Food Cart Capitol of the World…..

Day 2- Portland

We ventured out to the quaint streets of this hipster town. The air was crisp but moist so not as cold this morning. We enjoyed our walk to a yummy breakfast spot we had on our researched list of places to try, Mothers. A must eat at if you decide to come here during more favorable months 🙂 The Stuffed Frittata was to die for…..we also shared a half portion of the cornflake crusted French toast. We both were very satisfied!

We than walked to the Heathman Hotel, a beautiful place but doesn’t have a real lobby for hanging out. After talking to the bartender, he suggested we check out the Pittock Mansion. This was a 15 min Uber ride out of the city area. Nice to explore and see houses, neighborhoods, views etc. I have decided Portland is like a larger scale Flagstaff city on steroids. The pretty streets with lights are great, and it’s more of a downtown city but the vibe is very green-like, hipster, homeless pot smoking crew. I really feel sad for the homeless here as it is SO cold, wet, and they have nowhere to go. At the mansion we learn more about the settlers who created Oregon, walked through a beautiful antique decorated mansion from the 1800’s on top of a hill with views of the city. The fog and rain was thick that the view your supposed to see of Mt Rainer and Hood was missed today. It was still a historical learning experience.

We get back in an Uber and ask this driver his recommendation of what we should do on a rainy day in Portland. We had plans to checkout the Art Museum but chose a hotel he mentioned with a fire place to relax before the food walking tour. We landed at The Benson Hotel. Everywhere is decorated quite nicely and festive for X-Mas. We sat near a pretty large tree. We then bundled ourselves back up to bare the cold outside for our next destination, food cart walking tour.

If your not aware of something called food truck nation or the fact that Portland is ranked #1 in the world for street food, there are 848 food carts in this small city. Singapore is ranked #2 and Turkey is ranked #3. I was amazed by this fact. We learned a lot from our guide Herb today. Especially that he has lost a lot of weight, he used to weigh 400 lbs and now eats better. Hence being a food walking tour guide is a great job for him 🙂 Another couple was with us, they being from Idaho. Everyone is used to the cold and the rain and it’s only us that are all bundled up. They know we are from Arizona and think it’s funny that we both have gloves on for this outdoor tour.

To sum it up we taste tested delicious food from 8 different carts. I kept calling them trucks and got corrected as they are called food carts! We had a pork bun from Vietnam, a bratwurst from Germany, A fusion Korean beef taco, a bbq chicken slider from Alabama, a Colombian dish I don’t recall with shredded chicken salsa cheese, macaroni and cheese with bread crumbs that was creamy goodness, rocky road Vietnamese ice cream that was a sticky consistency and yummy, and now I’m forgetting one thing….oh yeah a fresh homemade falafel with tahini. I do love a good food tour…..fun to learn all about the culinary facts of a city. So many of these food cart owners have been on the food shows,  Chopped and others. Many start with these carts they pay a rental fee for the space they park on. I loved learning the personal story’s of why and how they started. I told our guide since he knows all the history he should write a memoir about the best ones. He will think about it. Lol

Yes, being full is an understatement. We are now defrosting in our beds under blankets as this walking tour was half in the rain and all outside, brrrrr. I wish I had a blanket to use outside besides a jacket, I may finally purchase my own winter north face coat. I’m for sure in need of my own as I always borrow one. We have dinner reservations at 7:15, hope we will be able to eat. I would be okay with cancelling and staying in this hotel bed.

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okay, so we just got back as we had cancelled dinner because we wanted to eat later and not such a heavy dinner. We ended up resting in our hotel room for 3 hours. I never do this on a vacation, it was very relaxing and nice. A great way how to spend a rainy cloudy day.

We decided the Brussels from the first day were so good and a healthy light snack that we would head back. We walked again in the rain……there was an hour wait. Yikes……we had a meant to be moment. A French place was across the street and had 2 empty seats at the bar. Done!! We shared salmon carpaccio & sole menuire. I indulged in a Mexico Coca Cola. We made our way back to hotel freezing the whole way.

Departures is a nightclub rooftop in our hotel. We took the elevator up there to checkout more city views. Snap some photos and I’m snug as a bug in my cozy warm bed reading my new book from Powell’s.