You Gotta Try This!: Sugar Mamas’ Hearty Breakfasts & Delicious Baked Goods

December 23, 2010

Growing up I was extremely lucky to have adoptive grandparents who lived right next door to us and would have my family over for Sunday breakfast on a consistent basis.  They loved filling their house with children who adored them, and we loved being spoiled by them!  My grandmother would make biscuits and sausage gravy, cinnamon rolls, and hashbrowns.  My own mother was more of a bran muffin and granola for breakfast type of person, so getting such a huge breakfast like the one my grandmother would make was a special treat for us.  I haven’t had the pleasure of eating breakfast at Sugar Mamas’ Cafe yet, but I imagine the experience is just as delicious and heart warming as mine growing up.

Sugar Mamas’ Cafe, located at 579 SW 13th Ave & SW Alder, is the creation of two adorable sisters, Michelle and Zelda, who love cooking and the joy that their food brings to their customers. Known for their big breakfasts, Sugar Mamas doesn’t scrimp on size or taste, so bring your appetite.  Breakfast is served all day long with yummy options like the Power Cakes Mama’s Cakes with dried cranberries, coconut, banana & REAL maple syrup; their authentic corned beef hash; biscuits and gravy just like how my grandmother made them; and even a meatloaf breakfast served with hashbrowns and eggs.

But Sugar Mamas isn’t just about breakfast, they also serve lunch and scrumptious baked goods. For lunch try their meatloaf sandwich, tomato soup made from scratch, or a tasty grilled sandwich.  For anytime of day, you must try a German Chocolate Brownie, their famous Carmel Pecan Sticky Buns, and their homemade Snickerdoodles just in time for Christmas!

Sugar Mamas is open Mon-Fri 7am to 3pm and Sat-Sun 8am to 1pm. Want to get them delivered to your home or office? Portland Pedal Power has got you covered, just order here and they will deliver it to you by bike!

You Gotta Try This!: A Japanese Pub in Portland

December 8, 2010

Maybe I don’t go out enough, but I had never heard of Japanese Pubs before running across Yakuza.  In Japan they call them an izakaya, which is a type of Japanese drinking establishment that also serves food to accompany the drinks.  There are a good amount of sushi restaurants in Portland, but what intrigued me about Yakuza is the fact that they call themselves a Japanese pub and that they apparently won Portland Monthly Magazine’s “Best Burger of 2009.” Tell me that doesn’t peak your interest!

Yakuza of course has some seriously tasty house rolls and sashimi, like their Sashimi Trio, which includes, tuna, yellowtail, and salmon, and their Pear Jalapeno roll, which is a mix of yellowtail, pear, avocado and jalapeno. But you will also find some unique dishes you might not expect at a Japanese establishment, like chilled crab, kobe tartar and of course their award winning Yakuza burger.

Just as enticing as the food is Yakuza’s unique cocktail creations and their huge selection of sake.  Try a Beet Martini, the Wasabi, or a Carrot Cosmo, or one of 15 different sakes, like the Momokawa Organic Nigori Sake, which is rich and creamy and has hints of coconut.

Located in the Concordia Neighborhood at 5411 NE 30th Ave, Yakuza is truly a unique Portland gem.  To make reservations book online here.

You Gotta Try This!: Savory Australian Pies @ Pacific Pie Co

December 2, 2010

Tis the season for pie, and I know I’m not the only one who enjoyed a slightly excessive amount of pecan and pumpkin pie last week. However, our North American holiday pies don’t usually cover the whole continuum of potential pie fillings: we tend to stay on the sweet side. To broaden your horizons, you gotta try Pacific Pie Co.

Pacific Pie Co specializes in Australian-style savory pies, pasties and sausage rolls. These pies are sandwich-sized, not full-pie-sized, so they’re perfect for an individual meal. The savory pies come in beef, chicken, lamb, and vegetarian varieties. Lamb is a traditional Aussie ingredient in savory pies. Pacific Pie Co gets their lamb from an organic, sustainable and humane farm in Canby, Oregon.

