(no subject)
Thank you everyone who suggested yummy places to eat in Portland. I just got back and it was awesome. I had never been to Portland before so I had high expectations as I had only ever heard great things about it. Well it definitely lived up to its reputation. I loved it! I went with my boyfriend and my friend Matt. Matt is not a vegan, he eats meat and all that, but he is very open to eating vegan foods and it a very good friend. His birthday was not too long ago and he wanted all of his friends to go out to eat together, so a few days before he told me where he was thinking about going because he wanted to make sure that there would be enough for me to eat there. Which was very nice. So it was no problem getting him to go to all the yummy places with vegan treats!! He even took me to Food Fight (he drove as we do not own a car)! Yey! Anyways, here are some pictures of the food we ate. Enjoy!
So we had gone down to Portland to see the roller derby that night. Matt picked a hotel and so we stayed by the convention center. When we got there we took the train across the river to downtown to get some lunch at Vegetarian House. We had:
Beef with broccoli. Delicious. Much better than the fake beef I have had here in Seattle. And tons of broccoli!! My favorite food ever!!
We also had sweet and sour chicken (Raymond's favorite) I myself am not that big of a fan, but it was better than Bamboo Garden here as it was smaller pieces. Matt said how can you go wrong with breaded deep fried goodness drenched in sweet sauce and I said that is exactly why I do not really like it. I think it would be better if it were not fried (but maybe that is how sweet and sour chicken come if it is real chicken...I don't really know as we never ate at Chinese places or anywhere like that till I was veggie so...)
And finally we had the house special pan fried noodles I believe is what it was called (I know this picture looks like all noodles, but there were all kinds of veggies and such on top of it, I just forgot to take pictures till we had already put some on our plates). There were fake shrimp, ham, and chicken I believe on this. I was never a fan of seafood so I was not sure about the shrimp.
Close up of the shrimp and ham. I tried one of the shrimp and it made me gag. Matt and Raymond agreed they were going for texture and yeah...I know not to try that again as yucky. But maybe if you liked shrimp then it would be okay.
Here is a picture of all the food on the table. It was way too much for all of us to eat and unfortunately since we were out of town and all we didn't have anywhere to put it so we did not take the leftovers with us. But after lunch we headed over to Powell's to check that out and there was a large group of people outside with signs reading 'free group hugs' so I totally had to get one of those. I was getting a little cranky at this point and that just made everything better and I just thought this city is amazing!
Then we had to be heading back to we could get up tot he roller derby (which was amazing!). After that we went over to the Pirates Tavern which I loved as well. A little pricey, but the food was really good. (sorry for the poor picture quality following)
Raymond and Matt both had entrees with came with soup or salad. Raymond chose the black bean soup which was good even though it was a little spicy (which I normally do not like at all)
Matt got the chili which I like better than the black bean soup. Would definitely get it again.
For the main course Raymond had beef stroganoff (I know it is almost all gone, but I forgot to take pictures when we first got the food and only remembered after we had almost finished eating) Raymond really liked it, but I thought the one I make at home was way better. Although it came with garlic bread, which I am normally not a big fan of, but this stuff was so incredibly good. I could have just eaten the garlic bread for dinner, like a whole loaf of it!
Matt had the lasagna which he really enjoyed. I only had a small piece and it was tasty.
I had the meatball sandwich (which is almost gone in this picture). In my pre-veggie days this was one of my favorite meals and this was actually the first time I have had one since going veggie (like 7 years ago). It was exactly what I had wanted. So good. I highly recommend it.
At the roller derby we had gotten a coupon for Salvador Molly's which is apparently pirate food. I was like woah 2 pirate food places in Portland? So we had to stop by there the next day and see how it compared the the vegan pirate place and well...no question the vegan pirate place was way cooler. I mean the people at the Pirates Tavern dressed up in pirate gear and there was a treasure chest and some skeletons and pirate flags and everything. Salvador Molly's....not so much. They were not dressed like pirates and they were playing some awful cover music. But then maybe it is just pirate food and not pirate themed. Either way Pirates tavern was way better.
