[trip style = food & wine + weekend getaway]
If you read Trip Styler regularly, you know we try to take a bite out of Portland,Oregon's pant-stretching food scene at every opportunity—the provisions are that good.
Completely obsessed with the city's preoccupation with hyperlocal and mouth-pleasing cuisine, I wrote an article in the Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog about searching for Portland's freshest fare. Here's a taster:
There are conversations you overhear as a travel writer that cause you to grin and thank the heavens you were lucky enough to be within earshot of something so quotable. One such conversation, in Portland, was so perfect, I decided right then and there it would open this tale of the city’s fascination with fresh food (and my preoccupation with packing the right pants).
”Do they sell stretchy pants in Portland?” the guy behind me in the restaurant queue jokingly-yet-seriously quipped. Chortling, his friend replied, "By the weekend’s end, we’ll just want to go pantless.” I laughed out loud and exchanged knowing glances with the chaps because when in the Pacific Northwest’s nosh-central, I purposely pack jeans with a little stretch. It’s survival of the foodie-est.
Oregonians are not obsessed with food because it’s cool to post pretty pictures of plates with artfully arranged fare, or to brag about their culinary institutions that are sweeping the nation. For them, it’s about substance. It doesn’t matter how en vogue eateries or ingredients such as kale or bacon have become; if it’s not good or fresh, it won’t fly....
