Waffles as wrapper = genius

One of my friends told me about this cart called Parkers Waffles and Coffee, and I had remembered seeing it by the Budget that I go to (I don’t own a car and sometimes when I need a car for a whole day, it makes more sense to go to Budget then use a Zipcar) down by the cart pods at 4th and Hall, just on the other side of PSU. I had a laptop meltdown at work, so I took my time getting into work today since it was at the help desk shop and rewarded myself with a lunch at this cart I would otherwise never get to (it has breakfast and lunch hours, closing at 2).

This is not the first waffle with something I have eaten- I’ve been to Roscoe’s in LA a couple times. But, this is different then the chicken and waffles thing. Here, a hot mess of your choice is grilled up and then a soft fresh waffle brushed with maple butter (optional) becomes the tortilla for essentially your giant waffle “soft taco”. This first try (because there will be others), I went for a breakfast feel with two eggs scrambled with ham, onions, mushrooms and Gruyere.

The insides were hot and gooey fresh ingredients, and the waffle was tasty just like a fresh hot tortilla would be to a taco- it added a bit of firmness and flavor but not overwhelming the guts of the ingredients inside- it was a great frame that kept the insides pretty well put together (better then a tortilla would). It looks like it would be messier then a taco, but it is wrapped carefully and firmly by foil and paper by the food cart chef with a smile, and it was so good that I greedily ate the whole thing while walking 5 blocks towards the Max and it was gone. Sometimes, it’s these simple things that are just so hearty and good that fill you with happiness. Grilled cheese, tacos, garlic fried rice- basic stuff that can be thrown together quickly and is like a palate and tummy hug.

Waffles as wrapper = genius, Parker's Waffles, two eggs scrambled with ham, onions, mushrooms and Gruyere

 

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Other Cheese Sandwiches

As a followup of my other post, here's some food pron of other great cheese sandwiches, which is why Paragon's didn't make the top cut…

RIP Dreamer's Cafe vegetarian cart incredible pan fried cheese sandwich. Actually, the veggies varied depending on what he had on hand, so I've also had overly greasy/not balanced versions of this, but this first time I had it was grossly good. I mean, just look at it.

Tabor's muenster cheese is SUPER cheese as you can see. I love how it's swaddled so lovingly.

The original Grilled Cheese offered by Orange in Chicago (since has been re-worked):  roasted tomato slices, aged Cheddar cheese and caramelized onions on multigrain bread with the house potatoes. Gooey and delicious and I never got tired of it for several years it was a brunch staple. Notice the key execution needed here: browned burned crispy cheese edges.

And also here, at (back to Portland OR), the grilled cheese is surrounded by frico at the edges in Savor's execution of their grilled cheese bar.

 

I am anxiously awaiting a day to visit the Grilled Cheese Grill- look at all the possibilities! Even Rachel Ray knows that grilled cheese has many dreamily perfect possibilities in this grilled cheese highlights of the USA. After you've had a grown up grilled cheese, American cheese or any cheese that disappears in the middle just gets a passing grade, no matter how good the rest of the ingredients. 

 

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Grillz Chz

Yesterday we had a surprise snowstorm, and my choice of Savor Soup House’s homemade soup (a cup of Tomato with Fennel and Orange, a vegan soup with chunks of tomatoes, garlic, fennel, and a touch of orange supposedly (I didn’t taste the orange) that was topped with croutons and parmesan, was the perfect choice to warm me up. For a tomato soup, I didn’t mind the chunkiness but I did wish it had less of a pure puree tomatoes taste. There is a thin line between a soup and what would be a great tomato pasta sauce, and I agree with some who said this leans more towards pasta sauce. A soup allows you to add more complex flavoring (like roasting the tomatoes or adding some sauteed mushrooms), and despite the chunky parts I also wanted more cream in it- though I guess then it wouldn’t be vegan anymore. Savor is very vegan/vegetarian friendly, so I can give them an out on the cream- if they would try to experiment more with this soup recipe to make the perfect mix of tomato and grilled cheese. If their grilled cheese choices are evidence, there is more potential with this standard daily soup offering they should explore.

