Long before food cart fever spread all over town, Portland already had a reputation of being daring when it comes to dining. Now, with curbside innovation rolling into almost every spare parking lot, the head spins at the edible options available. With well over 400 mobile eateries within city limits, you’ll a need a guide to undertake a culinary adventure this vast — luckily, Portland has two such tours.
Brett Burmeister has been chronicling the city’s street eats since 2008, and offers daily lunchtime tours by appointment through Food Carts Portland. Covering the history of the carts, the economic and political conditions that helped them thrive, and, of course, some tasty samples, the tour is full of stories and local flavor.
Meanwhile, Portland Walking Tours’ Flavor Street boasts the inside scoop on everything from savory pies to pork sandwiches, with resident experts sharing their secrets Wednesday through Saturday at 1 p.m. Walk-ups are welcome for the two-hour tour that strolls about a mile, but group size is limited, so advance tickets are recommended. Both tours begin downtown, an ideal starting point for visitors looking to get a taste of some of the most exciting, innovative eats on Portland’s streets.
Visitors need all the help they can get navigating the more than 600 registered food carts dishing out all sorts of tasty vittles in Portland. Fortunately, the dedicated folks at FoodCartsPortland.com (who have been diligently tracking and cataloging the carts since 2007) have introduced an iPhone app that’s sure to help.
The 99-cent Food Carts Portland Mobile app allows users to search by vendor location, type of cuisine or hours and create a step-by-step route to the food carts. It also lists all of the food cart pods — areas where several carts congregate permanently — and profiles the carts with photos, sample menus and contact information.
Visitors without iPhones can still benefit from the exhaustive catalog at FoodCartsPortland.com’s mobile website, though they will miss out on the mapping features.
Hungry Heart Cupcakes (photo by Viva Barrows, bePortland)
Last Saturday, I — along with 3,000 other folks — indulged in the annual Portland food cart festival known as Eat Mobile. Three thousand people + 52 carts = lots of lines. But each wait was rewarded with a delicious sample. I focused on trying out new-to-me carts and came away with several favorites:
This cart served up Venezuelan arepas (corn cakes) with green chili chicken or pork belly in a spicy red chili maple sauce. Both were delicious, but the pork belly ranked as one of the best things I’ve eaten in recent memory. Besides discovering a new food, I found out that this cart is within walking distance of my house … and then I ate lunch there on Sunday.
The samples could have been bigger, but my first little tastes of Guamanian food convinced me that I’ll be back for more! Luckily, this cart — which took home the Eat Mobile judges’ award — is also at the D-Street Noshery on Southeast Division, right next to Fuego De Lotus.
Anyone who thinks cupcakes are a trend that’s run its course needs to try a “Dark and Dusty”: dark chocolate and cacao nib cake topped with dulce de leche frosting and Maldon sea salt. (more…)
Ramen. Most of us know it as that stuff we survived on in college. I’m here to tell you that we’ve been wronged by that stuff and I have proof.
Lunch at The Ramen Truck
Meet The Ramen Truck. Located on S.E. 33rd off of Hawthorne, you’ll find this pale yellow truck tucked away in an alley. They make their own noodles (yes, it’s true!) and broth. The three-step process to order is outlined on the truck:
1. Choose your broth — white or garlic. Be forewarned, their broth contains chashu (pork).
2. Order your size — small or regular.
3. Choose your add-ons. This includes a hard-boiled egg, corn, kim chi, extra green onions, extra nori and extra pork (chashu).
That’s it! Your order is prepared and brought out to you on a cute vintage tray. It was a lovely day when I visited, so I took advantage of the outdoor table and took the time to really enjoy my ramen. This was so much better than that other stuff, and very reasonably priced. Baseline price is $5-7, not including add-ons. Now go and discover what ramen is really all about!
We’re entering the final weeks of our winter hotel special, which invites visitors to enjoy a different kind of getaway (filled with one-of-a-kind Portland experiences such as Powell’s, Voodoo Doughnut, food carts and tax-free shopping) and a different kind of discount ($72 off your second night).
Based on our math, these savings will go a long ways. So, how would you spend your $72?
Earning accolades like “world’s best street food” from U.S. News Travel, Portland’s food cart scene is becoming very well-known. But did you know that we have an annual food cart festival? Eat Mobile features samples from some of the city’s best carts along with live music and some friendly competition — carts vie for awards in a variety of categories. Check out this video from 2011:
Eat Mobile is scheduled for Saturday, April 28, 2012, and tickets will go on sale March 28 at wweek.com/eatmobile. General admission tickets are $18 and include samples from each of the participating carts, while a limited number of pre-tasting tickets, running $47, will get you into the event at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) an hour early and include complimentary beverages. This event always sells out, so make sure you mark your calendar if you plan to attend.
Check out our new radio ads, in which the City of Roses — brought to life by Live Wire radio’s Courtenay Hameister — invites Seattleites to come down for a different kind of weekend getaway, and different kind of discount: $72 off a two-night stay.
In these spots, produced by our friends at Sockeye, Courtenay gives our neighbors to the north four great reasons to visit: Powell’s, Pinot noir, food carts and tax-free shopping.
To which I would add one more: attending a taping of Live Wire, the spirited, literate and laugh-out-loud radio show that resumes its live shows Feb. 18 at the Alberta Rose Theater.
So, what’s on your list of can’t-miss Portland experiences?
Seeing that we are in the season of giving thanks, I would like to say “thank you” for the gift that gives year-round: the American Burrito, also known as the sandwich. The sandwich is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance in Portland thanks to a few key players who have upped the ante on three very important sandwich metrics: abundance, variety and scrumptiousness. The subject is certainly open to debate, but this sandwich aficionado thinks the following purveyors of tasty hand-held meals have helped fill a void that had been vacant for too longs.
Enter into the ring: Meat Cheese Bread, with a menu that favors locally sourced ingredients; Bunk Sandwiches, where creative artistry keeps you coming back for more; and Kenny and Zuke’s, offering deli-style fare that is always piled high. Three-handedly, these brick-and-mortar establishments quickly helped raise sandwich awareness in the city.
The bread-based buzz carries through the outdoor scene as well. At the Alder Street food cart pod, Addy’s tasty baguettes are the perfect lunch companion; across the way, Huong’s Vietnamese serves up a bahn mi that will be your new best friend; and, down at Fifth and Stark, Tabor’s schnitzelwich is always ready to tango.
Portland’s sandwich selection has come a long way over the years and is headed in a savory direction — right to my stomach, and for that I am thankful.
Our food scene has bloggers buzzing – and TV audiences salivating, thanks to Travel Oregon’s new spots that feature the range of the state’s culinary experiences: from food carts to wine, from Dungies to truffles, and from farm to table.
Oregon Bounty, the state’s culinary promotion, runs through Nov. 6. Planning your trip?
Willamette Week’s Fourth Annual Eat Mobile is this Saturday, April 23. The event showcases 40 food carts lined up within two and half blocks under the Morrison Bridge (SE 3rd and Belmont). Garden State, Pyro Pizza, and Koi Fusion are a few of my faves. This is an all-ages event and proceeds benefit Mercy Corps Northwest.
The bad news: Tickets to this wildly popular event are sold out. (Last year’s event drew about 2,000 people. Check out photos of Eat Mobile 2010 by ExtraMSG on Flickr. )
The good news: Forktown Food Tours partnered with Eat Mobile to take you cart-hopping to 8-10 different carts around Portland next weekend. Food cart tours are offered April 29 and 30.
