Food Carts!

[thesloppy]

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/200...ortland_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.

[chinaski]

Taqueria Lindo Michoacan | Food Carts Portland

and

Taqueria Los Gorditos | Food Carts Portland

are two of my favorites in Portland...just had some Los Gorditos chicken enchiladas a couple hours ago!

[chinaski]

the whole slew of them in the lot next to tinys is awesome as well, love me some Whiffies and Potato Champion!

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Taqueria Lindo Michoacan | Food Carts Portland

and

Taqueria Los Gorditos | Food Carts Portland

are two of my favorites in Portland...just had some Los Gorditos chicken enchiladas a couple hours ago!

OOooh, I love me some Los Gorditos.

[k0ruptr]

there called lunch wagon's in Hawaii, usually made up of Lau Lau, Kalua Pork and other hawaiian/local goodies. or "Grindz brah" YUMMY

Plate Lunches FTW~!

[larnott]

I regularly go to Nuevo Mexico at SW 3rd & Stark.

The food carts near SE 12th & Hawthorne are pretty sweet too.

[thesloppy]

I rarely make it to the westside carts anymore, but there's a couple good cart cities going on over there. I hear somebody on the westside makes a bacon milkshake, anybody know where that is?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

[Logan]

One of the best parts of NYC.

Street Meat Palooza 2 was a huge success: Street Meat Palooza 2: Our New York City Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown Crowns A New Champion - Midtown Lunch

[lordscarlet]

Following the Fojol Bros.: The Newest Entry on DC’s Street-Cart Scene - Food & Dining (washingtonian.com)

[cartman]

There seems to be a sort of arms race going on in Austin over these food providers. It has gotten to the point where some are so large they are just parked and never move, but they are still a trailer serving awesome food.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

None that I can think of in Boston. MIT has some that are popular, but a coworker found a roach in one once, so there's that.

This thread is making me jealous.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by cartman

There seems to be a sort of arms race going on in Austin over these food providers. It has gotten to the point where some are so large they are just parked and never move, but they are still a trailer serving awesome food.

That's pretty much how every truck in portland has become, some building stairs and patios and seating to attach to their truck.

This post sums up (eastside) Portland, better than I ever could. This dude, who claims to be some sort of 'anarchist cook', is flying off the handle, for like 2 pages, because a group of 'militant vegans' have questioned his anarchist credentials, due to the fact that he serves some meat-based dishes out of his food cart:

http://pdxyarp.blogspot.com/2009/06/...hate-yarp.html

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

That's pretty much how every truck in portland has become, some building stairs and patios and seating to attach to their truck.

This post sums up (eastside) Portland, better than I ever could. This dude, who claims to be some sort of 'anarchist cook', is flying off the handle, for like 2 pages, because a group of 'militant vegans' have questioned his anarchist credentials, due to the fact that he serves some meat-based dishes out of his food cart:

Yarp?! we grub econo: People hate Yarp?!

Love Yarp?! Jeremes post is awesome.... I was vegan for a long time, but since im a well balanced person, never looked down at someone for eating meat. Sums up whats so wrong with hipsters perfectly.

[ColtCrazy]

Okay, living in a small town has advantages. Food carts is not one of them. Apart from the occasional ice cream van run by some on parole, we get nothing.

That said, I remember some great food stalls in England. Got some of the best Steak and kidney pies from them. Fish-n-chips was another thing you could eat well on from the occasional stall. I have missed England so much this summer.