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Abby Tian didn't come to Portland to sell crepes from a cart. But after moving to the Rose City from China in 1992 and working in restaurants for years, she decided to try her luck with street food. Nearly 15 years later, Snow White Crepes is still going strong, serving scores of hungry Portlanders daily at the corner of Southwest 10th and Alder.
Abby misses her home country often, and has thought about returning to China more than once. "But what would my customers do without me?" she asks. "Some of them have been coming every day for years." She's also grown quite fond of Portland and her customers, who have made her adopted city feel like home. "I try to make every crepe with the love and pride I feel for this city and its people," she says.
Abby Tian is one of many immigrants making food and a livelihood in Portland's food cart pods. Indian, Bosnian, Korean, Thai — 24 different nationalities (pdf) are represented at over 500 carts citywide. This global marketplace has drawn international attention and accolades.
Budget Travel recently declared Portland's "microcosm of mobile meals" among the best street food in the world. The pods are proliferating, too; the low operating costs of carts, combined with the paucity of jobs has led many entrepreneurs to try their luck with a restaurant on wheels.
What does it take to run a food cart? Is there fierce competition with other carts - or nearby restaurants? We'll hear from three Portland food cart operators who will share their behind-the-scenes stories.
Do you have a favorite food cart? Do you prefer the grab-n-go food cart culture to the sit-down restaurant experience? Have food carts enlivened your neighborhood, or is the noise and mess from them a nuisance?
Editor's Note: This show will come to you live from the food cart pod known as Mississippi Marketplace.
Tagged as: community · culture · food
Photo credit: Artnchicken / Creative Commons
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What is the best food cart in Portland? Why?
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My favorite is the Frying Scotsman on SW 9th and Alder. Fish and chips, deep fried Mars bars and the haddock is superb. I have heard time and again British people saying it's the best they've had since they were in the UK.
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My new favorite is Ali Baba's Turkish Grill, Sw 10th & Alder. He serves up some delish authentic kebabs. He always has a smile on his face and loves to strike up a conversation, if he has the time. He's open at 11 am and is one of the few in that area to stay open late. It's fun to catch him for dinner, and my son loves his rice. When he sees the container in my hands he's super excited for his meal.
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Tripoli,
Your ears (if not your stomach) are in luck: the Frying Scotsman (aka James King) will be one of our guests.
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My favorite is the Frying Scotsman on SW 9th and Alder.
http://lowglycemicfood.bestchoiceshopping.com/ -
Every out of town visitor I host, gets a food cart night. Whiffies, Potato Champion, Mono Malo and Parker's Waffles are always met with rave reviews.
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I have a favorite Thai cart in downtown Portland. Their portions are HUGE and contain quality meat and veggies all for $5. Can't tell you where it is though...they're already slow enough getting the food out.
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Ever tired of Thai? Try Turkish at Ali Baba's. His chicken kebabs are so flavorful, you actually don't need the sauce. But I do recommend trying his cream curry sauce, its amazing too.
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Ali Baba's is hands down the best. Turkish food is so healthy and fresh, and Ali has created a delightful menu of awesome Turkish Kebabs for his guests to savor. This is fast food that makes you happy. No fillers, low salt, no MSG, fresh local ingredients, and flavor that keeps you coming back for more. In addition to his great food, Ali is kind and happy to serve everyone. He loves his job and it shows in his hospitality. This cart brings you to "little Istanbul" with every bite.
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Down here in Eugene, we supposedly have a food cart pod, on Kesey Plaza (Broadway & Willamette), but every time I'm in downtown during the lunchtime period, there is usually only one or two even open. Kinda defeats the purpose, no?
There is also two food carts over by the DuckStore at 13th and Kincaid -- Alexander's Great Falafel, and the Hot Dog Cart (the name escapes me at the moment). I've dined from both while attending the University of Nike, and found both to be pretty good. (The Hot Dog Cart is across the street, on the University side of Kincaid; Alexander's is right by the DuckStore.)
It would be so nice if the rest of the 'pod' was open when they are expected to be, but that doesn't seem to make sense to them.
Finally, how many food carts actually sell food that isn't either fried or boiled to death or soaked in oil while it grills?
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That should say "There are also two food carts..."
(Didn't catch it until after my opportunity to edit expired...)
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Food carts are just one part of the wonderful communities of street markets and night markets that are prolific in any Asian community. These markets bring people out of their homes and into contact with their neighbors on an everyday basis. The camaraderie extends from eating to shopping for groceries, household goods, music, sports, even ballroom dancing to a boombox! This does not happen occasionally for a fair or festival, but every day and night of the year.
