USA 2013 - Part 5 (Seattle)

The next day was the first day of the conference, so I had a quick breakfast by the waterfront of banana bread and chai from Cinnamon Works and a doughnut peach. Then it was up to the Convention Center and learning until lunch.



The Convention Ceter is right next to Cyber-Dogs, a vegetarian hot dog and internet cafe that can make everything vegan on request. Hurrah! I ordered a Philly Dog - spicy sausage with cheese, grilled mushrooms and onions. As you can see, these are not hot dogs you can really pick up and eat as they are drowning in delicious toppings! Knife and fork business.

After the afternoon sessions at the conference, I met Ashleigh (who was not going to the conference) at the hotel and we caught the monorail to the Seattle Center for a short walk up to Bamboo Garden. Bamboo Garden was the first place I ever ate in Seattle in 2011, and is almost a completely vegan Chinese restaurant except for the fortune cookies they give you with the bill that have egg in them. So decline those.





I ordered the Hot and Sour Soup, which is my favourite soup, though this one was too sweet. We also had some fantastic Singapore Noodles (I love Singapore Noodles!). I also ordered some General Tso Chicken out of curiosity. I knew it would be deep-fried, but I wasn't prepared for the level of deep-fried... the batter was so thick! It was not quite my cup of tea, but Ashleigh enjoyed it a lot.




The next morning I went to an early breakfast session, and had a completely uninspiring breakfast of fruit and leftover banana bread. But for lunch I met up with Ashleigh for lunch at Cafe Pho, which has several vegan options. I ordered the Vegan Phở, which was very nice, but I definitely had order envy for Ashleigh's grilled tofu, which had a black bean, ginger and mirin sauce that was delicious.

For dinner that night, after I had finished with the conference, we went out to Plum Bistro. I was so excited to be going here, as it has a reputation for being amazing and fancy and delicious! We arrived fairly early, but were seated at the bar because it gets so busy! You can't make reservations for two, so if you are going it pays to plan for an early dinner.







We started with some of their famous cajun-spiced Mac 'n' Yease, which was delicious, and some lovely fresh Fennel Slaw. Ashleigh ordered the Tortellini with Bitter Greens, but was a bit disappointed as the pasta dough was a bit undercooked. I ordered Trumpet Mushroom Scallops with Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Mash, which was out of this world delicious. The cauliflower mash in particular was worth licking the plate for (I didn't, but I wanted to). We also got a wonderful Avocado Roll, as I was still a bit peckish and was super keen to sample as much as I possibly could. To finish up, I had a gorgeous Plum and Rhubarb Tart with Elderflower Caramel and Cardamom Ice Cream. A truly fabulous meal!

USA 2013 - Part 4 (Seattle)

On of my favourite things to do in Seattle is to head down to Pike Place Markets, pick up some breakfast from Cinnamon Works and then sit overlooking the waterfront.




Pretty gorgeous view, right? This morning I had an almond poppy seed muffin with a chai (which was very heavy on the cinnamon) before going for a wander through the markets.




One of the best things about the markets is the gorgeous peonies. They are my very favourite flowers! I also love all the gorgeous fruit and vegetables that are available. There are a lot of other fun shops at the markets as well.




We went for a stroll along the waterfront to another of my Seattle favourites, the Olympic Sculpture Park. What is not to love about an outdoor sculpture park overlooking the water?




The park is a short walk up a hill to the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle. And also home to Plum Pantry, part of the Plum range of restaurants in Seattle. I ordered a smoked tofu, yam, salad and chipotle mayo sandwich with a salad plate (kale and potato, broccoli and yam, and caesar grain) with a juice.

The Seattle Center is also home to the EMP and Science Fiction Museum, which is a completely awesome place.




We saw such goodies as the actual Mr Pointy stake from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and also Jareth's costume from Labyrinth (be still my heart!).



