My long weekend in Portland was filled with both amazing lessons learned at World Domination Summit as well as delicious new gluten free (and mostly vegan) food finds around the city. In a matter of four days, I managed to make it to six new to me eateries. However, I had to back to a few of my old favorites which to my delight had lots of new amazing things to offer. New Cascadia Traditional Bakery is now selling the absolute best gluten free bread I've ever had and it's in baguette form. This baguette is based on the Portland Sourdough they've been baking for years - but now it's light, fluffy, and has a fantastic crunch to the crust. It reminds me of that bread crunch scene in Ratatouille. Tula Gluten Free Bakery Cafe is offering their amazing salted chocolate chip cookies in the form of an ice cream sandwich using vanilla Coconut Bliss ice cream (my favorite!). Of course I also returned to Prasad and Andina - where I always feel so well taken care of and eat the most amazing food.
Now that I've covered the old, let's move on to the new!
Well, I'm super pumped because tomorrow I'm crossing off another item on my life list; attend World Domination Summit (WDS). This all got going several months ago when I applied to be an ambassador (volunteer) and was accepted - meaning in exchange for lending a helping hand during the event, I'd also get to attend. A pretty serious win considering the fantastic line up of speakers and the fact that the event is in one of the most gluten free friendly cities I've ever visited; Portland, Oregon. Seriously, I love the food in Portland - I may even love it more than New York City. Regardless of what your dietary needs might be, the eateries of greater Portland seem to be pros at catering to all sorts of dietary needs.
Since Portland has almost 3,000 people descending upon it to attend WDS and I'm positive I'm not the only gluten free one in the bunch, I thought I'd share some of the spots I keep returning to for great gluten free (and mostly vegan) eats throughout the city. I've also included a number of links to other resources for you to query for even more ideas.
Let's take this one step further as well, if you find a great gluten free friendly establishment during your weekend at WDS - share it on twitter with the hashtag; #WDS2013GF. Share the gluten free discovery goodness!
So far, Portland is my absolute favorite city to visit for amazing gluten free and vegan eats (no, I'm not vegan - but I have a preference for it, especially while on the road). There's just so many options and sometimes it feels like I'll never make it through my long list of places I still need to try there. Good thing I'm only 3 hours away, so a quick trip down to Portland is a realistic option.
(971) 258-2995
First I want to tell you all about a bakery started by one of the blog friends I met in real life at my first blogging conference last year. Geanna is funny and delightful in person and I'm always inspired by people who start their own businesses. A month or so ago, Geanna asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing her tasty treats from her bakery, Cinnamon, and I said of course. Generally, I don't do reviews but in the case of small businesses started by awesome blogging friends - I feel like an exception is appropriate.
Geanna sent me 3 varieties of her donuts; a plain one topped with cinnamon and sugar, a chocolate one, and two of the new seasonal lemon ones (my personal favorite). They were by far the best I've had since going gluten free and the fact that they're also free of the common allergens and vegan - total win. I love products that just ditch all the common allergens since that makes them friendlier for a greater number of people. Both my husband and I were truly impressed by the fluffy texture (none of that graininess that comes with a lot of gluten free treats) and how moist they were, especially after being shipped. These donuts were heads and shoulders above the other gluten free frozen ones I've found in grocery stores.
The Hawthorne and Corbett Fish Houses in the Portland area have been on my list to try for a good long while now. Both offer oodles of fish and other types of dishes that are all gluten free, with the exception of some gluten-full bread for those gluten eaters out there.
And now we'll take a quick break from the Gluten Free In New Zealand posts!
But first, I must apologize for the quality of the pictures for this trip, I forgot the good camera, so iPhone photos will have to do! Second, this will be a short post with not a whole lot of new information because I was just on a short overnight jaunt down to Portland. I had grand dreams of trying out some new places, but defaulted to some old favorites for comfort purposes. In fact, the only new place in Portland I visited was a chain!
So I'd just like to say...Portland is THE MOST GLUTEN FREE FRIENDLY CITY I have been to so far. I found so many restaurants and places to go, that I really can't wait to come back here to try more of them! I stayed in the Cultural District and was able to easily explore up to the Pearl District, but I know are a ton of places I missed out on because they were outside of easy walking distance. So here are the spots that I was able to make it to..