Actually, This Might Be Tastier

The previous post may have led you to believe that I woke up every morning in a tent, with narly hair and pillow face, ready to eat my Morning Dog to start the day. The truth is we only camped two days and the rest we slept warm and safe indoors and ate at great restaurants, ordering lavish desserts every single time. Since one of my favorite parts of traveling is eating out and ordering anything I want, I wanted to show you a bit of what we ate.

We rolled into Portland around noon and were ready to eat. We asked the nearest Asian to recommend the best sushi place in town. We were lead to this dive that featured a sushi train. Toot toot! I was ready to hop on. Mmm. It was dirt cheap and decent fare. But the best part was our first taste of the typical Portland resident (the place was packed with them): piercings, blue hair, shorts with stockings, maybe some suspenders -- any combination to make you look completely mismatched and psychotic. I love the place already!! {See sushi train in action below.}

Below features our last meal in Portland. By this time we have actually found THE best sushi in town and we're ready to spend more money, having consulted the trusty guidebook and ready to reward ourselves for being frugal the whole trip. Edamame and some rolls, we have the trusty California roll and spicy tuna roll (our two mainstays), then we have the Portland roll, the Sunshine roll and the Dragon roll.

Jake's Seafood, the best known for seafood in Portland, didn't let us down. This unique dish was really rich and I couldn't finish it. Dungeness crab tortellini with gargonzola cheese sauce. I kept the leftovers in the car for another day, hoping I could enjoy some gourmet delight while camping ... but cheese sauce out in the sun all day didn't sound appetizing by the time I got to it. A Dog sounded good, though. Always does when I'm around a camp fire...

Mo's clam chowder saved me in many ways. More about that later.

Adam and I nearly moved to Trout Lake, WA, when we discovered this cute little cafe on the side of a gas station one Saturday morning. Just before breakfast we had enjoyed a jog through the area, passing the Trout Lake school, and got to ask the locals gathered at the cafe (I'm sure it was the local hang out although it couldn't have been bigger than 20'x20'), including some of the kids about their 2007 state champion track team (the sign was still up). Turns out the school houses 130 kids, K-12. And there is no track. Why do you need a track when you've got miles and miles of empty roads? We LOVED the place. And I LOVED this simple breakfast of raspberry shake and sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.

And here's a sampling of just some of the amazing desserts we had. In my opinion, the whole point I eat dinner is so I can have dessert. After the trip, I thought I'd never wish for dessert again, I had eaten MORE than my share. But just today I made a huge carrot cake with cream cheese pecan frosting. I guess I have not found the cure for my dessert tooth.

Below is the Triple Chocolate Suicide. There was a scary, spiky, crusty type thing for decor on top and Adam tried to stab me in the throat with it. He thought the dessert was called Triple Chocolate Homicide. He just wanted to have it all to himself. I can't blame him. You pour that little pitcher of fudge sauce on top. And then you jump out the window and drown yourself in the Columbia River, which the restaurant overlooks. How handy!

We toured the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook, OR, yes we SHORE did! And did you know that Tillamook does not just make cheese? They also make ice cream. People come from far and wide for it because I believe it is the only place they sell it. Adam almost changed our trip plans twice just to re-visit the stinky cow town of Tillamook to have his double scoop of cookies and cream ice cream in a waffle cone. I had a scoop of German chocolate cake and a scoop of something else really chocolatey. Oh, and the cheese curds were great, too.

This is my little dessert trio from Jake's. Berry cobbler, chocolate pots de creme, and creme brulee. Adam finished his banana cream pie before me and watched me intently as I devoured my three ramekin's full. He said he had never seen such uninterrupted determination and concentration in me before. It's true, I scraped them clean.

This is a chocolate mousse I will not soon forget. It followed an amazing lunch of French dip sandwiches at the Multnomah Falls lodge. I never expect much from restaurants housed in lodges, but this meal just knocked me out. The mousse was fluffy chocolate wonder up top, something more mild in the middle - maybe white chocolate cream pudding - and then a near-solid dark chocolate triangle had us (we shared it) spoon fighting at the end.

This was my last dessert in Oregon. The Chocolate Bag. Belgian chocolate sides and bottom, filled with Bavarian cream and whipped cream, plus all those little berries. It looks much prettier standing up but we got it to go so we could enjoy our desserts (Adam got another banana cream pie) it in the park. I saved it in the fridge and had some the next morning at 5 am before we left for the airport. That is how much I love dessert.

And finally ... some of these guys actually were supposed to end up on our plate at home but we didn't want to pay for shipping to get them there ($100+). More of that story to come.