To accompany their soups, they have a few grilled cheese standards, a grilled cheese special of the day, and a “make your own” with the ingredients they have, varying from classics like tomato or smoked bacon, to more interesting options you might not have thought of, like giardiniera or homemade pesto. Although I was tempted by their special of  a grilled cheese with the additional touches of apple slices, goat cheese, and truffle oil, I went for my own mix. It starts with the Tillamook cheese as the base, and added apple slices, caramelized onion, and apple butter. It was cooked perfectly. This is a really really good grilled cheese. As you can see, they even burn some of the cheese so it’s crispy on the grill and the caramelized onion was perfect. The apple butter and apple gave it a bit of sweetness.

I would definitely try this again- perhaps with another type of soup. Also, I would ask them to cut it in half- I personally like triangles, but I had to tear this in half down the middle since they had no knife, which was a little difficult and would have been harder if I had larger ingredients like any of the meats- the apple slices were small enough that I had to find the right break inbetween. They give eco-friendly spoons with their soup, so maybe pairing that with a knife in a cup that those who are dippers like myself can use if they are worried about contaminating their knives might be a soultion. Given the size of the soup container, these sandwiches definitely need to be cut to make them dip-able!

Savor Soup House, food cart, Portland, grilled cheese, soup, Tomato with Fennel and Orange soup

From Adventures of Pech 2009

 

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You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox

The last time I had visited the food carts of Southwest 5th and Stark, this cart had not existed. However, one day while having lunch with some friends downtown, after lunch we walked by this street and lo and behold, this cart that I had heard as having the heart attack cheeseburger is right here! I vowed to come back, and after doing some cardio with a Jillian Michaels DVD in the morning and briskly walking all the way here (and then to all my errands, and back home) to make up for the calories I was about to ingest, I made my way to Brunchbox.

Their cheeseburgers have been well-reviewed, including making it to Portland Monthly’s top cheeseburger list. There are lots of good burgers in PDX, thanks to the happy hour culture here which has made a $5 housemade made with local burger pretty ubiquitous. Although I generally don’t eat beef, besides my In and Out exception I also will eat beef if it’s local, and especially if it’s organic and/or free-range. Brunchbox’s policy is to use local ingredients whenever possible, so I decided their burger would make my list. Well, especially because some of the other carts I wanted to try, like Asian Station Cafe’s soup dumplings (permanently closed! No! Just like Sidecart, another missed food cart opportunity because I got there too late!), and Euro Dish and Stella were closed by the time I got there after the lunch rush.

I was too scared for my heart and arteries to order the “redonkadonk” (Egg, ham, spam, bacon, American cheese between two Texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich “buns”), so I settled for the “youcanhascheeseburger!”:
burger between two texas-toast grilled cheese sandwich “buns”. Despite the scary looking photo in Portland Monthly, as you can see from my photo below it actually puts together into a burger you can actually fit into your mouth rather then dislocating your jaw a la Dagwood. In other photos you may find online, you may have seen the Texas toast a lot bigger- in fact, I’ve seen them make these with the bread not so thin as mine- I wonder if they did it because I look like a small young thing that needed help so they smushed down the grilled cheese more, because the bread is really Texas toast- the best bread for grilled cheese because it crunches up and doesn’t get soggy from the oily middle of cheese (or burger). Yes, its’ a great grease sponge!