In fact, all ingredients in PPC pies are from local Oregon and Southern Washington sources. The meat used has been raised humanely and organically, without antibiotics or hormones, and grass-fed. As a vegetarian, even I don’t object to meat eating under these conditions: small scale, sustainable, organic farming is not detrimental to the environment or the animals like conventional farming is.

Pacific Pie Co also makes vegetarian pasties (pronounced pah-sties, not pay-sties!), which sound amazing to me. Spinach, feta and tomato in a flakey, warm crust? Yes, please! They also have a cheese and veggie pastie, and did I mention that most of these menu items are $5 or $6? I’ve paid a lot more than that for a much lower quality lunch.

They also serve sausage rolls, seasonal sweet pies, salad and soup. All these delicious items from a company with a mission statement of community, sustainability and ethical stewardship of animals makes for a strongly endorsed You Gotta Try This!

Pacific Pie Co is located at 609 SE Ankeny St, Suite C, and they can be found Saturdays at the Beaverton Farmer’s Market and Sundays at the Milwaukie Farmer’s Market. Click here for their website, and find their page with a Forkfly deal for a free coffee or tea here.

You Gotta Try This!: The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

November 3, 2010

So Halloween is behind us and it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and those December holidays. This is the time of year where you get to dress up and attend classy cocktail parties, festive and well-thought-out meals, and sophisticated outings to the theater. One such outing should take you to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, where they have been producing great music and entertaining snazzily-dressed concertgoers for thirty-two years.

The orchestra has some sweetly humble beginnings: it started as a group of musical enthusiasts who played together in various groups. They moved up by steps, first becoming the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra than the Vancouver Community Orchestra, as they created a demand for chamber music in their region. String musicians joined the group to form the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and today this professional organization is highly regarded.


This weekend, the symphony has its last regular season performance of the year, featuring two outstanding pianists, Yukiko Akagi of Japan and Alex Alguacil of Spain, pictured here. They will perform together on the Concerto for Two Pianos at Saturday’s 3 pm performance and Sunday’s 7 pm show. Their piece will be followed by the whole orchestra’s performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Liszt’s Hungarian Raphsody.

But the really festive concert will take place on December 18. The Big Horn Brass Christmas Show is a “perfect blend of traditional and swinging standards played by sixteen pieces of brass and percussion, and featuring vocalist Valerie Day.”

Another great reason to support this organization is their involvement in the Vancouver community and their dedication to providing opportunities to young musicians. Take advantage of this local treasure and make the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra part of your holiday celebration this year!

You Gotta Try This!: Big Al’s Vancouver

October 20, 2010

I’ve been trying to get my boyfriend to take me bowling for weeks now. Maybe bowling makes you think of your ninth birthday party, but I’m convinced it’s for adults too, and it makes a perfect date night. How often do you get to drink beer while participating in a sport? (Okay, bowling is a sport the way billiards is a sport, but you know what I mean.) Our options in NE Portland are limited to a few pretty sketchy, dingy alleys. To up the appeal I’m going to propose we check out Big Al’s Vancouver, which offers so much more than just bowling.

Big Al’s provides nice facilities at prices comparable to less classy joints. Bowling leagues play here, of course, and Galaxy Bowling, with blacklights and a neon motif, occurs during the day on weekends for families and after 9 Fridays and Saturdays. Pretty standard, you say? Well after a game or three, when those rental shoes start to pinch your toes, your night is still young. Finish that pitcher and mosey over to the sports bar for dinner, or the arcade for more games.

This isn’t just any arcade, or any sports bar. Big Al’s takes arcades and sports bars very seriously.