After dinner it was getting late so we went back to the hotel. The boys were silly and stayed up playing their ds's but I went to sleep. I got up earlier than everyone else, but woke Raymond up at 9 cause I was tired of being the only one up (I didn't really feel comfortable waking my friend up he can sleep if he wants but I wanted to drag Raymond on an exploration adventure with me) So we walked from the hotel about 60 blocks up to the Vita Cafe for breakfast. I absolutely loved this place. More than any other place I have ever eaten. If I lived in the area I would go here all the time. All of their energy is from renewable sources, the compost their kitchen and leftover scraps, everything is made from recycled things....man I loved it. And the breakfast was the best breakfast I have had in a very long time. Highly highly highly recommend this place.
I had the complete breakfast (Raymond and Matt both had egg scrambles as they are not vegan, but they both said their breakfast was tasty). My breakfast consisted of Steamed veggies, Tofu, Potatoes, Biscuits with almond gravy (I had never had biscuits and gravy in my 26 years of existence but these were so good I will definitely have to try making some myself) and I had a side of tempeh bacon. Not sure how I felt about the tempeh bacon as well...it was just like tempeh which is alright but not my favorite, but the rest of the breakfast was delicious. I was so full though for the rest of the day that we did not go to the Paradox as I was planning as there was no way I could eat anything else till like 7 that night and by that time I was home. But it is definitely on my list for next time I go down there.
We did stop at Tao of Tea though to get warmed up as it was a little chilly in the shadows and the wind. I couldn't eat anything, but Ryamond got a moon cake and Matt had something which I am told was kinda like cotton candy as it melts in your mouth but not as fast so it is more savory. I am not sure if they were vegan at all as I was not having any so I didn't ask. But I was told they were good. And the tea was very good and I really liked the lady who helped us and just the place as a whole.
Then after tea we headed over to Food Fight!
I got a selection of their jerkys and some of the gummy candies (they were my favorite candies, but I have never had one that was actually gummy like the ones with gelatin are) There gummies were very good, but more like fruit leather that gummy candy. I have yet to try the jerky. I could have gotten a lot more but I would have wanted to try some of the frozen stuff and I was not prepared for the long drive back to Seattle so next time I will have to plan ahead.
Raymond picked up a brownie there and it was alright. I would have liked it to have been sweeter and more gooey, but he enjoyed it (we were int he store and I had paid and I was all 'you are getting a brownie?' and he was all "feel it! it is soft!' apparently the softness was one of the deciding factors (besides the fact that he is a junk food fiend). And that wraps up our trip to Portland!. Thanks everyone for your great suggestions!
Cross posted to veganfoodpics
So we had gone down to Portland to see the roller derby that night. Matt picked a hotel and so we stayed by the convention center. When we got there we took the train across the river to downtown to get some lunch at Vegetarian House. We had:
Beef with broccoli. Delicious. Much better than the fake beef I have had here in Seattle. And tons of broccoli!! My favorite food ever!!
We also had sweet and sour chicken (Raymond's favorite) I myself am not that big of a fan, but it was better than Bamboo Garden here as it was smaller pieces. Matt said how can you go wrong with breaded deep fried goodness drenched in sweet sauce and I said that is exactly why I do not really like it. I think it would be better if it were not fried (but maybe that is how sweet and sour chicken come if it is real chicken...I don't really know as we never ate at Chinese places or anywhere like that till I was veggie so...)
And finally we had the house special pan fried noodles I believe is what it was called (I know this picture looks like all noodles, but there were all kinds of veggies and such on top of it, I just forgot to take pictures till we had already put some on our plates). There were fake shrimp, ham, and chicken I believe on this. I was never a fan of seafood so I was not sure about the shrimp.
Close up of the shrimp and ham. I tried one of the shrimp and it made me gag. Matt and Raymond agreed they were going for texture and yeah...I know not to try that again as yucky. But maybe if you liked shrimp then it would be okay.
Here is a picture of all the food on the table. It was way too much for all of us to eat and unfortunately since we were out of town and all we didn't have anywhere to put it so we did not take the leftovers with us. But after lunch we headed over to Powell's to check that out and there was a large group of people outside with signs reading 'free group hugs' so I totally had to get one of those. I was getting a little cranky at this point and that just made everything better and I just thought this city is amazing!
