Tag Archives: restaurant review

Portland: Hungry Tiger Too

I have officially been writing about all the great food that I ate in Portland for longer than I was there! I promise I’ll be back to the regularly scheduled program soon. It has been a summer of travel posts. Hungry Tiger Too was one of my most favorites because although I have been hearing about fried tofu and waffles for a long time I have never gotten to try it until this trip. It was better than my wildest dreams; truly as if an angel from the southern part of heaven came down and delivered it to this strange quasi bar in Portland. The crusty crispy outside of the tofu was perfectly seasoned and flavored and topped with maple syrup and bottomed with a perfect wafflle it was truly a glorius gluttenous meal, especially when you consider that this was second breakfast and along side a full serving biscuits and gravy.and a Tofuffalo SaladLucky for me I was sharing with more wonderful friends and didn’t have to eat all of this myself! Although I ate more than my share of tofu, sorry ladies! I couldn’t stop!

 

 

 

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Portland: Mee Sen Thai

One thing I love about Portland is that everything is really cute. In the places I have lived my favorite Thai restaurants are usually hole-in-the-wall shacky-type places with sometimes questionable service. In Portland they certainly have that style of restaurant but then they also have super adorable Thai places like Mee Sen which is, what, shabby chic? Do people even say that anymore? There must be a better descriptor! The point is, I couldn’t get over how cute everything was. I loved the reused whisky bottle with tin cups they brought for water .Really, the whole reason we picked this place was because they have delightful tamarind sours and after a girly day of hanging out at the community spa it seemed like the perfect finish. We decided to order several courses to share because Portland is all about communal experiences. We started with the fried tofu, which was just like your favorite hippy: crunchy on the outside and a little soft in the middle.

Before we knew what was happening our Tofu Larb came out just as our dry soup was put on the table. It was an onslaught of tofu!The Tom Yum (dry) was my favorite part of the meal since I am a sucker for peanuts, noodles, and fried things in general. We also got the Pad See Eww, which is always a favorite of mine and was perfectly acceptable here. I love a wide noodle. Actually I learned Mee Sen means “Have Noodle” but it also means “have a connection/good friends” so we were happy to mee sen at Mee Sen, a delightful meal shared with two of my favorite ladies.

 

 

 

The Steeping Room at the Domain

Update 5/31/2018 The Domain location is closed, there is a newer location at 4400 North Lamar

For the longest time I had been avoiding “The Domain”. It’s not like it’s very hard to avoid since I don’t ever go shopping and live in South Austin and it is really far north. But, there have been a few times it has come up (like when my mom comes to visit) that I had to actively avoid it. When they built the large outdoor shopping mall it was touted as being a high end shopping mall for a certain kind of luxury shopper. Having an inherent hatred of shopping, things that are expensive, driving across town, and perfume it just isn’t my scene. But I kept hearing about this little tea shop called “The Steeping Room” that was very vegan friendly that I had to try it.

I’m so glad I did. As shopping malls go, I actually liked the domain. It had all the normal stores but since you can walk around outside it doesn’t suck your soul out as much and I am not coughing, sneezing, and crying from the department store’s perfume.

The Steeping Room itself was a nice little cafe with a little bit of outdoor seating and a kind of fancy chain feel if you know what I mean, pleasant. It was very bright inside with lots of white and little tables. The place was packed when we went and they immediately brought us their extensive tea menu that had a thousand different kinds of tea with lots of information about tea. My friend and I chose the Earl Grey because we are fans and it was described as “the best earl grey tea you will ever have. I think it was! Then we ordered dinner. I got the Buddha bowl which was rice, lentils, baked tofu, sweet potatoes, greens, and for the sauce I chose the cashew cream sauce. It was pretty good, very healthy and filling but a little lacking for me. The tofu was really dry and the bowl reminded me of one I had at Blossoming Lotus which was especially good. Maybe I should tell the steeping room about soy curls because I liked them much better in a bowl like this!

They also have lots of different vegan options for dessert, or I guess they usually do but when we went it was just a vegan cupcake which was fine by me!

The cupcake was perfect! The frosting was luscious and creamy and the cake was moist and delicious. I definitely recommend the Steeping Room. Especially if your mom is town or you like shopping. Or live north. And as a word of warning, if you stare at this picture of the cupcake long enough you might go into a trance that only a cupcake can revive your from so LOOK AWAY!