Portland is a town where food carts and trucks abound. They’re just about everywhere, and there are special areas designated for them. In the southeast, there are a plethora of these “pods”. So what did I do while I was there? I went on a food cart crawl with B! First, we stopped at D-Street Noshery. Yeah, these pods even have names! And I got me an Awesome Cone. What’s Awesome Cone? They take a waffle cone and put food in it. It’s as simple as that.
A few of the options of the night were already sold out, so I had to go with the chicken and dumplings awesome cone. And yes folks, this is exactly what it is. It’s a bigass waffle cone filled with a heaping helping of homemade chicken and dumplings. It was delicious! The waffle cone itself is sweet, which is a slightly bizarro contrast to the savory filling, but I liked it. It’s actually like having your dessert included with your entree. After you’re done heaping out the chicken and dumplings, you eat your waffle as dessert. They make the waffle cone to order, which takes a surprisingly long time, so these aren’t exactly fast food. I wonder how long of a wait there is when there’s an actual line of people. I don’t want to know!
We also stopped at this adorable mac & cheese cart. Everything is made is small batches, so sometimes, you have to wait, like we did. But that’s ok.
Mmm… my mac & cheese with fresh tomato topping. Creamy and delicious!
There was also an arepa truck where B got a veggie one. It smelled and tasted amazing!
There is also Oregon Soup Works, which is the soup version of Oregon Ice Works. They make 2 fresh soups a night. They were also decked out with all kinds of philly sports decals, so represent!
Pie! Where do all these cute little carts / trucks / trailers come from?
The best thing about these pods is that they actually provide seating! And it’s somewhat covered! You could even get a draft beer from this little truck. It is Oregon, after all!
Next stop – SE 43rd and Belmont. This was another pod with many more occupants. Lucille’s Balls. Hee! They make meatballs! Sadly, I think they just closed.
Euro Trash, definitely the most technicolored truck of the bunch. They serve a wide variety of food with some random european influences.
You gotta have a hot dog cart!
Lardo wins for having the cutest little food cart known to man. And for making everything with lard.
Their delicious and hot lardo fries, sprinkled with cheese and rosemary and salt. It’s served with a little curry ketchup. Yay! I was already stuffed at this point, with the giant cone full of chicken and dumplings and all that mac & cheese, but lard was calling!Last up, we went to Cartopia, at SE 12th and Hawthorne. There are only about a handful of big trucks here, but we mainly stopped by to go to Whiffies Fried Pies so B could get a couple of mini sweet pies, to go. They have savory and sweet pies and they’re mini individual pies. Alas, my weak and tiny stomach could not partake of any more food. Until next time!

While the original brunch plan was for Simpatica, since we were staying in nob hill and already on 23rd street window shopping, we just ended up hopping into Papa Haydn. It had also been recommended to us the night before at Le Pigeon. Here’s something crazy about this place. Even if you order nothing, they give you a bunch of pastries right away – blueberry muffin, brioche roll, cheddar twist, espresso coffee cake. And damn it if every piece isn’t delicious.

The duck duck salad. A giant heaping of fancy greens, shredded duck, duck confit, and topped with an egg. A fancy salad. You can’t tell there’s any duck in this, but indeed, there is duck! And it’s delicious duck, to boot.

The stuffed toast… Custard dipped challah bread, stuffed with slice potatoes, caramelized onions, and I can’t even remember what else. All I remember is that it was tons of delicious food. And it comes with two fried eggs as well as a bit of salad. Whoo! The portion of this is ridiculous. This stuffed toast is so good, and a real good combination of savory being stuffed into something slightly sweet. But yeah, I left half of this on the plate just from size alone.

The service here was good, especially from our extremely pregnant and friendly server. She was so cool and helpful. And even if you don’t order food, let’s say you just order a coffee, you can still sit at a table, you still get all your free pastries, and you can take your time. This is a place I can definitely be a fan of!

When I decided to go to Portland, I sought some feedback on where I should eat. I usually do extensive research on my own, but I asked others for help this time. Drew Lazor from the city paper told me that Le Pigeon was a must eat. I actually remembered seeing it the last time I was in Portland, as I was staying at a crappy motel right across from it, so I heeded his advice and made a reservations. It’s a tiny spot with only 3 family style dining tables (be prepared to sit next to strangers!!!) and seats at the kitchen bar. So plan your visit in advance!

It is french! Could you guess that from le name? The menu is small, changes all the time, and is very french. You don’t see friendly things like chicken and steak and sea bass.  You see things like pigs feet, tongue, duck, and sweetbreads. So be forewarned! It had tons of decorations and art, including embroideries of employees on the walls. The dessert and cheese menus were written on these colorful old windowpanes.

The swordfish dish. A nice steak of swordfish with calamari stew, fingerling potatoes, and a saffron based sauce. Lovely and beautiful!

I went wild and got the sweetbreads with scallop, salsify, and citrus. Now I’ve only eaten sweetbreads once, and liked it, and I love me some scallops, so I decided to take the chance! I still really don’t know what particular type of sweetbread this was, but I’m assuming it was the pancreas kind, as it was pretty big. I liked this, but I could easily see how some would not. While it doesn’t have a terrible texture, it doesn’t have the greatest texture either. It’s kind of on its way to having a liver texture, but only about half way there. It was seared and I enjoyed the seared bits quite a lot. However, once I ate away at the seared bits, the inside was less cooked, and I got a bit afraid and stayed away from it. I think the last time I had sweetbreads it was cut up into much smaller pieces so there weren’t any less cooked bits. I think I would have preferred it that way. That was fine as I still had a lovely and big seared scallop to enjoy. You know me and scallops, so enjoy it I did! The salsify is a root vegetable. It’s not widely eaten, but it is in France, Italy, and Russia. I’ll leave it to the French, Italians, and the Russians. Salsify is definitely not the root vegetable for me. Now as strange as it may sound, my favorite part of this dish was what all the main ingredients came on top of – cauliflower puree. It tasted like pure cauliflower, but it was incredibly smooth and lump free, liquidy, but still with some oomph. I could eat this all day!

Now dessert is where we got completely crazy. While there were many options, some of them even crazier, nothing enticed us as much as the honey bacon apricot cornbread with maple ice cream, drizzled with bacon cooked in maple syrup. Yes folks, this cornbread has bits of bacon in it. And it’s topped with more bacon. And as crazy as it sounds, it was delicious! But the maple ice cream is actually what made it. Without it, the cornbread tastes a little too funny and smoky. But with the ice cream, it’s the perfect complement. It’s all the bizarre combinations of savory and sweet that make it so fun to eat. We laughed the whole time we ate this, because really, we couldn’t really believe we were!

Service was good and they were very friendly and helpful with explaining the menu. It’s a packed restaurant, with just a few people cooking, and everything is cooked to order, so be prepared to wait for your food. Just enjoy the complimentary bread they give you. They sprinkle a little sea salt on the butter and it makes it even that much better. We sat next to a really nice couple who recommended several places to try out, in Portland and elsewhere. And we provided them with some recommendations for spots to check out in random parts of the country. And hence, the beauty of family style sitting amongst strangers. Le Pigeon is a special experience. I hope you all get to experience it. And say yes to the crazy bacon dessert!