Del-icious!: Food carts come to town!

Portland's food cart scene

If you visit a large North American city such as San Francisco, New York, Portland etc. you will find a whole new concept in eating out which is casual, cheap and diverse. They are called food carts and usually they pop up in empty parking lots or waste grounds. In Portland, Oregon there are 200 alone in the downtown area. In Washington DC, some of the carts are mobile and will tweet their followers their location each day. They range from Barbecue, Lebanese, Thai, Mexican, Indonesian, Chinese and so forth, just about anything you can think of. They are literally a cart or trailer type vehicle, usually very small but the food they produce is beloved in the city.

In Portland, I tried a spicy fried rice from a Thai cart which came in 5 different ways with my choice of meat, prawns or vegetables. The menu also offered 5 types of curry, noodles and snacks such as spring rolls, all from one tiny trailer. Some of them also have seating areas outside on the streets, it really is charming. So when Vancouver announced they were inspired by this idea and were going to do the same here, the foodie population was overjoyed. In anticipation we waited, excited about all the culinary options to be devoured while standing on the sidewalk.

Until recently, Vancouver had a bizarre law that meant the only food people were legally allowed to sell on the street were hot dogs and chestnuts. Imagine our disappointment when Vancouver proudly announced it had secured spots for 16 vendors in the entire city. Not only was the lack of variety completely down heartening, but they then informed everyone the method at which the selection would be made. Each of the 100's of potential vendors would have the chance to be drawn from a lottery to determine their location in the city with a backup. Now, I understand that maybe space is limited and to be fair, the council tried to give everyone a sporting chance, but the problem and criticism lies in the random selections that resulted from this. English Bay, the premier sea-side neighbourhood with a very popular beach and the favourite hangout for everyone in the summer, got a lemonade stand. Great in the hot, humid, heady days of July and August, what about January and February? I can't see it lasting. Recently, I have noticed it also offers crepes, so maybe diversifying will help it survive through the bleak, quiet months.

Satay King
Location: Burrard & Davie

However, being obsessed with anything food related, I am determined to visit them all.

I went to my first one today. Called 'Satay King' it was situated on the corner of two busy roads, (that's another thing, here they are alone, in Portland etc. there are many situated together in one small corner, surely good for morale?). The menu sounded good with 2 choices of satay skewer for $4.50 each, or a plate with rice and accompaniments for $6.50 or a satay in a bun for $7.50 and two other skewer choices of Lebanese style and one other I can't recall. (I didn't write these down so they are approximations only - sorry if they are incorrect).

I chose two of the skewer options, pork and chicken which were served with a variety of sauces. I chose home-made peanut and tahini for the pork and spicy chili and spicy soy for the chicken. They were already partly cooked and given a final grill to heat through and crisp up. As they were cooking, I chatted with the extremely friendly owner who seemed very keen to get some public feedback. He told me that some people in Vancouver don't know what satay is, they ask for chicken thinking it's going to be some kind of hot dog, we definitely need these carts!

The skewers had a very generous amount of meat for $4.50, the chicken was breast meat, I think and very tender and well seasoned. The pork was a little chewy, I couldn't ascertain what cut they had used, but the toug

hness could be down to the cooking then cooling, then cooking again. It tasted good however and the home-made peanut sauce was spectacular. I think next time, I would mix the sauces differently, maybe tahini with the red chili and peanut with soy, but that's my decision, the owner did comment that I had made some strange sauce choices! Overall, I think this was a great cart with very nice people. I worry that it was quiet, but I went at 3pm, I'm sure lunch time would be good, there are some offices and businesses around that area and I did notice some other people there after me. I really hope they all do well and that we will get lots more. (I can think of lots of empty parking lots....)