Okay here's a second dining out series, also truly Portlandian. Food carts! We don't call 'em food trucks here in Portland. Are we still in the heyday of Portland food carts? Well, sort of! The scene has changed and many venues have improved. Beer gardens, restrooms, indoor/outdoor, nice plates to eat off of, (sometimes.)
I'm going to try doing this series on Fridays at lunch time. Dinners and weekends present other problems. Once we get this series going we can discuss doing other times of the week.
In the history of Portland food carts, many have gone on to be brick and mortar businesses and some have disappeared as times have changed or as the cooks may have become chefs. Famous "graduated" food carts might include: Cheese and Crack, Fried Egg I'm in love, the Frying Scotsman, Nong's, Lardo, Salt & Straw, Guëro, PDX Sliders!
Well, I'm going to pick notable food cart pods that must have a couple of notable food carts each. Something more than just smash burgers and tacos. I give you both... Tokyo Sando and Stretch the Noodle at one of the pioneering food cart pods of Portland, formerly known as the SW 5th avenue pod! The city actually spent some money to refurbish this pod and a beer garden purchased the right to name it after themselves, the Midtown Beer Garden (Food Cart Pod).
How will this work? 10 or 12 of us will meet at one of the long picnic tables and get oriented. Maybe grab a beer and walk around and decide what to order. But for the adventurous I have a dream! ... if at least four people will join me, we will pool our money and order four or more dishes, bring them back to the table and split them with the clean cutlery I will have stashed in my backpack. Are y'all game for something that adventurous? If not you can order your own food.
Tokyo Sando. One of the few destination food carts that foodies from them around the world make sure to stop at in Portland these days. It's a combination of technical sandwich wizardry, a Japanese take on sandwiches, perhaps a bit of whimsy, and amazing customer service. they take the best of soft Japanese sandwich milk bread and combine the likes of tonkatsu and various sauces, and they are also famous for their their egg salad and soft boiled egg sandwiches, and if you are lucky and it is the right season you can even get a dessert strawberry and cream sandwich, but don't hold your breath. they have meat, egg, and vegetarian sandwiches. Taiki Nakajima, the Tokyo-born chef and owner, is passionate about sharing Japanese cuisine.
Stretch the Noodle for hand-pulled noodles with with a distinctive chewy texture: The cart's chef, Xuemei Simard, is famous for skillfully stretching, slapping, and pulling fresh noodles and offers a menu based on northern Chinese cuisine, where dishes featuring wheat noodles, such as jiaozi (dumplings), and other noodle dishes are more common than rice-based meals. While offering a simple menu, Stretch the Noodle has gained recognition for dishes like their Sichuan beef soup (La Mian), stir-fried noodles (Chao Mian), and Chinese crepes (jianbing).
Those are the two most noteworthy carts at this location, but there are at least another 10 more carts to check out.
(next pods might include Hillsboro, Prost!, Hawthorne Asylum, ... ?)
Joe
