Eating Vacations

I don't know about you, but when I go on vacation to a place I've been to before (and this is especially true with a short vacation), I plan my time around what meals I can eat while I'm there.

This is always the case when I visit Bellingham, Washington. I went to college there, and there are so many wonderful places to eat, that I really need several days in order to do the city justice. I'll come back to Bellingham another day.

Last weekend Peter and I drove down to Eugene, Oregon. We lived there between 1998 and 2005, so we had plenty of time to get to know people, and to eat lots of tasty food. Of course we saw our friends while we were in town, but we also ate at several of our favorite places.

First among these was Studio One Cafe -- we started off our weekend with breakfast there on Saturday. Studio One is a tiny cafe just south of the University of Oregon, but it has extremely delicious breakfast fare. (In fact, I've only ever eaten breakfast there.) Peter's favorite is their challah french toast, which comes laden with fruity sauces, almond compote, and Awesome. My favorite had been a croissant breakfast sandwich that was piled with eggs scrambled with cheese, tomatoes, onions, and canadian bacon. Sadly, they discontinued the sandwich! I was very disappointed. But I drowned my sorrows in the tasty sauce that came with my french toast. Yum!

Next, since we weren't very hungry by lunch time, we picked up breakfast sandwiches to go from Barry's, a local coffee shop and deli that specializes in sandwiches built on home made bread, and truly excellent pastries. Oh, and we also got some of their tollhouse cookies. Incidentally, the breakfast sandwiches are on challah rolls. I guess we had a challah theme...

Dinner was accomplished at Sweet Basil, an amazing Thai restaurant in downtown. We feasted on chicken satay with peanut sauce, beef massaman, their special red curry, and pad see ew, all washed down with Thai iced tea. (Or one of Eugene's local beers -- your choice.) I have to say: Sweet Basil's wide rice noodles are the best I've ever had anywhere. They are both tender and chewy. I don't know how they do it, but it's a divine combination.

We actually reprised our breakfast sandwiches again Sunday morning. Who can blame us? They're tasty, and we needed to get on the road.

Of course, I wouldn't give a complete list if I left off the baguette we purchased, made by Metropol bakery, or the Yorkshire Gold tea which we can't seem to find anywhere in Seattle, or the pounds of locally roasted coffee (Equator Organic Sumatra, to be precise)... It's just a good eatin' town.