Portland: Land of a Thousand....Food Carts???

Growing up in Hawaii, I've developed a real fondness for Lunch Wagon grub. And I miss those no frills, inexpensive meals. So imagine my surprise as I turned the corner SW 10th and SW Alder to find this.

An entire street lined with what I'm told are called "Food Carts" in Portland. At this point in time, I had just completed checking in, taken a shower, and headed out for a quick bite when I ran into this informal food court lining a public parking lot. Sounded like a nice option for a fast meal. But now I had to make a decision........

Would it be the Bratwurst Wagon, which I dubbed the "Brat-Mobile"?

Or maybe something else?

I finally settled on something from this cart, Aybla Grill, after the wonderful smells drew me in:

I decided on a Lamb Shawarma "Super Gyro"($6.00):

This was a personal pan pizza sized pita, with quite a bit of tender Lamb Shawarma meat, onions, diced tomatoes, and tzatziki. I didn't care the flavor of the tzatziki, but the lamb sure was good, very tender and full of flavor.

The very next day, I happened to be passing the same food carts on my way back to the hotel. Hungry and need of a break, I decided to grab some food from from the Food Cart selling Thai Food, Sawasdee.

I just decided to go with the "special", Pad Kaw Gai with Chicken. Only 5 bucks. I waited while my dish was being stir fried, while watching a group of students from the Western Culinary Institute, smoke, eat, and chat, all the while wearing their Whites and Chef's Toques, looking strange and out of place in this jerry-rigged food court. A few minutes later my noodles were ready and I headed back to the hotel and ate:

There was quite a large amount of food in the container. But right off I knew I should have chosen the tofu version of the dish. Chewing the chicken was like chewing on an inner tube. On the positive side, the noodles were flavored well, nice touches of garlic and soy. Didn't quite know what to make of the bed of iceberg lettuce the noodles rested on. But for 5 bucks, you really can't complain much.

I had an inkling of how pervasive Food Carts were after my visit to Restaurant Murata. As I was crossing the street to get to the Portland State University street car stop; I spied two more Food Carts.

Right after I snapped this photo, a group of 5 people mobbed the New Taste of India Food Cart; and you could smell the curry all the way down to the street car stop.

Now I've had many Lunch Wagons Meals, visited my share of Taco Trucks in LA, not to mention the really good ones in Yuma. But nothing matches the size and scope of the group of Food Carts I saw on my way to breakfast at Mother's Bistro & Bar.

This collection of Food Carts lined SW 5th Avenue, from SW Oak Street, to SW Stark Street. The variety was impressive. Everything from Barbecue:

To Borscht:

Which had the "best sign".

To Burritos:

I'm not quite sure what tie in the Elephants have to Mexican Food.....

From the sleek:

To places that might give me a bit of a pause.

There's even what looks like a little rivalry going on. This Cart, The Real Taste of India:

Was just a few carts over from this Cart, the New Taste of India.

How 'bout we open one up a few carts over called the New Real Taste of India?

Short on cash? There's even a portable ATM!

Here are 2 carts, right across the Police Station on SW 2nd Avenue:

On my way to dinner at Pok Pok, I passed a Taco Truck:

Here are a few more for good measure. Some of them could even qualify for street art.

Portland Food Carts....they're everywhere!

Comments

[dietchilicheesefries]

kirk!

nothing better than the sight of multiple food carts!!!

only problem i have is choosing which one... and then, you pick one and end up second guessing yourself.. i guess its a good problem to have, but sometimes too many choices makes my brain work too hard.. duh..

[Kirk]

Hey DCCF - Remind me never to take you to a Vietnamese Restaurant - you know, the ones that have like 500 items on the menu - we call it Vietnamese Menu overload!

[Joan]

Kirk,

Reading your food cart post reminded me of my old college days- they were a major food source for me when I was a starving student! Portland looks like a fun town to visit- glad you got a mini vacation in!

[Kristy]

OH MY! Food carts, food carts, make me a match! How does one choose?

[Guilty Carnivore]

Thx for doing our home town so proud. I'll be in San Diego (which was once my home town) in early July, and I'm having fun scoping the wealth of information on your site for some good ideas!

[ed (from yuma)]

Amazing. Those carts weren't there (or were very rare) back in the early 80s when I was hanging in Stumptown.

Amazing pics. thanks again for sharing.

[elmomonster]

What the pho?! That's freakin' awesome! No idea Portland was such a kooky city! Do I sound like a jaded Californian yet?

[Ellen T. Brenner]

Ah yes, home-grown organo-groovy street art. That's another thing I remember fondly about the Pacific Northwest. There are bunches of folks up there who also lavish some truly funky work on so-called "art cars"--mobile works of art enlivened by paint as well as anything that can possibly be welded or epoxied onto a motor vehicle.

Geez, Kirk, with each of these Portland posts I'm getting more and more homesick for the Northwest! (Alas, I understand they're getting miserably hot weather too right now, or else I'd be really bugging out...)

[Passionate Eater]

Those carts totally remind me of the Mexican food van that used to pull up near the construction site near my old apartment. Everytime I walked by, the smell was amazing! Food carts need to have a song like how ice cream trucks do--that way, I'd come running like crazy every time I heard a jingle in the streets!

[Kirk]

Hi Joan - Portland was a very nice little trip.

Hi Kristy - Follow your nose, it always knows..... ;o)

Hi GC - Portland did all the work, I just wandered I took photos. Let me know if I can be of any assistance for your trip to San Diego.

Hi Ed - Funny, I get the feeling that you may have never left, had these carts been there then.

Hi Elmo - Spoken like a true OC'er! Of course we know you're not like that...are you???

Hi Ellen - I've got a groovy photo of some bicycles stacked on one another and chained to a lamp-post, maybe I'll include it in my last Portland post this weekend.

Hi PE - Don't know...pedestrian mortality rates might increse dramatically.

[Passionate Eater]

Hm, never thought of it that way. I guess it is a safety precaution not to have those jingles then.

[Kirk]

Hi PE - Only if you're like me of course..........

[eatdrinknbmerry]

That's awesome. I love food from roach coaches and carts. I like that they specialize only in a few dishes.

[Kirk]

Hi EDBM - Pretty neat stuff, huh?

[Jack]

Hi Kirk,
I loved all of your Portland posts but this one really intrigues me. This is my kind of block! I wonder how crowded this area can get.

I fondly remember days at the beach eating a bowl of chili and rice from one of the lunch wagons, then hopefully a shave-ice wagon stops by for a ice cream/azuki bean treat.....

[Kirk]

Hey Jack - Welcome back! Yes, those good old, lunch wagon huna-budda days......

[Alice Q.]

Those look like fun. I wonder why we don't have more stuff like that down here?

[Kirk]

Hi Alice - I think the DOH in SoCal has many more hoops to jump through, to the point that I heard that Taco Trucks might be eliminated.

[imarc]

That looks like so fun! If you're interested in reading more about foodcarts, you should check out our new blog at iheartcarts.com! It's only just started, come help us out!

[Kirk]

Hi imarc - Very nice.