five options) but also they had a gluten-free menu. Finally a place that understands friends with all different diets want to go out and have a fun dinner. This was another popular spot, because we got one of the last tables at the bar, and it was just after 5 when we walked in. The hubby got some meat, I had a really good quinoa and mushroom ... thing. I don't remember what it was, but it was good. I also tried their vegan sorbet, blood orange and cilantro, but that really wasn't the best. Too much cilantro, not enough orange, and too sweet all around. Oh well. I had already eaten some cake and a lemon bar earlier.
We stopped back at Clyde Common after dinner and had another drink and some more of that popcorn (I need to find Spanish paprika...) before we were done for the night. My poor knee was really angry with me.
After sleeping all night, the next day my knee was fine. It's the strangest thing. Sunday we stood in line for like 45 minutes to try Voodoo Doughnuts, another Portland institution.
They have a long list of vegan doughnuts, which was really nice. I tried a cake glazed and a raised Gay Bar (cream-filled bar with white frosting and a rainbow of Fruit Loops on top). The hubby got one cake and one raised doughnut, too (non vegan) and we both decided the cake doughnuts weren't that good. The raised were much better, but I still prefer Mighty-O in Seattle. Mighty-O does glazes on top instead of frosting, and for me, the frosting was too much.
After the Voodoo experience, we bussed up to Mississippi Avenue and just walked up and down, checking out that neighborhood. It had a ton of quirky stores. We stopped at The Laughing Planet Cafe, where they have lots of vegan options—and fantastic guacamole.
I had some mushroom-barley soup, which was fantastic, and a vegan Caesar salad, which wasn't as good as the one I make at home. For dinner, we were still on Mississippi, so we tried the Mississippi Pizza Pub (another Portland institution according to some magazines), where we hit happy hour. $1.75 slices, and they always have a vegan pizza on! It's pesto based and was really good. Giant chunks of vegetables, including kalamata olives and artichoke hearts, which I love on pizza. And, the slices are huge. I guess this place has live music almost every night, and once a week they do an adult spelling bee. There is also a kids' spelling bee hosted on Saturday afternoons.
We headed back to Seattle on Monday, stuffed to the brim. Eating so much probably explains why my run tonight wasn't so great. I just felt really HEAVY. My legs were heavy from all the walking over the weekend, plus I had all that extra food (and sugar) in my system. I was also nervous about my knee, since it was so troublesome over the weekend. I did four miles, though, and it went fine. I could definitely tell I hadn't had my Monday yoga class, though. Now, it's back to normal. Only two more months until the half!
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