Forktown Tours Alphabet District Tour

December 5, 2011 by 1 Comment

My brother (visiting from Los Angeles) and I lucked out with a dry day in November after a rainy evening the night before. This worked out great for us to visit Pine State Biscuit in SE for breakfast, then back downtown for visually inspecting and enjoying the sensory aroma all the food carts on Alder Street just as they were opening up for lunch rush, and then shopping at Columbia Sportswear’s Flagship store. With his new forest green coat, he looked like a Portlander rather then an LAXer as we headed to our food tour.

As an extra tip to you readers and secret stalkers, as he browsed the store I ran over to Pioneer Courthouse Square visitor’s center to grab some brochures and maps for my “visitor’s basket” of the guest room and also coupon for 10% off at Columbia. If you are coming to stay at a hotel, go online to the Travel Portland site to get the Portland Perks Coupon Book. In general, whenever I travel I like to go to the town’s visitor website just to see if they have any promotions, and even at a mall or department store you could score a visitor’s discount pass- or as a considerate host, get those for your visiting guest.

I would only recommend Pine State Biscuit as a weekday breakfast because its physical locations is so small. Even on a Friday mid-morning we were holding our breath hoping a table would open up before our food came up. Luckily it worked out, but I don’t like how it takes away from the relaxing experience that starting your day should be on a day off in that you’re anxious about getting a table and you’re crunched for space even when you do get someplace to put your plate down. There are some really great brunches during the weekend, but since my brother’s visit to Portland was on a Thursday afternoon to Saturday early morning flight out I was more limited on choice. In retrospect I suppose I could have picked out a breakfast at a food cart. Then again, this was before he had a coat. Next time bro!

  

The highlight of our Friday was that I signed us up for a tour with Forktown Tours. I had been on their food cart tours earlier this year in conjunction with Eat Mobile. I thought it would be fun to give them a try again and both celebrate eating (he is after all my brother) and get the story and feel of a local neighborhood, and it would be an opportunity for him to play with his camera. This particular neighborhood tour covered the Alphabet District, which combines Slabtown with Nob Hill (aka the NW 23rd streets area), so you get to walk through a combination of an up and coming area and a trendy boutiques area.

When we met with Jessica, our guide, she passed out a little list and map of what we would be doing- 7 stops! – setting up the anticipation for the tour as we waited for the rest of our group (we ended up being a group of 4 guests, 1 guide). What stops are on the tour and what samples are served vary so what I describe below may differ from other iterations of this tour experience.

We started out at Besaw’s– I’ve passed by several times but never been in. I was pleased that this tour not only made me walk through the door, but it covered the history of the location and that part of town (Slabtown). We learned lots of little trivia, but my favorite was here, with the little historical story that the bar used to have a trough below the bar because it was for men only and hey, it saves a trip to the bathroom… There’s even a picture of it in the back by the current bathrooms (heh). Background stories and history like this is why I like taking a tour, instead of just leading a progressive meal myself.

For our tasting sample we got to start with some bubbly with their homemade pear reduction mimosa, giving us a very festive start. We also were given a small bread size plate sample of their mixed green salad using greens from their literally local source of their very own garden just a few yards away, including fresh horseradish. I had heard of Besaw’s because of their brunch, but this visit highlighted their great offerings outside of breakfast foods- and I think that’s what I would go back for, a meal other then brunch, and definitely make sure to food that utilizes ingredients literally harvested steps away.

 

Our next stop was Kenny and Zuke’s Sandwichworks, where we sampled reuben sliders with their own hardwood smoked pastrami along with a taster of an india pale ale from a Portland brewery. I don’t recall which local brewery it was- I only took a baby sip because I drank mine and my brother’s mimosa at Besaw’s- but I loved the idea since Portland is such an IPA city to showcase that to a visitor.

We also talked about how Kenny and Zuke’s started at the Farmers Market- and several other businesses that started out as just a small stand at Farmers market and built a following and investment money from that into brick and mortar locations. Yay small businesses and the way that the Farmer’s Market helps incubates them, and a perfect example of how Portland is both a growing city but also so supportive of small and local.

