The food carts of Portland

I didn’t get to Reading Frenzy, like I’d hoped, but I was able to poke around Portland a little this afternoon, eat some good food, and visit with some Ypsi expatriates, who were kind enough to answer a few of my questions about why they chose to leave Michigan for Oregon. I’ll tell you more about that later, but, for now, I wanted to share a few poorly shot videos about Portland’s thriving food cart culture. The first is of me talking with my friend Dave, who lives in Portland, about the explosion of food carts here over the past several years, and the second is of me discussing an idea that I’ve got for a cart of my own, which would be called, “Smoke It, or Fry It.”

I should mention that the idea of a restaurant where you can bring your own food items to be deep-fried isn’t completely original. I’ve heard of a place where there’s a cook who will deep-fry anything, regardless of what it is, for a dollar. I don’t know, however, if this activity is sanctioned by management.

[Our most recent discussion on food carts in Michigan can be found here.]

This entry was posted in Food, Mark's Life and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

5 Comments

  1. Kim
    Posted August 29, 2011 at 1:55 pm | Permalink

    I like how organic this Portland pod is. It looks welcoming and friendly. Hopefully the Ann Arbor pod evolves in this same way. Right now, though, it’s too sterile. It would be cooler if the people renting the cart space could kind of feel some ownership for their area and make it more friendly. And trees help.

  2. anonymous
    Posted August 29, 2011 at 2:31 pm | Permalink

    Your shooting style reminds of Gilligan’s in the episode entitled “Castaway Pictures Presents”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNKdLKD-OPs

  3. Eel
    Posted August 30, 2011 at 7:45 am | Permalink

    What about a food cart where you just add salt to stuff that people bring to you? You could have a bunch of fancy kinds of salt. And you could weigh it out on a scale like it’s cocaine.

  4. N Folden
    Posted September 1, 2011 at 11:57 pm | Permalink

    I like the idea of taking a closed restaurant and filling it full of food carts.

  5. Chris
    Posted September 3, 2011 at 1:30 pm | Permalink

    DUDE! Dan and I were in Portland the same time you were!!!!! Our moms lives there. It would of been cool to recognize you at Voodoo donuts or summin. That said, you do have a very Oregon-ny look. Linette I would have recognized in a heart beat!

2 Trackbacks

  1. By Blogbaby episode two: Beth Abraham on December 7, 2011 at 12:41 am

    […] wonder if it’s anything like the food carts of Portland, where each one has a different speciality, and people blog about them passionately, describing […]

  2. […] momentum to see that accomplished? Given the success that other regions have had with food carts, like Portland, I’d think that there would be more of a movement here. But, as progressive as we claim to […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative VG Kids space