PSU Row

King of rice from the Middle East, Thai Pasta and Taqueria La Nortento.

Cam, Billy and Scotty made thee adventurous trip up to what I would call PSU row on 4th and college. We where expecting to have pizza but then found out that they do the festival tour during the summer.... I guess they where out in Enterprise doing something there.... anyone up for a road trip and some Terminal Gravity? Have you been to TG? By far one of the best settings to drink beer in.... but thats another story.

Cam visited King because of their name.... he had some rice dish with yellow things in it. He also ordered up a drink that looked like it was coconut milk over ice.  Uh.... I have no idea what it was because (1) Cam was talking about "walking down the isle" and (2) Billy was chomping on some really nice looking deep fried thing and a very big plate of Pad Thai.... the pad thai looked good and was very colorful next to the slice of lime that came with the plate.

So by this time you would think that I would have included a 'Cam sucks!' somewhere in this post..... well the Chile Relleno burrito I had from Taqueria La Notento was by far one of the sucky'st burritos I have ever had. I should have figured this out when I saw some of the PSU athletic directors waiting for their food/burritos. 

A simple way to find out if mexican restaurant is going to have good food is to try their Chile Relleno.... well thats what my Guatemalan dad still tells me to this day (as well as (in a heavy hispanic accent) 'if you wear a condom, its not like you are cheating!'). Rellenos are one of the simplest foods to make and one of the easiest to screw up. There is something about the deep fried crispiness of the egg batter, the soft chile and the melted white cheese that when done right can bring a grown man to tears. As a child in Guatemala my grandmother at christmas time would make Tamales and Chile Rellenos while other family members prepared fresh tortillas and frijoles negros. As a kid I always looked forward to that time of the year and to this day still one of my fondest memories and why expect allot from someone selling "rellenos". This was more like a scrambled egg with a dash of canned green chilies and a hint of cheese. The beans where flavorless almost like they where cooked way too long. The burrito tasted more like a breakfast burrito I might get at McD's, and I am guessing that the McDonalds one would be more flavorful. Honestly, I have had better burritos a Taco Bell at 3 in the morning and would most likely would not visit it again.

No pic's due to Cam sucking and not bringing his camera.

The history of the chile relleno can be found at wikipedia.

that thai place on 4th and Hall

it was good. tasted like it was 'posed to. had another thing that was good too. that had cream cheese in it. got a coke too. it was good

Aybla Med Grill

The line was about 5 deep when I entered it with multiple folks already waiting for ordered items. I figured the wait would be a little long considering the woman taking the orders was overwhelmed. The two folks in front of me tried to pay as they ordered but she ignored them as if their money stank. She took my money on the spot and within 1 minute I have a falafel pitawich with added lamb and omitted onions.

They nailed my order exactly despite how busy they were--nary one onion was on my grub.

The lamb had crispy edges that made it tasty. We aren't talking lamb jerky but it definitely had the sort of caramelized component that makes the mouth water. The falafels were good but a bit dry which seems to be the bane of the falafel existence; it cries out for moisture. Thank goodness for tahini sauce to really soak into the falafels and make for a good pitawich.

I looked at all of the carts with variations on mexican and euro foods and this one looked to be the best of them all and it was a pretty tasty meal. However, other food cart courts have more alluring options so I would probably not make it back to this area.

I just looked at the picture once this was published and it looks very unappetizing in that crude humored way. In person it looked like a yummy meal, but then again, it was overcast and my glasses are dirty.

Thai Express

Thai Express (corner of SW 9th & Washington) is a bit of a misnomer because the single person working there makes all of the orders as you wait. When I arrived at 12:25 there were three people in front of me, 20 minutes later, I had my order.

That said, the Chicken Pad Thai was delicious (tofu, beef, shrimp and chicken are the options). And even though it was $7.50, it was huge, so it will definitely cover two meals.

Everything on the menu--which was pretty varied--was $7.50. I didn't get a drink...