Our next stop was only across the street for St. Honoré Boulangerie to sniff the aromas of wonderful French baked goods and share a bag of Chouquettes, which are little puffy pastry balls made with a pâte à choux and sprinkled with rock sugar. These little bites were a nice light break after the smoky meaty pastrami, and too easy to have a second… or a third…

 

I was excited that Wildwood was part of our tour. I love this restaurant not only for it’s always changing menu, but that it’s great for visitors because it has a parking lot. They helped found Northwest style cuisine, and are still producting high quality local sustainable food in a very elegant environment. These were my favorite samples of the stops in the tour.

We started with celery root soup- just you know, with butter and topped with black truffle oil. YUM. Wildwood has an amazing bar and craft cocktails using seasonal ingredients and local distilleries, so we also got to try a spicy martini using crème de pêche and New Deal Hot Monkey chili vodka. Then, we tempered the spiciness by sharing one of their daily pizzas, which highlighted autumn leeks and chantarelle mushrooms. Yes, all these samples! This was amazingly generous. I couldn’t believe we still had 3 more stops to go, since we are only 4 stops in! And, I need to make sure I get to Wildwood more often.


Next we were introduced to Sterling Coffee Roasters, which is technically a food cart but when you stand before them they look like they are in a luxe photo. I think they are my inspiration this year for how I want to look this winter in sweaters. We tried samples of their coffee, hot chocolate, and hot chai, all of which had a complex depth that you wouldn’t get from an average coffee chain. It’s next to the Trader Joe’s but I had never noticed it- but I will definitely remember it now. They spoke to us for quite a while about their small business and their knowledge and passion about their beverages, representing well how Portland is such a foodie city and how we are fortunate enough to have these kind of passionate food purveyor specialists even in this smaller city.

    

We walked along some neighborhood streets to stop and admire two historical houses- one in the Crafstman and the other in the Prairie style. Then, the next stop was my brother’s favorite, PBJ’s Grilled. This is another food cart, this one specializing in fancyified peanut butter and jelly sandwiches using homemade ingredients and unusual combinations. We got to meet both partners and hear about how they got started and think of their sandwich specials while also trying two of their spicier sandwiches (which was good as it was getting cooler now as it was evening and the last part of the 3 hour tour).

First was the Spicy Thai (grilled Challah bread with orange marmalade, sriracha, fresh basil, curry, and PBJ’s peanut butter), followed up the Hot Hood (Challah bread, black cherry jam, jalapeno, apple wood smoked bacon, PBJ’s peanut butter). I wish there was a way I could take jars of their homemade jams and jellies and peanut butter home.

     

We wrapped up with the itty bitty bites of desserts of Two Tarts Bakery of a cookie with chocolate, and macaroons.

 

The tour was really fun and delicious. The tour took about 3 hours and less then 2 miles of leisurely walking on sidewalks, along with plenty of sitdown times (and bathroom availability) at all but 2 stops. Don’t eat much before because this tour is very filling with samples, and you want to have room to enjoy all the flavors you’ll be tasting. Just as with the other tours I’ve had with Forktown, this felt just like a friend of a friend was personally taking me around her local area, telling me trivia and recommendations as we walked and chatted casually, and not much like a touristy tour at all. I hope I have an excuse to take a guest on the North Portland tour sometime!

All of these photos are courtesy of my brother and his Canon EOS 60D camera, available in his Picasa album 2011 Portland Visit. This post is pretty photo-intensive (rclick and click Show Photo if you see a little X instead if it didn’t load properly) but all the photos exist. And there are some I didn’t include so you can visit the album for more, or to see them larger.

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Bite of Oregon: Day 1 (Friday)

August 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

After a pretty intensely busy day at work, I dropped by on opening day of Bite of Oregon for an evening of a few food cart tastings and wine tasting at the Wine Pavilion.

