And just like that, our Portland trip had come to an end.
Our flight was at noon, so we had just enough time to squeeze in a morning coffee and some breakfast. Quite conveniently, Heart Coffee was located just below our apartment.
Heart Coffee is a local coffee roasting company based in Portland. They've been established since 2009 and now operate three cafes across the city.
A honey cardamom latte ($5.00) for SC and a spicy chai ($4.50) for me. Also a canelé ($3.00) for good measure.
I've only recently discovered canalés but it's now become my personal mission to eat every canalé I come across. Canalés are a French pastry flavoured with rum and vanilla. The outside is crunchy and caramelized, which gives way to a custardy interior. I found this particular rendition a little dry and not as crunchy.
Then we were off in an Uber to Proud Mary Cafe for some brunch!
Proud Mary Coffee is actually a Melbourne-based coffee roasting company. Like AFURI, they chose Portland for their first expansion outside of their native country. And if you didn't already know, Australia does brunch and coffee like no other.
Since we had coffee earlier in the day, SC went for one of their seasonal juices. The suzi q ($7.00) is a blend of pineapple, orange, lemon, fennel, and mint. I think I remember tasting mostly pineapple juice but with a fennel aftertaste. It was ... unique. I do appreciate the metal straw!
We decided to order two dishes to share, one savoury and one sweet. The potato hash ($16.50) has all your basic breakfast components but presented in a really cool, elevated way. It starts with a thick base of shredded potato, griddled until soft in the middle with crispy edges. They top it off with a slab of house-made smoked bacon, a poached egg, kale salad, and bagna cauda, a traditional Italian sauce with anchovy, garlic, and cream. The bacon piece ended up being too fatty, but all the other components were great! Who needs hollandaise when bagna cauda exists?
Our second dish was the Dutch honey hotcake ($15.00). A vanilla and ricotta hotcake, artfully decorated with mandarin segments, caramel, baked cheesecake, dutch cookie crumb, and honeycomb. It was so beautifully presented that the table next to us had to stop their conversation and ask us what we ordered.
I'm usually a waffles > pancakes person, but this hotcake is basically what all flat pancakes aspire to be. Super thick and fluffy, but also quite dense from being saturated in syrup. I don't see one person finishing the entire hotcake on their own, but with a group, it's a great item to share as a dessert!
At the restaurant, we were a bit nervous about how long the food was taking to come out, especially because we had a flight to catch. As soon as our dishes touched the table, I think we gave ourselves less than 10 minutes to eat everything that we could. We must have looked so weird to our neighbouring diners.
In the end, it all worked out. We got into another Uber and managed to get to the airport with some time to spare! (#pdxcarpet)
I had about three hours to kill in Calgary so SC brought me to one of her favourite Vietnamese restaurants! Pho Thanh Vietnamese Noodle House was not too far from the airport so it was a convenient choice.
As I'm getting older, I'm realizing that I'm slowly turning into a carbon copy of my parents. I wouldn't say there were withdrawal symptoms, but a steaming bowl of pho really hit the spot.
A great ending to a wonderful trip. PDX, you were an absolute delight!
- CT
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