PORTLAND, ORE.-There are few sure things in this world, but here’s one of them: If you go to Portland, you will eat well.
With a winning combination of fertile farmland, a year-round growing season and proximity to both the Pacific Ocean and eastern Oregon ranchland — along with the pioneering attitude of its citizens — this riverside city has been quietly living the farm-to-table lifestyle long before it was cool.
With more than 20 farmers markets within the city limits, it’s easy for chefs to pick up seasonal ingredients to ignite their creativity — and craft dishes that can only be tasted in Portland.
Oregon has no sales tax, and shipping costs are low within the state because the growing zones are so close to each other (Portland has strict rules on urban sprawl, to protect local farmland), which means customers can taste top-notch cuisine at a fraction of what it would cost in other major U.S. cities.
Access to affordable produce is also one of the reasons food carts started popping up all over empty Portland parking lots in the mid-2000s — proprietors were able to produce tasty finger food at an affordable price and take it straight to the people.
To work within the rules, food vendors wheeled carts to deserted downtown lots, turned their window towards the sidewalk, hooked into whatever power source they could find, and began serving the ravenous lunch-break crowd everything from bulgogi beef tacos to handmade ice-cream sandwiches.
There are now upwards of 600 food carts at any given time, grouped in dozens of “pods” in different neighbourhoods throughout the city, each dishing out their own creations while serving a civic — and economic — need. But it wasn’t just low produce prices that spurred this surge.
That industrious, can-do way of thinking weaves its way through the kitchen and behind the bar in Portland, with more breweries than any other city in the world — the number sits at around 70 — and a new crop of artisanal distilleries coming up behind.
Vancouver/Toronto writer Emma Yardley (info@byemma.ca ) was hosted by Travel Portland and Travel Oregon, which didn’t review or approve this story.
Get there: Air Canada offers a seasonal direct flight from Toronto to Portland International Airport (PDX) and many airlines — including Air Canada, United and Alaska Airlines — have easy connecting flights year-round with return tickets starting in the $350 range.
Get around: Portland has a comprehensive public-transit system using a combination of MAX light rail, Portland Streetcar and TriMet bus systems, so exploring the city on a $2.50 (U.S.) (2.5 hours) or $5 (all day) ticket is really easy. There is also a train that goes straight from the airport into the city — the first of its kind on the west coast — making getting from PDX to Portland a cinch.
When to go: Portland is predictably temperate: warm sunshine in summer and early fall, rain showers in winter and early spring. On average there are 144 sunny days and 130 partly cloudy days, but it rarely goes below freezing so a fleece, umbrella and waterproof shoes is usually all you’ll need to face the wintertime weather here.