My first stop once through the gate was PBJ’s Grilled, a cart that had wowed me at the Food Cart Festival and I just haven’t had the opportunity to visit the cart yet. They were offering three of the dozen gourmet upgrades of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that compose their cart menu. Just as the first visit, I still think how genius this is, and why haven’t more people in the US stumbled upon this? If cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, tacos and sliders have been transformed from comfort food childhood simplicity to adult nostalgic but more complex flavor combination profiles that reinterpret something we’ve taken for granted, why has peanut butter and jelly been left out? Thankfully, at least PBJ’s had taken up that gauntlet.

I started out with The Hot Hood, a $3 for 1/4 a sandwich taster of their toasted pbj interpretation which included black cherry jam, jalapeno, bacon, and peanut butter. Similar to what I thought when the Spicy Thai (which uses sriracha and curry to give its bite), there seemed no question on why jalapeno and bacon should be part of a sandwich except why shouldn’t I always add bacon! The bacon particularly gave a little extra crunch to what is usually a pretty smushy sandwich. I admit that when I make peanut butter and jelly at home, I always use crunchy versions of whatever nut butter I have, so I really like the crunch to go with the chew.

Also, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are very food porn-tastic in photos.

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The other offering I tried was the Oregonian, this time between grilled challah bread were marionberry and Rogue creamery blue cheese and hazelnut butter. Maybe I had this twice even. Although I tried to sell this to others, they seemed afraid of the blue cheese, though at least on three tasters of this sandwich, they were careful to add only enough blue cheese to add a bit of savory creaminess and not let the blue cheese get strong enough to overwhelm the sandwich at all, and you couldn’t even smell it. It, along with the hazelnut butter, were more of just a little subtle highlight of support, as the marionberry definitely held the lead role. I like blue cheese, and having had blue cheese with a bit of berry topping often at wine tastings, I could have stood to have more blue cheese on my sandwich, though I understand the more cautious approach since many people don’t like it, thinking it’s salty or pungent.

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This tastes better then it looks… though you might consider clicking and then select the full-size version of the photos to see the larger version of this photo anyway. Personally, I liked the Hot Hood better between the two. And, for Day 1, PBJ’s Grilled was my overall most tasty Bite winner.

The next stop was at Whiffies, which for this tasting created small pastry puff versions the size of my point and shoot camera (or basically half a hot pocket). They had their BBQ Beef and the Chicken Pot Pie when I visited. Both were ok- my opinion was that although the sizes were very taste-friendly, it changed the ratio of buttery flaky pie to gooey inside contents. The way to make this work is, similar to a samosa or empanada or the harder to find Thai curry puffs :D, make sure the inside filling is intense enough to balance out the fried outside shell… and in these sampler tasting portions, I don’t think it did. I still loved the taste of the deep fried pie container, but the fillings didn’t have enough flavor. I know at the Food Cart Festival though, when they just cut up their normal sized pies for sampling, the BBQ pie I had there had offered a lot more sauce and flavor, so I blame the smaller size here.

Actual size:

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Filling close-up

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Switching from chicken pot pie to BBQ Beef

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Filling Closeup with summer sunshine making it look better then it tasted:

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Not pictured were two other visits to food booths, sort of. We stopped at the Pie Spot, which offered pie holes and pie hole bites, and sampled the bourbon peach and pecan- bourbon peach won that round. From the Chef’s Table, which rotates various small plates based on what chefs are manning that slot on different days and times, Domo Dog offered the Major Domo Dog- smoked sausage, teriyaki onion, ponzo-mayo, flaked seaweed, sesame seeds, and red sweet sauce. The teriyaki really came through for a moist earthy sweet flavor.

Wine-wise, I stopped at Rizzo, Girardet, Hillcrest, Palotai, Zerba, Spangler, David Hill, Capitello, and Duck Pond.

