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adelagiaGet ready for food porn, friends; sarea_okelani, slitherhither, and I just got back last weekend from eating all the things in Portland. On this trip, we discovered that, contrary to popular belief, our stomachs are not limitless chasms. Portland totally broke us, and we still have yet to fully recover. As Sarea noted, it feels like my stomach has a bandage on and is just limping along with a little crutch. But let's start at the beginning, which, as you may recall, is a very good place to start.
DAY 1: WE REENACT THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
We slept over at Slither's house on Monday night so we could get up at the ass crack of dawn the next day to catch a bus to the train station. All went well, from bus-catching to desperate coffee-getting to checking-in, though let me just say, if I wasn't around to listen to boarding announcements, Sarea and Slither might still be sitting in the train station right now.
On the train...
Sarea: "So... when does the trolley witch come by?"
Slither: "Just before the Dementors."
Slither brought a delightful assortment of breakfast pastries and end wedges of expensive cheeses, and we variously ate, slept, chatted, and read. Sarea, with noise-cancelling headphones on, got into her book so much she didn't even notice when the train stopped and Slither and I were gathering all the luggage from the overhead racks. Bose headphones, everyone; they work.
Portland's public transportation is lovely, and their streets are in a grid and therefore easily navigable, so we were able to find our Light Rail station with no trouble, and got 7-day passes at the ticket machine. Slither and I both paid with cash and were each rewarded with $14 in one-dollar coins, which are barely real money.
After we checked in at our hotel, our first food stop was the two-block long area of food trucks, which Portland is famous for. Nong's Khao Man Gai, a Thai chicken rice cart, came highly recommended by both real life people and travel magazines, so we zeroed in on that, as well as the Dump Truck, a dumpling place that Slither had read about. They were both overpriced disappointments. The chicken rice was like an inferior, less fragrant version of Hainanese chicken rice (a Singaporean dish), and the dumplings were just meh. I'd written down in my notebook the names of each kind we got, but they don't deserve further mention. Also, it was cold out and we were sat next to a very active construction zone, which did not aid our lunch enjoyment.
Cacao was our next stop; it's known for its sipping chocolate (in addition to various other chocolate things). We each got a Flight of Fancy, which is 3 two-ounce shots of the different sipping chocolates -- dark, cinnamon dark, and spicy dark. The latter had a little too much kick, but otherwise it was delicious. Slither was compelled to scoop all the remnants out with a coffee stirrer.
In my misguided optimism about the weather, I had only packed one cardigan in the event of a light breeze, but it was freaking cold the day we arrived (Dementors, you know; the chocolate did help), so we had to go on a massive hunt to find me a jacket. American Apparel, Target, and Nordstrom were all either crazy expensive or attempted to pass off chiffon as cold weather gear, so we ended up at Goodwill, where Slither miraculously found me a sporty little Columbia jacket that fit like a glove and that she's decided is my new favorite jacket.
Most of Portland's popular dining spots don't take reservations, so we arrived at Tasty N Alder early, before 5pm; they were open, but not serving dinner yet, so we grabbed a spot by the bar and got our drink on. Slither got a super tasty 'Elizabeth Taylor' (creme de violette, bubbles, toschi cherry), while Sarea and I boringly did beer and white wine. After the mediocrity of the food trucks, we weren't feeling all that enthused about dinner, but Tasty and Alder completely redeemed the Portland food scene for us (in fact, we decided to forgo another planned dinner spot later in the week so we could come back here). We got grilled octopus, seared scallops with mint pesto, housemade pasta with wild morels and sugar snap peas, and steak frites with shallot butter. The octopus and scallops were a revelation; they are impossible to describe without going into crazy amounts of hyperbole. The steak was fine, but not quite as amazing as the seafood, though the fries, which were probably fried in beef tallow and seasoned with truffle oil, made up for it. We ended dinner with a chocolate potato doughnut for Sarea, an alcoholic coffee drink for Slither, and chamomile tea for me. Much delight.
At the hotel...
Sarea: [makes fun of Slither for figuring out where Seahawks' FS Earl Thomas's family lives]
Slither: "Sorry if I know where things are!"
Sarea: [throws furry brown bedspread over shoulders] "I'm in Game of Thrones!"
DAY 2: WE SURVIVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH A DEATH EATER
This was pretty much the day we were all looking forward to the most -- spa day!
