During our camping trip in the Pacific Northwest, Robert and I spent a few days in Portland, OR visiting with my stepson Adam, who recently moved there. One day, Adam toured us around to some of his favorite food haunts.
First on the list was a food truck “pod” – a surface lot where a handful of trucks are permanently parked. This concept was new to me – I’m not aware of any permanent food truck pods in the Denver area. The pod Adam took us to is called Mississippi Marketplace – which happens to be the first purpose-built food truck pod created in the Portland area. The trucks sort of form an L around a central area, where picnic tables are grouped under a couple of awnings.
We were there for lunch on a Tuesday, so traffic was light and some of the ten trucks weren’t open. We still had plenty to choose from! Robert opted for the Meatball Sub at the “Roast” truck; Adam and I chose the vegetarian/vegan trucks in the corner. I went to “Native Bowl” and had the Broadway – an Asian-inspired rice bowl; Adam went to Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ.
We then sat down under one of the awnings and enjoyed a delicious and fresh lunch. My Broadway Bowl had a very well balanced mixture of flavors and textures that all worked together perfectly. It included spinach, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, sesame seeds and garlic tofu all tossed in a peanut ginger sauce and served over a bed of jasmine rice. YUM!
From there, Adam took us to the Alberta neighborhood to his favorite ice cream shop – Salt & Straw – where we had the most amazingly fabulous ice cream! All their ice cream is handmade using organic, sustainable ingredients.
The flavor choices were varied and pretty wild – including Dill Pickle Sorbet and Fish Sauce Caramel with Palm Sugar Ice Cream! Here’s the complete menu:
I opted for two flavors a bit less wild, but still unique – a split scoop of Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, and Stumptown Coffee and Burnside Bourbon. Robert had the Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache, and Adam chose the Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper. All of them were amazing – creamy, delicious, and overflowing with flavor.
From there, Adam drove us out of town, up the Columbia River for a hike. Check out details in my next post!
