New in PDX: Back to Eden Vegan Bakery Boutique!

Yo! I've moved to a new domain:

getsconedpdx.com

It has pages of information, in addition to normal posts! Oh my gosh!

Please update your bookmarks.

<3

jess sconed.

I love this scone.

Maple Walnut Scone

ZOMG, right? Back to Eden Bakery has opened it's cozy and super adorable storefront & boutique on NE Alberta! It's located right next to Townsend Teahouse (vegan bubble tea, anyone? made with actual tea!) and the adjacent cart lot currently housing the all vegan Open Heart Cafe and Homegrown Smoker BBQ*.

I've taken two visits since they opened last Tuesday, and I'm all smiles in there. Everyone is! You can just feel how proud the staff is of the storefront. There are baked goods, bulk candy, Temptation soft serve, vegan products, cookbooks, Oregon's own Coconut Bliss scoops, Oogave ice cream floats and Cellar Door Coffee - a favorite local roaster.

That scone above? It starred one of my favorite flavors in the world, maple, and was such a precious, sweet scone. I brought it home for breakfast with my semi weekly morning coffee and it could very well be the best thing about this past week. I mean, I wanted to hug the bite I dipped into my coffee. But I didn't.

Pumpkin Bar

The very first baked good I tried from Back to Eden was the pumpkin bar above. I considered cake and pie, but the pan of pumpkin bars on the bottom of the main case called out to me. The classic crumbly, slightly salty topping, a thin layer of rich pumpkin, and crust = instant favorite. And reasonably priced and portioned, at $1.75 or so.

Crowd on Last Thursday

Inside the case:

My friend Millie dug her slice of Chocolate Rosemary Sea Salt Tart

Wall seating

Muffins & Scones Case

Karla had a Temptation sundae with Dandies Marshmallows and house caramel sauce. I think her sugar high lasted for hours. Maeve and I stopped by earlier today for soft serve with caramel sauce, and I'm still buzzing sweetness. Temptation soft serve is sa-weet! Seriously though - vegan soft serve on Alberta!!

Karla's sundae

The marshmallows remind me of how a local ice cream shop would stuff a mallow at the bottom of waffle cones when I was little and my sister and I were always delighted to find it...and at the savvy...

Back to Eden's own Janessa, and Lucas outside the boutique

* Side note, HGS is moving a few blocks east to 27th& Alberta in the old Spud Locker location next week. Can we discuss how NE Alberta officially has a vegan walking tour now? When I moved to the Alberta District in 2004, I would go to Vita and the Coop, and then the Coop and Vita. Granted, I lived there for two weeks and then fell into SE Portland love.

NE Alberta vegan highlights:

• Lunch at Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ - my pick is the combo with chronic tempeh, smoked soy curls, mac & cheese and add the fabulous smoked corn.
• Vegan shoe shopping (or realistically, show window shopping) at Pie Footwear at 29th.
• Grilled vegan cheese sandwiches with roasted jalapenos in trippy The Grilled Cheese Grill school bus
• Chicken Fried Tempeh at Vita
• Tempeh topped pizza slices at Bella Faccia
• Mason Jars full of booze or the Floor Punch at the Bye & Bye all vegan bar. Oh, and BBQ Platters (sub brussels for the collards!), one of my favorite things to eat in PDX, hands down. Meatball subs, Eastern Bowls with Peanut sauce and more.
• Coming Soon: The All Vegan Held Belts storefront!
• and Goodies *and* Cellar Door Coffee at Back to Eden, of course
• Tour de Crepes - I wasn't wild about the crepes here a few years ago, but I hear they've gotten great!
• Last Thursday: the insanity, the wonder, the stands. Petunia's Pastries has some gourmet vegan treats at their stand - I was in love with the Chocolate Hazelnut cupcake. There are usually at least 95 stands selling hand crafted vegan truffles, as well.
• Tofu Po Boys at Palm State Gumbo
• Michelle! my Alberta vegan guide.
• Alberta Coop at 15th.
• Mash Tun for tempeh hot wings
• Tin Shed for breakfast

So just walk the street up and down repeatedly, and pick your vegan indulgence!

What am I forgetting?

I'm going to consolidate these tips on my new location soon!

Super Quick Product Review: Rice Dream Supreme

Hey, Vanilla.

Hey, Hazelnut.

Hey, Fudge.

Sup?

Just for the fun of it, I wanted to give some love to this Rice Dream Supreme Vanilla Hazelnut Fudge bar I nearly swooned over last weekend.

It was really good! It's coated in dark chocolate, the ice cream is comfortably vanilla with a tint of my favorite nut and is remarkably creamy for a rice based ice cream.