Then it was back to Plum for some apple plum tart! I was in Seattle for a vet conference, and I had an afternoon meeting with my research supervisor and some other people who are supporting my research project. Which gave me a good appetite for dinner at Veggie Grill! This was before the downtown location was open, so we took the bus to the South Lake Union restaurant.






I ordered the Hail Kale Salad with Tempeh (which I had heard Our Hen House raving about) and a side of Mac and Cheese. The salad certainly lived up to the hype! The mac and cheese was a bit gluggy, but had a great cheesy flavour. Ashleigh was keen to try the Buffalo Wings, which she loved. I had one and thought the texture was a bit funny but the buffalo flavour was not too spicy. I also got some Taquitos, which is when I discovered I am not a big fan of Gardein chicken, hence why I thought the texture of the wings was strange. I understand that I am in the minority about not liking Gardein chicken, so most other people would probably have enjoyed it.

USA 2013 - Part 3 (Portland to Seattle)

After stuffing ourselves full of amazing bakery goodness, we headed downtown for some shopping, and for some vegetables.



Prasad in the Pearl District is a fantastic wholefoods restaurant, and was the first place I ever ate in PDX back in 2011. We ordered the Urban Bowl that had greens, quinoa, kale, sea vegetables, carrots, and sesame with the garlic tahini sauce. So good! After spending some time in the magical book land of Powells, buying some vintage My Little Ponies at Billy Galaxies, stocking up on goodies at Whole Foods and finally buying some proper US-sized measuring spoons at Sur La Table, we were hungry for some dinner!

Besides the Mac and Cheese burger at White Owl Social Club, the other big thing to appear on the blogs post-VVC was the fancy downtown restaurant Departure, which is on the top floor of a building. Departure is not all vegan but has a great vegan menu. Of course Ashleigh and I ordered a number of great sounding dishes.








We had Salt and Pepper Tempeh (which included nooch!), Sweet Potato Tempura Sushi, BBQ Tempeh Buns, Wok Fired Brussels Sprouts and Vegetable Tempura. Dessert was a delicious Almond, Strawberry and Nashi Crisp with Almond Ice Cream. I cannot recommend Departure highly enough, I wish I could have eaten a million more things! If you are going to Portland, make yourself a reservation and enjoy.




The next day we headed to the now closed Dovetail for breakfast. I was hoping to try their famous biscuits and gravy, but it turned out that they only have those on weekends. Instead I had a lovely Blueberry Muffin and a Lavender Rose White Tea, and Ashleigh had a scone.



I was still a little peckish, so we headed back to Sweetpea to get some biscuits and gravy! I ordered the 'Hooten', which came with tempeh, and I also got a side of potatoes and the beloved Spicy Chai. The gravy was super salty, but the potatoes and the chai were perfect.




Then it was time to say goodbye to Portland and get on the train to head towards my beloved Seattle! For train snacks I had a yummy tempeh sandwich I had bought from the fridge section at Food Fight and a Lavender Snickerdoodle from Back to Eden.

Then we were in Seattle! Hurrah! After checking into the Executive Hotel Pacific we jumped on a bus out to the University District for dinner at Araya's Place. Though Google Maps still had them at the location where I visited them in 2011 (and had a lunch buffet on a day of insane eating), but it was closed! Eeep! Thankfully we happened to stumble across a 10 Billion Lives bus full of helpful vegans who directed us to their new location, which is right near Wayward Vegan Cafe, Vegan Haven and Pizza Pi (more on them later).






I love fresh coconut juice! We ordered starters of Spring Rolls and Tofu Satay. The spring rolls were meh (I really only ever want one... they get cold so fast), but the tofu satay was incredible. Best peanut sauce ever. For mains we ordered two of our favourite Thai dishes - I am crazy for Pad See Ew and Ashleigh loves Yellow Curry. The Pad See Ew was a bit different in flavour to what I am used to... it maybe felt like it had a lot of tamarind or something in it? But it was still good. Yum!

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.



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.




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.



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.





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.



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, 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!