The food cart scene in Portland is huge, and weirdly enough it took me until my fourth visit to the city to truly experience this uniquely Portland thing. You see, until food trucks or the carts you might see in other cities, the carts in Portland are actually semi-permanent structures and clusters of them take up whole city blocks. At the Alder Street “Pod” I found Steak Your Claim among the carts and knew it was made for me.

After much deliberation over the pastrami and cheesesteak options, I finally decided to order the Raging Bull. As you can probably tell thanks to the miracle of photography, this was no slouch of a sandwich, being filled with pastrami, crispy onions, chipotle mayo, jalapenos and whiz. It took shockingly long to prepare, but perhaps I was waiting for the pastrami to be cured. Nonetheless, the sandwich looked like something out of a dream.

That dream turned into a delicious mess as I dug into the beast. I could tell the pastrami was tasty, but truthfully it was a little overpowered by the other ingredients in the sandwich, almost making me wish I had gone the purist route. On the other hand, even with overpowered pastrami this was a super delicious sandwich. More importantly, it was the kind of sandwich that carts like this were made for. With limited space and cooking options, specializing in cheesesteaks and pastrami sandwiches are a great way to enable greatness. I can’t wait to get to more carts upon my inevitable return to Portland some day.

For our last night in Portland we went out big, heading to Tasty n Sons. Our waitress tried to make the claim that the food was meant to be shared by the table like tapas, but everything seemed like an entree and that really seemed like a ploy to get us to order more food. Thus, my buddy and I decided to go splitsies and then decide whether sharing was the right course of action.

We started off with Mary’s Fired Chicken and went with hot instead of Chesapeake Bay-style, which I assume would have meant Old Bay seasoning? The hot was a sort of cayenne powder instead of sauce, which was unique and worked well with this chicken. It seemed to have been randomly tossed upon the chicken, but it got the job done. The batter was really delicious and the chicken was perfectly tender. Moreover, there was a mix of boney and boneless chicken and it was all equally good.

We also had the Spicy BBQ Pork Ribs, which were also different than the kind of ribs I usually go for. Unlike the slow-smoked variety, these were not fall-off-the-bone ribs and instead relied on the sauce to deliver. That sauce was a nice mix of spicy and sweet that I definitely enjoyed. I’d still choose smokey first, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying such ribs. Also, bonus points for the thick slice of bread on the bottom picking up extra juices.

We did end up sharing a rib or two and a piece of chicken or two, allowing us the opportunity to try other people’s food as well. I can’t really speak to anything in particular, but I can say that everything I tried was delicious and worth ordering. Tasty n Sons indeed.

Portland has brand new bike share called Bike Town (you know, like Nike Town) and since my buddies and I were in town for a bachelor party with cars, it was a perfect opportunity to try it out. Thus, we set off one morning by bright orange bike to Doug Fir, a 70s-style diner/music venue/hotel. It was very Portland, to say the least.

I ordered myself the Candied Bacon Burger, along with a cocktail. The burger was made with Wagyu beef, then topped with the aforementioned bacon, gruyere, fried onion straws, lettuce, tomatoes and a shallot aioli. It came with fries as well. I ordered medium rare and without the lettuce and tomatoes, then awaited the burger. It arrived looking mighty pretty and although it came with some little pickles, they were in a mini cup and did not interfere with the food.

I dug into the burger and immediately discovered that it was not cooked medium rare. Yet, most likely due to the Wagyu beef or copious butter, it was actually really juicy. I am not typically a proponent of Wagyu beef in a burger because it rarely adds anything, but if it can make an overcooked burger taste good I suppose I can’t complain. The toppings were a nice combination as well, mixing sweet, salty, smokey and oniony into something good. And while the onion straws were red onions, it made no difference to me because they were fried to oblivion.

I should also add that the fries were a big hit at my table, with one of my companions remarking that they were like a better version of McDonald’s. Yes, that was a compliment.

While I still would have liked to see my burger medium rare, Doug Fir did a solid job with my burger. It won’t go down on my list of amazing burgers, but it won’t go down on the list of bad burgers either.

Often, breakfast is a good opportunity for an unvegan like me to get my fruit in. Remember, we’re against vegetables here, not fruit. So when I headed to Isabel (which has a very familiar site color scheme) in Portland’s Pearl District for a morning meal before leaving town, my eyes gravitated to their Coconut French Toast.

Granted, coconut isn’t what comes to mind when people typically think of fruit, but I stand by the fact that it is. The menu said it came with raspberry puree and powdered sugar, which it certainly did, but it failed to mention the delicious strawberries, blueberries and bananas that would accompany the toast. Hey, the more fruit the merrier is what I always say. And I will also say that this was some pretty incredible french toast. I was a little put off by its thickness at first, but realized it was just right for the amount of coconut and other assorted flavors.

It was a good way to finish up our stint in Portland and hit the road on a sweet note. There might not have been any meat involved, but there’s no denying it was a pretty meal.

In-N-Out Burger became a fast-food legend for its simple, yet just big enough menu. Of course, the burgers aren’t half-bad either. But what if a place were to take that simplicity, but kick things up a notch in ingredient quality? That’s where Little Big Burger in Portland comes in. Simple menu (6 items including drinks and no secret menu to speak of). Good prices ($3.75 for a cheeseburger). And hopefully delicious food.

