Why Portland & Tacos

Vegan Nachos from Los Gorditos

I moved to Portland in late September 2004. I moved with my boyfriend, Thomas for many reasons.
I seem to have always been keen on the idea of ‘moving’. I never envisioned myself living in my hometown 20 years, 40 years down the line. I didn’t foresee the Pacific Northwest, but another country. I still foresee myself leaving the country and working internationally, but for now Portland will be my home at least another few years (though you never know).
One of the biggest draws to Portland was its vegetarian/vegan scene. Thomas and I were moving from Boston, which is fairly veg friendly and I hear its gotten even better, but we had heard Portland and Seattle were almost as veg friendly as NYC – which already blew us away with places like Red Bamboo, Teany’s, Candle Café and Vegetarian Dim Sum House (bring on my east coast trip!!). For one, we choose Portland for its low cost of living - the price of our first two bedroom was the same price as one room I had rented in a 5-bedroom house in Somerville, MA; its liberal values, I had heard it was a good market to get into advertising, the organic produce happiness and of course, the veg-friendly appetite of the city. Which brings this post back to food.

Part of the awesomeness of Portland is that you can get a great meal at veg*n restaurants and veg-friendly ones as well. We actually know mostly veg*ns and don’t have many visitors since we’re thousands of miles away from home and all, but this makes it so easy to dine out with coworkers and colleagues. Many of my favorite meals are at non-veg specific places. Of course, Webly and I are also contributing to the Portland vegan dining scene, as is Vegan Fabulous.

This weekend I went to a ‘vegan Sunday’ at Taqueria Los Gorditos. It’s one of Portland’s food carts, and they’ve been trying out/celebrating vegan Sundays these past 3 weeks (and more to come). They have a vegan and vegetarian menu during the week, and are considering cut back, or out, of meat options altogether. The fact that they consider doing this financially and responsibly is one of the reasons I dig Portland so much. The vegan community loved their food, passed the word around and has been flocking by on Sundays, let alone on other days. I don’t consider myself a big fan of Mexican food, but there’s something about their mulita that just screams satisfaction. Yesterday, Thomas and I tried the nachos…

The end. Visit Portland. You don’t have to move here or anything, but it’s worth a visit. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll tackle my love for farmer’s markets…