Portland, Oregon- Vegan Mecca.

I spent the second half of spring break in Portland, OR visiting another good friend. This was my first time in Portland, and really enjoyed it. I’d heard that it was a Vegan Mecca and everywhere was very Veg friendly! The city is great--very hip, and a great place to wander around. Homelessness is a big problem there, but food and shopping-wise I loved it! My omni-friend has a new-found love of cooking, and she graced us with some amazing vegan meals, after doing her research about veganism. Love her! Mmmmm Vegan Mexican Fiesta, Miso Soup, Beautiful Salads, Oatmeal “parfaits” mmmmmmmmm. Eating her meals I realized how important presentation is. Often when I’m eating at home I don’t put any effort into making my food look delicious even if it tastes that way. Even when I’m just cooking for myself I’m going to try to make my food more aesthetically pleasing!

The Portland Whole Foods carried a lot of local vegan and raw products which I brought home to sample/review. I tried a Lemon Poppyseed muffin from Everyday Cake and the GimmeGreen Amazake Rice Shake for lunch mid-Pearl district shopping expedition. The Poppyseed muffin was delicious and had great ingredients- all-organic pumpkin puree, agave, whole wheat flour, brown rice flour, olive oil and favorings. I have been wanting to try Amasake and the shake was sooo good! Its very sweet but has no added sweeteners-just the brown rice, banana, and wheat, alfalfa, oat, barley and kamut grass! All sorts of wonderful beta-carotene, calcium, chlorophyll and fiber!

We had an amazing Lebanese meal at Nicholas’s in Southeast District. They brought out a HUGE slab of pita which was great. Their Baba Ghanoug (how many different spellings of roasted eggplant spread are there????) and Lentil soup were great.

In the southeast district is also one of the greatest blocks on earth- Sweet Pea Bakery, Herbivore Clothing and Food Fight Grocery, all in a row!

We picked up two cupcakes for dessert at Sweetpea

got a zine at Herbivore

and stocked up at Food Fight!

Food Fight is an entirely Vegan “junk” grocery store!!! AHH!!! But it isn’t all “junk” food- I found the one thing I have been searching aimlessly for- gummi “bears” made entirely of fruit juice-no added sweeteners!!!!! Of course they’re not even made in the States-imported from Germany. They were quite tasty-not as sweet as a gummi bear of course, but still pretty tasty and adorable chick-shaped.

I also bought a few Raw Revolution Bars- they were much cheaper than I have ever seen them at Whole Foods which surprised me. On sale they had these “Cool Fruits- Fruit Juice Freezers” which are like “Otter Pops” but made entirely of fruit juice! It may not be summer time yet, but popsicles are good year-round, right?

It was such a relaxing spring break, I didn't study at all, which will probably be my downfall about 3 weeks from now, but I had a wonderful trip! It was nice to get out of New England and soak up the sun on the West Coast. And Boston is spoiling me with lovely weather now that I'm home! Only a month and a half of classes and then its Summer!!! But in the meantime, Spring is my favorite season and I'm ready to get out in the sunshine and start my longer runs! Farewell Winter!