Unique, inexpensive, and fantastically fun, Asian street markets and night markets are also very popular tourist destinations. Portland, with its vibrant immigrant community and love of all things local, is poised to make the leap from the shopping mall with its bleak commercial sameness to something locally grown, much more personal, and fun.
The concepts of our farmer's markets, the Saturday Market, and the many new food pods, are ready to fuse and grow to full blown street markets and night markets in the neighborhoods, creating jobs, attracting neighbors to come together, and even becoming a tourist attraction to the entire region.
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I love Portland food carts. I spend time online reading reviews, I chat with owners, I make my friends stop on the street so I can check out new carts opening... We've got the health department application for opening a cart on our fridge for inspiration, and I really value having access to the wildly varied carts and cart-proprieters near my home and office. I think it's great for the local economy and frequently have out-of-state friends ask me about carts.
My favorites are DC Vegetarian, Native Bowl, Potato Champion, Gin Thai, Bombay Chaat House and Tastebud. Yumm!
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The Best Food Cart Meal is one where you don't get SICK. Sidewalk food is a worldwide phenomena particularly in Third World Nations. And as our economy downsizes, we see bargains and low overheads of side walk restaurants.
But when a business is portable, folds up for the night, has minimal camping-gear infrastructure, then unfortunately proper hygiene is the first casualty: handwashing, proper restroom facilities, clean utensils, proper refrigeration, clean prep, wash and serve counters.
I have eaten sidewalk food worldwide and been seduced by the savory smells and tempting sirens of grilled and fresh baked items. But I have also had my share of Montezuma's Revenge.
If you have a chance to buy from a male vendor or female vendor, pick the woman. Woman universally have higher hygiene standards. Restroom surveys of American Men and Women in public restrooms find up to 25% of men never wash their hands compared to 10% of women.
Be curious and ask about hygiene. Do they have a restroom, a place to wash their hands, a place for customers to use the restroom? We are all for human rights and fair treatment of labor, but why must we buy from a 5ft x 5ft sweatshop with no toilet for the worker? We must see the lack of Proper Handwashing as much a Public Safety Threat as Drunk Driving.
Diarrhea illness is the 6th leading cause of World Wide Mortality. Salmonella, Shigella, and Cholera are real diseases and can spread like wildfire.
If the Foodcart Industry does not properly police itself the weakest links can decimate the industry. Think of the one single Spinach Farm in Salinas that had Toxicogenic E. Coli. It destroyed the million dollar Spinach industry for thousands of farmers for years.
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Your post almost seems an attempt to scare people away from the carts. I find my experience to be that the newer carts are very clean and the owners are very conscious of their proper hygiene requirements. One owner told me that the county stresses to them to importance of hygiene along with proper food temps. I think it's because of the increase of carts, they are making sure they are in compliance. I would love to see the TV News do "dirty dinning" on carts. My bet is that many would pass with flying colors!
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Come visit Boy Gorilla Coffee, Portland's newest Coffee Cart on SE 11th and Clay. We're a mostly volunteer operated coffee cart Serving up Legare's French Press Coffee. Conveniently situated on the bike route linked to the Hawthorne bridge, we offer a $1 re-useable mason jar for your trip to work or wherever your going. Hours are M-F 6am - 6pm Sat 6am-3pm Sun 8am-2pm.
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Great topic today. One drawback to the carts that I'd like to see you address is LITTER & GARBAGE at the downtown locations. The pods like Mississippi Marketplace out in the neighborhoods don't have this problem because they have their own garbage. But downtown since the proliferation of the carts is a sea of GARBAGE due to overloaded city trash receptacles.
My favorites: The Big Egg, Garden State, Caraquenas (Venezuelan) at North Station Pod (Greeley @ Killingsworth), Zibas Pitas downtown.
May have to come down for a fried egg sandwich from Big Egg!
Lelio
Overlook--N. Pdx
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Yes, GARBAGE!! City lot owners and the city need to come together on a solution! Compost & Recycle stations - Burgerville does it!
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Coming this October is a book about Portland's food carts - Cartopia: Portland's Foodcart Revolution. This book documents, through photography and story, the perfect storm of Portland's independent culture, foodie scene, and artisan economics that brought the food cart revolution.
You can find us at facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=314067370371#!/group.php?gid=314067370371&v=wall
Questions? Contact us at portlandfoodcartbook@gmail.com
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Pardon me, I missed an "s"
portlandfoodcartsbook@gmail.com
Two additional points:
1. Food carts and restaurants are subject to the same health safety standards, so they are effectively the same from that perspective.
