Portland Day 6 and 7

For brunch we went to HomeGrown Smoker food cart- a vegan bbq themed food cart. This tiny little food cart served outstanding savoury food.



I had the frito pie. For the aussies reading fritos = brand of corn chips. This frito pie consisted of a small pack of fritos cut open with smoked beans, colesaw, and daiya cheese on top. It was magnificent. The smokiness of the beans and the bbq sauce was the best I have ever tasted and unlike anything I have ever eaten. I could have easily eaten this every day. Toby lovooooooooovvvvved his gluteny mac and cheese and burger too.

We loved it so much that we returned the following day but were so full that we shared this dish: the smoker salad with molasses cornbread, beans, soy curls, ranch dressing etc. I liked this but wasn't a fan of the molasses in the cornbread.

For dinner we met up with the friendly Ruth from Stump'd who is originally from Melbourne and who patiently asked a thousand questions and talked through lots of Portland vs Melbourne comparisons. She suggested Taqueria Los Gorditos. It is a mexican place with plenty of vegan options and pretty gluten free friendly.Toby got the tacos and chose one soyrizo, one bean and one soy curls. I wasn't sure which ones were gf so haven't posted the pic here but I tried a bit of the bean one and it was awesome particuarly with the chipolte sauce. I ordered the sopes with tofu, lettuce, avocado, cilantro and sour cream.

And to finish it off we went across the road back to Portobello and I had their ice cream. There was 3 flavours: caramel, orange cardamon and choc mint. I had choc sauce on the mint choc. It was all creamy and delicious but the salted caramel but was the star of the dish.

 The following day we went to Junior cafe for breaky. Juniors is a regular omni breakfast place which has some awesome vegan options like french toast. 

I had the vegan potato plate with gluten free vegan sausage, yes gluten free vegan sausage, how awesome is that? It comes with potatoes, corn, mushrooms, zucchini and a slightly spicy tofu sauce. It was an excellent fried breakfast. Perfect for a hangover (in my case just a food hangover). The orange on the side made it seem a little healthier too. I have to admit that I copied Meghan in my idea of choosing this breaky.

For out last dinner we went to the fancy vegetarian restaurant in the vegan meca area, yes Northeast alberta street called natural selection. Both Geanna and Kittee had mentioned it so we had try it.

We chose the four course dinner for $35. For the four courses you have two menu options, but only one choice was both vegan and gluten free which made for an easy time ordering.

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the menu or take notes. I was going to attempt descriptions but figured they may be inaccurate so instead I will let the pictures do the talking and give super vague descriptions. This was a bonus entree.

Then was yummy soup

Salad

This was our fave, a vegetable dish:

I remember this one. They gave us this lime and mint granita as a palate cleanser before dessert. It was so refreshing.

For dessert we had a cherry type cake. I didn't particularly enjoy this because it was too much like fruit cake, the one dessert I'm not a fan of.

But the rest of the food was awesome, although since the dishes were all vegie based, there was not enough protein for Toby.

I have a confession to make too, I couldn't resist trying something else from back to eden bakery again, so while we were waiting for our food, I ran down the street a few blocks to buy a few more things for after dinner and for the flight the next day. I must have been gone a while because the waitress asked Toby if I was ok. It was worth it thought because I got a vegan and gluten free boston cream pie!!!!!

This dessert was the perfect way to farewell portland with it's cream around the edges and I think custard in the middle and chocolate around the edges. While the cake itself was not the greatest the package was a little piece of heaven.

This is our last Portland post. Portland had outstanding vegan food, there was plenty of places we didn't get to try too like off the griddle.There wasn't much else to do thought beside eating except for visiting the gigantic powells bookstore, where there was two high aisles of vegan cookbooks and even a little note saying 'are you looking for vegan and gluten free cookbooks?' and the record label tender loving empire store which sold their own cds, records and cute jewellry.

Goodbye Portland, we will miss you!