Portland, OR | Day 5

June 27, 2014

The state of Oregon is renowned for its natural beauty and we were keen to get out and see it. The best we could manage given our circumstances and the weather was a half-day tour along the Columbia River, where we were rewarded with a couple of gorgeous waterfalls, lots of thick greenery, and a couple of bird sightings (see slideshow above).

Our guide Josh recommended eating at the Goose Hollow Inn and kindly dropped us off there for a late lunch. They're famous for their Rueben sandwiches, and even have a vegetarian Rachel alternative (US$8.85 ~ AU$9.45). Mushrooms, onion, tomato, sauerkraut, Rueben sauce and melted Swiss cheese completely over-ran the rye bread slices in a sloppy savoury avalanche. (It's a very different experience to the Rachel we once made at home.) I enjoyed it very much, though I struggled to get through the pickle, potato salad and carrot sticks on the side.

We did a little last wandering in the afternoon and began our evening at Ground Kontrol, a bar and classic games arcade where Michael had his pick of Street Fighter, Ninja Turtles and Terminator 2 pinball. I didn't have any personal nostalgia for these games, but I dabbled in a little Ms. Pacman and enjoyed the subtitled anime film projecting near the bar. They had a great menu of snacks like hot dogs and frito pie with a vegan option for 90% of their items. Portland is really just too cool.

We held off on the game-time snacks since we had a dinner reservation at Departure. This bar serves modern Asian food with rooftop views in a setting we weren't quite hip to, sleek and white with interminable chill grooves and very young, entirely professional staff. We observed in awe a table of improbably young and slender girls with fake tans and volumes of meticulously curled hair as they took selfies for an hour (and sat silently with their cocktails communing with their phones for a second hour).

This didn't detract too much from the fine food. Departure has separate vegan and gluten-free menus that each run to more than a dozen sharable plates. While we took stock of our options, I sipped a Green Hornet cocktail (US$10 ~ AU$10.70), a light sparkling mix with white rum, yuzu, coriander and a lime wedge.

After ordering, our dishes arrived quickly in no particular order. The chili tofu (US$12 ~ AU$12.80) had a great sweet-and-spicy braise, and had been stir-fried with hearts of palm, green onions, whole dried chillis and some candied walnuts that I made sure to clear from the bottom of the bowl. The Asian pear and apple salad (US$9 ~ AU$9.60) included more hearts of palm among the thin fruit slices plus candied tamarind, roasted macadamias and whole mint leaves.

The gingered mushrooms (US$13 ~ AU$13.90) were Michael's favourite, delicately layered over sweet and sour rhubarb with fresh watercress and ramps.

A dab of spicy miso really made the sweet potato tempura sushi rolls (US$8 ~ AU$8.60) - Michael claimed the wasabi while I swooped on the accompanying pickled ginger. The steamed buns (US$7 ~ AU$7.50) could barely wrap themselves around their char-flavoured tempeh slabs, and we ate most of the accompanying 'slaw and fresh herbs with our fingers.

The dessert menu was impressive and we couldn't agree on a dish to share. (We should've, because the portions were large and our available stomach space was small.) Michael championed the (non-vegan) dark chocolate wasabi bar with yuzu sorbet, yuzu jam and candied peanuts (pictured left, US$9 ~ AU$9.60), while I had to try the vegan Departure banana split (pictured right, US$9 ~ AU$9.60). It involved three enormous tempura banana fritters, miso butterscotch, a dark cherry compote, and a coconut-based peanut brittle icecream. I had to leave the last fritter, but you better believe I ate that icecream.

As we walked back to our Portland accommodation one last time, we were drawn to a crowd gathered on a street corner. They'd congregated around a busking band, with a joyous, athletic horn section that got much of the crowd dancing. It was the kind of spontaneous, welcoming street scene that I'll remember Portland for, maybe even longer than their magnificent veg*n food.

Portland, OR | Day 4

June 26, 2014

Thursday started with another trip to the south east suburbs for breakfast at Paradox Cafe and a trawl through the op-shops of SE Hathorne. Paradox is a large diner-style place with a low-key style and laid-back (i.e. friendly but slow) service. The menu reminded me a lot of Junior's Cafe - classic US diner food done mostly vegetarian or vegan (there's meat on the menu, but nearly everything has a tempeh/tofu version).

