Portland Food, Coffee, & Sights!

I can't eat them but I'm still excited That's so good Good morning from Portland, Oregon. We got up before the crack of dawn this morning to drive here for the day We are super excited to be here because we're gonna go around to some of our favorite places to eat Favorite places to drink get a little naughty and get some desserts So we have a big day on deck so this actually isn't our first time vlogging from Portland So one of our first few vlogs that we ever did we went to the Columbia River Gorge in Portland for a day So if you have not seen that yet, check it out. We're gonna hit up all different spots today So if you have seen it, don't worry But basically if you combine that vlog with this vlog you would have our version of a perfect day in Portland, Oregon. Oh, yeah So our first stop is Pips original donuts and chai, there's this big donut culture in Portland So there's voodoo donuts, which I'm sure many of you have heard of it's very very famous There's blue star donuts and people kind of debate on which of the two are the best We've never had blue star and we hear that one might be better We've only had voodoo, which is a pretty fun experience people wait like an hour in line to get donuts from there It's pretty crazy. We'll walk by there later and show you the line I'm sure it'll be bad today, but we actually like this place called Pips better. It is super cute It's a little far out of town, but it's definitely worth a try Got the cutest little donuts here at Pips. We got this one's honey and sugar. This is a Nutella one This one is what's called a dirty woo. It's like sugar and Nutella and I think honey also And then this is a candy maple bacon one. That's my the one I'm most excited for Make them hot and fresh on fresh. Yeah each one It's like still soft on the inside So the mini donuts are super super cute, but what makes this place so awesome is they have flights of chai tea look at this So they give you this helpful sheet. So when you're drinking them, you know, which one you're drinking So we have the smoky smoky Robinson, which is rich and smoky with vanilla cinnamon clove Some things I can't pronounce and it's best hot We have this one's the king and I which is woodsy fragrant black chai tea Cardamom clove some other spices. We have Emmylou, which is Lavender and some other flavors as well. So honey, you have the ginger Rogers, which is ginger nutmeg cinnamon molasses That this one. Oh, no, never mind. I'm thinking of the next one The next one's the heart of gold that one's kind of almost like one of those golden milk lattes So it's coconut tumeric clove cardamom. They all look really good. We've had these before and I don't remember which one was my favorite So we're gonna test them all out again and then say which one So trying the heart of gold first because I'm on a really big golden milk latte kick right now And so I'm most excited for this one That's so good. It's just sweet and creamy and has some really good spice flavors So, I don't know about the others, but this one's number one so far After my expert opinion my chai tea connoisseur Ginger one is my favorite. It's Just has the best flavor to me But they're all really good even the lavender one Which I think I mentioned in other vlogs that I'm not a big flowery person on foods and drinks, but it's actually pretty good So if the super cute doughnuts and the chai flights did not convince you to go to pips this might So on your birthday or seven business days after they'll give you a free dozen doughnuts. So cool We have yet to time our visits around our birthdays We might have to do that next time and we recommend you do that too because who doesn't want free doughnuts Adam? Where are we going next? We're getting some biscuits Yeah, so we're going to Pine State biscuits a super popular biscuit place here in Portland We haven't had the chance to try it. But today is the day. I'm excited. I'm hungry. I can't eat them, but I'm still excited So this little gym is called the Reggie Deluxe. It's on a beautiful biscuit here fried chicken gravy cheese and egg and bacon all the perfect ingredients for us Hash browns literally bigger than my face with some pulled pork on top I So that Reggie Deluxe was delicious loved every bite of it the biscuit was so fluffy and warm and soft the bacon just all the intense flavors were Spectacular only complaint is I would ask for a little bit more gravy next time I come but can't complain It was off the charts. The biscuit did look super soft and fluffy I was a tad jealous, but my hash browns were awesome, too One thing I did want to say though is that we normally don't eat like this Like we don't just eat back-to-back and we don't even eat out that much at all We basically like anytime we vlog and we're eating that's usually the only time we're eating out that whole month So we basically saved our eating out budget this month for today. So we're gonna go ham So this location of Pine State biscuits because I think they have two total in Portland This one's in the Alberta Arts District, which is one of the cool neighborhoods in Portland So Portland similar to Seattle is just made up of a bunch of really cool little neighborhoods and they're mostly just like little streets So this one is on Alberta Street and then one of the other neighborhoods we love is on Mississippi Avenue. I think I'm not sure They're really just fun to walk around and this one's especially cool because there's just a ton of cool murals like this one behind me So we're gonna walk around see some of the murals and then head to our next stop So Portland has a couple different nicknames, there's Stumptown, there's Rip