The grilled cheese bun, unlike the sweet small Voodoo Doughnut bun that the Original Dinerant a couple blocks down uses for their burger, adds to the cheeseburger experience by providing a nice toasty crunch from the Texas Toast and more cheeziness (but not overwhelming), and this way the extra toppings like lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, pickles, ketchup, mayo, mustard can do their work directly with the meat without interference from any of the richness of the melted cheese. The burger meat is hand formed and juicy and was perfectly medium- I am ashamed at how fast I scarfed this warm melty burger down on that cold bench. I felt pretty good after I ate the first half, but after momentarily considering saving the other half for later, I didn’t want to lose the toastyness of the bun and was able to finish it without a struggle, amazingly, and no side effects of feeling like I just ate half a stick of butter from a greasy joint. don’t kid yourself, Brunchbox is a greasy joint, but it tastes so good you don’t notice all the grease (heh, only some of it). Isn’t that a compliment? The only room for improvement I could think of was a bit more lettuce to go with all the grease and give it a bit of a fresh crunch and not just grilled toast crunch.

You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart
You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart

You Can Haz Cheeseburger, by Brunchbox, griled cheese buns, texas toast grilled cheese, cheeseburger, Portland food cart
From Adventures of Pech 2009

And it’s just $5! I’m not sure how any of the fast food burger joints even get by in Portland.

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Recently from a cart… Korean Tacos

That’s right, Korean Tacos. The concept originally became popular in L.A., but a food cart dubbed “Koi Fusion” has brought them to Portland OR. I say food cart, but really this particular cart is actually mobile and sometimes can be found at PSU for lunch, by PGE park in the evenings, or other places depending on where they decide to park. So, really, a food truck a la what I’ve seen in Chicago and New York is more accurate. Even for a food truck, this is one nice ride. Sure, it’s pretty new since they just launched in May and they have been producing only in limited hours on certain days… but look how spiffy they look! They have their nice beverage fridge as well as a tub with ice for drinks (just to the left and below those girls in the first picture), shelves for snacks like fried pork skin (above the girls’ heads), and even a mini condiment station to the right by the driver’s door and a trash center. When I visited on Friday, they also had a simple white table set up behind the truck with two bottles, one of green and one of red, Mexican chili sauce waiting.

Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders

During the lunchtime that I visited at their spot between 6th and Broadway on College, they only had one order guy (who was sweet but a bit clueless of how the truck menu worked and the pricing scheme) and the cook (obviously running the show). So, an order might take 20 minutes to get! But, we all waited pretty patiently I think, and the cook always was apologetic and thanked everyone for their patience, trying to get at least pieces of orders out as soon as possible.

Koi Fusion (Koi stands for Korean organic infusion) offers tacos and burritos as well as some other specials, but using organic meats and the meats are prepared Korean style, i.e. marinated to tender deliciousness. You choose your meat of bulgogi (they really need to say korean “bbq”/marinated beef after that as I heard someone ask in confusion what that was), spicy chicken, spicy pork, or spicy tofu for $2 taco, or $6 burrito. For $1 extra, you could upgrade to short rib meat. The specials I saw that day included sliders, kimchee quesadilla, and k-dogs for $6.

Unlike from the review from Portland Food Cart, it was a two man operation- no mom making fresh tortillas, though it did allow the order guy to pump out music loudly on the radio while the customers waited making the wait more tolerable. The real referral though was Lizzy from Lizzy Dishes Portland, which I discovered even before I moved here, and have only started reading again recently with new-found free time not working during a company shutdown week. She can get pretty detailed in her review, but I think that means she’s thinking about the food too much- this particular review was much more light and just simple enthusiastic, which got me enthused. Yelpers had raved about the slider also, so when I saw it as a special, I knew that was what I was getting.

I got thrown off by order guy though, who asked how many sliders I wanted. Oh? I thought there were a couple on a plate, but maybe that wasn’t cost-effective for them so they scaled back. So I thought I had capacity to also order tacos. Ha ha… I wouldn’t get the sliders from the cook until after he finished making the tacos (same thing with burritos- they take a lot longer than tacos)- so I didn’t realize how screwed I was until way too late, and no one else before me had ordered the sliders, and I saw the tacos looked small… so I ordered 3.

