Popped Art

May 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Popped Art

Popped Art

Location: SW Washington and 9th
Hours: Weekdays, lunch-afternoon. Sat – afternoons

The Story: Popcorn mobile vending is so ubiquitous that we tend to forget about it.  It’s everywhere without fuss or much fanfare. For many of us, popcorn was one of our first mobile food experiences  at a kid at a  busy city park, county fair, or at a sporting event sold right on the bleachers.  So, let’s give popcorn a high-five in the food cart world. No matter how crazy street food can get with the fois gras and truffle tacos, and 8-layer burgers, and soups made from organic baby vegetables grown only within two miles, there’s popcorn. It’s straightforward, simple, and easy to transport and eat on the go, popcorn is affordable, and really, it’s a great snack most folks can eat and do enjoy.

Of course there’s good old fashioned popcorn usually popped in big hot cylinders, often served from cute carts that look like this, or maybe this. Then there’s Kettle Korn, the KING OF POPCORNS with its bigger than average kernels and extra crispy, extra sweet, extra just some-some bling. You know, I never really understood what Kettle Corn is though until writing this. Is it made in a Kettle?  Well, not always. According to the authoritative Wikipedia  (I love that someone cares enough to write a whole Wikipedia on Kettle Corn, by the way):

Kettle corn is a sweet-and-salty variety of popcorn that is typically mixed or seasoned with a light colored refined sugar, salt, and oil. It was traditionally made in cast iron kettles, but in modern times other types of pans are used.

So that settles that. Whew. I’m a smarter, better person for knowing that information.

Popped Art’s bright red cart on the busy SW Washington and 9th pod understands that popcorn is classic, it’s fun, and it’s Portland where the food stakes are high, so you can’t just have BORING OL’ CORN FLAVOR. You have to BRING YOUR POPCORN GAME in the Rose City. Popped Art steps up to the plate and offers things such as cracked black pepper and balsamic vinegar, sweet jalapeno line, and yes please BACON WITH MAPLE SYRUP. Because you know BACON. B.A.C.O.N. #Bacon. Bacon makes diners go a little cray-cray. These are real bacon bits too, fresh and hot and high quality.  There’s really not much more else to say other than this is a small mom-and-pop popcorn shop, locally owned, and they are really nice. Plus all their corn is GMO free. Go eat some. Popcorn is good for you. As my college nutrition professor explained  due to the high fiber content, “Popcorn acts like a scrub-brush on your intestines!” Sure, bacon and maple syrup, and butter might cancel out all those health qualities. But,  good food + a decadent food = a neutral food, right?. That’s justification enough when a treat is this good.

Bacon Corn

Bacon Corn

Although it really has nothing to do with nothing, I’m also attaching the following video of how they make popcorn in rural China.  Why? Because it’s cool to watch, that’s why.

 

Sample Menu:

  • Popcorn small – medium – large – $3 to $8
  • Flavors  classic kettle corn, sweet jalapeno lime, caramel, chocolate drizzle, cracked black pepper and balsamic vinegar,  bacon with maple syrup ($1.50 extra).

Phone: 503 320-4385

Facebook: Popped-Art

 

Filed Under: CUISINE, Lunch, Popcorn, SW 9th and Washington, Weekends

Portland Masala

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Portland Masala

Portland Masala

Location: SW 9th and Washington
Hours: Weekdays, lunch.

The Story: “Classic Recipes of India”. So says the sign on this demur little white cart that packs a whole bunch of flavor. First off there’s the aroma of exotic, complex spices wafting down the sidewalk. An immediate sniff lets the diner know this is no standard fast, cheap, greasy Indian food cart. This is a cart that cares about quality. That’s perhaps the main reason the menu is smaller here than the dictionary sized menus found at many other Indian carts in Portland.

There’s a confidence and regal quality to Portland Masala that says, “we don’t want to have the most, we just want to have the best”. Good Indian food isn’t a slick of oil over frozen veggies that have been cooked to an inch of their life. It isn’t a whallop of fire-spice heat that burns out all other flavors. Portland Masala is GOOD. It’s lighter, fresher, with complex and balanced layers of spicing. Each dish comes with white or brown rice, and a nice disk of homemade roti flatbread to round out your meal. Vegetarian foods are available and clearly labeled on the menu, but do ask about vegan foods as we aren’t sure if they use ghee (butter) or other dairy.

Ground Lamb from Portland Masala

Ground Lamb from Portland Masala

So what’s the story? In a twist, Portland Masala wasn’t a cart that later on branched out into foods sold in specialty markets. No, here we have the reverse. Portland Masala is a specialty food company that creates and sells fresh packaged foods at grocery stores around the Northwest such as Food Front and New Seasons Markets. Their grocery line includes a red lentil curry soup (Masoor Dal), garbanzo bean curry (Chole), and peas and carrots in sauce (Mattar Gajar Sabji). A few months ago Portland Masala decided to branch out to a cart and sell not only their packaged container foods, but additional hot fresh meals including specials such as ground lamb curry, chicken tikki masala, and peas and carrots with tofu in a sabji sauce, and more.

