Keep Portland Weird

I don't think that will be hard to do.

Bianca and I descended upon the land of eco-friendly fleece-wearing tattooed hipsters, quirky taxi drivers, the vegan homeless and the bearded last weekend hoping to eat a lot and stare at some trees.

Our first night out, we ended up at Bailey's Tavern in Downtown Portland which serves several varieties of local beer and has board games! Also, the beers are super cheap - $4.50 for a 20 oz and $2.50 for a 10 oz:

Bianca and I both ordered the peach hef, a popular local beer. Bianca asked the bartender in her best Valley girl accent if the prices were this cheap everywhere in Portland, prompting him to say yes while he silently judged us for shaving our legs and for wearing clothing probably made using sweatshop labor.

The next day, after taking a hike in Forest Park, we noshed on some food truck food for lunch.  Portland is infamous for its large variety of food trucks - many of them are clumped together in "pods" around the city.  We went to the food truck clump on SW Alder St. between 9th and 10th Aves, where approximately 25-30 trucks are lined up around a parking lot.

We were feeling carnivorous after an active morning and several of the delicious looking trucks were closed but we managed to get some solid bulgogi and ribs at an authentic Korean cart, a hefty meal for $6.

After, we washed down our meal down with a strawberry lassi from an Indian stand.  We continued sightseeing, napped and ended our day with a meal at Oba, a Latin American restaurant in the Pearl District, where everything we had, even the serrano chile-infused mojito, was delicious.

We ordered the salmon ceviche, the butternut squash enchiladas and the crispy coconut prawns to start.  The ceviche was interesting - salmon was definitely a change from typical ceviche and the orange and mango sauce it was served in was unique.  The crispy coconut prawns came with a jalapeno-citrus marmalade that was delicious and the butternut squash enchiladas were my favorite - the sweetness mixed with the tomato sauces were well balanced and unique as well.

As an entree to share, we ordered the 8 oz kobe beef steak topped with plaintains and bacon, served with a side of fresh vegetables, which was pretty much as tasty as it sounds.

Our final morning in Portland, we went to the ultimate food touristy spot - Voodoo Donuts.

Voodoo Donuts sells donuts that are unique and crazy and racy, with names and shapes that are not appropriate for my blog, and even offers marriage services.  Although they are no Bob's Donuts on Polk St, the toppings draw a huge crowd - we waited 45 minutes on a Sunday morning to get donuts.

Counterclockwise from the top: Captain Crunch Donut, a vegan cinnamon donut, a maple glazed donut with bacon on top (their famous donut) and a banana foster donut stuffed with bananas, peanut butter and chocolate.  They were all as sugary sweet and appetizing as they look, although the Captain Crunch cereal was slightly stale.

We couldn't finish the donuts, so after we took them and offered them to a homeless man, who promptly rejected them, claiming to be a "whole food-ist".  We finally convinced him to take the vegan donut.  It's people like him who will keep Portland weird.

Overall, here are my takeaways from Portland:
 - Being different is good
 - Free public transportation works
 - I will walk a long way to stand in a food truck line
 - Bob's Donuts is still the happiest place on earth