I visited the location in the Pearl District and ordered a cheeseburger without Portlandish (or is it Portlandic?) organic veggies and a side of their white truffle fries. I quickly learned that this was no In-N-Out because after a solid 15 minutes of waiting, my brown paper bag of burger and fries was finally ready.

Where Little Big Burger lacked speed, they rapidly made up for in being incredibly delicious. For starters, the fries were bar none some of the best I’ve ever had. The had just the right amount of truffle, the right amount of salt and the right amount of crispiness. And then there was the burger itself. Matching the name of the restaurant, the 1/4 pound cascade beef (all natural as you would expect in Portland) burger looked small in its brioche bun, but was cooked to a near-medium-rare and packed with big flavor.

There’s honestly little else that can be said. The little burger and fries left a big impression on me and should be on any burger lover’s list to eat in Portland.

No self-respecting meat blogger can go to Portland and leave without first paying a visit to Voodoo Doughnut. That’s because Voodoo Doughnut is no ordinary doughnut shop. Not content with simply making a few tasty crullers and eclairs, Voodoo Doughnut has come up with doughnuts topped with just about any ingredient that you could ever want on a doughnut, and some you might not. Think Tang, Cap’n Crunch and weird vegan things that simply seem necessary in Portland. Some are even shaped like dongs, but that’s a whole other story. In my story, the line in front of the place only took about a half an hour, which I was informed was not terrible despite that it was mid-afternoon on a Thursday.

Despite the obvious allure of the doughnuts above, there was one in particular I was attracted to, called the Bacon Maple Bar. Shaped like an eclair, this doughnut wasn’t topped with chocolate and filled with custard, but was instead topped with a maple glaze and real strips of bacon. It looked like a beauty and turned out to have a taste matching that beauty. As my first doughnut with maple and bacon (I know there are others out there), this one set a nice bar with a sweet and salty mix that only could have been improved with more bacon.

To balance things out, we also picked up a cookies and cream doughnut, which meant it was one of those normal-shaped doughnuts, but topped with a creamy glaze and chunks of Oreos. This was unquestionably a good doughnut, yet could not hope to compete with the bacon. In truth, few things can.

So would I wait longer than 30 minutes to get my hands on their Bacon Maple Bar again? In two words: probably not. Voodoo Doughnut is a must-eat, but a bit on the level of Pink’s Hotdogs in LA. I’m oh so glad I got the chance to try it out, and would eat the crap out of it with a shorter wait, but don’t need to necessarily go through the whole process again.

Portland undoubtedly has a reputation for being “granola.” Having never been myself I couldn’t quite vouch for anything, until I made my way there on my road trip. We were staying with someone in the Pearl District and I decided to check out Hotlips Pizza. Hotlips is a sort of New York-style pizza joint with a definite Portlandish twist. Pizza options were definitely geared towards being local and on the vegan/vegetarian end. Fortunately, though, they had pepperoni.

I ordered two of their massive slices and a giant pesto breadstick. The pepperonis were massive and only looked normal-sized in the picture because the pizza was equally massive (ratio-wise at least). I started working on the pizza, but it was a struggle, because the dough just didn’t really have enough behind it to support the weight of the pizza, even when folded like a New Yorker. The ingredients were definitely quality and I loved the pepperonis, but there eventually came a point in which the oils pooled at the bottom of the plate and made the slices into a bit of a sog-fest.

When I did finish up, I needed to dispose of my trash, which was not an easy thing to do. Beyond your typical garbage and recycling cans, Hotlips had more to offer. There was also a compost can and a couple others I couldn’t even figure out. If I were living in the Pearl District, I might hit up Hotlips for a fix, but they just seemed to be a few steps off in execution.

Possibly the best part of a road trip is not quite knowing where you’ll be sleeping that night, and not just which hotel, but sometimes which city. Somehow after a day at beautiful, if foggy Crater Lake we decided to make the trek to Eugene, Oregon to crash with a family friend. Knowing the kind of food I like to eat and the kind of beers I like to drink, he took us to McMenamins, a sort of chain of microbreweries throughout Oregon and Washington. He explained that each one was unique in its design because they typically opened up in buildings with previous tenants and worked within those confines. It was a pretty cool concept and the McMenamins North Bank in Eugene certainly had an awesome set up.

We were seated outside, right alongside the river with a great view of the wildlife that passed through. To start, we ordered wings with their Hammerhead BBQ Sauce. Hammerhead is one of their brews and the wings turned out quite nicely despite the fact that I am usually more a buffalo sauce fan.

As my main course, I ordered Wilbur’s Double Deluxe Burger, which came topped with bacon, Tillamook cheddar (for it not to be Tillamook would be like driving a Toyota in Detroit) and a fried egg. I ordered it medium-rare and without any veggies that it might have come with, then chose fries as my side. It arrived looking like a pretty thing, but after a few bites I realized the looks could be deceiving. Unfortunately, while the ingredients were great, they weren’t quite prepared in the way I would most desire. In fact, the burger itself was well-done and the egg was fried completely through.

Nonetheless, I have to say that I was happy with the existence of McMenamins. The location, atmosphere and general feeling of the place left me feeling more positive than not. I would avoid their burgers, but not McMenamins itself.