MoFo: Strapping the feed bags on in Portland

Soooooo we missed a couple days because Blogger may have deleted my whole post when I pressed preview and it made me MAD and I needed to remove myself from it til I cooled down for the sake of the relationship. Moving on...

This box is only part of our haul.

I recently went to Portland just for the day to see Tim Kasher (AKA secret boyfriend. Secret because he may not be entirely aware of the relationship.) at the Doug Fir so obviously I needed sustenance while down there. I wanted to go to Portobello because my friend Caitlin who was with me had never been, but unfortunately it's closed on Sundays. So, although my feeding times are usually planned out to the minute when visiting Portland, we just decided to wing it. We started our day at Penzeys Spices where we spent approximately one bazillion dollars. Seriously, if you love to cook, get yourself to one of their locations. Or website. This place is epic. The staff was super friendly and helpful and even gave us some free goodies since we cleared out our bank accounts there. They also spent the time to look over our order and give us any promotions or bulk discounts that were available. I will definitely be back. By the time we were done huffing spices, we were absolutely starving so we headed over to the area the show was going to be and busted out my iPhone to see what was nearby.

Enchilada Plate with Soycurls

Turns out Los Gorditos, which I had been wanting to try, was right by there. Any restaurant that translates to "the fatties" is fine by us. Los Gorditos has a whole separate vegan menu with the option of choosing soy curls, tofu or soyrizo as the protein in the meal. They also offer vegan cheese ( pretty sure it's Follow Your Heart which I actually really like. I know some aren't fond of it.) and vegan sour cream. Just so you know, Los Gorditos is a whole order at the counter, get a number, CASH ONLY kind of place. Luckily, I am a baller (or bartender, whatever) so I had cash. Caitlin didn't, so she got to starve and see what survival of the fittest is all about. I kid. We decided on empanadas with soyrizo and enchiladas with soy curls from the "Plates" part of the menu which means both are full meals that come with rice and beans. After taking a number and finding a table, we inquired about the veganocity of the hot sauce bar and found out that they are all vegan. YES. I love spicy and prefer to be in physical pain while eating a meal. We (by we I mean Caitlin, I kept my lazy ass at the table) brought red, green, and white sauces back to the table. The green was not very spicy but delicious. I'm partial to tomatillo sauces though, so take that for what you will. The red was good and spicer than the green. The white was HOT. As in we both immediately reached for our water, hot. I mean this in a good way; I went on to pour all three sauces all over my food. The white sauce made me a happy camper and even more excited for my food. Usually, when places say something is hot they are lying and it is barely spicy at all.

Empanada Plate with Soyrizo

When the food arrived, we saw that the portions were huge! I definitely need to bring my boyfriend here (real boyfriend, not secret) because he likes to shovel mexican food in his mouthhole two hands at a time. It is quite horrifying to witness. Horrifying, yet fascinating. The enchiladas were of the standard tortilla, sauce, soycurl variety. The empanadas, on the other hand, weren't quite what I was expecting. They were really flat and only the cheese was inside them, the soyrizo was on top. I'm sure this is just because the empanadas are premade and they don't want to stuff them ahead of time with every protein option available in case some don't sell as often. This is fine by me because mexican food becomes a unified slop pretty quickly anyway, it was just not what I was expecting. Everything was delicious with one small exception. The beans were flavorless and really thin and watery. They were good mixed in with everything, but a bite of them on their own was just a boring, soupy mess. I would have preferred thick refried beans or just plain black beans. After dinner, we stopped at Food Fight because I will do slightly less damage there if I have a full belly. SLIGHTLY. My cupboard told me it needed to be filled with vegan cheese and jerky before I left.
I will definitely be back to try their other options next time I'm in town! They also had breakfast listed on a specials board which look amazing. I would be at Los Gorditos constantly if it was in my hood! Side note: the concert was amazing. Go see Tim Kasher, the Good Life, or Cursive (his other bands) if they are in your area.

Los Gorditos

1212 SE Division
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 445-6289

Hours
Mon-Sat 8 to 9
Sun  8 to 3

Mofo: Noms

Vegan Food Update!!: Caffe Dei rolled out a new breakfast sammy! Tempeh over Tacoma, definitely tasty, in my humble opinion it needed somethin' spicy added to it, but the tofu was really well seasoned, and the tempeh was tender and tasted like somebody had given it a little TLC. 





I also had the picante mocha today which is the spicy one that we didn't have a picture of last time, and like always, it rocked my world. Super amazing. 





W/ soy, extra shot, cuz I need it;) 

Vegan MoFo Day 3: Caffe Dei

Over the month, we are going to cover places with the best vegan options in Tacoma, so we'll kick it off with the new kid in town, Caffe Dei, an all vegetarian/super vegan-friendly cafe on 6th Ave. The firstthing you notice when you walk in is that the owners, Shuanna(vegan/raw foodie) and Shane (vegetarian), and staff are super friendly! They always are full of info and sincerely open to any suggestions to make the cafe even more awesome.

Onto the noms.....The drink menu is creative and unique. Shuanna especially is a true coffee snob in the friendliest and best sense of the word. When we aren't drinking

americanos, our absolute favorite is the picante mocha, which combines cayenne and chocolate, obviously one of the best flavor combinations in the whole world. There is also a delicious lavender syrup which makes for a great latte. Soy and rice milk are available. There is also a wide selection of loose leaf teas.

The food menu has a selection of sandwiches, raw food, a soup of the day, and bagels, nearly all of which are or can be made vegan. Baked goods include selections from Macrina Bakery,

Flying Apron bakery, and Mighty O Donuts. Today we got down and dirty with the BBQ "Pulled Chicken" sandwich, a Daiya grilled cheese, and minestrone soup. Sandwiches comewith a side of chips with the option of adding soup for $2 more. Gluten-free options are available. Caffe Dei also recently expanded on their hours with plans to include beer and wine in the near future. There is a nice amount of seating, free WiFi, and art and jewelry from local artists that frequently rotates. All in all, we love to get fat here.

Caffe Dei

2607 6th Ave

Tacoma, WA 98406

(253) 572-2550

Hours:

Mon 8am-10pm

Tues thru Fri 7:30am-10pm

Sat 8am-8pm

Sun 8am-pm