  • Don’t bother with David Hill- I perked at seeing ports, but they were terrible, too much alcohol.
  • I was forced to try Duck Pond and was immediately annoyed by multiple askings to pay for the $1 taster despite stating wanting to try more then one wine. None of the other booths were so pushy for immediate payment.
  • At Rizzo, ignore the whites, at least at this showing. The reds are interesting, and unfortunately this was the very first winery I stopped at and I remembered to start making notes after the visit was over.
  • Girardet has a ice-wine style called “Frostbite” that has the sweetness but not much complexity if you’ve actually had Canadian icewines like Inniskillin or Jackson-Triggs before.
  • Hillcrest has more of a traditional profile to its wines. What I remember most is that they actually still stomp down grapes the for one/some of their wines, but I also have a strong aversion to feet. I might try them again but I thought a lot of them were young for me though I really liked the winemaker
  • Palotai was showing some newly/recently bottled wines that have potential but need some growing up time- my favorite was the syrah with its black peppery nose and overtones in taste but is not spicy, a bottle I’m still thinking about (I didn’t immediately buy a bottle, as I wanted to think about it… and I’m still thinking about it. I tend to buy a lot of reds and we still have many in our “cellar”- this one is interesting and unique, but do I really need it?).
  • Zerba had an amazing malbec that outshone the syrah and syrah port we tried because of its complexity.
  • The goal was actually to try to appreciate some whites, and we finally found it at Spangler with their crisp Sauvignon Blanc that didn’t have a too sweet or grassy or acidic legs. Unfortunately, they only had their syrah and not their petite syrah that a friend had recommended (the syrah wasn’t bad though- I personally like them darker)
  • We were surprisingly blown away by Capitello’s New Zealand-grape wines, which were not afraid to hide their bell pepper overtones. I know many wineries think this is a “problem”, and perhaps that’s why Capitello offered both the New Zealand grape version and the more expected taste in the Oregon-grape version. Whatever. It’s just like wineries now thinking they don’t want to over-oak… and no one makes those super creamy and buttery Chardonnays anymore in extreme rebellion because Chardonnay’s used to always be that way, and now instead of being able to get both styles you usually find only slightly oaked (if oaked at all) and there’s barely a difference between it and pinot gris and blancs. Bah. I bought the most wines here- the New Zealand version of the pinot noir as well as the sauvignon blanc. Their cuvee pinot noir is beautiful though pricey- and is also the type that though is complex now, is going to mature into old-world classic beauty in the next decade or so if you are willing to invest the money and cellar time.

Today, after the cheese class, I might go again. I have my eye on mainly the Chef’s Table tent again because of Belly‘s offering of a pork belly dip with bacon jus. If I get there in time for Kenny and Zuke‘s pastrami reuben sliders, I might try a taste depending on the visual appeal and taste pricetag- I might save the experience for actually visiting their establishment instead (although when I did for the first time, somehow I got lulled away from the pastrami for their still quite delicious chicken salad and their bagels and cream cheese).

Sunday afternoon/evening at Chef’s Table is highlighted for me because of Pitxi’s Restaurant and Wine Bar’s offering of Duck Mousseline with Berry Chutney Tomato Confit Bread, and also Soluna Grill’s Oregon Mushrooms, Caramelized Shallots, Bacon and Roasted Garlic-Corn Flan. I might try to reward H50 for having the balls to list as one of their booth options “nitro whipped sorbet in black peppercorn cone with balsalmic sauce”- unlike most of the other restaurant booths which often went the safe route of what is easily mass-produced in the booth environment.

I should note that when you walk in to Bite, the pamphlets list certain options being offered at the various booths. You should just know that just from these two carts, they serve what they want, so you should always stop and see what they are really offering rather then going off of the printings of the event guide.

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2010 Eat Mobile Food Cart Festival: the retrospective

April 25, 2010 by 3 Comments

We were excited to pre-purchase our tickets for the 2010 Eat Mobile Food Cart Festival even before they were on sale, and so it was no surprise that we planned to show up 30 minutes early to start snacking on our 30 samplers from the 30 carts right at the opening bell. The event sold out (capped at 1200) people, and even though they spaced it over 2 1/2 blocks under the Morrison bridge it still got very difficult to navigate through lines just to get from cart location to another after just an hour after opening. Portland people do love food carts.

First stop was Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwiches, which I passed on because it’s relatively close to where I live. I’ve had their sandwiches twice: not as good as Best Baguette, but then again this is a cart not a restaurant, and they still are able to offer 8 sandwiches (Best Baguette offers about a dozen, but they also can offer freshly baked bread and other pastries since they have more space at a brick and mortar location). If you are looking for banh mi sandiwiches in the downtown area, I’m not even sure there is anywhere else in the city proper as they are pho houses that I’ve seen.

