#51 | Portland Donuts

When we were getting ready to visit Portland, we heard of multiple things that we needed to do. Some of the items on that list included coffee, microbreweries, vintage stores and donuts...yep, donuts. Now if you know me personally, you'll know that I'm not a dessert guy (I'd rather eat two savoury meals). But luckily for me, I can get down with a cake or pastry every now and then so I knew this was something that I wouldn't pass on. I was told that there are tons of places to check out but there's always going to be a debate on the PDX staple - Voodoo Doughnut or Blue Star Donuts.

On the same day that we got into the city, we went to hunt down Afuri (which we had eaten in Harajuku in the fall). Right beside Afuri just happened to be Voodoo located beside a walking alley with a variety of restaurants including an old fashioned bar and an oyster restaurant. This place is known for its branding with their suggestive slogans and over-the-top donuts. Voodoo has become so popular and successful that it opened its own location in Disney World. Our friend Matt who we were with mentioned that we had to check out the place for ourselves.

The first thing that came to my mind was "punk". It wasn't only naming their donuts after rap stars and words you probably shouldn't say at a Disney resort, but the staff, decor and interior played well with the loud music and atmosphere. I thought it was really cool and the lineup out the door suggested that others thought the same. Unfortunately for me, that's where this cool factor ended. I ordered the "Voodoo Doll", a raspberry filled yeast donut with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake to symbolize a pin. It was mediocre and I ate it as quickly as I could just so that we can could continue with our day. The experience was neat but the product isn't something I'd return for.

The day after when we exploring downtown, we decided to take a sugar break at Blue Star Donuts. These guys currently have eight locations in Oregon and three in California. The space was bright, clean and there was lots of natural light from all of the glass windows. The staff were helpful and explained to us all of the favourites that they had available and let us sample a few items as well. I went with a matcha lime donut and Aash chose a buttermilk cake donut. 

I took a bite and realized this is what I've been missing and said "this might be the best donut I've ever eaten" letting an uncontrollable smile take over my face. I've only ever had one donut that could potentially compete with this (Cartems in Vancouver) and because of that, we visited another three times. We tried other favourites from the blueberry cake to the orange olive oil, which resembled a levelled up Hostess powdered mini donut. I just ate supper and am so full, but would love if I could crush another one of these cake donuts.

If I lived in Portland, I would be tempted by this place all the time. It has an atmosphere where you can take a laptop to do some work, drink a tea and pretend contemplating ordering a donut. I'd likely end up Instagramming my donut and not get any work done. At this point it sounds like I'm being petty and complaining, but I really loved hanging out here.

My suggestion is that if you ever visit Portland, check out Voodoo to say that you went and immediately follow it up by walking five minutes to the downtown Blue Star location to get a quick dose of reality to see who really wins this "Voodoo or Blue Star?" debate.

Yours Truly

#50 | Tokyo, Japan

Japan has always been on my bucket list to travel to. When Aashna and I were booking a trip to visit her family in India, she found a flight that would allow for us to spend 24 hours in Tokyo, giving us a taste of what the city has to offer. I've always been drawn to the fashion, food, culture and sights that I've seen online and heard about. After spending a week or two deciding whether we should book a trip back in November, we pulled the trigger and started to plan on how we wanted to spend our time in the city.

We watched multiple videos and read lists and decided to just try to take in what the city had to offer as 24 hours really wasn't a lot of time to explore the city. This led us to spend all of our time in Shibuya and Harajuku, they had a lot of restaurants and shops that we wanted to pop into. We arrived in the city around 4pm that day and wanted to visit as many stores as we could before they closed. We popped our heads into a bunch of stores like Don Quijote Megastore, Supreme, GIP Store, Blue Blue Japan, The North Face and more. Here we got to take a look at nifty home items and fashion aficionados putting their outfits together. Fashion was really crazy out here, everyone looked laid back but the pieces they wore were intentional and thoughtful.

After all of that shopping, we had to rest our legs and grab a bite to eat. We knew we had to find some sushi and ramen. After viewing multiple blogs and knowing that Aash preferred a chicken broth, we found ourselves at Afuri ordering ramen from a machine and sitting at the bar with a full kitchen right in front of our eyes in Harajuku (this restaurant now exists in Richmond and Portland). The unique thing about this ramen was that they incorporate yuzu in the broth giving it a nice citrus taste. Other meals in this short amount of time included very impressive sushi (both on a conveyer belt and at the airport) and a bubble tea joint to get our caffeine fix to keep us going.

At this point we roamed the busy streets to people watch and make it back to our hotel. We stopped into random businesses, window shopped and stopped at the Starbucks back in Shibuya to watch the world's busiest crosswalk in action. I think Shibuya Crossing is a solid representation of what Tokyo is - safe, busy, organized and entertaining. After gazing at the sights, we were ready for bed. We took a five hour rest, wandered down the streets of Tokyo, headed to Narita airport to do some more shopping and then we were off to visit the family in Mumbai.

I'm dreaming of the day we get to return!

Yours Truly