Portland Reminiscing: Coffee & Donuts

I'm having a rough day so I was reviewing Portland pictures for a good dose of happy. I edited my first batch while I was at it, so I figured I would send some of my happy out to you along with recommendations if you find yourself in PDX.

The first thing we did after rolling in to the City of Roses was to grab donuts, except that we weren't satisfied with doing de rigueur and hitting up Voodoo. Our research led us to the conclusion that Blue Star would be our happy place and by golly was it! The flavor combos made it impossible to choose just one each, so we loaded up a box with a passion fruit and cocoa, coconut coffee cheesecake, blueberry bourbon basil, salted caramel, hazelnut dulce de leche, and a hard apple cider fritter. As if those don't sound like heaven on their own, these are not your typical donuts. The dough is a buttery soft, melt in your mouth, angel kiss brioche. The flavors are explosive and potent, but somehow still seductively subtle and very well paired. I die. My only regret was that we didn't try them all! Also, though we didn't get coffee there, they get bonus points for the beautiful La Marzocco. P.S. There bathroom was very clean and warm and smelled like donuts (you know how public bathrooms can be cold and weird, just me? Maybe I'm weird?).

We took a walk with our donuts over to Coffeehouse Northwest, where we fell in love with their mochas on our first Portland visit. We aren't even mocha people anymore and we thoroughly enjoyed them. Plus the barista was adorable, friendly, and knowledgable. She even directed us towards some good shops and roasters we hadn't tried back home in Seattle. 

So these are the captures from our first morning. I'll have more coming with pictures from activities like visiting Pittock Mansion, Multnomah Falls, our hotel, and our other food adventures and pitfalls, plus a bonus! Keep your eyes open. o.o

10 Things: Coffee Edition

Day 14: 10 things that make you really happy.

Since coffee is one of my greatest loves, I thought I would theme this little list accordingly.

1. Pretty mugs.
2. Chemex
3. Americanos
4. La Marzoccos
5. Beautifully designed cafes.
6. Aeropress
7. Lavender lattes.
8. Stumptown
9. Pairings (shortbread, donuts, pellegrino, croissants, etc.)
10. Coffee nerds.

It's Too Late To 'Pologize...But...

Day 13: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny, serious, or creative as you want.

Before I make some sort of apology I have to make some confessions. You see, I'm one of those "bad vegans" or "forgetful vegans," the ones that real vegans think are a joke and say have no right to call themselves vegans. They are right to feel that way! I may need to re-watch Earthlings every week to keep myself in line because my love of food, and my ability to eat without thought and consideration is a bit out of hand...

We decided to become vegan in September of last year, after 6 months of being vegetarian. We were vegetarian for economic purposes, and because I'm not particularly fond of meat anyways. I had entertained the thought of going vegan around the time we went vegetarian, but at that time David was resistant. When it actually came up again that maybe we should try it out it was his idea, and I was hesitant (things like butter, and cheese, and eggs in baked goods seemed like necessities in my head). Then we watched Earthlings and boom! I was horrified, David was horrified, and we didn't want to contribute to the violence, mistreatment, and superiority humans were inflicting on animals that are raised and slaughtered to feed our gluttonous race. As we delved into information about where to find key nutrients we would have a harder time getting, and finding recipes and substitutes for yummy stuff we loved that was non-vegan, I found that an all plant based diet would prevent combat the diabetes that I'm genetically predisposed to. That was a huge selling point for me in going vegan.

Now we're going to fast-forward through several glitches and cheesy pizza runs to last week when we went to Portland. While we very well could have been completely satisfied with one of the best vegan food scenes in the country we decided that vegetarian would be "good enough." So we ate basically whatever we fancied while we were there (minus meat). The only vegan things consumed were coffee and Red Bull. And then, in the Alberta neighborhood we sashayed past a japanese bistro, you know, sushi. Sushi was hands down always our favorite non-vegan food, also our first date, first dating anniversary date, first marriage anniversary date. Most of our dates ever actually. So it was sentimental, and the prices were insane(ly good), and we ate it. We ate the fish. While we were eating our way through Portland I never really felt guilty or unhealthy. The worst part of it all is that now I want to just eat whatever I feel like, like ice cream...because Salt & Straw.

I'm apologizing now to the real vegans who are strong and passionate. And to the animals who had to suffer in order for me to be a crappy human. I also apologize to my readers for being led to think that I had some awesome self control and that I don't miss sushi and cheese, and for the amount of pictures of non-vegan food you will see in the next few days of my posting from our naughty foodcation. Oh, and I apologize to my body for putting 5 pounds back on it in my discrepancies. I feel like I need to apologize and hold myself accountable so that I can get back on track. Dun dun duh...

Anybody else have any food problems? Apologies?