Lunch @ KOIFusion food cart, Portland, Oregon

LUNCH
Korean Organic Infusion/Koi Fusion Food Cart
Corner of 4th & Ankeny
Downtown Portland (Old Town), Oregon
June 11, 2010

all photographs by Nettie Bird.

When I was last in Portland to see Medeski, Martin & Wood (read my full concert review here), I drove past a 76 gas station and saw a food cart called KOIfusion, with colors within their logo that looked like a highlight pen. This cart combines Mexican food with Korean, thus the fusion. In other words, Korean tacos, which have become the L.A. rage in the last few years. While I love Mexican food, my Korean intake is different to the point where my interests were very, very basic. Is there a pre-basic? I mean, I don't like kim chee at all yet I grew up in a household that loved it. But, the idea of combining a type of food I loved with one I honesty to want to explore made me curious. My sister had heard about it and upon making plans to travel to Portland, she knew she had to make a mandatory stop. I decided to join in on this trip, and off to Portland we would go, this time with our mom. Me, sis, and ma dukes.

I knew that the KOIfusion cart was around the corner from Voodoo Doughnut and a block from the great Big Ass Sandwiches, so I had no problem in finding it. It was however difficult to find a good parking spot. It was lunchtime in downtown PDX, everyone was out for the hunt for good grinds, but in time one was found, in the lot with the Keep Portland Weird slogan. On the sidewalk we saw four food carts with customers ordering and eating.

One of the carts was a nice and vibrant red one called Baowry, which was of interest to us since we are big fans of char siu bao, or what we Hawaiians call manapua (pork bun). We didn't try any, but the menu stated they sold pork, beef, and a tofu bun.


We then made it across to the street and the first thing we instinctivey did was inhale. Aaaaah. Then we looked at the menu.



My sister and I had a sense of what we were going get since we looked before hand, but my mom wasn't sure. She's not a big eater anyway, so my sister chose to order four tacos so we could try them. Options included Korean short ribs (Fall-off-the-bone tender short rib meat, marinated in Mama Kwon’s secret sauce, grilled to perfection, then de-boned and shredded to make for one tasty taco filling. This meat melts in your mouth), bulgogi BBQ beef, spicy chicken, spicy pork, and spicy tofu (a vegan option). We bought all but the Korean short rib taco.



My sister also bought the kim chee.



I ordered, for everyone, K-Sliders, the plate formerly known as Seoul Sliders. These are bulgogi sliders.


We tried the tacos, each coming with a corn tortilla and "shredded cabbage, chopped scallions, bean sprouts, onion cilantro, daikon radish sprouts and our Korean salsa". I did notice a sliver of cucumber, which was nice as it worked against the spiciness of the sauce. Each taco is very good, with the tofu one being light on flavor. Of course with tofu, it absorbs whatever it is thrown in but if you want a mild taco without the weightiness of meat, opt for this. You can add other custom sauces if you want. The pork, chicken, and bulgogi tacos were just great, and I couldn't wait for the sliders to arrive. BTW - the guy who helped me was very courteous, made me feel at home and he had known me even though this was my first visit to the cart. Oh yeah, as for the sliders arriving, it did.

I'll be honest, I originally wanted to pig out on a full bulgogi burrito but I wanted to sample various things on the menu, and I didn't know how good the bulgogi would be. This is the winner, the meat is tender and the flavor is just too awesome, I didn't want to give up the sauce to my fingers.

We ate it next to the table on the side of the cart, right on the sidewalk, and loved it. There was a Korean lady there who liked what she ordered, then requested for it to be hotter. She ten started speaking Korean to the chef (whom I didn't see), and it was obvious she had fallen in love with a place to eat. Everyone in my family was satisfied, so we decided to walk it off. I told them that about two blocks away, there were two clusters of food carts that they had to see. Both of them had not had the food cart experience, other than random lunch wagons elsewhere, so we walked up two blocks and they discovered a pizza cart, a taco cart, a hot dog cart, the infamous BrunchBox, and an Indian cart, where my sister had to try her first mango lassi. It was great.

I was more than satisfied, and of course I wanted to try everything else but what surprised me was when my mom wanted to try more. She decided to try out Taste Of Poland, where a combination plate involving pierogi, kielbasa, and "spicy sausage" was purchased:


In a matter of 15 minutes, we tried out Mexican/Korean, Indian, and Polish food. What I like about these food cart clusters are the variety, and they are cheap eats. There's a sticker inside the Big-Ass Sandwiches cart which says "Eat Shit And Die", with McDonald's and Burger King logos, and when you are in Portland, why should anyone eat fast food is anyone's guess, especially with so much variety at these carts. The amount of Thai carts was surprising, so one day I'll have to go for them too.

Whether you're on a budget or feel like having a free-for-all foodcoma during breakfast, lunch, dinner, or after a night at the clubs, you can be satisfied and dim sum (wah wah waaaaah) while in downtown Portland. Plus, even if you are full, you'll want to stand in line at Voodoo Doughnut, as my sister and mom did, to try out a Tang doughnut, a Fruit Loop doughnut, and their cherished bacon maple bar, which I've tried before upon my first visit. The Tang and Fruit Loop doughnuts, however, were new to me:




I should say these doughtnuts were shared amongst us, but look at the options in one small section of downtown Portland. Go skinny. Even if you're on a diet, if you feel a need to break out of it for at least an hour, do it in downtown Portland.