We slept late today (9:45), probably the latest we'd slept since our trip began. We started our day on the town by having lunch at Papa G's Vegan Organics, "the most organic restaurant in Portland, Oregon." It's actually run by my friend Marcy's cousin, but unfortunately, Marcy wasn't available to dine with us, and her cousin wasn't working while we were in there.
I was really impressed with the restaurant: cozy atmosphere, lots of variety on the menu, a phenomenal salad bar (I wanted to bring the whole bar home with me), and lots of reducing, reusing, and recycling.
I ordered the veggie curry with the coconut greens and a hibiscus tea (wherever there is hibiscus tea, I have to get a glass!).
The greens were nice and tender, the curry was thick and creamy, and their tofu is awesome! They prepare it (season, marinate) in-house.
Oh, and that hibiscus tea. Perfect amount of sweet, perfect amount of cinnamon, can I take home a barrel of it?
Boyfriend ordered the nachos, which were piled high & really darn good!
Papa G's is a great place. If I lived in Portland, I'd be a regular here.
From Papa G's, we stopped at Limbo, an ultimate spice and herb shop. (The hibiscus tea inspired this stop.)
They have every herb and spice you can think of, all arranged in giant glass jars, alphabetically.
(Snapped a pic of the giant jar o' berebere for Amber over at Almost Vegan)
Our next stop was Powell Books, the most amazing (and the largest independent) bookstore I have ever visited. Seriously, this bookstore (plus all the great food everywhere) makes me want to consider moving to Portland. It's so easy to get lost in this bookstore, swallowed up by the endless rows of books and different hallways and sections. If I lived in Portland, I would spend many hours and many days inside this bookstore. (Sorry -- no pictures of this place.)
But I do have pictures from Voo Doo Doughnut! I understand it is a downright sin to visit Portland without stopping at Voo Doo Doughnut. I was surprised that there was a line out the door when we stopped there on a weekday afternoon, but the line moved swiftly.
What to choose, what to choose...
Well, I HAD to get the actual Voo Doo Doughnut.
Loved the filling!
And then I got this ridiculous peanut butter Oreo massive mess of a donut.
Unfortunately, the Oreo chunks were soft, like they'd been sitting out too long. If they were crunchy, it would have made for a much better donut experience. The awesome peanut butter drizzle made up for it, though.
And this is where I've decided to make this a 2-part entry. More to come, folks!
In the meantime, don't forget to enter into the $35 CSN gift card giveaway! Enter and spread the word.
Oh my GAWD those nachos! What was their "meat" made out of?
ReplyDeleteHehe, berbere! Awesome :P Man, just think how much Ethiopian food you could make with all that...
And those doughnuts. No comment, too jealous. ;]
Amber Shea
I think the meat was TVP-based.
ReplyDeleteOnly 70 cents an ounce for berbere! I bought some, which means misir wat is in my future.
You visited my birth city!!! I grew up bouncing back and forth between PDX and LA!!! I love Portland more than anywhere, and although I'm a "Dairyland Vegan" now (9 months in Wisconsin!), I'll always be a Westie girl at heart! If you look at my blog and click the "donut" link on the sidebar...you'll see how pathetic I am! I have my cousin OVERNIGHT me VooDoo Doughnuts from Portland to Madison now that I'm nowhere near them!!! Hahahaha! They are THAT good!
ReplyDeletehttp://veganrockergirl.blogspot.com
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious! How the heck did you end up from the west coast to Wisconsin?!
Like you, I'm a traveler! From the time I was born to the time I graduated high school, I moved 24 times...Oregon to Utah to Cali to Mass to Oregon to New Mex and so on and so forth, but every time we'd move, our move after would either be to Oregon or Cali, so I lived in those two places the most. When I graduated high school, I spent a year in DC, then went to University in South Carolina and did my last year in Spain, then moved back to Cali, where I stayed for 5 straight years...a record for me! The man and me got bored, and literally picked a spot on the map, and a week later, we lived there!! Lucky for us, Madison is pretty rad!
ReplyDeleteAnd P.S. Powell Books is one of my all-time favorite places in the world!
ReplyDelete&0 cents an ounce is AWESOME. Wish I could find some here for that price. YAY for soon-to-come misir watt! :]
ReplyDelete