Portland food carts

Portland is a city full of food carts. We were hungry and decided to try as many as we can. At Mississippi marketplace (4233 N Mississippi Avenue ) where a group of food carts make up an outdoor food court, it seems many locals come to enjoy the outdoors and the good food that is offered.


Garden State: Offering burgers and other fried foods we tried the fried baby squid and fish balls. The fish balls seems burnt, but the squid was just tender, although on the oily side.




Native Bowl : This is a vegan cart


Alberta Bowl : Grilled tofu, house-made fire breathing dragon sauce (with sesame and sriracha!),
jasmine rice, shredded cabbage, carrots and scallions.

I found the vegan food cart to be the best in the batch. Having a new twist on healthy food, it was both flavorful and refreshing.




Big top waffles offers breakfast choices.




The amazing fun guy waffle. The waffle was made from a cornmeal mixture. The heaping serving of mushrooms eggs and sausage was just what we needed to complete our meal.

I love the idea of an area for food carts to gather, although given the wet weather here in Vancouver, it would be hard to find a permanent place for these venders to setup through the winter.

Hana by hana sushi

2236 NE Alberta st, Portland, OR 97211. We came here today thanks to a good group coupon deal. We arrive here on a Friday night at 9:30 and the restaurant was about 1/4 full. The restaurant closes at 10.

We selected a seafood ramen, sashimi A combo and J special 1 and 2.

This is a Japanese restaurant opened by Koreans. Located on a street with an assortment of different restaurants, it seemwas not noticeable from the street.

Selection was clean, a large rolls selection and a short selection of sushi, sashimi and other small plates.

The ramen was a failure as it looked, and tasted like instant noodle. The small scallops and the 1 shrimp and mussel makes this an expensive an unappealing dish.

The sashimi set had a good presentation, but we realized the sushi rice was a little undercook and the sashimi was fresh, but lacking in flavor. It seemed the fish flavor was masked by a lemon scent.

The last item we ordered was the J special 1 and 2, which is grilled cod, and salmon with some spicy sauce and topped with a spicy fish paste. This was the most original of all the dishes and the combination of spicy and savory was balanced.

What I liked:

• Large restaurant, short menu.
• Beautiful presentation for the sashimi
• Nice decor, with a bar area and flat screen TV.
  

What I did not like:

• Instant noodle served as ramen.
• Sushi rice undercooked
• Sashimi was treated so there was no freshness to the fish.

As I am used to the high quality sushi of Vancouver, IMO I find that this restaurant, although may be well positioned to cater to a more westernized palette, is not up to our standards when comparing freshness and price, I would not want to come back to this restaurant given the many choices along the same street.

Trader Joe's Cresents

I've never tried crescents from a can before. Bought this on a whim the last time I was at Trader Joes.

Instructions were simple


One can of pastry makes 8 rolls. Instructions say to roll each triangle pastry sheet into a crescent shape.


Bake at 350 C until golden brown and voila.


What I liked:

• easy and fool proof
• has strong buttery flavor
  

What I didn't like:

• crescents did not rise as much as I expected
• bit too salty for my tastes

I would love to try some other brands in order to compare this product with the ones from other brands