My Discovery About Portland Food Trucks
Portland Food Mecca
Although the weekend we were in Portland was extremely rainy and wet, we were lucky that one of the food truck areas where many of the permanent food trucks are stationed was literally 5 minutes walking distance from our hotel.
If you haven’t heard anything about the the famous food truck scene, that along with microbreweries are a couple of things that Portland is known for. This particular area has many permanent food trucks with a large variety of food to choose from such as;
- waffles (the Gaufre Gourmet)
- Mexican food
- Mediterranean food
- Asian food
- pretty much everything you can choose from!
One thing to note is that if you do plan on going to the famous steamed chicken truck, Nong’s Khao Man Gai, the downtown location is actually NOT open on weekends so if you’re there on a weekend trip, you’ll have to go to the brick and mortar location further away.
My Advice
When you first arrive in the area, I’d suggest walking around the many different areas and checking out the many options. The main food truck area is made up of two separate sections that are right next to each other so you can walk around one and then walk around the other scoping out your choices before actually ordering.
If you are energetic there are other lesser known food truck areas several blocks away in nearly every direction. A great way to exercise before getting your grub on. Yes, you can always go on Yelp and figure out what everyone else has ordered and what’s popular but for me, I also like checking out each trucks unique menu and also seeing the food that people have ordered and are enjoying bite by bite.
Something to keep in mind is that while you can purchase food there, there really aren’t that many options in terms of seating so most people normally purchase their food and then stand near the truck to eat. If you’re lucky, the truck you order from may have a little ledge where you can stand and eat from.
With the rain, it’s even harder to find a place to enjoy your food so for us we had the option to either take it back to the hotel or find a closed food truck and sit on the ledge on the back. Since it wasn’t raining very hard, the first time we visited, we decided to find a closed truck ledge and eat it there.
F8T Tip
A great way to experience this is to go with friends and share. After all, one can only eat so much by themselves! It’s also the best way to get the most variety for your buck!
It’s worth checking out and seeing what the Portland food scene is all about.