Santeria | A Full Plate

Hi all! Long time, no blog. I just got back from Portland, OR this past Wednesday and have been playing catch up these past few days.

I must say, Portland is an awesome city. It was my first time on the west coast and I absolutely loved it. The people were so nice. The overall attitude was so different than FL. They were laid back, but conscious, and sustainable to the max. Beautiful scenery and we lucked out with the weather for sure.

And the food…oh the food…

First things first. I definitely made sure we were well equiped with healthy snacks. I tend to get queasy on planes and need a full belly before I get on. And with 9 hours total in the air plus a 3 hour layover, I knew we’d need some grub.

I’m also a freak about major hydration before getting on a plane. All that recycled air…you need to protect your body as much as you can, and hydration is important in aiding your immune system.

Thankfully our layover was in NY at JFK. We flew JetBlue (I refuse to fly any other airline) and they have an awesome terminal in JFK with plenty of restraunt options. The food is, of course, over priced, but it’s pretty good compared to most other airport terminals.

We shared a bottle of wine and had dinner at this little French place, La Vie.

I had the onion soup (fabulous, ultimate comfort food) and the cesar salad (eh).

Ok, ok, on to Portland 🙂

Our first few nights we stayed in a condo rental in Old Town/Chinatown so our first meal was obviously in Chinatown, which I learned later is not the “real” Chinatown of Portland.

We found a perfect hole-in-the-wall spot called Chen’s Good Taste. They’re known for their noodles and BBQ. Their noodles reminded me of ramen and I wasn’t too crazy about them. But the pork was DELISH. The soup also came with tons of yummy pork and shrimp filled dumplings.

Complimentary jasmine tea!

We spent the day just walking around and exploring. We stumbled across Ground Kontrol, which was an awesome arcade that had two floors of old school games and pinball machines. So very cool and so very Portland 🙂

Our first dinner was at an intimate resturant, The Gilt Club. Loved the decor and setting, despite the 20 top bachleorette party we were sharing the restaurant with. Yup, male anatomy straws and all.

As a cocktail I got the Strawberry Brunette. I’m usually picky with cocktails cause I don’t like them too strong, but with house infused strawberry vodka, basil, lemon and fresh cracked pepper this was a perfect drink.

Fried tete de cochon (pig’s head) with a fried egg, burger sauce and pickled vegetables. The Chef thought it could be better with some tweaks, but I thought it was wonderful.

Duck Liver Raviloi

Roasted Pork Belly

I just about exploded during this meal. The portions were generous and both dishes were very rich. Both were delicious.

The next day we went to the famous Voodoo Doughnut.

There was a line, but apparently there always is.

We only waited about a half hour before we got to sink our teeth into these babies. They are definitely worth the wait!

The travel channel was filming one of the food carts down the street! We heard this place was really good, but the line was too long…we came back later, but it ended up being closed 😦

A few of our friends who just moved to Seattle drove down to join us for some exploring and then take us to stay with them for a few nights.

We visited Powell’s Books, which you could literally stay in all day. SO many rooms and rooms of books.

Then it was down the street to Deschutes Brew Pub. This turned out to be The Chef’s fav local beer.

Oregon Pinot for the non-beer drinker 🙂

We had barely eaten all day so we ordered an appetizer.

I’m not sure about you, but when I order an appetizer (espicially when it’s $8) I expect it to feed 2-4 people. To me this feeds one. We split it up and each had a bite, but this was pretty disappointing. Though the sausage with artisan bread, pickled onions and ale mustard was tasty.

Luckily, dinner was next. We had some awesome mexican food at Santeria. They claim to have the “best mexican food on the planet”. While it doesn’t compare to Azteca in Cape Coral, it tasted amazing and reminded me of Taco Bus here in St. Pete.

I got the Cochinita, which came complete with rice, black beans and tortillas.