My Delicious Trip to Portland and Vancouver

I'm officially back! After 2 weeks in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, BC I am looking forward to eating home cooked and healthy meals for a while. It's an understatement to say that I stuffed my face with some of the best food I've ever had out on the west coast.

The sandwich pictured above is a very flavorful turkey bahn mi from Bunk sandwich shop in Portland. The sandwich that all of the food shows say to try at Bunk is the pork belly cubano, but I did look up the cubano on My Fitness Pal and there is over 1,000 calories in that sandwich! I couldn't bring myself to eat it, so I got the bahn mi instead. I was extremely happy with my decision to go with the healthier option because it was a fresh and delicious sandwich that kept me full until dinner.

One Saturday morning we found ourselves at the enormous Portland Farmer's Market that is full of vendors of all kinds. We began our farmer's market experience with homemade bagels from Tastebuds. I got a poppy seed bagel with honey cream cheese and fresh strawberries. "Yum" is a great word to describe my sweet and crunchy bagel.

There are plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable stands, meat vendors, homemade pesto vendors, local cheese vendors, lunch and breakfast stands and many more. While at the market we decided to buy some of the best looking ingredients and cook dinner that night because we were beginning to get a little tired of eating out, as crazy as that sounds.

Pictured above is the dinner that I cooked for my sister, her boyfriend and my boyfriend. It included farm raised chicken breast with farmer's market chive and garlic pesto, locally raised steak, roasted orange cauliflower, paprika roasted potatoes and a salad with tomatoes and roasted carrots. All of the ingredients were bought at the farmer's market and the dinner was delicious and a nice break from eating out.

Now onto Vancouver! We began on Vancouver Island, which we realized was nothing like the city of Vancouver and had to change our plans last minute to get over to Vancouver. We took the ferry from Nanaimo, where we picked up the popular Nanaimo bar (pictured above), and headed over to the great and beautiful city of Vancouver.

Our first breakfast in Vancouver was at the very popular Cafe Medina. If you go to Cafe Medina you have to order their fluffy waffles with dipping sauce. They have a variety of dipping sauces to choose from and I chose the salted caramel. You basically end up eating dessert for breakfast, nothing wrong with that!

After breakfast we went to the famous Granville Island public market, which is a foodies' dream market. There are stands with exotic and beautiful fruits and vegetables and a bunch of other stands with fresh pastas, meats, cheeses and ethnic cooking ingredients.

I would recommend not eating before you go to the market because many of the stands offer samples and you can also get great pastries, lunches and snacks there. We were bummed that we were full from breakfast while at the market, so definitely go there hungry!

A great tip for when you visit Vancouver is wear comfortable walking shoes!! I did not wear comfortable shoes on the day we took 26,000 steps and my feet paid for it. The side of my right foot still hurts.

Another great tip for after a long day of walking around Vancouver is to visit the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We were feeling very carb deprived after a full day of walking and found ourselves sitting at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown stuffing out faces with spaghetti and meatballs. 

Now these spaghetti and meatballs are not "gourmet" by any means, but this dish tasted just like home cooked spaghetti and meatballs. This dish brought me right back to my childhood and I loved the whole experience of eating it.

You also get bread, a salad, your main pasta dish and ice cream all for a very cheap price, so this restaurant is a great choice if you are eating on a budget. 

The last meal I ate in Vancouver was at Cadeaux Bakery. I ordered the double baked almond croissant and savored every bite I took of it. It was one of the best croissants I've ever had. My boyfriend got the chocolate croissant, which he loved and my sister loved her cinnamon roll. This bakery is a great choice for a quick and sweet breakfast.

Every day of my 2 weeks on the west coast was exciting, beautiful, fun and delicious! Portland is one of my favorite cities to visit and I can now add Vancouver to one of my favorite cities to visit. They are both amazing food cities with plenty of great activities to do to work off some of the food you will be eating. I can't wait to visit again!