First to come out was the short rib taco. Savory juicy tender kalbi meat that had been shorn from the bone (the only annoying thing about eating kalbi is the bones, and no problem with that here), and this had a kickass marinade applied to it. I even added a bit of the green sauce and it held up fine. The tortilla was nothing much to comment about except it was soft and held together even though it was also stuffed with lots of shredded cabbage (this was the only thing I would improve upon), crunchy fresh bean sprouts, chinese cilantro, cucumber, and a wedge of lime to squeeze on that bit of acid.

Maybe the cabbage  is supposed to stand in for the Mexican side (besides the fact I could squeeze the green or red sauce on this) but then shouldn’t it be fresh shredded lettuce? I didn’t think the cabbage was contributing as much as the others- it was a bit soggy and taste-wise the bean sprouts had more impact. At least get a salad spinner guys. If it was supposed to be wet because of a sesame oil vinaigrette, using cabbage alone isn’t working, just makes it slightly slimy and doesn’t hold the flavor- maybe use it on the bean sprouts, as that does come together in a popular Korean side.

Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders

I had almost finished devouring this – so say give it 2 minutes- when I was being called again to pick up my other 2 tacos, the spicy pork and the bulgogi. The bulgogi… well, it just couldn’t compare now that I had had the short rib. Sorry man, the meat just wasn’t as rich with flavor, though it is a much thinner cut of beef. The spicy pork was great though- tangy with a bit of a burst of spicyness just at the end, it gets the silver in the medal rankings of the 3 tacos. I tried the red sauce with both of these latter two, and only the spicy pork held up.

Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders

When I had picked up the second taco tray, the order guy sheepishly asked me what kind of meat I wanted in the sliders. Apparently, I had the choice of any meat, and he had forgotten to ask (even when I ordered them, he had to ask the cook how much they were). I asked for the short rib. Oh, realized the order guy, its a $1 extra? Yes, I’ll take it, I knew the quality of the short rib from my half eaten taco already. Well worth it.  I had barely finished eating the bulgogi taco and taken a bite of the spicy pork (and then hastily remembered to photograph it) when I was called about the slider pickup. And then I knew gluttony was upon me.

Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders Koi Fusion, food cart, fusion korean, food truck, Portland Oregon, korean tacos, korean sliders

These sliders definitely are the OMFG rating that Lizzy had given them. Ok, she didn’t have the F but I think they deserve them, because even though I was expecting greatness, they *still* surpassed my expectations with their deliciousness. These were insanely good- soft doughy roll with a touch of crunch from being toasted, spicy creamy sauce (the kind you would expect drizzled on some fancy Japanese roll, and there’s a judicious dollop here that doesn’t overwhelm) with the cheese and (still the same soggy) cabbage and savory meat, and a lime wedge to squeeze for a accent of tangyness. I cannot imagine how popular these would be after a late night at PGE park- how satisfying on a bit of an alcohol tipsyness? Since I usually work in Beaverton I won’t be able to do this lunch thing again, but I am going to have to make a late night run to Koi Fusion again and just test that out.

And there’s still those kimchee quesadillas that I was interested in…

One last note- the tacos are extremely messy. Despite the best efforts of that lil soft tortilla, that soggy cabbage was all over the place. Maybe the burrito is the better way to go if you want to do the Mexican style rather then sliders. Really though, I haven’t found the tacos too Mexican- and the sliders aren’t either but they are definitely killer infusion going on of a very accessible way of getting those great grilled Korean meats so I’ll let it slide (ha ha…). I’ll like to continue to diligently test that too.

To save yourself frustration because these guys are on Asian time aka late, make sure to follow them on twitter if you are a casual twitter follower- I check twitter when I want to, and it doesn’t go to my phone harassing me all the time, because they tweet half a dozen times a day. But considering they are still figuring things out, I am not expecting the Kogi truck, who has an impressive exec chef uncle to lean on- don’t go looking for gourmet. You’re still getting something fantastic and fresh and tastes like it should be a guilty pleasure (and would rock after a game at PGE park)- and is very very kind to your wallet, as long as you are also willing to wait.

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