Willamette Week's Eat Mobile 2015

I get asked what my favorite Portland food carts are A LOT and I have a few spots that I always say but I don't really eat at carts all that often. I used to when I worked downtown but now that I don't they just aren't a regular thing for me beyond this one by my writing studio. That's why I asked my friend Brett Burmeister of Food Carts Portland to write the food cart chapter for the second edition of my Food Lover's Guide to Portland and lucky for me he did.

Sooooo, I'm really looking forward to the eighth annual Willamette Week Eat Mobile (Wednesday, April 29th from 5-9pm) because I'm going to taste my way around TWENTY FIVE different PDX food carts. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Also at the event: music from DJ Short Change and Clarinet Cat Box and tasty beer from Baerlic Brewing Co. Strangely enough, I've never been to Eat Mobile -- really looking forward to it.

Here's a video from last year's. For EM volunteer inquiries contact aboucher at wweek dot com and for sponsorship or press inquiries contact sbarnhart@wweek.com.

Here's the scoop poop straight from WW. Tickets are available now and there are only 400 this year so get them while you still can:

This year, instead of bringing the carts to the people, the festival brings the people to the carts. Guests will enjoy samples from carts at two SE Portland pods, Tidbit and A La Carts Food Pavilion (Himalayan Food cart at this pod is one of my VERY FAVORITES!! So good.). Tickets are available here and admission is $40 and includes a wristband for more than 25 food samples, two free drinks, live music and shuttle service between pods.

"This festival is a flagship event for Willamette Week and we're excited about the change," said Steph Barnhart, events and marketing manager. "We want to allow the cart owners to do what they do best in their natural environment, and let guests taste something from nearly every cart at two pods we love."

Attendees will get samples from carts as the vendors compete for the coveted Carty Award, selected by Eat Mobile guests and judges. Guests will also vote for one pod to win “Best Pod Experience.”

GET TICKETS Willamette Week's 8th annual Eat Mobile Wednesday, April 29th 5-9pm

THREE for Tuesday!

I don't usually have multiple plans on a weekday night but next Tuesday , December 14th there are three fantastic food events that I'm not going to miss and all of them are free and open to the public. I don't know how I'm going to pack them all in but I will. Here's the scoop...

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!

Breakfast in Bridgetown Party 5:30-8pm @ Cafe Nell

My friend and fellow PDX writer Paul Gerald is throwing a killer breakfast-for-dinner launch party for the second edition of his Breakfast in Bridgetown book at Cafe Nell. There's no charge to attend but you do need to RSVP here.

Here are the details straight from the source:

* Cafe Nell is at the corner of NW 20th and Kearney, and they do have a parking lot. * “Breakfast for dinner” provided by Cafe Nell, including cups of hash, quartered Monte cristo sandwiches, house made pork sausages, Pumpkin breads, shrimp and grits, silver dollar pumpkin pancakes. Mmm! * Signed breakfast books for $16 each, or two for $30. * $2 from every sale will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank. * Full bar available with amazing cocktails * Short program around 6:30, with comments from the author, contributors Nick Zukin of ExtraMSG.com and Brett Burmeister of FoodCartsPortland.com, and perhaps a little snippet from Portland’s appearance in the PBS documentary Breakfast Special.

This is how in the field, literally, a Friends of Family Farmers internship can be.

Friends of Family Farmers End of the Year Celebration and InFARMation 5:30-10pm @ Holocene

Come out and celebrate the end of the year with one of my favorite local organizations -- Friends of Family Farmers. One of the best part of the night is the silent auction that will benefit FOFF programs and initiatives. Here's the schedule followed by a list of some of the awesome items that will be on auction...

5:30 Door to Holocene Open – come early to order food, get drinks (food and drink is not paid for so bring your $) and socialize

6:15 Friends of Family Farmers – don’t miss this short presentation of our programs and successes over the last year, pretty impressive for such a small group if we say so ourselves.

6:30 Silent Auction Starts, Live Acoustic Music & MC

8:00 Silent Auction Ends, Live Auction Starts – some of the bigger auction items will be dealt with by our auctioneer

8:15/30 Greasy Chain String Band – dancing and celebrating! Winners get to cash out and take home their items!

This InFARMation (and Beer!) is 21+, so don’t forget your ID.

