Cart Food: Happening in your area?

When the subject of eating food out of a cart comes up, I'm pretty sanguine about it. After all, living in the Southwest and California, the burrito-mobiles are pretty standard (and some of them could be pretty darned good, too). And as a child of the South, I'm also used to bbq joints and such that are limited-specialty and extremely informal.

But Portland, Oregon, has of late elevated cart food to ever new heights. Even got into the latest issue of Bon Appetit. The downtown Portland area (and even in some of the near-downtown neighborhood 'burbs) is enjoying a proliferation of surprisingly good food from various and sundry carts. Good variety of different ethnic producers, and some that are more difficult to define because they are more artisanal in effect, but due to their limited circumstances, try to specialize. Let's face it, Slovakian gyros and uber-exotic ice creams are not your standard fare.

Check it out here: http://foodcartsportland.com/about-2/

The important thing, though, is that these carts are not just convenience-driven. Neither are they simply quick money-generators (at least the ones that survive). The good ones seem to be owned/staffed by younger singles or couples who are content to dwell in their singular space and produce a product that is unique...and something they can be uniquely proud of.

So....is this happening in your place? Any of these cartesian artistes (or maybe we should call them "cartisans") showing up there?

I see none of that in Redding, yet, but I hope it will happen. The food cart idea has always intrigued me. I did read the article in BP about Portland, it was great and I was hungry after seeing all the great looking photos. We do have a little kiosk building in downtown Redding called Fast Weenies, It is a little drive thru shack, and they have the best Polish Kraut Dogs. When I have time to kill between errands or appointments, I go there, get my kraut dog, and drive one block to the Sacramento River and watch the water fowl. It is generally too hot in the summer to do it, but the rest of the seasons are great and especially if it is raining - how I love that! They have other things too, like chili boats, other types of dogs, chips and Sun Tea. They also hand out treats to our dog when he is with us. It used to be a bite of hot dog, but they have resorted to a commercial doggie treat. Sounds rather mundane after the BP write-up.

We do not have cart food in my little Village, but I fondly remember the cart hot dogs and knishes when I lived in Manhattan. I also enjoyed some good cart Mexican when I briefly lived in Los Angeles.

[Jenise]

Hoke, a friend brought that magazine to Kauai, so I read through it last week and was ready to get on my horse and head for Portland after reading that article. I fell in love with cart food with my first fish taco in Ensenada and became a bigger fan in my world travels (street food, after all, is the fore-runner of the more complex cart food we're talking about here). I just love the idea that someone had some irrepressible idea for food and just had to get it out there--lack of a building being the least of their problems. There's a great sausage truck here in Bellingham, as well as a 'taco truck' that in fact is El Salvadoran food and even some actual taco trucks of note. In Vancouver, there's JapaDog, which if you saw Anthony Bourdain's Vancouver episode of a year or two ago, you know about.

But there's nothing like what you've got there in Portland.

By some counts, there are 3000 - 4000 licenses for mobile food vendors in NYC. Which ones were you interested in?

A rarity in Israel, Lebanon and Egypt but that because there are so many street-side stands offering a host of treats (felafel, humous, shwarma, kebabs, cakes, ice creams, sausages, schnitzels, etc......) Also relatively rare in urban France, again because just about every treat you want can be found in a street-side stand (crepes, sandwiches, donner kebabs, croques monsieur and madame, etc, etc)

When In Manhattan I can do entire days exploring the carts of the many vendors. And thoroughly enjoying many of the offerings.

When in Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean, I almost always seek out at least one day of "street dining", especially from push carts "manned" by little old ladies, the steam freely escaping from the ancient pots and pans. And I dine freely in such places because whatever might have been in the water that might have harmed me has long ago been destroyed by either the boiling water or the hot sauces that I so enjoy in the right circumstances.

Best
Rogov

Latest "rage" here in L.A. is the Korean Kogi BBQ taco trucks, started with one a short time ago and they've proliferated, and understand also spread to other cities.
Also a resurgence of Mexican trucks selling a variety of tacos and burritos.

The big thing here in Tucson is Mexican vendors selling hot dogs. They call them Sonoran dogs and to me they very much resemble a Chicago dog. Never tried them but people swear by them. -RP

[Jenise]

Latest "rage" here in L.A. is the Korean Kogi BBQ taco trucks

Sounds great!