It's Raining Food Carts!

New Food Carts Asian Station, a pan-Asian cart on SW 10th and Alder is now open for business. I haven't seen their actual menu yet, but it looks like they are serving things like noodles, the tasty Malaysian flat bread known as Roti, dumplings and the like. If you've tried them, drop me a line and let me know your thoughts. A Belgian Frites stand is also opening soon on the corner of SE 12th and Hawthorne. Who doesn't like good french fries? We'll keep you posted...

Indoor Eating Options Just because the weather outside is frightful, don't forget about eating at the carts. Rather than sitting and eating your lunch in the rain there are several indoor areas with public seating available near a few of the "cart pods". Our favorites?

• An alert reader turned us onto the Galleria on SW 10th and Washington, home to the Western Culinary Institute. Apparently they have several tables and chairs scattered about and a few people we know take their cart food there to chow down.
• The U.S. Bank Tower (aka Big Pink) on SW 5th and Alder has a decent amount of open seating (tables and chairs) upstairs on the "mezzanine" level of the shopping area (the area near the Starbucks and gift shop) and I have eaten plenty of lunches up there myself gazing down at the swarming office workers on the floor below.
• The carts near Portland State University on both the PSU campus itself (on the park blocks) and at the "cart pod" on SW 4th and Jefferson are close to several quasi-public spaces. Smith Center
  at 1825 SW Broadway has terrific seating on almost every floor and lots of tables and chairs on both the first and second floors near the cafeteria. The newly build Meseeh Engineering Building
  , at 1930 SW 4th also has seating.

Real Taste of India vs. New Taste of India It's a taste-off! Well, sort of. At least with one person's taste buds anyway. Stumptown Vegan
eats at both carts, writes it up in extensive detail, and drum roll please...

After plenty of taste tests I have come to the conclusion that the Real Taste of India is the better cart for my taste buds, though many of my co-workers disagree.

You can read the whole thing here.


What do Food Carts Portland Readers think? What's your favorite Indian Cart and why? Hmm, perhaps a blind taste test challenge is in order with a panel of judges? We could also throw a taste test of India Chaat House as well.