Kinderjit “Kinder” Gill hails  is the genius cook and cart owner behind Portland Masala and hails from the celebrated food mecca of Punjabi Province in India. She explains her clear passion for her craft this way:

It took my husband and I many years to source the right whole ingredients, fresh spices and refine our recipes to what they are today. Each specially selected herb and spice is hand-ground and mixed to our high standards. Each of these steps combines to create the homemade flavor that makes Portland Masala dishes stand above the rest.

I have to say, I’m a total and complete Indian food snob. It’s one of my favorite cuisines and I travelled to India specifically to eat and learn about the cuisine. I’m picky because I’ve been spoiled with the good stuff. Indian food is also incredibly easy to mess up. It takes a deft and skilled hand to blend spices and seasonings just so to elevate a dish into something special, memorable, and balanced with aromatics, sweet, salty, hot, sour flavors using fresh, high quality ingredients. I’m please to say Portland Masala is as good as it gets in the old country and certainly as good, if not better, than most Indian food you’ll find in the Portland area. Congratulations Ms. Gill and Masala Portland, and a very warm welcome to the food cart community!

Sample Menu:

  • Ground lamb curry with rice and roti – $7
  • Butter chicken with rice and roti – $7
  • Peas, carrots and tofu with rice and roti – $7
  • Fresh pack containers of red lentil curry soup, peas and carrots, or chickpea curry – $5

Phone: 971 242-9797 

Website: PortlandMasalaFoods (prepared food information only, not cart information)

Twitter: @PortlandMasala
Facebook: PortlandMasalaFoods 

Filed Under: CUISINE, Indian, Lunch, Snacks, SW 9th and Washington, Vegetarian Options

Bread and Broth

February 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Location: SW 9th and Washington
Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm

The Story: Soups and sandwiches are the mainstay of an American lunch. Think grilled cheese with tomato soup. We have some soup vendors and others with sandwiches and now Bread and Broth bring them together.

Kenny worked in a cafe in San Diego for a few years and then at a cart here in town until venturing out on his own. Those experiences taught him the keys to simple, yet tasty dishes. Take the roast beef sandwich with horseradish mayo, greens and tomato. The roll from Vietnamese baker An Xuyen along with a salty and sweet-hot horseradish sauce take a simple sandwich and create a memorable experience. He also does it with chimichurri aioli. Soups include a roasted tomato basil scratch made along with seasonal options like pozole verde with chicken or curry lentil with coconut. If’ you can’t choose, Kenny will ply you with samples. He’s even working on his own Tonkotsu style Ramen featuring the 12 hour creamy broth. Ramen weekends he says.

Roast Beef with Horseradish

Roast Beef with Horseradish

Very impressed with everything I tasted and ate at Bread and Broth. While new vendors arrive on the scene weekly, there are some that stand out because they have focused on the basics. Kenny has his basics down and you should check it out. Let him know Food Carts Portland sent ya.

Sample Menu:

Sandwiches – $6; Soups – $3 or $5; 1/2 Sandwich with soup – $6

  • Turkey w/swiss, avocado, red onion, greens, mayo
  • Roast Beef
  • Turkey w/pesto, jack cheese, tomato, onions, greens, mayo
  • Roasted Veggie w/eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, hummus, spinach
  • Tofu w/veganaise, avocado, tomato, red onion, greens
  • Pozole Verde with Chicken soup
  • Cream of Roasted Tomato soup
  • Curry Lentil with Coconut soup

Phone: 619 208 4968
Facebook: Bread and Broth

Filed Under: Dinner, Downtown, Lunch, Sandwiches, Soups, SW 9th and Washington, Vegan Options, Vegetarian Options

Saffron Indian Kitchen

August 3, 2012 by 1 Comment

Location: SW 9th and Washington
Hours: 11am – 3pm Mon – Fri

The Story:  Oh how Portland‘s food carts have changed and grown over the years. Way back in the old days of ’99, when the dream of the 90s was not just a dream in Portland, I used to eat at a lone Indian cart way up on SW 4th Avenue by the Portland State Campus. There was not a SW 4th and Hall Cart Pod back then, just a lone little cart with the name Taste of India or India Taste or one of those generic Indian food cart names. It was one of my first experiences with Portland cart eating on a regular basis, and I fell in deep like very much. Being a poor grad student with limited time and long hours at the university, this little Indian cart was a godsend. Open for dinner as well as lunch, and serving a huge amount of food for something like $5, alongside quick service, it became my number one food cart. I remember the menu being the size of a small dictionary: how do they make all that food from such a little cart? And I remember the really nice proprietor who would ask me about my studies and love life, and always gave me a free Chai tea and a big smile in the cold, dark winter months. There’s a comfort and familiarity like that from the carts you just don’t always get at restaurants.