Then we had to be heading back to we could get up tot he roller derby (which was amazing!). After that we went over to the Pirates Tavern which I loved as well. A little pricey, but the food was really good. (sorry for the poor picture quality following)
Raymond and Matt both had entrees with came with soup or salad. Raymond chose the black bean soup which was good even though it was a little spicy (which I normally do not like at all)
Matt got the chili which I like better than the black bean soup. Would definitely get it again.
For the main course Raymond had beef stroganoff (I know it is almost all gone, but I forgot to take pictures when we first got the food and only remembered after we had almost finished eating) Raymond really liked it, but I thought the one I make at home was way better. Although it came with garlic bread, which I am normally not a big fan of, but this stuff was so incredibly good. I could have just eaten the garlic bread for dinner, like a whole loaf of it!
Matt had the lasagna which he really enjoyed. I only had a small piece and it was tasty.
I had the meatball sandwich (which is almost gone in this picture). In my pre-veggie days this was one of my favorite meals and this was actually the first time I have had one since going veggie (like 7 years ago). It was exactly what I had wanted. So good. I highly recommend it.
At the roller derby we had gotten a coupon for Salvador Molly's which is apparently pirate food. I was like woah 2 pirate food places in Portland? So we had to stop by there the next day and see how it compared the the vegan pirate place and well...no question the vegan pirate place was way cooler. I mean the people at the Pirates Tavern dressed up in pirate gear and there was a treasure chest and some skeletons and pirate flags and everything. Salvador Molly's....not so much. They were not dressed like pirates and they were playing some awful cover music. But then maybe it is just pirate food and not pirate themed. Either way Pirates tavern was way better.
After dinner it was getting late so we went back to the hotel. The boys were silly and stayed up playing their ds's but I went to sleep. I got up earlier than everyone else, but woke Raymond up at 9 cause I was tired of being the only one up (I didn't really feel comfortable waking my friend up he can sleep if he wants but I wanted to drag Raymond on an exploration adventure with me) So we walked from the hotel about 60 blocks up to the Vita Cafe for breakfast. I absolutely loved this place. More than any other place I have ever eaten. If I lived in the area I would go here all the time. All of their energy is from renewable sources, the compost their kitchen and leftover scraps, everything is made from recycled things....man I loved it. And the breakfast was the best breakfast I have had in a very long time. Highly highly highly recommend this place.
I had the complete breakfast (Raymond and Matt both had egg scrambles as they are not vegan, but they both said their breakfast was tasty). My breakfast consisted of Steamed veggies, Tofu, Potatoes, Biscuits with almond gravy (I had never had biscuits and gravy in my 26 years of existence but these were so good I will definitely have to try making some myself) and I had a side of tempeh bacon. Not sure how I felt about the tempeh bacon as well...it was just like tempeh which is alright but not my favorite, but the rest of the breakfast was delicious. I was so full though for the rest of the day that we did not go to the Paradox as I was planning as there was no way I could eat anything else till like 7 that night and by that time I was home. But it is definitely on my list for next time I go down there.
We did stop at Tao of Tea though to get warmed up as it was a little chilly in the shadows and the wind. I couldn't eat anything, but Ryamond got a moon cake and Matt had something which I am told was kinda like cotton candy as it melts in your mouth but not as fast so it is more savory. I am not sure if they were vegan at all as I was not having any so I didn't ask. But I was told they were good. And the tea was very good and I really liked the lady who helped us and just the place as a whole.
Then after tea we headed over to Food Fight!
I got a selection of their jerkys and some of the gummy candies (they were my favorite candies, but I have never had one that was actually gummy like the ones with gelatin are) There gummies were very good, but more like fruit leather that gummy candy. I have yet to try the jerky. I could have gotten a lot more but I would have wanted to try some of the frozen stuff and I was not prepared for the long drive back to Seattle so next time I will have to plan ahead.
Raymond picked up a brownie there and it was alright. I would have liked it to have been sweeter and more gooey, but he enjoyed it (we were int he store and I had paid and I was all 'you are getting a brownie?' and he was all "feel it! it is soft!' apparently the softness was one of the deciding factors (besides the fact that he is a junk food fiend). And that wraps up our trip to Portland!. Thanks everyone for your great suggestions!
Cross posted to veganfoodpics