We'd planned to do breakfast at Two Tarts Bakery, but it wasn't yet open when we got there, and when it did open, we realized it was less bakery and more a cookie outfit. The cookies looked good, but we wanted something a little more breakfasty (or brunchy, by this time). The lady at the counter was nice and directed us to Ken's Artisan Bakery about 10 blocks away, which we industriously walked to. By the time we got there, it was almost time for their lunch menu to start, so we got sandwiches and dessert. Banh mi and a pecan tart for me; banh mi and a cherry tart for Sarea (the banh mi was recommended by the cashier); croque monsieur and a chocolate croissant for Slither. The desserts were very good, but the sandwiches were just okay.
And now, the spa. Ahhh. Dragontree Spa - believe all the rave reviews about it. I did a package with a Swedish massage, a salt scrub, and a foot bath; Slither got a deep tissue massage, foot massage, and facial; Sarea went all out with a Swedish massage, sugar scrub, foot massage and foot bath, and scalp massage. Mine finished first, so I went to a cafe next door (I forget the name; its chai was not memorable anyway) to wait and sketch people walking by. And then the cafe closed, so I had to go back to the spa to wait some more. What cafe closes before 5pm?? Anyway, while I was waiting, apparently Slither and Sarea had noticed that Sarea's masseur had a Dark Mark tattooed on his forearm, but the time they'd figured out what it was, he was already working with somebody else, so they couldn't appropriately high-five his fine taste in literature.
After Dragontree, we went for ice-cream at Salt & Straw, which has really interesting flavors, with a staple menu and a seasonal one that changes monthly. June features their cocktail series, with flavors like Chocolate Chip Mint Julep and Rhubarb and Saffron with Champagne. I got Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache in a waffle cone (awesome, if slightly too-big chunks of ganache); Slither got Pear and Bleu Cheese (which she loved); Sarea did a Flight of Four, four small scoops of Chocolate with Gooey Brownies (not chocolatey enough for her), Pear and Bleu Cheese (would have preferred more amalgamation rather than chunks of things), Sea Salt Ice Cream with Caramel Ribbon (it's her usual now), and Coconut with Petunia's Salted Caramel Bars (vegan and gluten-free, which she only realized after ordering it, and was comparatively awful). Sarea spent much of her time diligently taking photos and/or filming, and it was quite sunny this day, so all her ice-cream melted, the poor thing.
We figured the ice-cream would tide us over till dinner, as Toro Bravo is another place that doesn't take reservations. We got a table outside for drinks (red sangria for me; cider for Slither; Elderflower Austrian soda for Sarea), and eventually decided that, rather than picking our own dishes, we'd go for the Chef's Tasting Menu, at $30/person. It was a lot more than we bargained for. We started with bread and oil/butter, and the food just kept coming. Duck liver terrine, a summer berry salad, grilled octopus, bacon-wrapped dates...
After the fifth appetizer...
Adelagia: "How many people does the chef think we are??"
Sarea: "Shh!"
We were also served padron peppers, which are deliciously mild, except about every 1 in 15 peppers turns out super spicy, so it's basically a Russian roulette. I lost. I got an incredibly spicy one that completely shut my mouth down for about 10 minutes and required much chugging of sangria. That pepper was the devil.
The main course was eggplant and lamb ragu, which was unimpressive. Sarea said it tasted like something she could get at Sbarro. By this time, we were feeling pretty sated, and one of the servers told us that the next plate would be our last. We got sauteed spinach with pine nuts and golden raisins next (could've done without the raisins, because why raisins), and were ready to call it quits, but Toro Bravo wasn't finished with us, as a mountain of short ribs with clams and grilled bread landed on our table. It was so, so good, but we were all so full.
Close to the edge...
Adelagia: "My stomach says no, but my mouth says yes."
Regret sets in...
Sarea: "I wish we hadn't had the duck terrine because that was filling and morally grey." (We weren't sure if the making of pate is mean to ducks, or if that's just foie gras.)
And then despair...
[Waitress approaches the table]
Sarea: [defeated by the sheer amount of food, lost in her own world, with fists raised to the sky] "WHYYY?!"
[Waitress slinks away]
Sauteed snap peas came next and thankfully last ("This is the final dish" will haunt us all to our very graves), and by force of will, we finished it all, all 10 effing courses.
We live to tell the tale...
Sarea: "What a terrible day we've had. Hours at the spa, overfed at the expensive restaurant..."
Adelagia: "Too much ice-cream..."
