portland, or (yes, through a straw...)

So my faithful blog followers (of which I'm sure there are at least one or two of you out there!?), you are wondering where I have been? Well, I've been in the beautiful and wonderful city of Portland, OR! Ok, ok... so I know that one of the central concepts of blogging is that it travels to where the action is, which for me and my straws was in Portland this past weekend. But something else happened to me as a result of my bike accident, and that was the increased desire to spend as much time as possible living completely in the present. So I decided to leave the internets behind for my quick trip to Portland. Now that I'm back, I bring you Portland's veg. straw food, and let me tell you, it was spectacular!

Shortly after my arrival at the wonderful Ace Hotel, I headed out for a stroll in the sun, on a mission for a delicious soup, particularly hungry after the long journey and utter lack of food I could consume along the way (besides a Naked smoothie at the airport.) My first soup was at the "Savor" food cart. For those of you who have not been, Portland has the most wonderful street food vendors of any (US) city I have ever been to. There is so, so much delicious fresh, cheap local food. I was blown away.
Savor didn't have any totally pureed soups on the menu that day, so they heated up some of the previous day's roasted red pepper soup, special for me. It, and the ecotainer it came in, was perfect.
That night I had dinner over at my friend Dan and Robin's house, and was treated to a wonderful homemade potato leek soup, made with fresh grass fed goat's milk. It was out of this world. (We even got to visit the goat's that afternoon, and I have to say they are the happiest, most adorable goats I've ever met!)

The next day, I started out my day with a nearly perfect soy latte from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, which is connected to the Ace. I know I'm gushing a lot in this post, but I can't help but gush, so here I go again... Stumptown's latte was sooooooooo good!Lunch later that day, was soup from another street vendor, this time the "Spoon" cart. Spoon had delicious fresh tomato basil soup that, once again, was phenomenal. For real. Tasty bits of perfectly ripe tomatoes, and lots of fresh basil. This wasn't your mamma's tomato soup. (And while my mom makes the best grilled cheese in the world, I just was never into the Campbell's tomato soup she'd try to make me have with it.)

My last meal in Portland was soup and wine at the classy 23 Hoyt, where my friend Robin's sister works. The restaurant is beautiful, and is committed to local seasonal produce, and sustainability. I had two bowls of their spicy asparagus soup- it was so delectable, just one wouldn't do.

In sum, I <3 PORTLAND, and Portland through a straw is fabulous! And hey, the people aren't bad either. Especially all of those bikers... thanks for the inspiration.