Friday, January 7, 2011

Portland Part 2: Carts & Stands - The Big Egg, Parkers Waffles, Sugar Cube

Question: How should you start your second day in Portland?
Answer: With two breakfasts and a morning dessert. Of course!

Daaaas right!

Diana and I had our first breakfast at the popular Portland food cart, The Big Egg, a bright yellow food truck in a modest village of food carts.

What a bright way to start the day!

The food cart village had great covered awnings and lots of clean, communal picnic tables.

Diana ordered the Arbor Lodge: one egg any style, grilled portobello mushrooms, caramelized balsamic onions & arugula with garlic and herb aioli on thick brioche bread.

The inside of the Arbor Lodge, an eggy, gooey wondrous mess of breakfast awesomeness.

I ordered the Big Egg Monte Cristo: one egg any style, grilled black forest ham and gorgonzola stacked between two pieces of crunchy cardamom brioche French toast and generously dusted with powdered sugar

Monte Cristo dissected.  This sandwich tastes like you would imagine placing ham and egg in between French toasty bread.  The bread was incredibly crisp, thick and filling.  It was a bit too sweet for my tastes, with the sugar crust on the bread distracting from the ham and egg insides, but the size and creativity of the sandwich is definitely something to be admired.

After eating breakfast, we got dessert from The Sugar Cube.

Featuring the Triple Threat Cookie!  Triple chocolate chunk, espresso and pecan sandwich cookie with a nice ooshy layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache.  So rich and decadent, with a nice balance of crisp and chew, Diana and I shared one and were completely satisfied.  We didn't have enough stomach space for the Amy Winehouse Cupcake, but there's always next time.
After a brief intermission of navigating the Portland streets, and almost eating at a different waffle spot accidentally, Diana and I found ourselves at our second breakfast spot of the morning: Parkers Waffles.

Parkers Waffles is a tiny shopfront with orders taken at a small rectangular window and a couple of wrought-iron patio tables set outside along the sidewalk.

Diana and I ordered a couple of waffles that were lovingly made by this spacey hipster.

Diana innocently ordered a waffle, egg and cheese sandwich thinking it would be tiny, but look at this golden beast!

Egg and sausage.

Can you see how golden and fluffy both the waffle and eggs are?  Eating this sandwich is like eating sinking your teeth in light, airy pillows of doughy joy.  The waffle was sooo soft, crisp and buttery (which had nothing to do with the hipster dousing a whole stick of butter on each one after taking it off the grill).  Dreaminess.  We have no idea why waffle breakfast sandwiches are not offered in more cities across the US, but I feel sorry for anyone who will never be able to experience this perfect bundle of breakfast love.

4233 N. Mississippi Ave

4237 N Mississippi Ave

1805 NE Alberta 

4 comments:

  1. i would like to live in that food cart village foreverrrrr. i would also like to live in those divine waffle sammies... imagine how tasty and comfortable that would be! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I had to choose one thing from this entry, it'd be the Monte cristo! Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  3. that arbor lodge sandwich might just be the most beautiful thing i've seen . . . aside from johnny depp that is ;)

    ReplyDelete