Wednesday 2 July 2014

USA 2013 - Part 2 (Portland)

Portland has vegan options hiding everywhere, so the following morning we headed out to Flavour Spot, which has a vegan waffle option. We went to the North Fremont and Mississippi location, which is just a little cart with an undercover seating area.

Vegan Waffle Sandwich (sausage, maple cream, waffle) at Flavor Spot


The Vegan Waffle Sandwich is a waffle with vegan sausage and maple cream. It was damn delicious! Flavour Spot is a great starting point for a couple of hours of meandering around looking at the cute shops on Mississippi. And if you don't mind a bit of a stroll, I highly recommend heading over to N Williams Ave to visit the amazing Queen Bee to pick up some gorgeous vegan bags or wallets. There is also a super cute vintage shop in a double decker bus called Lodekka over there!

When near Mississippi street you must visit Mississippi Marketplace, a great collection of food carts with some amazing vegan food on offer.

Macnocheeto Burrito from Homegrown Smoker and Peach Iced tea from Native Bowl
Chili Cheese Fries from Homegrown Smoker


I had to visit Homegrown Smoker. I had been to their downtown location in 2011 and had a great eggplant burrito, but shortly after I returned home the internet exploded with posts about the MacNoCheeto Burrito. Two years later I finally got to try it! Mac and cheese, beans, soy curls and other goodies wrapped up in a burrito. This was really yummy, though perhaps did not quite reach the dizzy expectations of all the hype. Ashleigh ordered the chilli cheese fries, which were also good.

Mississippi Marketplace is also the home of Native Bowl. At the time this was run by the fabulous Julie Hasson, though it now has new owners as Julie is focusing on her amazing range of gluten free baking mixes, Julie's Original.

Me with Julie Hasson outside of Native Bowl


I had the chance to catch up with Julie over lunch. We had a lovely time talking about baking and recipes, and it was amazing getting to meet the author of one of my favourite cookbooks, Vegan Diner. If you don't have it, you should order it (and also order Vegan Pizza while you are at it). Meeting Julie was certainly a highlight of the trip!

After heading in to downtown to check out the Portland Art Museum, we went to White Owl Social Club for dinner. This was shortly after VVC, and the talk of the blogs was the vegan Mac and Cheeseburger on the menu.

Mac and Cheese Burger at White Owl Social Club
Kale Slaw at White Owl Social Club
Mac and Cheese Burger at White Owl Social Club


We also got some Kale Slaw for some greens. Let me tell you, this burger exceeded all expectations. I don't know if I can adequately explain the beauty of this burger. The patty is made out of mac and cheese! Sadly it seems to no longer be on their menu, so you will just have to imagine it.

S'mores (with non-vegan graham crackers) at White Owl Social Club


We ordered the vegan S'mores for dessert, however when they came to the table the waitress told us that the crackers had honey in them, which we hadn't been told when ordering at the bar. Honey is obviously not going to be passing my lips. They ended up taking it off our bill, which was nice, and we ate the chocolate and marshmallows. I think I almost set every single marshmallow on fire, I don't have the gift of the natural marshmallow toaster!

The next morning we headed out to Back to Eden Bakery. Ever since a visited this gorgeous gluten-free vegan bakery in 2011 I had been obsessed with going back to this magical place!

Chai at Back To Eden
Mushroom and Leek Quiche at Back To Eden
Tempeh, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche at Back To Eden
Marionberry Coffee Cake at Back To Eden
Back To Eden
Back To Eden
Vanilla Soft Serve with Berry Sauce, Coconut Flakes and Banana at Back To Eden


Chai, Mushroom and Leek Quiche, Tempeh, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche, Marionberry Coffee Cake, adorable interiors, stuffed bakery cases and a Vanilla Soft Serve Sundae with Berry Sauce, Coconut Flakes and Banana. A very successful outing! I wish I could have eaten more!! And more! And more!

1 comment:

  1. I ate almost everything in this post when I was in Portland too!! I loved that mac and cheese burger so damn much and I hope that the s'mores I had at White Owl didn't have honey, that'd be pretty sucky of them not to tell us!

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