We split two dishes: the HOG pile - grilled tofu, mushrooms and onions scrambled with spinach, served over herb and onion bread and all swimming in gravy (US$8.50 ~ AU$9.10) and the sweet corn and green chilli potato cakes were covered in roasted corn and fresh avocado, adding some colour to the grilled tempeh (US$8.50 ~ AU$9.10). It was a ludicrous amount of food again, but we managed to work our way through it all - the herb bread and gravy combo was particularly winning (if completely unhealthy).

Stuffed with food, we explored SE Hawthorne for a couple of hours, browsing the op-shops, book shops and gift shops and weighing up luggage space vs the excitement of holiday spending. Eventually we worked up enough hunger to justify our trip to one of Portland's oddest must-do tourist experiences: Voodoo Doughnuts. We took Erik's advice and went to their second store (NE Davis) to avoid the massive queues of the downtown branch - the queue was definitely shorter, but the store was still rammed with people the whole time we were there.

Voodoo has somehow become a phenomenon - the stores are open 24 hours a day and are constantly busy, with streams of people gorging themselves or loading up boxes of doughnuts to take home as souvenirs (we spotted a few of their striking pink boxes at the airport as we flew out). They made their name selling crazy concoctions - doughnuts glazed with NyQuil or flavoured with Pepto-Bismol and dotted with Tums. The FDA eventually put a stop to the pharmaceutical doughnuts, but the store was already famous and they've continued to thrive by offering a baffling array of doughnuts to choose from - there's toppings like cap'n crunch, bacon, and Oreos as well as more conventional options, loads of vegan doughnuts and their signature voodoo doll doughnut, a chocolate coated little guy with a pretzel for stabbing and a torso full of gooey raspberry jam. We ordered a froot loop doughnut and a vegan pumpkin doughnut with chocolate frosting to really embrace the experience. It was fun, but I'm not sure I really understand the allure beyond the novelty value. 

After a sugar-induced afternoon breakdown we headed north again to check out Last Thursday, a once-a-month street party that shuts down 15 blocks of NE Alberta (home to Back to Eden and Salt and Straw). The plan was twofold: start the evening at the much-vaunted vegan pub The Bye and Bye and then wander the streets and check out the party. Heartbreakingly though, The Bye and Bye had picked Thursday night to close for 'maintenance', leaving me cranky and hungry and without a real plan. After a bit of aimless wandering and a few near-misses at food carts (the range of mac and cheeses at The Cheese Cart nearly lured us in), I remembered reading some glowing reviews of The Bollywood Theater and we went to check it out.

With crowds of people in the neighbourhood for Last Thursday there was, unsurprisingly, a line of people streaming out the door. We joined it pessimistically, only to marvel at how quickly the restaurant was managing to shuffle people in, take their orders, get them seated and load them up with food. We were eating within half an hour I'd guess.

And we were eating well! The focus of the menu is Indian street food, so there's lots of little snacky dishes to choose from. Cindy went with two small dishes - the incredible gobi manchurian (fried cauliflower florets with lemon, curry leaves and a sweet/sour/spicy sauce, US$6.50 ~ AU$7) and a paneer kati roll (paneer, pickled onion and chutney rolled in paratha, US$6.50 ~ AU$9.10). She's still dreaming about that bread. I couldn't resist a big plate and ordered the egg masala thali - boiled eggs in a spicy tomato and yoghurt curry, with saffron rice, sambar, dal, raita, green chutney and paratha (US$12 ~ AU$12.90). It was a ludicrously sized feast of amazing flavours. Our meals had us wishing we could sample more of the menu (the spicy potato dumpling burger and the samosas both called out to me), but we couldn't do it. We didn't eat very vegan friendly meals here and the menu doesn't provide any clear labelling, but the internet assures me that there's a special vegan menu at the counter and that the options are plentiful and tasty. 

After wandering through the street party some more - break dancing, dodgy stalls, some cute little art galleries - we found our way to dessert via another trip to Back to Eden Bakery. We had to try their vegan soft-serve icecream, and US$6.50 (~AU$7) scored us a Sauvie Island (soft serve, almonds, coconut flakes and berry sauce). It did not disappoint. The ice cream is apparently soy based (made by these guys) but it didn't have that off-putting tofu after taste. Not quite as impressive as the fancy flavours at Salt and Straw but a brilliant vegan alternative, enhanced by excellent toppings.

Fully sated and with darkness approaching we made our way back to the bus stop for home. The street party ends very abruptly at 9:30 when the street is reopened to traffic, but the Prince tribute act kicking out the jams in the foodcart pod kept us rocking until it was time to depart.

