Portland Food Cart Stories: Behind the Scenes with the City's Culinary Entrepreneurs

by Steven Shomler

Overview

For a fresh take on a variety of cuisines, reservations won't be necessary. Just step up to a Portland food cart instead. Tour the city's finest carts with author Steven Shomler and meet the innovative and enterprising chefs serving masterpieces from mobile kitchens. Chefs like Nick and Carina of Cheese Plate PDX, who served a reception for the Dalai Lama when he was in town. Or Sean and McKinze, who started the Georgian-inspired cart Kargi Gogo after living overseas in Georgia. Portland's food carts draw talent from across the country. Roy and Kimmy of Retrolicious left behind their own diner in Arizona to join the local scene. These food cart pioneers, and many others, are profiled in a mouthwatering look at a unique dining experience Portland has perfected.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626193734
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Series:	American Palate
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,090,704
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Steven Shomler is an unabashed food cart enthusiast. After being bowled over by his first food cart experience in 2010, Steven founded Portland Food Cart Adventures blog. Steven also organized the first ever Portland Summer Food Cart Festival in 2013, which featured sixteen food carts and drew 3, 200 people to Mt. Hood Community College. The second annual festival is slated for June of 2014.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tiffany Harclik 11

Acknowledgements 13

Introduction 15

Part I Iconic Food Carts

A Life-Changing Plane Ride to LA: KOi Fusion 23

Open 'Iil 3:00 A.M.: Potato Champion 27

We Opened the Cart to Save Our Own Asses: Big-Ass Sandwich 32

The Boss You Wish You Had: Grilled Cheese Grill 36

Captivated by Portland While Walking Across the Steel Bridge: Whiffies Pies 41

Food Writer's Perspective Jeanna Barrett 45

Part II We Moved to Portland to Open a Food Cart

We Moved from Florence, Italy, to Portland, Oregon, to Open a Food Cart: Burrasca 49

Play the Rocky Music: The Italian Market 55

We Bring the Circus to Your Door: Retrolicious 59

We Just Had to Get the Food into Their Mouths: PBJ's Grilled 65

Food Writer's Perspective Amy Burglehaus 68

Part III Breakfast!

This Could Ruin Our Relationship: The Big Egg 70

Stepping into a New life: The Egg Carton 73

The Restaurant that Opened a Food Cart: Yolk 79

It Has Never Felt like Work: Fried Egg I'm in Love 83

Part IV An Important Part or the Portland Food Cart Scene

Scott Batchelar: The Mayor of Food Cart Town 86

Roger Goldingay: The Mississippi Marketplace and Cartlandia Food Cart Pods 89

Tim Hohl and Terry Travis: Friday Is Our Favorite Day of the Week 93

Brett Burmeister: Telling People About the Cool Things I Find 95

Rick Humphrey: His Card Is in My Wallet 97

Bryan Sebok: Mapping the Mobile Food Movement 100

On Many Food Cart Menus: Carlton Farms 103

Brian Wilke and Eric Stromquist: Being a Nice Person in the Hospitality Business 106

Doing Away with Throwaway: GO Box 110

Food Writer's Perspective Phil Shen 114

Part V Vegetarian Food Carts: Delicious Without Meat

For the Love of Cheese: The Cheese Plate PDX 116

I Hitchhiked My Way to Portland: Divine Café 121

Pedaling Kale: Moberi 124

Whole Hawg Vegan: Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ 127

Food Writer's Perspective: Jennifer Chan 131

Part VI Cuisine from around the World

Eat Something Georgian (and We Are Not Talking Peaches): Kargi Gogo 133

So Much More than Just Curry: Tiffin Asha 138

Because of Meatballs and Grandma Clenora: Viking Soul Food 142

A Baker's Sense of Cooking: PDX Six Seven One 148

Portland's Asian Dumpling Champs: Stumptown Dumplings 152

Out of Egypt: Ramy's Lamb Shack 156

More Fulfilled than I Have Ever Been: Bento Box 159

Food Writers Perspective Aaron Wakamalsu 164

Part VII Comfort Food

Cheese Makes Me Happy: Herb's Mac & Cheese 166

More than Just a Baker: 'The Sugar Shop 170

Tenacity and Artistry: Gaufre Gourmet 174

Rugby, Not Soccer: Timber's Doghouse PDX 178

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler: A Cajun Life 182

Stay Caffeinated, My Friends: Olé Latte Coffee 185

About the Author 191