City There's Bridge City and then there's also Rose City or the City of Roses So our plan was to go to the Rose Garden next the International Rose Test Garden is what it's called It's a very popular spot in Portland But... Yeah, we were looking on Instagram to see what we were getting ourselves into We've been there before but we're just double-checking if it would be cool this time and we look on there and it's just What'd you say twigs? Yeah, it was like twigs there were no flowers So we figured that wouldn't be exhilarating vlog content. So we're gonna skip that but do go there if you're here So basically April to October is the best time to go but June is really the best month to go That's when they're most in bloom and there's like 10,000 bushes of roses and like 650 varieties So it's really really really cool, but not today. So instead we're gonna go to one of Portland's most famous tourist attractions Welcome to Powell's City of Books So Powell's is the world's largest independent bookstore. This place is huge. We come here every time we're in Portland It's just really fun to walk around I don't think we've actually seen the whole place yet like every time we come we try to explore a new area But it would take a long time to actually fully explore this place And as I mentioned earlier, it is the really big tourist attraction probably a locals attraction, too I'm not sure but it's always busy. It's really cool They're really cool Portland kind of books here and just any book you can imagine This book is what sparked our entire move from Texas to Seattle I read this book on an airplane on a work trip and just felt so inspired to go out and explore this awesome world We live in and so we decided we were gonna move. So Thank You Cheryl. It's all because of you Just like Austin the official slogan of Portland is keep Portland weird March to Christmas Eve Portland puts on a big Saturday market, which I know it's confusing because it's Saturday and Sunday, but it's called the Saturday market There's tons of awesome smells beautiful food to see they're really tempting to me Lots of cool stuff to check out t-shirts all kinds of knickknacks people like playing music It's right on the water and on a beautiful day like today where there's like not one cloud in the sky, which is crazy Oh We got hungry so we got snack So it's beef and lamb gyro meat with onions and veggies. That makes it better Oh, yeah, some tzatziki should hold us over until our next food spot So that food was way better than we expected if you're here at the market check out Angelina's Greek food. The meat was just Really good to die for a market you never know what you're gonna get but it was a mixture like kind of crispy and soft Oh, no, I'm running into a tree It was just delicious. So I highly recommend it Also, well, we may have missed the roses today. All the cherry blossoms are popping out on the waterfront It's so pretty. So we're gonna check that out keep walking around the market. Yeah, what a day. It is so nice out today So as I mentioned earlier one of Portland's nicknames is Bridge City or also Bridgetown and that's because there are 12 bridges that span this River that runs along the city. So there's one behind me right now. There's one right there. I can see another one There's a bunch back there. So lots of bridges We Came over to the Hawthorne area of Portland to check out two coffee shops and this first one is super unique because It's inside of an old bus So this coffee shop or should I say coffee bus is called Tove and the really cool thing about this coffee shop besides being in A bus is that it's an Egyptian and Turkish coffee shop So they have some traditional kind of coffee drinks, but the drinks that we got are not traditional. They're Egyptian or Turkish So we're really excited to try them We had them about a year ago when we were here and we loved them It's just a really fun experience coming here and very different than any other coffee shop in Portland So we got two drinks The first one is Salep which according to the menu is just like a milky frothy sweet drink and it has nuts Pistachios on the top. So there's actually no coffee in this which is okay We wanted to try something that was really authentic And then we also got the Egyptian coffee Which is this cute little tray that his brother makes himself and you basically just pour the coffee into the cup There's grounds in this so you let it sit for a second and then you drink it and then there's a little Turkish delight to enjoy when you're done It's really frothy and creamy and the nuts give it like an extra crunch It's delicious Yes Definitely not your traditional coffee experience like we said but a really cool like Portlandy spot to come to when in town and when you bite into that Turkish delight with the coffee It's awesome like sweet and kind of like strong coffee combination really really good It's one of those flavor combos like PB&J flavor combos one of those Goes well together. Yeah. So our next stop is Coava coffee roasters It's new to us, but it's more of a traditional like Portland coffee experience. So we're gonna go check that out next We were gonna get just a plain latte but then the girl in front of us got a vanilla latte and I saw the black flecks of the vanilla bean in her drink and I knew I had to have that because Homemade syrups are like top of my list like best things that a coffee shop can offer So there's tons of little black flecks in here and I'm so excited It's kind of warm out so the hot coffee is not really doing it for me right now But this is delicious. If this was iced it would be even better, but so so so so so so so good Okay, so fun dummy fact