The arcade boasts 4,000 square feet of video-gaming fun. This is going to be the hook that gets my boyfriend to finally take me out. Check out the new additions to the arcade here. At Big Al’s you’ll find all the standard favorites, like Buck Hunter Pro and DDR Supernova, plus more than 100 others. Inside the sports bar, find more games, like billiards ($5 for an hour!) and shuffleboard.

This is not your average sports bar. The bar is built with a stadium structure in mind and it rocks 4 50″ TVs and 2 42″ TVs, plus the 8ft by 36ft jumbotron pictured here. Die-hard fans looking for a great viewing experience could not ask for more. The grill menu will satisfy anyone, sport-inclined or otherwise.

So get your own man or lady to take you out for a fun evening at Big Al’s Vancouver, located at 16615 SE Vancouver Way and online here.

Written by Forkfly intern Eleanor Brown

You Gotta Try This!: Your own Beer & Wine Making Kit

October 4, 2010

If I really sat down and thought about it, I would probably die from shock at the amount of money I spend on beer and wine every month.  If I made my own product at home, not only would I save some money in the long run on prepackaged beer and wine, but I would be the envy of all of my friends every time I walked into a party with my own beer creation in hand.  But I am no chemist by all means, so how does one go about making their own beer or wine?  The answer is buy your own kit!

Bader Beer & Wine Supply in Vancouver, WA sell beer and wine making starter kits, as well as brewing equipment and ingredients.  So now you have everything you need to make your drink of choice, but you still don’t know what the heck you are doing, so why not take a class and find out?  Bader’s also offers beginning beer and wine making classes for as low as $20.  By the time you are done with the class you should be be able to offer your friends a nice glass of Grenache or an ice cold Porter next time they come over.  The hardest part about the beer and wine making process is waiting a week or more for it to be ready for consumption.

You Gotta Try This! Fun Slides from Kazoodles

September 29, 2010

There is something so entertaining about sliding around in your socks on a newly waxed floor.  I don’t care if you are five or fifty-five, this never gets old.  But what if your house is entirely carpet, or has little space for sliding?  Don’t fret, the good elves at Santa’s workshop have came up with a solution just for you, and they are called Fun Slides.

The photo is pretty ridiculous looking, but Fun Slides are carpet skates that let you “cruise” on carpets the same way you would in your socks on a hardwood or linoleum floor.  It looks like loads of fun, but as a parent I would be weary of constant accidents occurring.

I am an adult and if my  friends and I had a pair we would use them to race around my house, so just imagine what kids would do :)  I still say this is a product “You Gotta Try!”  You can find the Fun Slides locally at the Vancouver toy store Kazoodles.

You Gotta Try This!: A Brunch Box Burger

September 13, 2010

Even though the hamburger technically originated in Germany in the 19th century, the burger has been an American icon for more than half a century. Fast food joints put the burger on the map, but upscale restaurants, cafes and food carts have shown that an American fave when done right can also be a gourmet delicacy.  The classic burger with pickles, lettuce and tomato is still my favorite, but many places have added their own cool variations of this American staple.  One such place is Brunch Box, a food cart located off of SW 5th & Stark, which has many different styles of burgers.

At Brunch Box you can choose whether you want a Black Angus, vegetarian or turkey burger.  Next you can add up to four different types of cheeses, an egg, mushrooms, kraut, pineapple, or even chips.  If you need a little more meat on your meat sandwich, you can also add an extra patty, some ham, bacon, or a Hawaiian favorite, spam.  And don’t assume your patty masterpiece now needs to be stuck in between two buns, you can also get a burger served on Texas toast.

The price is also right starting at $3.25 for a regular hamburger.  I enjoyed a mushroom burger today that was hearty, not greasy, and the mushrooms were cooked to perfection.  The picture I took doesn’t do the burger justice because I took it after I had been carrying the sandwich for several blocks, and so it looks all smashed.  To try your very own Brunch Box burger visit them on 5th & Stark, and flash them their Forkfly deal for extra savings!