Yeah, yeah, I know this is mostly the girl who tried mint chocolate Rice Dream seven years ago and quickly abandoned that icy pint, talking, and nondairy desserts have consistently improved and impressed over the years. I have friends that seem to swear by Good Karma's Carrot Cake. I thought it was alright, sorry!

The best part of the satisfying bar, though?

It was fifty freaking cents from the Hollywood Grocery Outlet.

It was the highlight of that quirky grocery outing.

Coming Soon:

Another new vegan cart in Portland: Ruby Dragon PDX at the North Mississippi Marketplace

Portland's VegFest

The Exquisite Vegan Dinner at Belly Timber

Vegan Eats in Spokane, WA

...and my site is moving!

The Final Spring 2009 NYC Post: #3 - Ice Cream Shoppe Love.

My sister Jenny is serious about vegan ice cream.

Not only did she enjoy the Coconut Vanilla flavor at Stogo so much she ordered it twice, she almost cracked a real smile.

I had ice cream twice from NYC vegan ice cream shoppe Stogo and once from Lula's while on my vacation last month. At Stogo's, one day was cold, while the other day was sweltering, meaning the end of the world, of course. Both visits included fabulous friends from the PPK forums. Right off the bat, don't ask me to pick a favorite between the two shoppes!

Alright, I will - Lula's was cuter and more old fashioned, and sweetly vegan owned, but I liked the actual ice cream at the yuppie-gelato shop style Stogo more when it comes down to it. Whatever, go to both! Definitely go to Lula's, I still really liked my ice cream and experience there, as you'll see more below. It's adorable!

Witness the Panda and Bazu eat ice cream.

The Stogo selection - of course we tasted a few, like the salted pecan caramel - whoa.

I like how it's all fancy gelato style.

Coffee ice cream.  This! hot day! This! This!

My favorite from Stogo, and from all 3 ice cream stops (again - 2 at Stogo, 1 at Lula's)  Visit #2 was with Amanda and Gory. 

My coffee, Mike's Chocolate Brownie or Chocolate Coconut, I forget which.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie -

how could I not? This was my first flavor, and it was good! and creamy!,

but a teeny weeny leeny yeeny bit lacking in flavor and sweetness.

Really!

  This thread is actually backyards - the first place we went to was Lula's!

The Panda with her ice cream cone!

I almost went for the cake batter soft serve, but the sample I tried was a bit on thin side, though the flavor was everything the 5 year old inside me wanted.

I opted for the classic Chocolate Peanut Butter- 

anytime a combination of these two is more peanut butter than chocolate, I'm down.

Behind the scenes of Where's the Revolution?

Lula's full name is Lula's Sweet Apothecary. Not just vegan ice cream, but vegan sweets as well, like these chocolate covered pretzels, and truffles in the background.  Evan of Bjorked Off! has a love song of a post here you should check out!

The Lula's case.

Oh hey, how about my routine obligatory trip to Long Island?  

I was there for less than 6 hours, saw my grandfather, my great Aunt Helen, my friend Alyse again, and had a bizarre meal at the 'upscale' coffeehouse turned fancy restaurant Milk & Sugar in Bay Shore.

This latte hurt my head.  Raspberry, with a freaking piece of rock candy.

We sat down, ordered our coffee, and were then presented with this bread and a dinner menu.  Ignore the butter, obviously.

My sister asked if the housemade 'Milk' veggie burger was vegan, and it actually was, so I went for it. It's not very often one gets the chance to order a housemade vegan burger in the city they were born in! Alyse had one as well, though Jenny opted for the real thing. The sealed tiny bottle of ketchup on every plate pissed me off so much.

One more family shot for the road - my brother, Rick, at Milon.

celeb sightings.

I'm sorry that I lack the skills or determination to zoom in on this photo, but on our way from Lula's to Stogo, Bazu and I nearly shit our pants with smiles when we passed Alan Cumming walking one dog and holding another on the street. That's him in the orange. And on my first day in NYC, I walked by Jorma Taccone of Lonely Planet at the Union Square farmers market. Wondering who that is?  He starts with Andy Samberg in the Jizz in My Pants video, duh.

The end!  

For more:

NYC 2009 Food Porn #1, featuring Veg Dim Sum House

NYC 2009 Food Porn #2, featuring Soy & Sake

And follow Get Sconed! on twitter, if you dare.

Next: The great Vegan Brunch post, where I'll feature everything I made as a recipe tester!

It's Coming.

Cinnamon Raisin Cookie Ice Cream from Stogo

The NYC food porn post.  Coming next, really.