Slither: "Almost forced to eat cookies for breakfast..."
sarea_okelani, slitherhither, and I just got back last weekend from eating all the things in Portland. On this trip, we discovered that, contrary to popular belief, our stomachs are not limitless chasms. Portland totally broke us, and we still have yet to fully recover. As Sarea noted, it feels like my stomach has a bandage on and is just limping along with a little crutch. But let's start at the beginning, which, as you may recall, is a very good place to start. DAY 1: WE REENACT THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
We slept over at Slither's house on Monday night so we could get up at the ass crack of dawn the next day to catch a bus to the train station. All went well, from bus-catching to desperate coffee-getting to checking-in, though let me just say, if I wasn't around to listen to boarding announcements, Sarea and Slither might still be sitting in the train station right now.
On the train...
Sarea: "So... when does the trolley witch come by?"
Slither: "Just before the Dementors."
Slither brought a delightful assortment of breakfast pastries and end wedges of expensive cheeses, and we variously ate, slept, chatted, and read. Sarea, with noise-cancelling headphones on, got into her book so much she didn't even notice when the train stopped and Slither and I were gathering all the luggage from the overhead racks. Bose headphones, everyone; they work.
Portland's public transportation is lovely, and their streets are in a grid and therefore easily navigable, so we were able to find our Light Rail station with no trouble, and got 7-day passes at the ticket machine. Slither and I both paid with cash and were each rewarded with $14 in one-dollar coins, which are barely real money.
After we checked in at our hotel, our first food stop was the two-block long area of food trucks, which Portland is famous for. Nong's Khao Man Gai, a Thai chicken rice cart, came highly recommended by both real life people and travel magazines, so we zeroed in on that, as well as the Dump Truck, a dumpling place that Slither had read about. They were both overpriced disappointments. The chicken rice was like an inferior, less fragrant version of Hainanese chicken rice (a Singaporean dish), and the dumplings were just meh. I'd written down in my notebook the names of each kind we got, but they don't deserve further mention. Also, it was cold out and we were sat next to a very active construction zone, which did not aid our lunch enjoyment.
Cacao was our next stop; it's known for its sipping chocolate (in addition to various other chocolate things). We each got a Flight of Fancy, which is 3 two-ounce shots of the different sipping chocolates -- dark, cinnamon dark, and spicy dark. The latter had a little too much kick, but otherwise it was delicious. Slither was compelled to scoop all the remnants out with a coffee stirrer.
In my misguided optimism about the weather, I had only packed one cardigan in the event of a light breeze, but it was freaking cold the day we arrived (Dementors, you know; the chocolate did help), so we had to go on a massive hunt to find me a jacket. American Apparel, Target, and Nordstrom were all either crazy expensive or attempted to pass off chiffon as cold weather gear, so we ended up at Goodwill, where Slither miraculously found me a sporty little Columbia jacket that fit like a glove and that she's decided is my new favorite jacket.
Most of Portland's popular dining spots don't take reservations, so we arrived at Tasty N Alder early, before 5pm; they were open, but not serving dinner yet, so we grabbed a spot by the bar and got our drink on. Slither got a super tasty 'Elizabeth Taylor' (creme de violette, bubbles, toschi cherry), while Sarea and I boringly did beer and white wine. After the mediocrity of the food trucks, we weren't feeling all that enthused about dinner, but Tasty and Alder completely redeemed the Portland food scene for us (in fact, we decided to forgo another planned dinner spot later in the week so we could come back here). We got grilled octopus, seared scallops with mint pesto, housemade pasta with wild morels and sugar snap peas, and steak frites with shallot butter. The octopus and scallops were a revelation; they are impossible to describe without going into crazy amounts of hyperbole. The steak was fine, but not quite as amazing as the seafood, though the fries, which were probably fried in beef tallow and seasoned with truffle oil, made up for it. We ended dinner with a chocolate potato doughnut for Sarea, an alcoholic coffee drink for Slither, and chamomile tea for me. Much delight.
At the hotel...
Sarea: [makes fun of Slither for figuring out where Seahawks' FS Earl Thomas's family lives]
Slither: "Sorry if I know where things are!"
Sarea: [throws furry brown bedspread over shoulders] "I'm in Game of Thrones!"
DAY 2: WE SURVIVE AN ENCOUNTER WITH A DEATH EATER
This was pretty much the day we were all looking forward to the most -- spa day!
We'd planned to do breakfast at Two Tarts Bakery, but it wasn't yet open when we got there, and when it did open, we realized it was less bakery and more a cookie outfit. The cookies looked good, but we wanted something a little more breakfasty (or brunchy, by this time). The lady at the counter was nice and directed us to Ken's Artisan Bakery about 10 blocks away, which we industriously walked to. By the time we got there, it was almost time for their lunch menu to start, so we got sandwiches and dessert. Banh mi and a pecan tart for me; banh mi and a cherry tart for Sarea (the banh mi was recommended by the cashier); croque monsieur and a chocolate croissant for Slither. The desserts were very good, but the sandwiches were just okay.
