Day 166: Food Truck Foodies and a Note on Beer

Day 166 was the day Mark and I were leaving Portland, but I should clarify that we managed a whole day in between waking up and peacing out. Our flight was at 11:00 PM (arriving in Atlanta at 6:00 AM Tuesday), so, like we are prone to do, we hit the ground running to enjoy the city with all the time we had left.

Another particularly "foodie" experience I wanted to have in Portland was to visit their food truck scene. They've got a whole "food truck district" kind of area that's unique to the city. After seeing TV shows about food trucks and hearing that people are finally bringing 'street food' to the States, I thought it would be a great thing to try--especially in an area that's already hot on the trend.

But it was raining in Portland (again...they warned us about this!) so instead of really enjoying walking around the food truck area, seeing all that was available, trying lots of treats, we bum-rushed a Cuban place on 10th and Alder for fried plantains and a Cuban sandwich.

They were perfectly and wonderfully delicious, but freaking expensive! $7.00 for a sandwich? Out of a truck?

Eh.

Plus, being cold and wet rendered sitting outside impossible, and kind of ruined my whole food truck experience. We ended up eating our food on the trolly to the Bridgeport brewpub, which, as I said, wasn't bad, it just didn't make the experience everything I had dreamed of and more.

What the food truck area would have looked like if it weren't rainy and gray when we went. These rows of trucks go on around a couple of city blocks and surround the perimeter of a parking lot

NOTE: 
I have to add, that I feel like I neglected the whole new beer story around Portland. Outside of really wanting to eat at Voodoo Doughnuts, we also went up to Portland for the beer. Portland isn't much of a "party party" town like Vegas or New Orleans where liquor flows for $10 an ounce and strangers become lovers, but is a chill, cheap party (beer for under $3.00 everywhere!) that you'd have with close friends at your favorite bar.

We had thought before going that many of the breweries were in Portland, but for the most part, they're in outlying communities about an hour out from the city. Instead, we hit up brewpubs (Hair of the Dog, Rogue, Lucky Lab, Bridgeport, Widmer's, Full Sail and all...) gradually over the course of the four days we were there. Something about the summation of the Portland trip is a "New Thing" (Visited breweries in Portland), but not a day-by-day New Thing experience.

Just think that every one of my Portland posts is ceteris paribus brewpub exploration time.