I work kitty-corner to the Portland Building, which has a pretty good take out Thai restaurant in its basement, so I can't imagine walking over to Thai Express on a regular basis. If I were on the North side of Pioneer Square, however, this would definitely be a top choice for me.

Samurai Bento

I have to admit, I chose Samurai Bento because there was nobody in line to order. Normally, as a cart clubber cardinal rule, this is considered reckless behavior as it's usually a bad sign of the cart's overall quality: the lunch crowd votes with their feet and a cart with nobody in line, when others are packing them eight to ten deep, is about as enticing as a dip in the Willamette river after a rainy night. But having arrived late, time was of the essence.
The number of dishes offered on the menu is impressive, and most are displayed as colorful pictures which is helpful since you don't know Japanese (I'm right, aren't I?). I put in my order for chicken katsu ($6) and stepped back just in time for a group of Japanese teenagers to place their orders (things were suddenly looking up). The all-Japanese, three person crew consisted of a friendly young woman taking orders, a grey haired gentleman and a hipster-looking guy with tattoos (a telltale a sign of yakuza, the Japanese mafia - cool!). They worked well as a team, calling out orders in Japanese, dexterously avoiding each other while reaching for steaming pots or chopping something. The katsu came in about seven minutes (not bad). The dish is breaded and deep fried chicken (or pork) cut into pieces and then placed over white rice with a hearty heap of caramelized onion, sweet brown sauce and a cracked egg, garnished with broccoli, carrot and ginger.
The verdict: savory and delicious, but not necessarily light or healthy. I'll avoid the breaded and deep fried chicken next time and go with their grilled option. The authenticity and quality merits another visit. Domo arigato!

Week 4: The Whole Bowl

This week we visited the cartland on SW 9th Ave and Washington. I hit up 'The Whole Bowl'.

Okay, step one: google to figure out what the special sauce is. Answer “Tali Sauce is The Whole Bowl's secret weapon. Referred to by many as "crack sauce", this lemony-garlicky blend has been building local addictions in the Pearl, and now at the new Downtown location, for over 4 years. Sauce devotees have been known to experience a prolonged sense of well-being and tremendous relaxation upon consumption.”

The meal would have been boring without the crack sauce. Ordered the 16 ounce bowl ($5.50 compared to $5.00 for 12 ounce). Brown rice, crack sauce, beans, salsa, cilantro (I asked them to hold the cheese and sour cream). Even with the crack, I’m pretty sure I found the healthiest choice of the entire cartland. It even looked good to eat. They only offered coke and diet coke for drink choices. Boo.

Oh, and that ‘prolonged sense of well-being and tremendous relaxation upon consumption’… I’m not sure if I would call it that or ‘stomach gurgling trying to digest my crack lunch’.

Cart #3.5 - Fuego

Fuego has 11 carts in their burrito making army.

The choices are limited, but solid. You can have flour or whole wheat (50 cents extra), chicken or vegetarian, sour cream (free), guacamole (.75 extra), spinach (.50 extra), hot or mild salsa. Burritos come standard with black beans and brown rice. You choose to have your burrito big or small. There is a price difference of about $1 between the two, but it was obvious that Kendra had burrito envy when she observed the hefty girth of my large chicken"little donkey" (that's what burrito translates into, FYI) and compared it to her small vegetarian.

Pound for Pound, i estimate that the burrito at Fuego will ultimately cost you roughly $2 more compared to most other downtown burrito carts.

The cart that we went to was "out" of spinach and guacamole. But when I looked disappointed and started weeping, the kind lady gave me two dollops of guacamole. Take that guacamole! I ate it, it was pretty good. The brown rice was healthy tasting. The burrito tasted fresh and clean. It was a tad dry.

Comparing Fuego to other burrito carts such as Los Locos, Villenueva, or La Jarochita is a fool's endeavor. The latter burrito carts are bigger, greasier, and make you sleep within 1 hour. The Fuego burrito is light and healthy tasting. What are you into? That's what you need to ask yourself. Do it now. Write the answer down.

