Friday, July 10, 2009

Food Carts

I heart food carts! It's a phenomenon here in Portland like no other place I've ever seen...except maybe London. Food carts. Apparently it's pretty easy to obtain a permit to run a food cart. And there are tens of empty lots around the city that lease out their space to the carts. Many carts are clustered together offering a "food court" atmosphere. You might have a snack at one cart, move to another for a main course and then another for dessert. There are carts all over the city operating at all hours of the day and night. On a Saturday morning I like to head over to Flavour Spot, "home of the waffle sandwich," not to mention $1 drip coffee. The lone cart is located at the corner of NE Fremont and Mississippi on a gravel lot with picnic tables, lounge chairs and a covered area. It's adjacent to The Rebuilding Center. So what's a waffle sandwich? A waffle stuffed with bacon or sausage and maple syrup. It's delicious! On weekdays downtown there are tens of carts to choose from at lunchtime. Everything from Nepalese to Japanese to Czech to Mexican to Indian to Thai is on offer.
The late night food carts usually open around 8pm and close at 3am. There are about 5 or 6 carts at the corner of SE 12th and Hawthorne. Tonight we had dessert at Perriera Creperie along with all the single-gear riding hipsters of Portland. It was a lively atmosphere. I had the simple lemon and sugar crepe. Jim had the classic nutella and banana crepe (with a splash of rum). Tim chose the chocolate and pear version. I'll be heading back to this cluster of carts in the future. I'm excited to have the poutine at Potato Champion. Check out the article in this month's Portland Monthly

2 comments:

  1. I gotta say that the leftover crepe (chocolate/pear) was just as good as a breakfast treat. it's always a good sign when something served hot also tastes good cold. :)

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  2. I discovered the carts at 10th and Alder when I was working downtown....there's this meditteranean one that has the BEST gyros ever!

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