On The Road. Four Best Things I Ate in Portland.

Last weekend the wife figure, the Boston Terrier and I packed the car and headed north. Really north. To Portland, Oregon. ((Well, for complete transparency: we stayed a night in Ashland en route, which by the way, has great food itself and may get its very own post.)) We were in the rose and 'stache city for good friends' wedding, but, come on, let's be real, we were also there to EAT. And eat we did. This despite the 100 degree weather. We simply weren't going to let that stop us from indulging to a ridiculous level.

While I deeply enjoyed all of our eats, these were my four favorite. I highly, HIGHLY recommend you seek out these foodstuffs on your next visit to Portland. By the way, my wife astutely noticed 'staches don't seem to be so in anymore. So there's that... Also, the above picture is on the door of our room at the Jupiter Hotel, which is a comfortable, dog friendly, bee's knees hotel adjacent to the Doug Fir music venue.

- Wiz Bang Bar's Salted Caramel Soft Serve w/ Single Origin Dark Chocolate Shell: Salt & Straw recently opened a soft serve joint in downtown Portland's new Pine Street Market. The soft serve is amazing. The "dip"/shell comes in three varieties: chocolate, black truffle white chocolate and Oregon black raspberry. They are amazing. We need one of these in LA ASAP. It's beyond pertinent.

- Apizza Scholls' Pizza: I spent hours (literally) researching where to eat pizza in Portland. It's a blessed pizza city nowadays and I wanted to make the right choice. I did. Apizza Scholls is a beautiful combination of many pizza styles, yet unique in itself. Note: make a reservation, or don't even think about it as the place was an absolute madhouse on an early Friday eve.

- The People's Pig's Smoked Fried Chicken Sandwich: I mean, look at that fucking thing. So much going down in this fried chix sammy. You've got the smoked, THEN fried flavor-packed chicken, a spicy aioli, a jalapeno jelly and the (very Portland) heirloom-level greenery. All on a hefty, yet light sourdough roll.

- Wolf and Bear's Falafel (not pictured): Okay, my bad. I ate it too quick and only got this random pic of me pointing. It was also, no exaggeration, a cool 97 degrees out that day at their pod. Totally worth it though. Upon her last visit, my stepmom proclaimed W&B's better than LA's own Madcapra. I thought that was crazy talk. But after chowing down on their signature entree -- falafel, hummus, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, parsley, grilled eggplant and greens, rolled in a warm, fresh pita -- I would have to say it's really, really close.


Also incredible: breakfast at Coquine, which is the neighborhood gem of neighborhood gems (see below).