2. To address the garbage issue, Laura Weiss of GO box is piloting a re-usable container program with food carts.
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About 2 weeks ago - my buddy Anthony said "you need to try this Food Cart called Koi Fusion - I heard from a Podcast that their food is bomb!" (bomb = really good)
He said we need to wait for their Twitter update status to find out where they will be. I thought to myself- he learned of this food cart on a Podcast and we need to track it down via Twitter...that is AWESOME!
When we got the Twitter update it was 9:45pm - @KoiFusion at PGE Park = 11:00pm
So we waited...
It was well worth the wait.
We were early, but by the time they opened up there was a line a mile long hungry for kim chi Bulgogi (spl?) Tacos - yum!
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I live downtown. The cart food is brilliant. But sitting on a rickety plastic chair in the rain while people desperate for a table glare at you--not so much. What can be done to provide comfortable, year-round spaces, protected from the elements, where customers can enjoy their meals? What stands in the way of the city providing infrastructure in support of this flourishing, grassroots industry?
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I agree that people go to carts for the food but also for the proprietor. James King is so nice! We miss him up here in NW Portland. Shelly from Honkin' Huge Burritos downtown is such a wonderful person and I think that keeps people loyal to her cart.
I wish that there were more carts in NW Portland - there are only a couple of options.
Food carts do not compete with restaurants. They are two different things and I am not choosing to frequent a cart instead of a restaurant; I am frequenting carts instead of cooking.
Also, get current with the hygeine issue. Of course carts are regulated. There are less opportunities for carts to be dirty in the kitchen, actually, because the clients can see right into the cart, whereas in a restaurant you usually don't see the kitchen.
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I love food carts and frequent them for lunch downtown between classes. The one aspect to food carts that bothers me is the waste that take out food creates. During lunch time downtown all the trash cans around the food carts are full. Is there a way we can start to compost and recycle our waste? Can the city step in?
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What are the cart owners expectations regarding tips?
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What are the regulations around having a beer cart?
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Oh, okay...so this is a "Portland Only" show today, huh?
Eugene is a non-entity as far as this discussion is concerned, I guess.
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Thomas at Portland Monthly here. We've got a cover story on food carts hitting the streets next week! In the mean time, see a teaser of some food carts we'd like to see
http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/fantasy-food-carts/
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The recent caller talking about Bend misquoted the name of the Thai food cart. It is called Thai on the Fly or Taste of Thai.
I have to correct because the food is wonderful as are the owners. :-)
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When I worked downtown I went to food carts alot for lunch, especially during good weather, but on incliment weather it was restaurants.
I'm curious about the ratio or carts that actually cook the food in the cart versus those that only warm or keep warm food that was prepared in a brick & mortar kitchen?
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no one discussed the issue of garbage, did they? food carts are lovely but generate a lot of waste! this friendly phenomenon will i hope attempt to be earth-friendly as well. kt, portland
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my thoughts exactly.
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Food cart pods are building community and helping struggling entreprenuers get a start on their careers - but they do have a resposibility to maintain a a clean, safe and appropriate presence in their neighborhood. I like Dreamers on NE MLK and Knott, the carts there are interesting and good and the pod is tidy and comfortable. Try The Pepper Box or Wet Hot Beef or Patty's Wagon - you wont be sorry!
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I love the food carts. My fave is the Vegan Smoker on 4th and Hall by PSU.
Granted, some charge a wee bit much. Lately I have found bean and rice burritos for over $4, even $5 or more...
come on, really? You are running a food cart, not a sit down restaurant.
The one on 82nd on the front yard of a disrepair bungalow with their kids running all over the yard is charging $6 for a vegan bimbo bread torta.
When a food cart exceeds $5 for a meal, or over $3 for a basic vegetarian burrito with no dairy... why even patronize them?
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The pods are 642-436 Dumps proliferating, too; the low operating costs of carts, combined with the paucity of jobs has led many 642-642 Dumps entrepreneurs to try their luck with a restaurant on wheels.
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The pods are 642-973 Testking , too; the low operating costs of carts, combined with the paucity of 646-985 Testking jobs has led many entrepreneurs to try their luck with a 642-415 Testking restaurant on wheels
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I'm experiencing a "fast food backlash" and am eating at home more often. I perceive eating out is expensive and less healthy than food I prepare myself.
Food carts spring up because people seek ways to make money in an environment of high unemployment.
I like beef, chicken or pork meat skewers with onion on rice from Phil's Meat Market located in the 23 Northwest Mall. Simple, filling, tasty and I don't have to fire up the barbie often.