Portland - The wonders of Food Carts and Doughnuts

Another amazing thing about Portland is the whole food cart scene! Our friends told us that this just got popular in the last couple of years. Picture food vendors, but food vendors with different types of food, from thai, peruvian, sandwiches, crepes, even coffee, all located in one parking lots, well that is the scene in Portland now! Our first food cart experience - we got poutain, (an invention of french fry heaven with cheese and gravy, sounds gross but it is sinfully delicious!) a 1lb pulled pork sandwich and savory pies. For our second food cart, after our extended personal brewery tour, my BF and I found another food cart location (by my request) and got some pad see eww noodles and egg rolls for only $9!

This is the poutain.  French fry heaven!

Next foodie experience, on our tour through Portland, we actually ran into Voodoo doughnuts. This place has been on food network and are known for their outrageous doughnuts. We bought an gianormous banana fritter loaded with real peanut butter drizzle, chocolate drizzle AND chocolate chips!

This fritter was as big as my hand.  After a nutritious day of drinking beer and eating pretzels and street food, this was our dinner.  As my BF always says..."When in Rome!"  We have to make the most of our visit in Portland right?

Portland is also know for their breakfast places. We went to the same breakfast place twice during our week in Portland. It was called le petite provence. It is a small french bakery with a several tables outside on the sidewalk. My favorite thing about this bakery were their huge crossants that were perfectly flakey on the outside so you get that satsifying crunch when you dig into your crossant, but then on the inside, you find the buttery soft dough. It is perfect and how all crossants should be! My BF ordered the best dishes though, our first time there, he ordered the omelette, and then the second time there he ordered poached eggs on roasted tomatoes with pesto sauce.

And though it may be difficult to believe, but we actually did manage to do a couple runs while in Portland.  When we first arrived in Portland, we did a quick run and ran west to the waterfront.  Portland has really done a great job with their waterfront, there is a lot of space for walkers and runners, my only complaint is that there are not many water fountains along the walk.   If you want a 3 mile run, you can run a quick loop around the waterfront.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states//portland

Our marathon training schedule had us running 14 miles on the weekend and we wanted to knock that out before we went rafting in Maupin so we talked to our concierge and he suggested we run north and head toward the industrial area.  I have to say once we entered into the industrial area, it was definitely anything but scenic.  However the up side to that, was that we didn't have to stop for any lights or cars and could pretty much run without distractions for about six miles.  Unfortunately the path ended at an office building parking lot at around 6.5 miles so when we got back to the waterfront, we had to do half a loop around the waterfront before ending at our 14 miles.

I loved my trip to Portland and we are already talking about making our next trip there next summer.  Food carts, you better be ready for me!