You Gotta Try This!: A Relaxing Facial and Skin Care Consultation at The Center for Aesthetic Medicine

September 8, 2010

I have gotten a pedicure, manicure and massage in the past as a gift or a treat to myself, but for some reason I have always thought of a facial as a relaxing, yet self indulgent procedure.  Facials have always seemed like something you only do if you have really bad skin problems or have free money to throw around, and my thoughts were, “If I want to pay for a relaxing luxury, I would rather it be a massage.”  What I didn’t realize is that at places like The Center for Aesthetic Medicine, which is a branch of The Oregon Clinic, a facial is much more than a one time rejuvenation treatment it is a chance to get educated on your individual skin’s needs.

The Center for Aesthetic Medicine’s Esthetician Deborah Beers is like a Fairy Godmother.  Her friendly demeanor and bright smile puts you instantly at ease, and as soon as she sets you down on her comfy chair and covers you with a warm blanket you know you are going to be transformed into a whole new person.  Although the facial itself is extremely relaxing, Deborah is busy dissecting your skin the entire time.  She first asks you some questions about your skin goals, daily skin procedures, and products that you use.  This information helps her determine what type of facial would be suitable for your skin, and also helps her figure out what you are doing right and what habits you might need to change.  I learned that my skin was in need of some major hydration, which means I need to drink a lot more water.  I also had no clue that I should be using a moisturizer at night!

The point of the actual facial treatment, according to Deborah, is to give you a glowing fresh palate to work with, but it is up to you to keep that palate looking good, and that is where the education part of the treatment comes to play.  Deborah’s goal is to provide you with the tools and knowledge to keep your skin young and healthy every day.  She understands that buying facial products is overwhelming, and it is hard to know when to splurge and when buying over the counter is a suitable option.  When I left the office I was given a step-by-step daily face regiment, supplements were recommended, and she suggested some great cleansing products.  I honestly never thought I would learn so much from one facial, but every procedure at The Center for Aesthetic Medicine is designed to educate you on top of providing rejuvenation.

It has been a couple weeks since the facial, but I have kept up my skin regiment recommended for me and I still have a glow and freshness in my face that was lacking before.  I am not good on upkeep outside of the home, so I was also happy to hear that I should only need to get a facial once or twice a year to look my best.  After everything was said and done, I got a card in the mail from Deborah thanking me for coming in, and in an age of email it was so considerate that she took the time to give me that personal attention.  If you get facials done on a regular basis, or are looking to get one done for the first time, do yourself a big favor and make an appointment with Deborah.  You will love it!

The Center for Aesthetic Medicine is located at 1111 NE 99th Ave, Suite 101 in Portland.  Check out their website to find out more about all the services they offer, and make sure before you make an appointment to check out their deals on our Forkfly application.

You Gotta Try This!: A weekly guide of things you must try in PDX

August 18, 2010

Burrito Bowl


A Burrito Bowl is basically a burrito minus the tortilla.  It is perfect for vegans and people that need gluten-free options, like myself. The one pictured above is from Burrito Bar Caribbean Grill, located in the Pearl District.  Burrito Bar has you first choose what kinds of rice, beans, meat, salsa, veggies and condiments you want in your burrito bowl.  These ingredients are piled on top of each other in a surprisingly  pleasant looking display and you have the option of having it  served with a side of chips.

I had the whole grain brown rice, black beans, sweet & spicy chicken, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream and their signature mango salsa.  The chicken was moist and seasoned to taste, and all of the spices and fresh ingredients melded together in perfect harmony.  I must have liked it a lot because I almost finished my entire plate!

The Burrito Bar is a local, family owned restaurant, and serves only fresh ingredients with no preservatives, no additives, and no lard or msg.  Besides the Burrito Bowl, they also have Island Burritos, Caribbean Tacos & Salads, quesadillas and nachos, and all at a very reasonable price.  Here at Forkfly We are lucky enough to have Burrito Bar’s deals available on our mobile application, so you can get an even better discount from them every day!

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