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!

After actually being in New Orleans, I didn’t want to see any more New Orleans style food. But I kept telling E about it and she wanted some. Now with months having passed since my visit to the big easy, it was time to trek through the snow to check out Catahoula. So I totally didn’t think Catahoula would be where it is. I pictured it being near other restaurants, other nightlife, other shops. But it is really all by itself, except a funeral home nearby. Otherwise, it’s just houses people, just houses. I also didn’t know it would be so teeny! There are only a few high-top tables and then the bar. It’s seriously small, or as they say, intimate.
The gumbo and the crawfish bisque. This is considered a cup, but it sure looks like a giant bowl to me. It’s really sizeable. I can’t even imagine how big the bowl must be. The bisque was delicious. The gumbo was ok, it was a bit too intense for me.
Here are the hush puppies. These puppies are big too. I found them a bit too mushy and undercooked on the inside, but otherwise, they were good. I think we ate maybe two of these.
We both got po-boys. E got catfish and I got shrimp. These were pretty good. The bread is some of the crustiest bread I’ve ever eaten. And not like hard crunchy crusty, but like fall-apart crusty. So every time you took a bite, bits of bread are all over the damn place. It’s good bread, but I just wish it stayed together a bit more. The fries are good too!
I was pretty full, but we ended up sharing the special dessert of the night – Sweet Dee’s chocolate cake, served with vanilla ice cream. OH. MY. WORD. So seriously, this was some of the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. It was so super dense and amazing. And the vanilla ice cream, which was absolutely delicious and simple on its own, was the world’s most perfect compliment for this cake. People, this cake is up there with Golosa’s red velvet cake. And I’m not even a chocolate person! I’m certainly not a chocolate cake person, but I could have eaten the whole thing, and maybe I even did. Our waitress wasn’t the best, and that’s being nice. I hope she has other career aspirations!

On New Year’s Day this year, I really was hankering for a schmitter. Like seriously. I hadn’t craved something so specific in a long time, and this is what I needed to have. I was stupid and didn’t check if they were open. So while in a ravenous hunger and after having trekked through snow, I learned it the hard way. Cue the sad face. And since we were all the way up there, and because the other chestnut hill pickins were also quite slim, we ended up at Cosimo’s Pizza Cafe. I got this gigantor sized slice of barbecue chicken pizza, which was pretty darn good.
J got this italian pork sandwich with broccoli rabe. Sadly, it was more like a broccoli rabe sandwich with pork. Really though, look how paltry the pork portions are here! And the pork was a bit on the dry side too. Well, at least the pizza was good!