Favorite Bars

I'm currently in Sarasota, Florida, my home town. The time here is 4:30am, but that's 1:30am Portland time and I'm still on Portland time...I just got here this morning (Friday morning) and I took a nap after arriving here on a red eye flight. But, yeah, kind of wide awake.

Note: LAX is one of the worst airports I've been to. I expected more since celebrities use it quite a bit. It's dumpy looking (ok, it's under construction, I think, so hopefully improvements are on their way) and the food choices suck. My sister and I shared a cheeseless veggie pizza at a California Pizza Kitchen Express. It was so blah. 

Today I have eaten: hashbrowns with green peppers and onions, french fries, more french fries (mmm...Chick-Fil-A waffle fries), some white rice w/veggies that my mom got at a mall food place, pretzels, mom's homemade handheld cherry pies, Tempt ice cream, a piece of mom's cinnamon bread....and some Dr. Pepper and beer. Yeah, a real good healthy day...

Only 9 days left...

But back to the subject, me and Jess planned on doing this post during Vegan MoFo, but never finished it before the end of October. Well, correction, I finished it, someone else didn't finish it. ahem. Well, she posted it on her page, so I'm just going to link it. Please let us know what your favorite bars are and what's vegan there that you like! (this includes out-of-Portlanders!)

Crispy Rice

I had the chance to try 2 of the Envirokids Crispy Rice bars, the Peanut Butter and Berry (which i think are called something else....i thought the word "drizzle" was involed in the pb one....ok, i found out i had the Peanut Choco Drizzle....oh, and i think i had the Fruity Burst one not "berry"....so yeah, neither are pictured here.....). Anyways, these kinda remind me of rice krispies treats and they're probably supposed to. 

The berry one had a pleasant berry "essence" to it. It was reminiscent of Fruity Booty, a Robert's American Gourmet snack, you know, the same people who make Tings. It's not something i would normally buy, but if i was ever offered one again, i would accept. Not exactly a glowing review, but fruty stuff  just ain't my thing.

However, the Peanut Choco Drizzle one was more my thing and i found it enjoyable. It was crispy, peanut buttery and chocolatey. A good combination, indeed. 

I think it's nice to have a gluten free option like that for those poor kids that can't have gluten. I did notice these have honey in them, so if you're not into that, stay clear....

Good bar food: it's not any oxymoron

One of my favorite bars here in Portland is Bonfire, SE Stark and 28th. I've gone there for twice as part of my birthday celebrations. In my most humble opinion, they have the best fries in Portland. And i don't think that only because they're the cheapest! It's $3.50 for a motherload of well seasoned fries. McMenamin's charges $5 for tater tots! But i won't get started on my love/hate relationship with the McMenamin's company, maybe a different post...

French fries is what i look for at a bar as my primary way of judging their food selections, but in Portland you'll find a lot of substantial food and there's usually some good vegan options. I think it's the law here to serve some kind of food as long as you're serving alcohol. I really should know this since i took a mandatory 6 hour long alcohol class so that i could work at Hot Lips Pizza....

Anyways, at bars around here you can almost always count on a hummus plate and french fries (though there's a few bars that don't have that have, if you can just imagine that! i'm looking at you, Beulahland, Roadside Attraction, Tube and Hedge House! man...there's quite a few....), but you can also count on something more filling, such as the tofu or tvp tacos at Bonfire, which is what my friend Matthew above is about to devour. They also have a curry burrito, which i've never had. My friend Corinn loves the portobello gyro, which can be made vegan. Side note about the waitstaff: they can be a bit more-hipster-than-thou, but there's at least one awesomely nice server there named Sean.

The Tube downtown has the yummiest $2 Ham & Cheese english muffin sammies during their Happy Hour (which last i checked ended at 10pm). The Bye & Bye, our town's only all-vegan bar, has quite a few options including a delicious, but messy meatball sub and several different bowls, which are nutritious and delicious. Oh, they are also fry-less.....sad face....

As you can tell, i'm not looking for good-as-in-healthy bar food, though it's possible. I just know that when i visit home in Sarasota, Florida i don't even think about trying to get anything vegan that tastes good when i'm out and about.

What's your favorite bar food?

more ProBar talk....

I did a post about these bars not too long ago. Kendall from the company contacted me and asked if i wanted to try some that were fresher than what i had eaten (i had gotten the Apple Cinnamon Crunch about a year before i ate it at a vegan fest) and, of course, i said Hell, yes!
He/She? sent me, upon request, the Original:


Whole Berry Blast:


and Superfood Slam:



Of the three, i would say my favorite was the Original. It was tasty and had great texture. This is not to say that the others didn't have good texture. They did. I knew beforehand that i wasn't going to love the berry one. i'm just not big on chunks of dried berries in things, especially raspberries and strawberries. My roommate that had some of it, really liked it. The Superfood Slam just had a more healthy taste, which i usually don't mind. I think it's only because i could compare it to the Original and the Apple Cinnamon Crunch that i would say i didn't like it as much.

Kendall told me that there was a new flavor coming in April, so i look forward to trying that one out. These bars are kinda pricey for a snack, but if you're hungry and don't have time for a meal these would do you good. The ingredients are natural and almost all organic.