Next was Sip, a cart offering organic vegan juices and smoothies. I confess I went back for their tastings of their green smoothie with kale, spinach, and some citrus fruits like apple or orange or lemon) twice. Their location at Division and Powell in the neighborhood of the People’s Food Coop isn’t an area I go to, but they plan to have a second mobile (actually mobile like driving around) in the summer and are also adding some food to their menu, so I hope to find them again. A lot of the food carts that people seem to fawn over involve pretty unhealthy food that is often rich and savory, but it doesn’t always have to be that way and it’s great to support food carts that are also tasty but even good for you.

Micro Mercantes were cutting up their jalapeno cheese, pork, and chicken tamales for tasters, and I doused my pork one liberally with my favorite green chili and enjoyed it quickly as I was trying to move through carts quickly before the rest of the line behind us caught up. Even though I linked to their official website, there isn’t much information on it, but it does communicate one tidbit many may not know: this cart is actually a coop for Latin women to help economically empower them through their tasty tamales. Their presence is at various farmer’s markets and their cheap $2.50 homemade tamales helps them establish a community via housing, healthcare clinics, a credit union, and community centers. I’m not sure which farmer’s markets they’ll be at this year (I know they are not at the ones downtown), but I know they are at the markets closer to OHSU, one at the Pearl, and several more on the east side of Portland. How can you not want to at least get one tamale knowing this every time you see them?

Moxie was on the ball with their platters of homemade granola with greek yogurt and raspberry rhubarb compote. With all the rich food the other carts were offering, this was an incredibly tasty break for the palate, and they had the most beautiful stop in terms of setting up a feel for who they are at their station at Eat Mobile, so no wonder they wonder they were awarded Best Style of Eat Mobile. They are located at North Mississippi and North Shaver and are very well known for their homemade take on brunch (and people appreciating them, as judged by waiting in long lines) 

PBJ’s Grilled was one that I saw on the list but had not heard of- and it turns out it is because they are still at the “coming soon” state. PBJ was a surprising discovery of taste for me with their offerings of various takes on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the same vein that grilled cheese has gone gourmet- and they did it very successfully. I’m not usually a fan of pbj sandwiches, but their offerings had me coming back for 3 of these (I just wasn’t satisfied tasting just one and not knowing what the other combination’s taste profiles would turn out to be- a cruel tease)! When they do open as an official food cart (they are opening April 26 at NW 23rd and Kearney Street), I think they will do well: they were even a runner-up for best tasting food at this Eat Mobile Food Cart Festival as voted by a panel of culinary professionals.

It took a while to understand their selections though: and their write-ups on the table were not very illuminating. The more you document on a big sign the less you will have to explain! And make it big so that by the time someone comes up they already can pick out what they want instead of processing under pressure. There’s the process manager in me thinking how I would set up a cart. Although I don’t think the tasting versions had all these ingredients, the regular offerings off their future menu include the “Good Morning” had blueberry jam, apple wood smoked bacon, 100% maple syrup, PBJ’s peanut butter, while the “Wildflower” had peach jam, wild flower honey, PBJ’s peanut butter, the “Pumpkin Pie” is a sweet dessert-ty concoction of pumpkin butter, Two Tarts caramel sauce, pie crust, PBJ’s peanut butter. I still prefered the “Spicy Thai” with orange marmalade, sriracha, fresh basil, curry, PBJ’s peanut butter and the “Betty” which will be Gruyere cheese, bread and butter pickles, white pepper, sea salt, PBJ’s peanut butter. I’m going to try to make it to their opening, we’ll see if I get caught on some work call or if I can continue my investigation.
PBJ's food cart at Eat Mobile 2010

