Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Food Cart: Pastrami On Rye

This is my last week at work.  It is bitter-sweet, for sure.  Part of me is jumping up and down and part of me is really sad.  Okay, maybe not equal parts.  Maybe more like 80/20 in favor of the jumping up and down.  But after five years somewhere it is hard to imagine there not being certain things in my life anymore, like riding public transit or having Annika down the hall from me or marveling at all of the new food carts that seem to appear daily.  So to help with this transition, I jumped at Andrea's suggestion to have a cart-lunch-party during each of my last three days at work this week.  I'm usually very frugal (read: have no money) and would rather eat healthier food from home anyway, so I rarely eat at the carts.  But this seemed like the perfect treat!  One mention of it to Annika and she was on board.  So, early Monday morning the research began.  

First stop, Food Carts Portland, of course.  I started by searching cart pod locations downtown, thinking we could try one new cart from three different locations over the course of the week.  Then I scrapped that idea and decided to narrow it down by cuisine.  We started with ten, whittled it down to three, then settled on one... Jewish food.  So off to the cart pod by PSU we went to try out Pastrami On Rye.  It was an adorable cart.  I got the pastrami on rye (I'd never had one before) and Annika got the reuben (which I'd also never had).  They were absolutely delicious!  Salty, buttery, the mustard was coarse and tangy, the sauerkraut was subtle and the perfect accompaniment.  I seriously want another one of each right now as I sit here writing about them.  I mean, look at these sandwiches... they're beautiful!  So, if you're in the Portland area and need a lunch recommendation, I'd suggest hitting up Pastrami On Rye.  My vote would be for the ruben (the sweet/salty combo was amazing), but I don't think you could go wrong with anything on the menu.  Ooooh, now I wonder what Wednesday's lunch will bring??!?

3 comments:

Andrea said...

I want one too!

Unknown said...

Oh Boppa is drooling looking at the pictures Ipo. That was his favorite food of all time!! (Well right after a good steak and baked potato.
Darn, wish you'd known about this when I was visiting.

amuma Deb said...

Looks soooo good. I'm glad you are enjoying all that Portland offers. Happy last week at work!