Portland: Food, Love and Rain

Last year my younger brother decided to move to Portland. I've spent the last year missing him as he is my partner in crime, the person I take to weird movies or museum days. I had the chance to go and hangout with him recently and we did a lot of eating, a minimum of drinking and some serious talking/watching of Dr. Who. Yes, we are those nerdy people who will stop to catch up on their favorite show while on vacation.

Portland was different than I expected. People keep telling me it's just like SF and Berkeley. Yes and no. Rather parts of it remind me of different places I have been both in California and otherwise. Someone told me Portland was small. Uh, not so much. In fact it was much bigger than I anticipated so navigating became easier once I sat down with my list and sorted out what was where.

Who knew there so many pods of food carts? Not I! We found most of them though we didn't have the chance to eat at all of them. That means there has to be another trip, right? The pod in the top pictures is actually walking distance from where Dorian lives, making it easier for us to get to. He had his first papusa and shocked me by loving the curtido as he dislikes both cabbage and carrots.We also hit up Blue Collar Baking company for scones and hot chocolate before heading to Voodoo Doughnut and then walking all over the Pearl.

Blue Collar Baking was quiet the day that we were there and a perfect spot to recharge our tired batteries after getting turned around and heading in the wrong direction for half a mile. The hot chocolate was perfect, not too chocolatey and the whipped cream has a nice swirl on it. I won't lie that we were left underwhelmed at Voodoo. The lemon cruller lacked lemon, the vanilla coconut was a bit to sweet and the peach fritter needed some more peaches as that was by far the best bit.

Look, we found my Alien pod to take me to the Mother Ship!

Once in the the Pearl we stopped for Thai food, hit up Powell's, dropped into a wonderful vintage shop called Eden and had gin and tonic at The Parish. The Parish is a joint I could see myself hanging out in a lot if I lived closer. Great atmosphere, a fun bartender (he said 'snarf, snarf' in conversation with someone else. He won my over completely with that) and really such a prime location. Definitely check it out! We also stumbled across an olive oil tasting room, Benessere. And in typical style, we attacked all the balsamic, which were pretty fab. Dorian preferred the Jalapeno while I leaned toward Fig. Thus we can tell you nothing about the olive oils until next time.

Saturday we had a really full and adventurous day! After finding some serious treasure at the Farmer's market, including hazelnuts, gorgeous snap peas, pepper jelly and biscuits....okay, can I just rhapsodize a bit here about that? Pine State Biscuits has this delectable sandwich called the Reggie which features fried chicken, bacon and gravy on a biscuit.It normally comes with cheese which it doesn't necessarily need. Dorian was able to get shiitake mushroom gravy, which he said only needed a bit of hot sauce, but he says that about everything! It was an all around win.

We visited Fat Fancy, where I found the cutest pair of green & blue shiny pants that still pain me to have left behind. But they were a size too small and petite so that would have been ridiculous. I didn't even bother trying them on. But I am still really in love with those pants, and I can certainly about them until I find something equally cute. If you are looking for cute vintage in plus sizes sold by totally adorable people, go forth and visit! You will be glad you did.

Realizing that a ton of the places that were on the list we wanted to see in the same neighborhood it was easier to plan. So off we went to The Belmont district filled with funky shops, another food cart pod and gorgeous houses. Along the way we discovered a tiny shop filled with some of the most gorgeous masks. And lucky you she is on Etsy! After hitting up a few more vintage stores, including Savvy Plus, we decided it was time to back to the real work: eating.

We stopped for a lefse and pie but stayed for the biscuits. Blues City Biscuits was just an extra fun and delightful time. The Howlin' Wolf, shrimp & grits with bacon and greens was excellent. We went back for more biscuits because Dorian was getting quite swoony over them. I'm willing to bet that if the lovely lady behind the counter had been willing, he was just about ready to propose. Yup, we are also people who would marry you just because you can make something we love to eat perfect.

The perfectly flaky biscuits were warm and slathered with honey butter. So you can see how one might be induced to go into a food coma with so much good stuff around. Since we had to walk them off so we stopped for cocktails at the Hereafter. Their signature drink comes in a mason jar filled with ice tea, lemonade, bourbon and vodka. Uh, yeah, I limited him to one!

Sunday we went to Multnomah Falls. Lovely.

Really, we barely scratched the surface but I look forward to my next visit and our next adventure. Until then, cheers!