F’s favorite and his People’s Choice vote was Asaase Ital Palace, African-Carribean food that is vegan/vegetarian: I had to admit their “fish” did taste like fish. I only had a shared bite of Fat Kitty Falafel, where they were already behind in the first 20 minutes as they struggled to produce their freshly fried falafel in time to meet the crowd. But, their falafel deserves the buzz it gets. Addy’s Sandwich Bar was trying to offer 5 different types of tastings, which was quite ambitious… for what at the opening was a one woman operation. The “line caught Oregon tuna with capers, red onion, cornichon and house mayo” was good, as was the rich “country pate with dijon and cornichons) and the “duck confit with cranberry relish”. This cart is located at SW 10th and Alder, not far from the trolley line and in company of other great carts such as Nong’s Kao Man Gai, Eurodish, Zita’s Pitas, Altengartz and Savor- a very strong cart pod. I have them on my wishlist to try their consistently well reviewed ham, gruyere, and butter sandwich, which did not make the tasting menu at Eat Mobile.
Addy's Sandwich Bar at Eat MobileAddy's Sandwich Bar at Eat Mobile

After 2 weeks of pizza for lunch as leftovers, I didn’t have the heart to try Pyro Pizza, but I heard lots of rave reviews and as evidenced by the long lines every time I went by after that, they did very well. My foodie friends couldn’t say enough good things about their pizza with caramelized torpedo onions with gorgonzola and parmigiano-reggiano cheeses and pistachios. They are normally located at SE 12th and Hawthorne, neighbors to Potato Champion and Whiffies. I’m kicking myself a little for getting out of line after these foodie friends had come to be raving about Soup Cycle, which I had skipped since they can actually deliver if I wished it. I ended up getting 2 tastings of Soup Cycle that evening anyway- when I went back to drop off my glassy stone for my favorite cart (that’s how they tallied votes for the People’s Choice Award), Soup Cycle had no line, while Pyro Pizza still was 20 people in the weeds. Well, the cauliflower apple gruyere soup was still delicious both times I had it, so I don’t regret that! And I’m sure that SE 12th and Hawthorne cart will still be visited by me: now I’ll just have 3 carts that I’m aiming for, not just two.

My vote at the Eat Mobile Food Cart Festival went to Nuevo Mexico for their stuffed sopapillas (fried sweet dough that is then stuffed) and their green chili chicken stew. Both were on fire with flavor! And, I appreciated their large signage and line of preppers in their area… so I guess I was also awarding them my appreciation of a good setup. The first food picture is a look at the green chili chicken stew on the left, and on the right is the ground beef and green chili sopapilla decked out with cheese and tomatoes and beans. My choice was the carne adovada, with pork and red chili: messy but worth it, and the sopapilla was the perfect sponge for all the chili and sauce from the carne. Thank you Nuevo Mexico for bringing sopapillas to Portland (at Mississippi and Skidmore).
Nuevo Mexico food cartNuevo Mexico stuffed sopapillas Nuevo Mexico stuffed sopapillas

I kept glancing to my right at the equally long line (Pyro Pizza, Taqueria Los Gorditos, and Nuevo Mexico were all right next to each other), which was Taqueria Los Gorditos, offering Mexican vegetarian and vegan.. I wanted to run off with the giant guacamole of Taqueria Los Gorditos: I was surprised they actually let everyone help themselves to the guacamole portion, so they must have had lots ready to keep filling that pestle up! I was curious bout the blue corn beverage but didn’t try- their lines were long mainly because you had to wait for each person to guacamole-themselves up. All three still boasted the same long lines of patient people a couple hours later- but were not out of food, unlike others I had skipped then/went back later but were out, like Bombay Chaat House, Mono Malo, and Sawasdee Thai.

The Carne adovada is when my hands started getting super messy, but the People’s Pig is what sealed it. A long line that wrapped around chairs and tables hinted at what was to come: a piggy looked on as people line up for The People’s Pig offering of cuban pulled pork taco as a taster. I put down the extra $6 to get the porcetta from the People Pig… which I then carefully wrapped, put into my purse, and into tupperware to enjoy the next day!
People's Pig food cartPeople's Pig food cartPeople's Pig food cart

I was getting pretty full at this point, but still had room for Flavourspot which was just next door to People’s Pig at the Eat Mobile. Flavourspot proclaims themselves the home of the dutch taco, aka this mix of savory and sweet with the waffle wrapping cheese and maple sausage. With 3 locations across the city and also scoring runner up for the People’s Choice Award, they are proof that waffle sandwiches are a winning combination of flavor
Flavourspot cheese and maple sausage Dutch Taco