Portland, OR | Day 3

June 25, 2014

We returned to the north east on Wednesday, starting out with breakfast at one of K's favourites, Back To Eden Bakery. It wasn't difficult to see why she was so fond of it - its cute vintage look, not to mention the entirely vegan and gluten-free goods, was just K's style. And their food was excellent on anyone's terms. We shared a smoked tempeh, mozzarella and fig scone (US$3.50 ~ AU$3.70), an asparagus-kale cashew tart (US$6 ~AU$6.40) and a lemon coconut cream pie (US$6.50 ~ AU$6.90). These wonderful morsels had me hatching plans for my own oven, though I can barely hope to bake as well as the pros at Back To Eden.

We wandered North East Alberta for a while, poking our noses into shops and galleries, taking note of other cafes, bars and restaurants we wanted to try later.

One of them was Salt & Straw, an icecreamery that came recommended by our walking tour guide Erik. He boasted about their extensive and imaginative flavours, with new limited edition options popping up every season. The staff were enthusiastic about what they were selling - natural, organic and local-as-possible ingredients - and were generous with the free taste tests. I didn't notice any vegan-friendly labelling, but these are folks you could quiz (you'd surely be half a chance with the fruit flavours). Michael ordered a waffle cone of one of their cocktail series specials, rhubarb and saffron in champagne, while I tried a cup of their oddball pear and blue cheese icecream (US$3.95 ~ AU$4.20 each). These were dense, smooth custards with carefully rendered flavours; no wonder we saw queues out the door every subsequent stroll past the shop.

And stroll we did, for a while longer, before getting on a bus back toward our accommodation.

We made a stop along the way at Blossoming Lotus for a late lunch. This was not the hippy-dippy Asian-fusion cafe I was expecting from that name. Instead we experienced refined, understated decor and a menu of thoughtfully composed salads, bowls, sandwiches and tacos, all vegan. Michael ordered the Whiskey Ginger BBQ Sandwich and was somehow served up the BBQ Bowl (US$12 ~ AU$12.80). He didn't demur; it held tasty helpings of whiskey ginger bbq soycurls, potato salad, mac and cheese, and green apple slaw. I imagined the Cobb Salad (US$13 ~ AU$13.90) would be a modest choice yet was delivered an enormous platter of food, what seemed like an entire shredded lettuce topped with (left to right) impressively crispy coconut bacon, fresh beetroot strips, sliced cucumber, some underwhelming 'pecan chorizo', surely an entire tomato, half an avocado and a tub of caper ranch dressing. I did my darnedest.

We took another easy afternoon (a bit of a Portland pattern) and returned to NE Alberta for a dinner reservation at Natural Selection. As you might imagine, this is a restaurant focused on seasonal plant-based ingredients and they tend towards European styles of preparation. It's cosy yet upbeat, and not too formal. The kitchen offers two alternative dishes across each of four courses, at least one of which is vegan and gluten-free; with two of us at the table we were able to sample all eight plates (at US$45 ~ AU$48pp).

They started us off with a small but complex amuse bouche of beetroot and pear cubes and watermelon radish in a vinaigrette, garnished with shallots and beetroot soil.

For the first course, there was a velvetty asparagus, leek and potato soup garnished with parsnip, chives and lemon oil. It was just barely outdone by a dish of chestnut pasta with rapini, garlic, chilli, raisins and parmesan - I loved their light hand on the dressing and generous use of fresh greens, proving that pasta can be light and summery.

Next, salads. The left plate combined butter lettuce and apricots with pickled strawberries, snap peas and pistachio cream. On the right we had a more astringent mix of lettuces and icicle radish with orange, dried fig, fennel and fried olives.

The main dishes were warmer and heftier, though they still had their fine dining flourishes. Michael preferred the wild rice and beetroot (pictured left) with mushrooms, cider, fennel and a thick parsnip puree. I was more taken by the peas and carrots, though the confit carrots were tough to get a knife through - a bit of mint really lifted the pea puree.

A small serve of lemon ginger cinnamon granita perked me up no end. Given how well these ingredients work in pairs, I shouldn't have been so surprised that they were a great trio.

The lychee gelee dessert (pictured right) was always going to be a hard sell for me, but some strawberries set it right. (While I'm not afraid of basil in a dessert, the granita and deep-fried leaf here didn't help me out.) The cherry and cornmeal upside down cake (pictured left) was more predictably our style, served with a stunning orange and balsamic icecream.

