Eating On The Road

The cute guy's sister turned sixty yesterday and on Saturday she's running a marathon. In Portland. The threat of industrial, plastic wrapped or microwaved food is not going to keep us away. We are heading out in the morning with a bag of almonds and a couple of they-really-taste-like-nectarines, nectarines. But from there I have to let go of my 100% committment until our return. I am comforted however by the fact that Portland is happening in the eat local scene.

I want to say I won't go out first thing and have pizza but the truth is I think we will. I've been looking at restaurants in the area and the one that comes up repeatedly for using local ingredients is Hot Lips Pizza. Damn. And we have reservations for tomorrow night at Terroir that serves small plates of regional and seasonal foods. I think we are going to eat our way through this town.

Saturday morning before we run (in our rental car) to the finish line to whoop it up wildly when my darling sister-in-law crosses the finish line, we'll head to the Portland Farmer's market to get snacks for the day and I'll snoop for local items I can't get at home.

Other than a celebratory dinner after the race, we don't have eating plans but some time ago while cruising the Eat Local Challenge webiste I found this entry, with the following guidelines that we'll use as our road map:

If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

I can't wait to see what we find.

Oh, and to eat pizza!


(As an aside, per my challenge commitment to pledge $5 to an organization, yet to be determined, for every day I successfully eat local this month, I add that for every day I don't eat fully local, which will be the case while traveling, I pledge $10 a day. And that includes last Saturday when there was no excuse at the Pt. Reyes farmer's market when I had a warm ginger scone from the Tomales Bakery because I am weak in the face of a good scone.)