#144 - port traits: intro.

oh portland, oregon. why must you tempt me so? for years now, i've been hearing about how awesome you are from friends who live there, reading about your bounty of food carts, dreaming of the benefits of your progressive transit system. at one point a few years back, i was even set on moving to you. you're really far from the east coast though, so i never made the plunge & still have yet to, but i'm still young, so you're still on my short list of "places to eventually settle down." sit tight.

as i mentioned a few weeks back, one of my childhood friends (mr chris dorin) came to visit me from portland & when he came, he brought a viking's load of portland-area vegan snacks along for me to sample. in honor of these snacks & my faraway outsider obsession with portland, over the next week or so i'll be bringing you a four-part series devoted to the snacks & "the city of roses." in it, i'll be peppering you with all sorts of knowledge about the city, mostly based on stuff i've heard & things i've discovered via the power of the google & partially based on stuff i made up. it'll be like a mini, slightly-fictional travel guide from someone who has only visited the city for a few hours in the early part of last decade. TOTALLY professional.

Click to read more ...

nosh nook #182 - tuesday, november 24, 2009

5-month-old seattle food cart crowned best in the country (link)
11.23.09 - seattle post-intelligencer - by monica guzman

make no mistake about it--2009 has been the year of mobile food here in america, with food carts & trucks offering diverse cuisine springing up in cities all across the country. nyc could be seen as the capital of the food cart revolution, but portland, OR definitely vies for that title, with over 500 food carts scattered throughout the city. the carts & trucks have become such a big deal that every news outlet imaginable has done some sort of coverage on them, which has only helped fuel their popularity. personally, i'm sick of hearing about them, but do see that they've become an important alternative to the more costly, less mobile brick-and-mortar restaurants.

on sunday, good morning america jumped into the fray, announcing that seattle's marination mobile was the best food cart in the country. as the seattle post-intelligencer reports, the seattle-based truck, which is only five months old & serves korean-hawaiian cuisine, was, in typical food truck fashion, voted in by a strong customer base who got out the vote via social networking sites. in fact, marination mobile, which won on the strength of their spicy pork taco, is so beloved that "about 30 people came out to the cart at 4 a.m. sunday morning to support the business during a live feed on 'good morning america.'" mmm. 4am tacos.

marination mobile took home the best food cart title by defeating three other finalists from around the country. the first, nyc's street sweets truck, was the only dessert truck among the finalists, entering with the "marcarella," "a thin coconut macaroon filled with the hazelnut-chocolate spread, nutella." portland, OR's garden state food cart, with "sicily meets new jersey" style cuisine, is known for their handmade sandwiches, including their entry, a chickpea sandwich. the third finalist, local 647, which serves up american fare including a tasty hamburger (their entry in the competition) showed that you don't need to be in the big city to be recognized as one of the best, as they operate out of rural delaplane, VA. still, as marination mobile proved, if you want to have good morning america recognize you, you have to "have a really broad network of people who support [you]." the big city's always better for that.

nosh nook #111 - monday, august 17, 2009

street chefs throughout new york city vie to cart off the 2009 vendy award (link)
08.16.09 - ny daily news - by ben chapman

as i mentioned a few weeks back, the vendy awards, nyc's awards ceremony for street vendors, are coming up near the end of september. every year, the vendys bring together five of the city's top street vendors & award one of them the coveted vendy cup. the other four vendors are executed via a rusty guillotine. JK! no french revolutionary style executions! in actuality, winning is obviously the ultimate goal, but even just being nominated can help the vendors stand out from the thousands in nyc. so yeah...the five finalists have been announced!

the ny daily news' ben chapman totes has jokes. well...one joke. he starts this article with "it's a street fight." get it? the five vendy nominees are street vendors & they're now in competition for the award! if i was him, i would have peppered my article with copious references to the rolling stones' "street fighting man" or maybe made some food/street fight puns, but i guess that's why he writes for the daily news & likely gets a paycheck for doing so, while i write a blog & get paid in satisfaction.

this year's finalists include astoria's falafel king, midtown's biryani cart & jamaican dutchy cart, red hook's country boys food truck & the flatiron district's rickshaw dumpling truck. freddy zeidaies, who runs the falafel king cart, is pretty damn confident. "i'm going to win," he says. he "plays belly-dancing music at his cart and does a few moves when the mood strikes him," but those moves will have to be pretty sweet if he wants to win. we're talking some reverse moonwalk type shizz.

his competition's fare includes the biryani cart's cati roll ("a thin indian flatbread wrapped around fillings such as spicy bombay chicken and vegetarian potatoes and cauliflower"), jamaican dutchy's grilled jerk chicken, the country boys truck's "huarache, an oversize open-faced burrito that's a specialty (in) puebla, mexico" & the rickshaw dumpling truck's, um...dumplings. that's some stiff competition for a dude selling falafel. good luck, freddy! you know what? just in case, i suggest taking the next month to learn the worm. judges love the worm, as long as it's not in your falafel.