The vegetarian plate at Saffron Indian Kitchen

Enter Saffron Indian Kitchen on SW Washington and 9th Ave. This is the New Portland food cart scene. Small, tight menu, and one dish they really specialize in along with warm and friendly service. Saffron specializes in the standard daily vegetarian or non-vegetarian plate: Rice, a couple of daily curries, maybe a side of fried Pakora vegetables or a piece of Naan bread. Decent, cheap, quick, filling, easy. However, Saffron also sells that Southern Indian specialty of Dosas, something I haven’t seen in many Indian carts in Portland.

Would you like a Dosa? From Saffron Indian Kitchen cart.

Dosas are one of those fanatical foods to many people. “Oooh, they have Dosas?” someone will say, then inherently add, “I love Dosas!” Crispy on the edges and thin, flavorful, and often stuffed with a Masala vegetable curry, these big plate-sized folded pancakes usually come with flavorful chutneys or a type of thin spicy curry called Sambar served on the side. Dosas make for the perfect street food, sort of like an Indian burrito, and indeed South India is filled with Dosa stands of all kinds humble and elaborate. It’s quite a hypnotic sight watching the rhythms of a dosa vendor pour the batter, and methodically spread it into a perfect flour based crepe made for the Hindi gods.

Ah, Saffron Indian Kitchen in Portland. You might not have Portland’s biggest Indian cart menu. But you sure have the flavor.

Sample Menu:

  • Dosa – served with sambhar and chutney (can be made vegan) – $6 plain, $7 masala dosa
  • Vegetarian Special – Vegetable Rice, Channa Masala, Raita, Palak Paneer (spinach with cheese) – $6
  • Meat Special – Lamb Biriyani, Chicken Tikka, Chicken Karahi – $7

Phone: Unkown
Hours: 11am – 3pm, Mon-Fri

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Filed Under: Indian, Lunch, Snacks, SW 9th and Washington, Vegan Options, Vegetarian Options

Sideshow Eatery

August 2, 2012 by 7 Comments
Sideshow Eatery

Sideshow Eatery

Location: SW 9th and Washington
Hours: M-Sat, 11-6pm; Sun, 11-4

The Story: Ok, I’ll confess, I worked at McDonald’s as a teenager. I even won some awards during my tenure there and still have a commemorative Monopoly beach towel from one of their contests in the 80′s. During that time, I ate more than my share of fries. What teenager didn’t? As I grew up though, I discovered fast-food fries were not the best. I went through the trials of visiting numerous establishment to find the perfect fry. While I have my favorites purveyors, what I’ve learned is that I prefer and enjoy the Belgian style that are double fried. Sideshow Eatery is bringing Pommes Frites to the Alder pod.

Pommes Frites, or as we call them, Belgian Fries are fresh cut potatoes fried twice, seasoned and served in a paper cone. That is the definition according to the Internets. At Sideshow Gallery, Jason follows the recipe to the tee. In a full size truck parked in the lot, you can see the racks of already once-fried fries ready to be fried again. After the second frying, the potatoes are crisp on the outside yet still soft on the inside. Jason seasons them and places them in a cone with your choice of sauce and adds in his own small wooden fork with the Sideshow flag. It’s like staking a claim.

Pommes Frites from Sideshow Eatery

Pommes Frites from Sideshow Eatery

Jason has a culinary background, yet with the truck, he had to fully gut it and rebuild using the other talents everyone has. The menu at the cart is simple – fries and poutine and beignets. The plan is to expand the menu in good time. Opening a food cart isn’t easy, so Jason is taking the time to figure out the next logical step. As I walked down the sidewalk with my cone of tasty bites with curry-ketchup atop, I struggled not to just shove it in my face and start munching. The fries were spot on crunchy and the ketchup had a great zing. I love the unique wooden fork which allowed me to eat a bit slower and not get all messy.

Sideshow Eatery is now open right on the corner of SW 9th and Washington. A Belgian treat sandwiched between Indian and Chinese. Drop on by for a sinful lunch or a side to whatever else you’re enjoying from the carts. Let them know Food Carts Portland sent ya.

Sample Menu:

  • Pommes Frites – Belgian Fries – sm, $4; lg, $6
  • Poutine – frites with curds and gravy – $7
  • Beignets – 5 for $3
  • Sauces: Catsup, Curry Catsup, Mayo, Garlic Mayo

Hours: M-Sat, 11-6pm; Sun, 11-4
Facebook: Sideshow Eatery

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Filed Under: Debit/Credit Carts Accepted, Dinner, Downtown, Fries, Lunch, Poutine, SW 9th and Washington, Vegetarian Options, Weekends
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