Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Busy Week in Portland

It's a busy week for me in my secret day life (aka my day job), with two business trips. I just returned from the beautiful Oregon Coast and will be heading to Sunriver/Bend on Thursday.
Fortunately I have a fridge stocked with farmer's market produce for my very few meals at home.

Strawberries, snow peas, sugar snap peas, asparagus, cherries and garlic scapes,
which flat out rule.


Last week I attended the Let Live Benefit Dinner at Sweetpea Bakery. The menu was designed and executed by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and it was some of the best food I've had in Portland in quite some time. The dinner was a benefit for this weekend's Let Live Animal Rights Conference.
It was an evening of ridiculously excellent food and company at my table.
(thanks for the date, Veganshizzle!).

I'm going to simply copy the descriptions from the PPK Blog, getting straight to dessert...

Raspberry Brownie And Vanilla Ice Cream
A warm raspberry brownie with chocolate drizzle, raspberry sauce (the sauce!) and
vanilla ice cream

Salad
Jicama Salad in Citrus Vinaigrette
A Thai inspired salad of crisp, sweet jicama in a tangy vinaigrette of orange, lemon and grapefruit. Served with grilled and chilled asparagus and garnished with beansprouts, cilantro (the Shiz and I were in the exclusive no cilantro club) and roasted peanuts


Soup
Spicy Cream of Sweet Potato with Lime
A creamy puree of sweet potatoes and a little turnip, with a kick of lime and chili

And tying for the spot of my favorite dish with the salad -

Main

Blackened Seitan With Corn Pudding And Chocolate Chili Mole
Cajun rubbed blackened homemade seitan and grilled zucchini over a sweet and savory creamy corn pudding, with a mild chocolate chili mole


Shot 2.
This grilled and spiced seitan was in the top 10 best seitan dishes I've ever had. Period.


My aftermath.


And yeah, word is out, vegan milkshakes have arrived in Portland!
Actually, that's a strawberry banana smoothie below, but the new Sip cart has Newman O, Chocolate Peanut Butter and more soy milkshakes. In front of People's Coop. Go. Divine.


Speaking of freaking sweet, Hannah from Bittersweet Blog is in town this weekend to promote My Sweet Vegan. She'll be at the Herbivore store on Sunday, the 29th at noon with free treats, of course. It's a busy vegan weekend in Portland.

27 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Farmer's market produce + Raspberry Brownie with Vanilla Ice 'Cream' = heaven.

I wish I could be in Portland to support Hannah!! I'm sure the event will go super well.

Anonymous said...

fun times! does it show that I'm envious? cause I am.

julie hasson said...

Gorgeous Jess! Isa's benefit dinner looks so good! I really wish I had gone. The seitan looks amazing.

Vegan_Noodle said...

What a fabulous meal!! AMyeb Isa will come to Houston one day and cook for me.... a girl can dream!

And yum, milkshakes!

Anonymous said...

I super in love with garlic shoots, too! You called them something else, maybe I have the name wrong, but, yeah, love them.

Katy said...

What a fun night! And I'm super jealous of all your great farmer's market produce. Just one of the reasons I can't wait to move back to the great NW!

Picks Over Peas said...

Everything looks so delicious. I wish I lived in Portland!

Anonymous said...

Every component of that dinner looks delicious and I love how it benefited the animal rights conference!

You know I am always jealous of your produce...

A.M. said...

I remember you once said you wanted to live in the Netherlands someday, right? Want to switch? ;-)

Tami said...

What a great write-up for those of us who couldn't be there! Thanks, Jess... and I'd love to try that seitan dish especially since it made your top 10!

Unknown said...

so jealous. that dinner looks & sounds ridiculousy wonderful. awesome!

have fun in your travels!

Lily Girl said...

Thanks for posting the pictures, makes me wish even more I was in Oregon.
You'll like Bend if you've not been. It's drier, but very pretty. They have a farmer's market at the hospital which I know runs during the summer, although I can't remember which day. Lots of beautiful produce and live music!

Taylor said...

That's one fab dinner! I can only dream of having such courses offered at events.

Anonymous said...

Hooray! The food was delicious, wasn't it? Lovely pictures. I too, really enjoyed the salad... It was so refreshing. A no-cilantro club?! I wish I had known! Maybe I will see you at Hannah's event at Herbivore. Hooray for that too!

Bianca said...

Vegan milkshakes! Get out! Damn, I was CRAVING a vegan chocolate milkshake the other day when my parents both sipped on dairy shakes in front of me (I had to get a fruit smoothie...good, but no milkshake).

And that dinner looks fantastic. I've seriously gotta move to Portland. It's like a vegan mecca.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Dang, it sounds like I'm missing out! That dinner looks SO amazing, especially the salad. I wish I could have been there!

Anonymous said...

Jealous, jealous, jealous. Portland sounds so f-ing awesome.

Anonymous said...

I seriously need to keep my schedule a little more roomy- how is it that I can't squeeze anything in with less than six months notice?

Anonymous said...

Portland vegetarians & vegans are so spoiled! Why does all the best food seem to come from there? I sure wish I had been at that dinner.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe I missed that benefit dinner! Everything looks great! Especially the brownie!

Sam said...

LUCKY!

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to try that smoothie....yummm!

Anne said...

Hi! I guess I just wanted to "e-introduce" myself because I've reading your blog for almost 2 years now and I've just recently started my own. It's not a food website, but I live in Portland also and love reading about your Portland experiences!

Wheeler's Frozen Dessert said...

Wow everything looks so amazing! I just bought a huge bag of cherries the other day as well - Yum!

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

that "menu" looks awesome... when can i come to your "restaurant" ahh delish!

urban vegan said...

Oh you Portland vegans have all the fun.

I HAVE to get out there one of these days--but I'm afraid that, like Isa, I won't come back.

Carrie™ said...

What a delicious array of food!! I got my copy of VegNews earlier this week and a big congrats to you are in order. Well deserved I must say.