thesloppy
07-12-2009, 01:19 AM
Oh food cart, AKA taco truck, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Do you have good food carts/street food in your city, and if so, please tell me more about them. Alternatively, do you have some heinous, nasty street food stories? Those are almost as good.
Portland is full of restaurants and hipsters (and the resultant hipster restaurant workers), and has turned into a foodie city in recent years. Nowadays, we're starting to get some absolutely killer street food, at reasonable prices, and where the taco truck used to be purely the domain of Mexican and Indian food, we've now got all sorts of crazy food carts, from anarchist chefs serving full italian dinners to lots of people starting to offer weird versions of their favorite comfort/street food from all over the world, made from quality/organic/vegan ingredients (everything can be made vegan in Portland), at cheap prices. I'm soooo happy, as I much prefer the street food scene, to sipping Pinot and eating $40 artisan pizza. I've been trying to hit as many of these carts as I can:
http://foodcartsportland.com/
Within 10 blocks from me there's a crazy little mecca of half-a-dozen food carts that have holed up in a parking lot, and they're nearly all killer. I just had my third night this week at Whiffies Fried Pies, after just recently discovering them:
http://www.whiffies.com/menu.html
They make these deep fried empanada pastry things....think like a big deep fried hostess fruit pie, deep fried, and stuffed with all kinds of tasty ingredients. I just had one with BBQ brisket & mozzarella, and another that was coconut creme. The coconut creme pie was one of the best things I've ever eaten my life, and I think it nearly gave me a heart attack. It was like a massive hot donut, fresh out of the fryer and stuffed with coconut creme and a few tons of sugar. They also have a durian pie which is pretty unusual, and I have yet to try. While I was ordering tonight, there were two dudes who were just starting a pie eating contest, with a pile of 10 pies between them...someone was going to be puking, that's for certain.
Next door to Whiffies is Potato Champion, who sells absolutely awesome belgian frites, and the cities only(?) poutine (frites, covered gravy and cheese curds). Then there is a creperie, who make a killer gorgonzola, walnut, honey, prosciutto and pear crepe, and next to them is a surprisingly good BBQ joint whose specialty is a huge, killer BBQ turkey leg.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/10/travel/0510-portland_7.html
The best part of all these joints? The hours: 8pm - 3am. MMmmmmmm, stumbling home drunk at 2am, eating deep-fried pie! Imagine THAT hangover.
So, tell me about your favorite street food.
Do you have good food carts/street food in your city, and if so, please tell me more about them. Alternatively, do you have some heinous, nasty street food stories? Those are almost as good.
Portland is full of restaurants and hipsters (and the resultant hipster restaurant workers), and has turned into a foodie city in recent years. Nowadays, we're starting to get some absolutely killer street food, at reasonable prices, and where the taco truck used to be purely the domain of Mexican and Indian food, we've now got all sorts of crazy food carts, from anarchist chefs serving full italian dinners to lots of people starting to offer weird versions of their favorite comfort/street food from all over the world, made from quality/organic/vegan ingredients (everything can be made vegan in Portland), at cheap prices. I'm soooo happy, as I much prefer the street food scene, to sipping Pinot and eating $40 artisan pizza. I've been trying to hit as many of these carts as I can:
http://foodcartsportland.com/
Within 10 blocks from me there's a crazy little mecca of half-a-dozen food carts that have holed up in a parking lot, and they're nearly all killer. I just had my third night this week at Whiffies Fried Pies, after just recently discovering them:
http://www.whiffies.com/menu.html
They make these deep fried empanada pastry things....think like a big deep fried hostess fruit pie, deep fried, and stuffed with all kinds of tasty ingredients. I just had one with BBQ brisket & mozzarella, and another that was coconut creme. The coconut creme pie was one of the best things I've ever eaten my life, and I think it nearly gave me a heart attack. It was like a massive hot donut, fresh out of the fryer and stuffed with coconut creme and a few tons of sugar. They also have a durian pie which is pretty unusual, and I have yet to try. While I was ordering tonight, there were two dudes who were just starting a pie eating contest, with a pile of 10 pies between them...someone was going to be puking, that's for certain.
Next door to Whiffies is Potato Champion, who sells absolutely awesome belgian frites, and the cities only(?) poutine (frites, covered gravy and cheese curds). Then there is a creperie, who make a killer gorgonzola, walnut, honey, prosciutto and pear crepe, and next to them is a surprisingly good BBQ joint whose specialty is a huge, killer BBQ turkey leg.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/10/travel/0510-portland_7.html
The best part of all these joints? The hours: 8pm - 3am. MMmmmmmm, stumbling home drunk at 2am, eating deep-fried pie! Imagine THAT hangover.
So, tell me about your favorite street food.