Fuego didn't blow my mind, but it will probably not blow my bowels out either. Trade-offs. It's all about what you value. For me, I choose the cheap, greasy, tasty burrito from "sketchy" cart with a 50% chance of explosion. That's just me. That's who I am.

Cart #3: Shelly's Honkin' Huge Burritos

I shall start off my review by saying “Shelly, why such honkin huge burritos?!?” I mean, I order the small (for $5.75) and wonder exactly what tortilla out there in the world could hold a large. I remember reading somewhere that the regular drink size at McDonalds in the 1950’s is now, in current time, the youth (happy meal) size. The same could be said for my ‘small’ burrito… stop supersizing me!

Moving on. I asked the nice lady to make mine as healthy as possible. No cheese, no guac, sub in nonfat yogurt (read: no fun). She was very kind to customize mine and even offered up a few suggestions to make it extra special without all this good stuff. I got a diet dr. pepper with it, and should point out that I was impressed they offered this drink choice. That’s variety! She served up the warm, crunchy shelled burrito in a paper serving trough thingy (I’m sure there’s a much more glamorous term for it. But considering the honkin size, ‘trough’ seems appropriate). Somehow I knew to grab a fork and extra napkins.

Tasted great! Even for being so boring. I told the nice woman I liked my food spicy and she threw on some tapatio for me. But once I dug in I realized the proportion of tapatio to the burrito size was inadequate in defining my burrito as ‘spicy’. Around 1/3^rd way into the burrito, it started to fall apart on me and I drafted my fork into the war on the honkin huge small burrito. At some point I should have set my burrito down and raised my white flag in defeat. But alas, I could not let that honkin huge small burrito win. I finished it. Yeah, take that Shelly!

I think hitting up two carts was a smart idea in our cart club. Thought I had to wait in line, I got my burrito with plenty of time to sit down, enjoy it, and converse with y’all. So that was great.

My final statement on Shelly’s honkin huge burrito is that she needs to make them not so huge and lower the price. Still offer a honkin huge, but a $4 small would persuade me into recommending this cart to my friends. Until then, ehhh.

(ps - I need to remember to take pictures. gosh!)

Cart #2: Tabor

A little last minute rallying, but yet again we managed a great showing.

This week we visited Tabor Czech Cart http://schnitzelwich.com/index.html at SW 5th and Stark. Arriving at the cart, we were greeted with some street performin guitar music. Newcomers to "Cart Land" soon realized this may perhaps be the mecca of all portland food cart greatness. Alas, the cart club will eventually determine if this is true.

The woman who took our orders was wonderfully nice and the cart appeared very clean and well taken care of. Most of the sandwiches run in the $6 range. I chose the nakedwich as I'm trying to watch my dainty figure. grilled chicken was seasoned properly. the ciabbata roll was buttery good (i'll ignore what that means to my dainty figure) and I found the amount of horseradish just right. They even have coke zero! we brought our food choices to the plaza just east of the US Bancorp Tower (Big Pink). The sandwiches were filling and the conversation lively.

Though we did have to wait for our food, I think this will perpetually be a problem as more and more of us bombard a cart all at one time. we're like the zoo bombers of cart food. Overall and in conclusion, I would say 'great food. great service' and recommend this cart to my friends.

thoughts?

Cart #1: Mississipi Delta (BBQ) Cart

good showing everyone! I ordered the $3 bbq pulled pork (regular size) with spicy bbq sauce and slaw on top. I think the $5 jumbo orderers got screwed ;)

I pretty much had my sammich finished up by the time the last people rolled up to Keller Fourcourt Fountain. So the 'quickness' of the dude is questionable.

But overall, that was some good meat! ... and worth revisiting.

Prefunk

It's 10:45. I'm about to have a panic attack over the excitement of meeting up with some local kickballers in our inaugural weekly cart food lunch meeting.

Hitting up Mississippi Delta (BBQ) Cart near SW 4th Ave and Columbia. Joanne recommended it as it is near her work.

Stay tuned for my review.