Another delicious vegetarian dining trip to Portland last night. We started off our day at the Bob’s Red Mill Store and Restaurant where we bought some pantry staples and had a baked potato with veggies. We roamed across the street to Dave’s Killer Bread for (you guessed it!) bread. After checking into our hotel, we meandered to the Saturday Market where we did NOT find any cupcakes. After a nap back at the Double Tree, we sought out a food cart for dinner. We found Off the Griddle, a solar powered vegetarian burger cart, at the A La Cart food cart pod at 50th and Division. I had their seasonal pumpkin curry falafel burger with pickled onions. It was a bit mushy, but that could be overlooked because it was otherwise extremely flavorful and delicious. Mr Shuck loved the Vegan Smoky Bleu burger, a leek, mushroom and rice burger topped with tempeh bacon and vegan bleu cheese.
The food cart pod was blessed with a large heated tent where we sat protected from the light rain and listened to a singer, watched costumed children and ate our burgers. We ventured out into the lot again and returned with coffee and chai from The Coffee Can and dessert fondue from Fon Due It.
Donut holes, sourdough bread, strawberries and apples with melted chocolate
This successful dinner was followed by a 2 1/2 hour ghost hunting walking tour (complete with electomagnetic radiation finder) which was not as successful: the pouring rain did not seem to speed up the ramblings of the extremely non-skeptical tour guide. We returned to the hotel at 1am soaked to the skin (through our raincoats) and exhausted.
I won’t bore you with more vegetarian food… there are 1000 other blogs for that. On to the cupcake:
After our late evening, I was in need of a little perking up after we checked out of the hotel today. I felt the need for JUICE, so I drove us out to another fabulous food cart pod located at Mississippi and Skidmore, home of Dogfeathers coffee and juice, where Mr Shuck ordered us a Portland Sunshine (apple, orange, strawberry and ginger). While he waited for juice, I crept over to the Sugar Cube to see what was happening. I discovered that my old friend, the Amy Winehouse, had been replaced!
by this
Moist chocolate cake dipped in ganache, topped with a handful of potato chips and drizzled with caramel sauce
Their website describes this cupcake as a chocolate buttermilk cupcake, “topped with a tower of crunchy potato chips and drizzled liberally with our house salted caramel. This is the epitome of sweet knocks up salty and makes a baby.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. It was an excellent combination, no matter what my sister thinks. I’d go back again for this in a minute if it wasn’t 3 hours away!
The cupcakes were described in the holiday guide as chocolate sprinkled with sea salt, black & white topped with a Snocap® and chocolate with caramel butter cream. The box cost $6.99, which I thought was reasonable for 9 mini cupcakes. My review: BLEH! All 3 flavors had the same chocolate cake base which was dry. The icing had butter listed as an ingredient, but it tasted like shortening and sugar and all 3 flavors tasted the same. I didn’t get any salt taste from the salted chocolate nor any caramel taste in the other one. I wouldn’t go out of my way for these….