And now, the spa. Ahhh. Dragontree Spa - believe all the rave reviews about it. I did a package with a Swedish massage, a salt scrub, and a foot bath; Slither got a deep tissue massage, foot massage, and facial; Sarea went all out with a Swedish massage, sugar scrub, foot massage and foot bath, and scalp massage. Mine finished first, so I went to a cafe next door (I forget the name; its chai was not memorable anyway) to wait and sketch people walking by. And then the cafe closed, so I had to go back to the spa to wait some more. What cafe closes before 5pm?? Anyway, while I was waiting, apparently Slither and Sarea had noticed that Sarea's masseur had a Dark Mark tattooed on his forearm, but the time they'd figured out what it was, he was already working with somebody else, so they couldn't appropriately high-five his fine taste in literature.
After Dragontree, we went for ice-cream at Salt & Straw, which has really interesting flavors, with a staple menu and a seasonal one that changes monthly. June features their cocktail series, with flavors like Chocolate Chip Mint Julep and Rhubarb and Saffron with Champagne. I got Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache in a waffle cone (awesome, if slightly too-big chunks of ganache); Slither got Pear and Bleu Cheese (which she loved); Sarea did a Flight of Four, four small scoops of Chocolate with Gooey Brownies (not chocolatey enough for her), Pear and Bleu Cheese (would have preferred more amalgamation rather than chunks of things), Sea Salt Ice Cream with Caramel Ribbon (it's her usual now), and Coconut with Petunia's Salted Caramel Bars (vegan and gluten-free, which she only realized after ordering it, and was comparatively awful). Sarea spent much of her time diligently taking photos and/or filming, and it was quite sunny this day, so all her ice-cream melted, the poor thing.
We figured the ice-cream would tide us over till dinner, as Toro Bravo is another place that doesn't take reservations. We got a table outside for drinks (red sangria for me; cider for Slither; Elderflower Austrian soda for Sarea), and eventually decided that, rather than picking our own dishes, we'd go for the Chef's Tasting Menu, at $30/person. It was a lot more than we bargained for. We started with bread and oil/butter, and the food just kept coming. Duck liver terrine, a summer berry salad, grilled octopus, bacon-wrapped dates...
After the fifth appetizer...
Adelagia: "How many people does the chef think we are??"
Sarea: "Shh!"
We were also served padron peppers, which are deliciously mild, except about every 1 in 15 peppers turns out super spicy, so it's basically a Russian roulette. I lost. I got an incredibly spicy one that completely shut my mouth down for about 10 minutes and required much chugging of sangria. That pepper was the devil.
The main course was eggplant and lamb ragu, which was unimpressive. Sarea said it tasted like something she could get at Sbarro. By this time, we were feeling pretty sated, and one of the servers told us that the next plate would be our last. We got sauteed spinach with pine nuts and golden raisins next (could've done without the raisins, because why raisins), and were ready to call it quits, but Toro Bravo wasn't finished with us, as a mountain of short ribs with clams and grilled bread landed on our table. It was so, so good, but we were all so full.
Close to the edge...
Adelagia: "My stomach says no, but my mouth says yes."
Regret sets in...
Sarea: "I wish we hadn't had the duck terrine because that was filling and morally grey." (We weren't sure if the making of pate is mean to ducks, or if that's just foie gras.)
And then despair...
[Waitress approaches the table]
Sarea: [defeated by the sheer amount of food, lost in her own world, with fists raised to the sky] "WHYYY?!"
[Waitress slinks away]
Sauteed snap peas came next and thankfully last ("This is the final dish" will haunt us all to our very graves), and by force of will, we finished it all, all 10 effing courses.
We live to tell the tale...
Sarea: "What a terrible day we've had. Hours at the spa, overfed at the expensive restaurant..."
Adelagia: "Too much ice-cream..."
Slither: "Almost forced to eat cookies for breakfast..."
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no subject
on 2014-06-29 07:46 am (UTC)In which case: BRAVO.
*hugs*
no subject
on 2014-06-30 12:18 am (UTC)♥
no subject
on 2014-06-29 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2014-06-30 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-06-29 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2014-06-30 12:21 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-06-30 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-07-01 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-07-04 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-07-06 04:58 am (UTC)