Every year my daughter Maggie and I take a trip together. This year we decided to venture to Portland Oregon. We soon found that this was a perfect destination for us because we are Foodventurers! That just means we like to try all the best foods wherever we travel. We will drive out of our way to get to a cool food destination that we really want to try. It makes our trips so much more fun.
Here are some of our Favorite Food Finds from our trip to Portland
Brunch
Located in the historic Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland features Chef Vitaly Paley. Brunch is available on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am to 3 pm and they do take reservations. The menu has plenty of interesting food options as well as an extensive list of libations all at fair prices.
We started our brunch with the Peychaud’s Mimosa and a house made pop tart filled with delicious strawberry jam.
Maggie, a hollandaise sauce enthusiast, stuck to her guns and ordered the Egg’s Benedict. It was served on an open face biscuit rather than an English muffin which was a fun twist, and came alongside a serving of tasty breakfast potatoes.
I had the Chorizo scramble which was a combination of fry bread, spicy tomato sauce,
scrambled eggs, sour cream and avocado salsa. This was a perfect breakfast dish for me and I also ordered the delicious Imperial Breakfast Potatoes. So much food…and it was all Fabulous!
St Honore Boulangerie and Patisserie
Although Maggie had done a great job researching potential destinations for us to visit, the St Honore Boulangerie and Patisserie was as Bob Ross would say “a happy little accident.” We stumbled upon it as we were killing a few minutes before our brunch reservation. I was super excited to try there pastries and we ended up stopping a second time before leaving for the airport. We ate a bag containing a dozen of these wonderful little Chouquettes and you can never get too many macaroon’s!
Donuts
There were so many different varieties to choose from in the spinning donut case. We decided to order the Voo Doo dozen, which consists of 12 house picked varieties packed into a bright pink logo box plus a Voo Doo Doll donut for me. We picked up our box on the way out of Portland for a day trip drive out to the coast. We were grateful to have them handy to nosh on throughout our day. We ate a lot of donuts that day!
My favorite, of course, was the Voo Doo Doll donut because I am a child. It is a raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake. You know I had to poke it many times with that little pretzel stick! Fun & Tasty!
Maggie’s favorite was The Homer, a yeast ring donut with strawberry sprinkles. Truly a classic.
The donuts here are seriously foodie concoctions.
Maggie being the more adult of the two of us was excited to try the Cointreau Creme Brulee donut. It consisted of a brioche shell filled with vanilla custard, and then torch-fired to create a crisp, smoky candy shell. It comes with a squeezable vial filled with Cointreau (orange liqueur) protruding from it, which adds a sweet citrus balance when squeezed into the donut.
Since I was experiencing a parking dilemma, she picked mine out for me. She chose a Blueberry Bourbon Basil donut which combines fresh sweet blueberries with fragrant basil, and a good local bourbon. Yum!
Other Good Eats
Maggie had done her homework before our trip and knew this place would be a hit for us. Creative Thai street food served in a funky indoor/outdoor shack in the Division Street area of Portland.
She couldn’t wait to order the Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings. Chicken wings marinated in fish sauce and sugar, deep fried, tossed in caramelized Vietnamese fish sauce and garlic and served with Do Chua (pickled vegetables.) They did not disappoint. She’s still salivating over them to this day.
As an Entree, we shared an order of Sunny’s Yam Wun Sen Chao Wang. Spicy and sour glass noodle salad with naem (a house-made sour pork sausage), ground pork, mussels, dry shrimp, Chinese celery, pickled garlic, Thai chiles, shallots and carrot. Lime, fish sauce, and garlic oil dressing. The dry shrimp were a little chewy, but we really liked the spicy kick the sauce gave this dish.
Salt & Straw
This trendy ice cream shop is also located in the Division Street area and is known for hand making their chef inspired small batch ice cream. Servicing up interesting flavors like “I Oat You One,” “Churro Horchata” and “Avacado Toast Supreme.” During busy hours, the line to gain entry to Salt & Straw winds down the sidewalk. Sadly, I was just too full after our awesome dinner at Pok Pok to consume any ice cream.
Maggie tried a few flavors including “Skittles Sherbet”, which she claimed to taste like the real thing, and “Rose City Riot”, a tasty rose water and pistachio concoction, before landing on “Roasted Strawberry & White Chocolate”, served up in a hand made waffle cone. Yum!
Just Roll us Home!
I would like to say that we definitely did not starve during our trip to Portland! One of the best parts of traveling with Maggie is that we are both very adventurous eaters and we like to try….well everything! We only wish that we had more time to continue exploring all the wonderful culinary hot spots that Portland has to offer. Guess we will just have to plan another trip there!
Related Posts from our Portland Adventure:
DO Go Chasing Waterfalls – Mount Hood & The Columbia River in Oregon
Exploring the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway – Oregon
Hotel Review: Hyatt House Downtown Portland, Oregon
Hotel Review: Holiday Inn – Hillsboro Oregon
The World According to Dev 