Voodoo Doughnut - Maple Bacon Bar

Note: this is a guest post from Garrett Morlan, an illustrator and designer living in Seattle who will be sending in reports from the northwest on occasion. Check out more of his work at garrettmorlan.com.

If you haven't yet seen it on the likes of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" or Adam Richmond's "Man vs. Food", downtown Portland's Voodoo Doughnut is a bizarre and fun bakery. The original location is super tiny and the atmosphere alone will make you think you are in some sort of dark fun house or New Orleans style voodoo shop complete with severed arms and skulls aplenty.



Voodoo Doughnut has a wide array of tasty and creative concoctions, from the classic "Voodoo Doughnut" a voodoo doll shaped doughnut with pretzel stick sticking out of it, or the "Arnold Palmer"
which is a cake doughnut covered with lemon and tea powder. But the must have, the end all be all in flavor indulgences in my opinion is the Bacon Maple Bar, a standard bar shaped doughnut covered in plenty of gooey maple icing and topped off with a couple strips of delicious crispy bacon.



The Bacon Maple Bar is by far the best doughnut i’ve ever had. If you think that bacon and doughnuts don’t go together, well just think of getting a little wayward maple syrup on your bacon when you eat pancakes or french toast, but this is even better. This salty and sweet mixture is out of this world and you just can’t beat it, besides, bacon makes everything better! Although I did find myself thinking that if I eat too many of these i'll end up either hallucinating as if cursed by a voodoo witch doctor or just on a hospital gurney.


Overall the doughnuts are huge, fresh, soft and delicious and if you are ever in Portland, OR. swing by and get something, you won't be disappointed. And if you find that you LOVE Voodoo Doughnut, well, you can actually get married there too!

A Legal Voodoo Wedding is $300 and includes:
Legal wedding Ceremony , Doughnuts and coffee for 6 people.
(6 people only due to limited capacity)

Voodoo Doughnut
22 SW 3rd Avenue
Portland Oregon

Pine State Biscuits

I've never been a big breakfast person, and for most of my life I've totally ignored the whole breakfast is the most important meal of the day thing. The only times that I make an exception to my no food before noon rule is when I'm on vacation, and oftentimes I end up kicking myself for not venturing into the world of breakfast foods more often.

On my last day in Portland I found myself awake pretty early in order to make a flight and have one last meal with the friends that I was visiting. We made our sleepy way over to Pine State Biscuits for an obscenely early breakfast that was one of the best that I've ever had. Their signature sandwich, the Reggie, sounds like a prime candidate for This Is Why You're Fat but it tastes like a dream come true. A giant flakey biscuit topped with fried chicken, bacon, cheddar, and the best country gravy I've ever had. The biscuit is tinged yellow from all of the great butter that goes into it, the bacon is cooked perfectly, treading that fine line between chewy and overdone, and the gravy has enough coarsely ground black pepper to make it borderline spicy. This sandwich would have been great even if the chicken wasn't, but the chicken itself was amazing. It was a boneless breast which tends to dry out easily, but this one was a triumph. Moist, crisp, and perfectly seasoned with hints of vinegary hot sauce and the tang of a possible buttermilk soak.

It's been a week since my last Reggie and I have to say that there hasn't been a morning that I haven't woken up and craved it. Next time I'm in Portland I'll have to go for the Reggie Deluxe that tops the whole thing with an over easy egg.