Some of the many amazing items on the silent auction list... * Pig Butchery Class Gift Certificate - Portland Meat Collective & Camas Davis * Private Breadmaking Class with Professional Baker from Nostrana – Giana Bernardini * Raw Honey-White Clover, Raspberry Blossom & Forest Wildflower- Mountain Meadow Honey Co. * Loaf of Rustic Bread per Month for One Year – Grand Central Bakery * Pizza Gift Certificate - Hot Lips Pizza * Fruit Trees from Local Sustainable Nursery – One Green World Nursery * Three Night Romantic Getaway in Yachats Cabin – Sue Tate & Dave Morgan * Widmer Party Pack (1/4 Barrell, Tap & Tub, Sleeve of Cups and Ice) – Widmer Brewing * Basket of Rogue goodies and Rogue Beer – Rogue Ales * Magnum of Bethel Heights Justice Vineyards 2007 Estate Pinot Noir - Bethel Heights Vineyard * Handcrafted Wood Cutting Board – The Joinery * One-Year Family Membership to OMSI * $75 Gift Certificate to to 50 Plates in the Pearl – Ginger Rapport of 50 Plates * $50 Gift Certificate for Feed Concentrates – Concentrates NW * Laptop Lunch Box – Mirador Community Store * $75 Gift Certificate to Meriwether’s Restaurant. Specializing in Farm to Table Meals * $50 Gift Certificate Higgins Restaurant & Bar. Cuisine rooted in our Northwest Soil * $20 Gift Certificate from the Urban Farm Store, a Family-Owned and Operated Local Business * Farmer Love Basket – A Collection of Goodies from Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply * 2 Tickets to to the September 24th Farm to Fork Farm Dinner at Kiyokawa Family Orchards * Holiday Wreath Lovingly Handcrafted with Local Greens by Kelly Ingram

Food Innovation Center's Time to Market Showcase 6-9pm @ the Food Innovation Center

I already wrote about this fantastic event in this week's Willamette Week so I'll just point you in their direction for the scoop.

Portland Downtown Takeout

Since early fall I've been working downtown as an editor at Hawthorne Books. I love taking the Max to and from work, being downtown, and I absolutely love my job. What took some getting used to however were nearby lunch options. Our downtown office doesn't have a huge amount of dining spots nearby and although I try to bring lunch with as much as possible as life gets busier takeout gets easier.

I have my favorite block-away-spots and I go to those so often I get burnt out. When that happens I usually make more of a trek for the SW Alder Street and 10th Ave. food cart pod. Here are some of my favorite downtown takeout options as of late...

It's hard to have Taste of Jakarta's nasi padang too often. It's so bleeping good.

Kenny & Zuke's breakfast leftovers for lunch -- the 222 -- two eggs, two latkes, two slices of pastrami. I'm sorry if this reheat is sacrilege Nick but it's so good...

Taste of Jakarta 1239 SW Jefferson St. www.tasteofjakarta.com

Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen 1038 SW Stark St. www.kennyandzukes.com

Nong's Khao Man Gai SW 10th and Alder St. www.khaomangai.com

Portland's Mississippi Marketplace: The Big Egg food cart

On Saturday morning my boyfriend and I woke up early by our weekend standards (thanks be to sunshine) and by 8am we were ready for breakfast. We rolled by Por Que No because we've been wanting to check out their breakfast but it turns out they are on the Portland lazy hazy weekend schedule and open for brunch at 11am. We drove south on Mississippi and decided to check out what Portland's newest food cart pod -- Mississippi Marketplace -- has to offer for breakfast.

There were a few options and we went with The Big Egg saddled in between the newest Garden State outpost and a coffee cart.

We both got the same sandwich to a T -- The Portlander ($5, $6 add protein) with two eggs over easy, blue cheese (other choices: cheddar, fontina) and applewood smoked bacon (other choices: ham, veggie sausage). These savory sammies are made with soft and eggy Grand Central brioche. One slice is slathered with punchy whole grain mustard and minced chives and the other with blue cheese and minced chives...

No seat for Goldilocks

Inner workings

Two bites in

It was is good as it looks. The soft brioche sopped up the sunny yolks, the blue cheese melted into the bacon, and we stopped talking for a while. Yum. You can check out The Good Egg's full menu here.

It's nice to be at a food cart pod in the early AM if you love food as much as I do. It's similar to getting early to a big show and watching roadies unload and set up. There just aren't as many bus tubs of alcohol involved with food cart set up. At least not in plain sight. There were several carts prepping for the day and we even got to sample Southwestern Pizza Company's breakfast pizza which was delicious.

Just so you know Mississippi Marketplace's lot is landscaped, there are tents to ward off the rain, there's loads of seating, plenty of bike parking, and vendors are asked to use recyclable packaging and compost food waste. Here are some other snapshots from our Mississippi Marketplace morning...

We sampled his breakfast pizza and it was tasty. No sauce just lots of butter and bacon.

Sharpen your sweet tooth

Garden State's menu

Vegan food and drink.

Mississippi Marketplacewww.missmarketplace.com SW corner of N Mississippi Ave. and Skidmore St.