Portland, part 2: Sweetpea Bakery & Cafe

After a super fun night of drinking and laughing until our tummies hurt, Zach, Veronica, and I felt well enough to leave V's apartment at 3pm for nourishment. We decided to go down the block to that vegan mini mall everyone's always talking about, and chow down at Sweetpea.

Leapin' lizards, did we all have a massive craving for bagels! I was really interested in their chive and bacun cream cheese... but they were out of bagels. And soup. So disappointing! We satisfied ourselves with two BLTs and an unTuna sandwich. I liked both, but they need to put more tuna on the tuna, and more bacon on the BLT! It felt a little cheep. Veronica said it was fine for her. Maybe hers had more? I don't know. The bacon was really good; Zach said it didn't taste that much like bacon, but it was nice and salty and rich, so he still liked it, and so did I. However, he didn't like the unTuna. I did. It had a good flavor, but I like my tuna with lots of veganiase, and this was really lightly veganiased. It's a chickpea based tuna (which I had been craving for a while) mixed with herbs and chopped celery.
They offer lots of fun hot drinks, including a variety of teas, two types of bottomless coffees which vary each day, hot chocolate, and a bunch of coffee drinks that I don't understand because I'm not much of a coffee drinker. Next time, however, I'll have to try one, because why not?!

We ordered some treats, too. The oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookie was a bit dry, but Zach gobbled it up anyway, so I guess he was down with its flavor. The snickerdoodle was definitely good, especially if you like that typical bakery cookie flavor from your childhood (or is it just mine?), although it could use a bit more cinnamon and sugar... it tastes to me like the cookie baby of a sugar cookie and snickerdoodle who fell in love and wanted to start a family. The brownie ain't bad either. I like fudgy brownies, and theirs is more cakelike, and while I despise baked goods that aren't very moist, the flavor totally makes up for it with all of its rich chocolatey goodness.

I would definitely go back, but I don't know that I'd order a sandwich again, just because they didn't put enough of the good stuff on it. I will certainly try a bagel and a fancy pants coffee drink, perhaps a donut on a Saturday or their brunch on a Sunday, and probably another brownie.

Portland, part 1: Loving Hut

Zach and I just got back from our little trip down to Portland. We had two friends who were getting married (Congrats, Nick and Tori!) and while we were there we wanted to see my friend Veronica who lives there. The wedding only served cake, and it wasn't vegan, so we decided to try the Portland Loving Hut for dinner with Veronica. Zach and I are fiends. I want to order everything on the menu, and split it so I get to try it all; he has a big appetite. Neither of us have any self control.

V & Z ordered fries to start. Veronica ordered wonton soup (it was full of veggies; so good!) I ordered chicken nuggets which were strips, and we all agreed they were more like fish sticks, and should have been served with tartar sauce rather than ketchup; and the amazon salad because it was cheaper than the Paradise salad, which was dumb (in hindsight) because we saved 30 cents... what a steal... I also had ordered it because I wanted something with lots of fresh veggies. I was totally disappointed in the salad though, because it was supposed to consist of purple and green cabbage, and carrots, which were replaced by rice noodles and iceberg lettuce (which I don't consider a vegetable). And there were no other veggies in it! So disappointing. I should have sent it back and ordered something else, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that, and I assumed that the other salad would be the same deal since the menu said that they were practically the same thing. Anyway, we all shared the blissful fried rice, which had a lovely hint of a smokey flavor. Zach ordered the chow mein. I thought it was funny that I tried to order a nice healthy salad, and my dinner ended up having the least vegetables in it. Next time I'll just order a regular entree. You never know with Loving Hut, because each one is a little different.

If you've never been to a Loving Hut, you should go at least once in your life. It's quite an experience for a first timer. If you have been before, then you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that the cult vibe was mild at this particular Loving Hut. They had the TV station on, but it was quiet, and we didn't hear it. That and we were probably laughing too hard telling our gross throw up stories and other inappropriate bodily fluid stories.

Which reminds me; we also had dessert. Veronica and Zach got the cheesecake, which they both went crazy over. I've only met one cheesecake that I liked, the rest make me want to puke (as did this one, I don't like the weird cream cheesy[?] flavor they have) which is what brought up our sophisticated dinner conversation. I had the banana fritters, which weren't bad, but the coating was a lot thicker and greasier than I had expected.

All in all, the food was good, the cult vibe on the medium-lower side (for a Loving Hut), the waiter was really nice and helpful and even had a good sense of humor, and the place felt clean, but not hospital creepy clean like most other Loving Huts. I definitely recommend it.

P.S. Loving Huts normally have pictures on the menu to go with most items. I wish every place did that!