Far but friendly

A Friendly Evening on the Town

A new place popping up with carts is on the far east side of Portland. At SE 102^nd and Stark, near the Mall 205 shopping mall, and not too far away from Ya Hala, The Academy Theatre, and The Bipartisan Café, is a pod of carts featuring so many different types of food, my mind was all over the place. Philippine, Pacific Islander, Indian, Thai, and Mexican food were all featured in the pod of carts, that is sitting on the outskirts of an empty parking lot.

As we walked up to the pod of carts, a women standing within her Philippine food cart instantly welcomed us. Offering up her daily special, and variations for us vegetarians, before we had even made it to the window, the feeling she gave us, would soon be copied as we walked through and studied all of the various menus. As we walked by a cart offering Pacific Islander food, we studied the menu that happened to be written on the side of the shiny silver cart. We were saddened by the fact that every dish being served happened to be meat. Nonetheless, we were welcomed by a women who waved hello.

When we had finally decided which carts we were going to dine at, Shalimar Café and Thai Garden, we had to decide what dish out of the plethora of foods. We went up to Shalimar Café, and were again welcomed, by the owner, who began spouting off the meal of the day. Dal, Lentils, freshly made naan, and basmati rice. Delicious, and without another minute of consultation, we had ordered, and watched. It is not very often that you see your bread come to life, but tonight I witnessed dough to bread, as the naan we would later eat was being made. I saw the dough rolled out, and placed into the baker. Extremely fresh bread, that was quite delicious.

When we stepped off the deck of Shalimar Café, we immeditely headed over to Thai Garden. While the well-known Pad Thai is always a good choice, tonight we decided to go for something else, Pra Ram. A combination of broccoli, rice, other vegetables, tofu, and of course, my personal favorites, peanut sauce.  When the dish came to the window, we opened it up, and unfortunately what we saw was chicken. A mistake about type of protein, but unfortunately we had to ask for the food to be remade. Hopefully that dish would have been able to eaten by someone else. It did not take long before our dish had been remade with tofu. As we opened up the container, a burst of steam came out, and the smells of spices and delicious Thai food burst out.

Instantly we dug in, I first with the Thai food, and my mom with the Indian food. It happened to be that the meals we were eating, either due to the small sizes of the food, or the fact that the food was so delicious that we were shoveling such food into our mouths, ended up all over the table. This is when we began using the lids of the containers as our nets for catching food, so that we would not leave the table covered with food.  

 As we came to the point in the meal where we were able to no longer place food into mouth, we decided it was time to head out, and take what was rest, home. Easily making tomorrow's lunch. We said goodbye, and headed onto our next destination. Over on Hawthorne, to a place visited once before, for a variation of an old favorite. 

When we arrived to Hawthorne, we took the first spot we could find, a bit far from the initial destination, but walking on Hawthorne is always nice on a nice Portland evening. We began walking. Walking past, Cha Cha Cha, Swirl, American Apparel, and while passing Road To Tibet, my mom stopped, and bent over to look at some very fine wool products. The sign posted above read 50% off. When she found some wool socks that were absolutely the best things, we had to go inside to ask the price. We brought two pairs in, and at a final price of $15, the purchase was made, and we were on our way back to Chili Pie Palace. 

Chili Pie Palace happens to be right next door to House of Vintage, the best place to find sweaters, but we were on a mission. When we arrived to the yellow and white cart, we were in line waiting, behind another customer, but when it came to be our turn, we were able to order a: Chocolate cookie with homemade cookies and creme ice cream. All completely vegan. When we had visited Chili Pie Palace before, we had ordered another vegan treat, a gingersnap cookie, with mango curry ice cream. For both of these treats, the cookies have both been soft and pleasant. Separated by a tasty blob of ice cream. It was the perfect way to end both of those nights out and dining.  

We made our way back to the car, wool socks in hand, and not stopping by Road To Tibet again, and headed home, one of us was going to bed, the other, going to listen to music and play tetris.