Portland January 2011
My wife was on a mission to find a house but I had another agenda in mind. See I had been to Portland on two separate occasions but on neither occasion had I ventured to one of the city's legendary food carts. I was aiming to rectify that. While traveling up MLK in Portland, I was informed by my Curbside Food app that a stand called Wet Hot Beef(insert joke here) was approaching on the horizon. I quickly told my wife that we had stop. Unfortunately her desire to see the house was going to postpone our stop, but I knew that with persistence(and incessant reminders) that we would be going there later.
After looking at a perfectly fine house, we traveled back to the food pod (what they call a grouping of food carts...it's a Pacific NW thing) that Wet Hot Beef supposedly belong to. However, Wet Hot Beef was no longer a member of this particular pod called Dreamer's Marketplace(your app sucks-Andrew Zimmern!). After looking around at the desolate lot of about six food carts of which four were open, I settled on Viking Soul Food.
Viking's Soul Food specializes in Norwegian Lefse sandwiches/wraps. I had never had Norwegian anything but thought this one looked interesting in midst of the other more standard looking food carts. The menu consisted of several wraps including one with Dungeness Crab and a couple of dessert lefse with lingonberries. However the wrap consisting of meatballs, carmalized onions, and Norwegian cheese caught my eye. At $4.50 it was cheap enough that if I didn't like it, I could always pick up something at another cart.
Once I took a bite I immediately knew I made the right decision. The combination of the onions and cheese added a whole new dimension to meatballs. The lefse was warm and tender but held the ingredients well. If the Ikea Meatball plate represents the low point of this Scandinavian treat, this wrap lies at the other end of the spectrum. It was light enough that I was able to try some of the other offerings at the Dreamer's Marketplace.
After returning to the studio that we were staying at I did a little more searching online and found a site that accurately detailed every known food cart in Portland and its location. After discovering that there were more than 200 food carts in the greater Portland area, I knew that this could be a dangerous place live. But for tonight I will be dreaming of food carts and the endless treats that I could be eating.
Info:
Dreamer's Marketplace
2737 MLK Blvd
Portland, OR 97212
Viking Soul Food
www.vikingsoulfood.com
A great resource for Portland Food Carts that includes maps, location, reviews, and commentary:
www.foodcartsportland.com