for you, it's actually pronounced Cova which is green or unroasted coffee, so Didn't know That latte we just had was a vanilla latte at Cova was the best Latte I've had in recent memory. That's the best one. I could remember it was I'm still thinking about it was good It was really good Coffee and food is why we like to come to Portland. Hence why we're doing so much of that today They just have an awesome coffee and food scene here It kind of reminds us a little bit of our hometown of Austin just lots of different types of places to eat Lots of coffee to drink. So we're very happy today. Our stomachs are happy. Our taste buds are happy Yeah, it's a food and drink Mecca. We love coming here. I love coming here. Oh, yeah Oh, yeah, we haven't even like scratched the surface of all the good stuff. I mean we have so many favorites already It's hard to choose when we come here. Oh, yeah. These are like just some of our favorites We have so many other favorites that we physically could not fit in our stomach today I ripped my pants. I don't know if it's a sign from the universe that I should stop eating, but I'm not gonna listen We're gonna keep going So to continue the eating we're at Nong's Cowman Guy and this is an awesome spot in Portland They used to have a food cart downtown, but they recently had to close that down because they're redeveloping the area unfortunately But they do have some brick-and-mortar locations, so we're at one of those. Basically, this is a dish from Thailand They said specifically the Bangkok area So what it is it's poached chicken over rice and they cook the rice in the chicken broth And then there's sauce that you pour on the chicken and then it comes with the soup and a few cucumbers and some cilantro So one of the cool things about this spot that doesn't always happen at Asian restaurants is they actually have a gluten-free sauce So this place is gluten-free Gluten-free friendly There's a huge bonus for me, so I get to enjoy it as well So what they say to do they have this little menu card that tells you how to eat it It says you basically have it like this you pour the sauce on And then you're supposed to take a bite of the chicken rice in the sauce and then Afterwards have a sip of the soup. Sometimes I go a little crazy though I kind of put it all together and then dip it in the soup because it tastes really good that way too And then you're supposed to have some cucumber to cleanse your palate afterwards, and then it says repeat and enjoy Last but certainly not least is our top of the table must-stop must-come-to place in Portland salt-and-straw Salt and straw is an ice cream shop that originated in Portland They now have a few spots around the US, but it's especially awesome to come to their original locations in Portland I just have no words for this place. It is so good unbeatable so creamy the flavors are unique Yeah, just the best we already drove by and there's already a huge line because there always is and it's a beautiful day worth it It's a great ice cream day though. I would say maybe we should get an extra scoop perfect Okay, you got to go big or you got to go home we got two scoops It looks like three, but it's two and then we split the second one So I got the berry slab pie that's on top that colorful one, then I got the almond brittle I can't turn that one down. That's my favorite one. Seriously the number one pick a cupcake Royale cheesecake No, I think it's salted caramel cupcake. Yeah. Oh my god. It looks so good And I got their Kova coffee flavor, which is the coffee shop We just went to a little bit ago has like little cocoa nibs in it or cacao nibs. I'm not sure We have a lucky charms flavor that's only around for a couple more days has the marshmallows in it and then the bottom flavor is That salted almond brittle ganache thing. It's oh, it's the best flavor. It's so good Yeah pro tip so you can split scoops there. It's like 50 cents more, but I'm pretty sure they give you double scoops So they're like split scoop is like a basically a full scoop. Yeah, so it's a great way to get a lot of ice cream So today we basically have like three scoops I'm stuffed. I don't know about you. I am so full. I mean sugar rush I mean if you put more ice cream in front of me, I'd probably eat it, but I'm glad it ran out I am full. Yeah, we probably should go home now before we get sick We've had a lot of food today I was actually just typing out to someone all the places we went and typing it out I was like, oh wow, we have eaten a lot today. So oh So that is the end of our Portland vlog as I mentioned before This vlog was more about like where we like to eat in Portland We do have another vlog where we did the Columbia River Gorge and then we hit up more sites in Portland So like I said before if you combine the two, it's basically our definition of a perfect Portland weekend We also have a guide on our website Which is a weekend in Portland and there's a bunch of ideas of things to do places to eat So I'll link to both of those things below so you can check it out as for what's next for us Yep, I'm heading to Austin on Friday six days from now and I'm working on the next steps on the van. Can't wait I haven't touched that thing since we bought it. So I'm excited to get back and get going on it yeah, yeah my turn and then we're heading to Arizona with a Friend a couple of friends of ours and it's gonna be awesome We have tons of fun stuff planned and Grand Canyon all that kind of stuff. It's gonna be such a fun trip So lots of cool vlogs coming your way soon. Thank you guys so much for watching. We will see you very soon Ending these vlogs is so awkward. So Love you, I love you and you