Portland, Oregon - Frugal Town, USA!

Photo by Vintage Roadside on Flickr

A travel piece in the NY Times recently came out, titled Frugal Portland.

".... Portland is overflowing with great, affordable restaurants. In dozens of meals, I don’t think I was ever truly disappointed with a single bite, nor did I ever leave hungry, nor did my friends and I ever spend more than $25 a person. In fact, if I had any regrets, it was that I felt duty-bound not to repeat a restaurant visit no matter how much I liked a place and wanted to return."

Yes, Portland is a frugal town - and we're people that expect a lot of bang for our culinary buck. Having grown up in (Portland) Oregon, the first state to enact the bottle bill, and having had a curbside neighborhood recycling since the early 1980's, you get a sense of the value of raw materials, renewable/reusable and otherwise. Heck, we even recycle house paint!

When first formulating the flavors, and determining the size of the container of hummus, it never occurred to us to pack it in less than a 12 ounce recyclable container, anything less and we would have received complaints from our Portland customers. After it reached the first hand full of grocery stores we were surprised to learn that most of the hummus being offered today is packed in a small, 8 ounce container.

But along with size, quality must be equally important. Hand-roasting fresh vegetables such as red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and smoked tomatoes, does take longer, but we are of the belief that crafting food is a gratifyingly creative experience, and we're in pretty good company along this way of thinking here.