This was a good meal in a splendid restaurant; I was glad to eat such a variety of fresh produce. Not all of the fancy accents and nth ingredients enhanced my enjoyment but there were a couple of memorable moments - the chestnut pasta, lemon granita and orange icecream among them.

Portland, OR | Day 2

June 24, 2014

I started our second full day in Portland early, jumping on a bus down to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge for a few hours of birding. It's a lovely park - beautiful forest, a big lake and heaps of birds. There's a slideshow below - for those playing along at home, the birds pictured are:

• Lesser goldfinch
• Song sparrow
• Bushtit
• Downy woodpecker
• A deer! (not a bird, I know)
• Cedar waxwing

Cindy and I arranged a post-birding rendezvous at Junior's Cafe, a popular and vegan-friendly brunch joint just off Hawthorne in the South East. It's a cosy space with stylish wallpaper, a few cute pictures and lots of beautiful old fashioned framed mirrors on the wall. It's a small-ish room and on a Tuesday morning things are pretty quiet, although it seems as though things get busy on the weekends. The staff are charming and friendly and were happy to load me up with coffee while I waited for Cindy to turn up.

The menu is massive, with a mix of meaty, eggy and vegan dishes - most everything has a vegan version, so there's French toast, scrambled tofu, vegan sausage, even spud-based brekkies (no pancakes though, strangely). I continued my adventures in scrambled tofu, ordering the Superhero (scrambled seasoned tofu with tomatoes, vegan sausage, green onions and spinach, served with toast and spuds, US$9.50 ~ AU$10.10). I'll tell you this: Americans really know their way around scrambled tofu - it was consistently good wherever we travelled and Junior's was no exception. The fancy ketchup didn't hurt either.

Cindy went for the vegan French toast with a side of fresh fruit (US$7 + US$4.50 ~ AU$12.30). She had no regrets, but I really thought she should have gone with the full vegan French toast meal (featuring scrambled tofu and sausage).

We waddled off from brekkie to meet up with the free Secrets of Portlandia walking tour in the city. It's run by the charming and funny Erik Kennon and involves a couple of entertaining hours hearing a nice overview of the city's quirky history. Highlights include the Portlandia statue (top left) and the world's smallest city park (bottom left).

The tour finishes right by Voodoo Doughnuts, but we decided to hold off on the sugar and explore one of the big food cart blocks in the city - there's something like 70 different vendors taking up the block of SW Adler from 9th to 10th. After a quick lap, we settled on Satay Indonesia, which offers tempeh and tofu skewers alongside meatier alternatives. We skipped the satay and went with the grilled tempeh and tofu combo (served with rice and coconut curry, bok choy, picked cucumbers, tossed greens, pineapple, kecap manis and chilli sauce, US$7 ~ AU$7.50). It was incredible - among our favourite meals in Portland I'd say (the super sweet condensed milk coffee didn't hurt either).

We took the afternoon off to recuperate before our first fancy-ish dinner in Portland at Portobello Vegan Trattoria, an Italian-style vegan place on SE Division (just across from Los Gorditos).

The menu has a complicated structure - there are antipasto plates, burgers, pizzas, starters, pastas and main dishes. I pushed hard for the set menu deal (one starter, one pasta, one main and one dessert for US$38 ~ AU$40.50 each), but Cindy spotted the size of the dishes on other tables and talked me out of it. A confession: she was totally right.

Instead, we combined a little gem caesar salad (romain lettuces with vegan caesar dressing, fried capers and garlic toast, US$9 ~ AU$9.60), roast corn ravioli (fresh pasta stuffed with roast corn and cashew cheese served with basil fondue and asparagus fava bean succotash, US$14 ~ AU$14.90) and a portobello steak with crispy onion rings and housemade steak sauce served with roasted asparagus, radishes, spring onions and gold potatoes (US$16 ~ AU$17)

The caesar salad was bit lettuce heavy for my tastes, but the other dishes were amazing - the pasta rich and creamy and laden with wonderful fresh veggies and the mushroom steak marinated brilliantly and accompanied by more great vegetables. Superb. The pizzas that came out around us looked incredible too, but sadly we didn't get a chance to try them - I guess another trip to Portland is in order!

Our lack of pizza was made up for by a dessert each - a blueberry tart (short bread crust, almond frangipane and strawberries with blueberry sauce, US$8 ~ AU$8.50), the chocolate mousse (with whiskey-coffee granita and orange hazelnut praline, US$8 ~ AU$8.50) and a scoop of the salted caramel coconut ice cream (US$3 ~ AU$3.20). Both dishes were meant to come with coconut chantilly cream, but the kitchen was out (they warned us at least) and both would have benefited from some sort of creamy accompaniment. A minor complaint though - they were both great dishes.