I forgot to capture the photos of Whiffies, but their bbq beef with mozzarella was pretty good- and since Nuevo Mexico’s sopapillas are a bit harder for me to get to location-wise, Whiffies is a fine substitute of fried goodness sponging up flavor, just in fried pie instead. They won the People’s Choice Award for Eat Mobile 2010. Rather then selecting one of their sweet versions of pie (like the peanut butter with chocolate chips I tried), go for fruity frozen ice-pop like offerings of Oregon Ice Works (they are working with Whiffies but will be opening their own cart soon). Their raspberry was so chunky with raspberry I had to chew it, while the lemon was like a perfect summer tart lemonade. Although I appreciate the audacity and coolness of Fifty Licks‘ offerings of hand made ice cream in flavors that include Tahitian Vanilla, Stumptown Coffee, Maple Bacon (all three of these are winning combinations!) and Red Bull Cola, I can’t help but prefer the fruity ice more as a cool clean refresher that doesn’t have the cream of Fifty Licks. I don’t want to think about how many calories I’m having…

Potato Champion‘s poutine was as good as I was expecting: and considering I’ve had my eye on this cart ever since I moved here and still haven’t made it over, my expectations were pretty high. I’ll be visiting that cart pod this year, it’s my goal!
Potato Champion, poutine

Top honors for best tasting food as judged by the culinary panel this year at the Eat Mobile food cart festival went to Garden State, offering Sicilian street snacks. I’ve heard only good things about this cart, but their location in Sellwood is inconvenient for me to get to by public transit even as they are being raved about even on a segment of Good Morning America. They also have a new Mississipi location. Garden State’s taste offering of grilled alaskan cod with vinaigrette (along with lettuce and orange slices) on a slice of baguette was a pretty healthy offering and showcased their ability to put together a clean taste profile, even as a cart (though I wasn’t sure what was the Sicilian snack part of it)

I wrapped up the last bosnian cheese pita (sirnica) that Ziba’s Pita had before they were out, then tasting seconds at Soup Cycle and Sip (which I’ve sworn I will now have to patronize twice more this summer to make up for it), and also a taste of the grilled cheese turkey, Tillamook cheddar, and truffle oil at Savor Soup House (The Grilled Cheese Grill was supposed to be at Eat Mobile but had to drop out because of an illness: I guess I’ll still have to plan on visiting their school bus), and a few blocks away, a beer at Green Dragon. There were many other carts I didn’t try- some because I’ve been to them before, others because I know I can easily get to the cart myself on my own time- but it wonderful to see so many options at this festival. It would be great to see this continue to grow. The $7 per person for all the tastings is a steal, honestly, but even if they moved to a ticketing system like Taste of Chicago does (so you can decide for yourself how many tickets to spend at each cart to get a choice of different samplings or a full size portion: in some cases if everyone wanted to taste it made sense to put tickets together to get a full size everyone could enjoy then just individual bites), I’d have no problem coming back, no hesitation, and it was even for a good cause. And, that would also make it more fair for places like PBJ where no one just wanted one little taster.

And next time, consider our groups’ two browsing strategies. I came in with a must-try list of carts, often based on what I hadn’t had before and also based on how difficult it would be for me to get to, car-less and relying only on public transit and based on their hours of operation. The second strategy was to divide up and grab samples for friends so instead of waiting in all lines, you wait in half of them- generally with the men being sent to scout for the shorter lines to bring goodies back while the ladies chatted in the longer lines patiently nesting :X Being stuffed almost like its Foodcartthanksgiving FTW.

This coming weekend we have some Chicago friends and a birthday at Rogue/Green Dragon, so I am pretty excited to get some more friend and food time in before my work project takes me on the road for two weeks again.

More on the awards and a few more pictures of Eat Mobile 2010 can be found at The Examiner’s coverage, and much better photos by ExtraMSG on Flickr. Hey, I was eating.

 

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