Occasionally flipping through my iPhone photos is one of my favorite activities. If I know something special is going to happen, I lug around my big camera. iPhone moments are spontaneous, and things that I really enjoyed and wanted to remember enough to pull out a phone and take a moment to snap a pic.
While spending three weeks in the glorious U.S. of A. over the past month, I guess I wanted to remember everything I ate between visiting friends and family, and running 5,000 errands. The amount of food photos I snapped is astounding. Apparently absence really does make the heart grow fonder?
Here are the results from the first three days of the trip. I'm now off to do some crunches and go for a run after reading this in its entirety...
A sunny greeting from Mt. Hood while flying into P-town.
Tex-Mex lunch with Kate at Casa del Matador right after she picked me up at the airport. Margarita Monday afternoon - I like her way of thinking!
Stumptown makes the best chai latte on the planet. Here I'm enjoying one at the Ace Hotel between downtown errands.
Watercolors, the cute little parakeet who lives in Oblation, my favorite card shop in the Pearl. No, Watercolors is not food.
An Aviation g&t with JP at rontoms before dinner.
Chana masala, a mangorita, garlic naan, and jalapeño naan at Bombay Cricket Club with JP, LP, and K-Dogg. Doesn't get much better than that!
Wow, so I went a little crazy on Day One, eh? No regrets. Moving on...
Passionfruit sorbetto from Alotto Gelato during a stroll down 23rd. This was after lunch at Justa Pasta with my fun friend and former co-worker, Chad. Justa Pasta makes the best spinach salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing. It didn't stand a chance at lasting long enough for a pic.
Whole Foods. I really can't tell you how much I miss shopping here. Altogether, I'm guessing I was in a Whole Foods no less than seven times during my trip home (Portland, Boulder, and Tulsa locations). In addition to buying things I actually needed, I walked the aisles and dreamed about what I'd cook if I had one in Norway. Yes, that's a little odd.
Umm...so this photo didn't turn out to be very appetizing. It's actually quite amusing. This unfortunately-shaped item is a delicious fried pickle from Fire on the Mountain, accompanied by a chipotle sauce that's INcredible.
After dinner, Sam and Joe were informed of free vodka cocktails at Holocene. Bonus: they were actually delish slushy cocktails called Yellow Snow. I've mentioned them on the blog before, but Sam, Joe, Jon, Wes, and Jeremy are five cool guys in the band No Kind of Rider. You should give them a listen.
By Day Three of erranding, I was at my wit's end (but still loving being in Portland, of course). So, I turned to comfort food. Biscuits and shiitake mushroom gravy with Elia at Pine State. Yes. Oh yes.
After eating a Pine State biscuit, you physically cannot eat for the next six hours. Following the probation period, I grabbed a single taco at the cart across the street from my old office building to prepare for the nerve-fraying rush hour traffic on I-5 during an important errand across town. The taco helped.
I absolutely LOVE that there's an Elephants Deli in the Portland airport. I used to eat at the downtown Elephants at least once per week during my lunch break. Just before boarding my flight to Denver, I enjoyed a delish wrap at the airport location. Then, in true Portland fashion, I cleared my own table and complied with the comprehensive recycling station requests. Love my little green, granola city.
I don't think I really need to post a Moment of Zen this week...if you don't see the joy in all of these food photos, I really don't know what to tell you.
