But before that, the emptiness of Portland:
I’m beginning to conclude that most American “cities” are this empty of humans, unless it’s the summer tourist season. (The biggest walkable American city in which I’ve lived was Chicago. Chicago wasn’t empty of humans. But I guess Seattle and Portland are.)
Anyway, the food cart tour that we went on was from “Lost Plate Food Tours.”
This tour was my favorite in Portland, just as the coffee tour was my favorite in Seattle. For about $100 you get to try different foods from various food carts. (I think it would’ve cost at least $60 if I had wanted to get the same amount of food, without the tour. Besides, it would not have possible to spend just $60 for the same amount of food, because the portion sizes are larger. So I would’ve spent, like $120-150 for food that I cannot finish.)
The lady who guided us gave us a list at the end of the tour, which was very nice of her.
- Cartopia Food Cart Pod
- Potato Champion: Made-from-scratche Poutine
- BKK Thai: Housemade Thai Iced Tea Lemonade
- Hawthorne Asylum Food Carts
- Pelmeni Pelmeni: Chicken Pelmeni Dumplings & Kvass
- Amedia: Crispy Cauliflower
- Burmese Delight: Shan Noodle Salad
- Smaaken Waffles: Dutch Waffle with Jam, Lemon-Vanilla Bavarian Cream & Fresh Whipped Cream
- Morrison Market Food Hall
- Mota y Limón: Birria Street Taco
- Rogue Brewery
- Pub Pretzels and Locally-Made Beer
All food was great, and the bold ones, I especially liked.
There aren’t food pictures, because I was so busy eating. There was so much food. So so so so much.
And in our group, there was a gentleman who was about 1.5x taller than me and probably weighed 2x as me. He devoured the food. And I was so jealous. (I think all of us on the tour were at least mildly impressed by his ability to eat everything.)
I often wish that I could “store” food and sleep, the way we charge batteries. If we could sleep for 48 hours straight and not sleep for 120 hours; if we could eat 5 meals’ worth of food in one sitting and then eat nothing for the 5 following days…
Wouldn’t that be nice!
But because that’s not possible, here I was (here most of us on the tour were), not being able to finish all this delightful food. And there the gentleman was, devouring everything. Quite literally, it took him 5 seconds to eat anything. It was amazing. I was so jealous.
I was especially jealous, when, in mid-July, I suddenly craved the Pelmeni and Burmese noodles so so so so much. Oh, if only I had finished those dishes when I was in Portland!!! Then I would feel less bad about craving the food that I never finished!!! Argh!!!
Anyway… there are no food pictures, but, at the Morrison Market Food Hall, I encountered this delightful road to the restrooms:
How delightful is this? I really should have started “The Bathroom Review.” Really. Such impressive restrooms everywhere. Even the path to the restrooms are a delight.
And the gentleman at the taco place gave us stickers as we left. Hehe. “Mota y Limón.” Great marketing. See, there are no food pictures, but because he gave me a sticker, I took a picture of that. The taco was delicious. It was handmade and all that and either because of that or because of something else, I did not drip the contents of the taco all over the place. It was delicious and it was somehow, automatically, easy to eat.
And then the tour finished at the brewery.
There’s plenty of walking in-between the food, which is necessary for digestion. There’s so much food, you really need a break from the food! However, I can imagine the tour getting hot and exhausting, in the summer months. Perhaps the guide takes that into account when designing the tour for such months. She said that the food selection isn’t always the same, so I can imagine that the route and # of breaks may vary as well.
Anyway, highly recommended! If you’re going to eat anyway, might as well try a whole bunch of food!
P.S.
The tour guide said something along the lines of Portland having the highest per capita coffee roastery concentration. I don’t remember exactly what it was. The highest per capita coffee roastery clientele? Number of roasteries? The highest density?
The point being, Portland folks like food and also coffee. Hehe.