Portobello is a wonderful restaurant - it was buzzing on the Tuesday night we visited and is clearly a go-to place for Portland vegans looking for a slightly upmarket meal. It should be on any visitor's must-visit list.

Portland, OR | Day 1

June 23, 2014

Portland, Oregon was our next destination following New York! I first knew this city as the home of the Dandy Warhols, though in the past five or so years it's developed a reputation as one of the world's most vegan-friendly cities, and more recently still it's gained widespread fame through the TV show Portlandia.

On our first Portland morning we hit the Pearl District for breakfast, tracking down a cafe that came recommended by one of my colleagues. Prasad is set inside a yoga studio and is naturally full of raw foods and vege bowls with a sprinkling of dubious health claims. The only non-vegan ingredient I noticed in their menu was raw honey. Notes around the cafe request that guests respect the practising yogis with quiet behaviour, but the juicer is the most disturbing patron by far.

In stark contrast to his pancake bowl the previous morning, Michael took on the Lovejoy Scramble (US$9 ~ AU$9.60) - a bowl filled with smokey tempeh, mustard, maple roasted carrots, slow roasted tomatoes, kale, avocado and scallions on brown rice. It was definitely the right thing to do. I worked my way through the smaller, denser Rogue Oatmeal bowl (US$7 ~ AU$7.50) - gluten-free oats mixed with peanut butter, cocoa nibs, coconut flakes, peanuts, cinnamon and vanilla, garnished with banana. With regular dashes of almond milk, maple syrup and a little sneaky salt this was a very satisfying start to the day. I was really impressed by Prasad's Harlow Chai (US$3.50 ~ AU$3.70), too - it's based on coconut milk and real black tea, not flavoured syrup.

The Pearl District is also the home of Powell's Books, the world's largest independent book store. We could have easily spent hours in there, gazing at the titles and marvelling at the prices, but our luggage couldn't handle the extra weight of actually buying anything. The veg*n cooking section was large and diverse and a pleasure to browse. Here I came across the Dirt Candy Cookbook, which turned out to be a cute graphic novel, but the recipes required ingredients and equipment that I'll never access.

In the middle of the day we browsed the shops, cafes and gardens along Mississippi Ave in Portland's north-east. We spent a lot of our time and money at Reading Frenzy, a gorgeous independent press holding a variety of unique books, graphic novels, zines, prints and a modest gallery. We chatted to the friendly owner at length, and she kindly sent us off with a list of her favourite Portland businesses to visit (in addition to the zines, posters and badges we'd already bought). I got a kick out of this zine about one man's complicated relationship with food. (Here's a taste: "If the texture of a food is the same texture as I'd imagine alien wound juice being, that food is going to be a pretty hard sell for me. Puddings fall into this category.")

Michael had us on a course to collide with Homegrown Smoker, a vegan BBQ food cart. These guys have an extensive selection of burger, burritos, chili and fried things. I doubt you could do better than the Half Rack Rib platter we shared (US$7 ~ AU$7.50). These 'ribs' are applewood smoked tempeh basted in BBQ sauce, served with a hushpuppy, a tub of excellent remoulade sauce and our choice of side - sludgy, salty, savoury mac-nocheese. We accompanied it with an Arnold Palmer (US$2 ~ AU$2.10), the States' clever cocktail of iced tea and lemonade.

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon - Michael watched with World Cup with a beer while I giggled over my food zine. In the evening we set out to Los Gorditos for dinner. While there was a Pearl District branch of this taqueria a short walk from our accommodation, our mate Matt convinced us that we needed to visit the one on SE Division. It seemed strange to travel for such an ordinary, takeaway shop-style setting, but we were rewarded with an expansive Mexican menu with clearly divided 'meat' and 'vegan' sections. These guys are stocked up with vegan-friendly cheese and sour cream plus a choice of tofu, soycurls and soyrizo. 

We did our best to span the options, ordering a platter of tofu-stuffed gorditas (aka flatbreads, US$7 ~ AU$7.50) with rice and beans, a soycurl taco (US$2 ~ AU$2.10), and soyrizo-based sopes (US$6.50 ~ AU$6.90). We'd gladly recommend any of these dishes, though we suspect that soycurl-stuffed gorditas might be the optimal combination of Los Gorditos' enviable options.