One of the biggest rewards for me in running this website is in connecting with other food cart lovers. It especially warms my heart to read emails like the one I recently received from reader, Sharon:
Dear CBF, Just wanted to say thanks for your site. It has been of great help in planning my weekly get together lunches with my son downtown. I pick a different cart each week, and share the goodies with him over his lunch break at work, and its a blast. Today we do Korean! Keep up the good work!
When I was a kid my family hardly ever ate at food carts simply because there weren’t many of them around, but if I bet we would have if we lived in Portland circa 2008. See, my parents are extremely adventurous eaters, as well as being bargain hunting diners. Discovering and eating at small hole-in-the-wall ethnic places, excellent sausage and kebab stands here, and even driving near and far to Farmers Markets, community fairs and the like for cheap vittles made for some wonderful budget oriented family outings and a lifetime of rich memories. Now that I am grown, these culinary tours on a dime have become a special treat when I go home to visit. We all pile in the car and drive all the way across town to eat at places like my Dad’s favorite “Polish Cafeteria” or my Mom’s favorite Vietnamese restaurant for their famous “Cinnamon Beef Soup.” I really need to thank my parents for introducing me to a whole wonderful world of food at an early age and for teaching me that eating well does not mean you have to spend a lot of money doing so. Thanks Mom and Dad for your wisdom!
Sharing some cupcakes with my friend Clio at the Sugar Cube cart on SW 9th
I’m also very glad the carts exist in Portland to allow other families, either grown or young, to share in similar eating adventures, dine well on a budget and create their own important shared memories.
Bon Apetit,
CBF.
I love your site, and am totally enamored with Portland Food carts…it started at Tabor…fried muenster cheese!!!! and when Burritos Funny moved next door to work, I was in heaven…$3.00 for lunch, life is great! ( They have since moved to 50th and Burnside, so I have to go out of my way). Now I love near the Hawthorne food cart park…and I’m planning a food cart party. I love the variety and the quality. Check out the new Teriyaki BBQ there when you have a chance.
I love Portland!
Bertha, thank you so much for the compliment and thanks for reading. It means a lot to me.
Where is the Teriyaki BBQ place? I’m a bit confused on that (not unusual for me, I get confused all the time).
Anyhoo, let me know and I will check it out.
CBF