Great People and Great Food Make A Great Story: Burrasca

Just named one of the Oregonian's top ten food carts, Burrasca is a celebration of the foods of owner Paolo Calamai's native Florence, Italy. After sampling many of Paolo's offerings at his food cart on SE 28th Avenue, I knew I had to write about him and his wife, writer Elizabeth Petrosian, and their journey to Portland. Here's an excerpt from that article, "At Portland food cart Burrasca, homey Italian dishes are rooted in owner's Florentine past."

When they announced their decision to move their family lock, stock and pasta machine from Florence, Italy, to Portland, Oregon, to open a food cart, American friends of Florence native Paolo Calamai and his Michigan-born wife, Elizabeth Petrosian, were aghast.

Gnudi con pomodoro.

“But you’re living in Florence!” the friends wailed, thinking their life in Italy must be like all those I-left-my-boring-life-for-the-Tuscan-sun books that were popular a few years back.

The life their friends imagined the couple was living?

“It was a postcard,” Paolo said. “You’re living in a postcard or you’re living in the reality.”

Paolo, educated in restaurant management, had traveled back and forth from Italy to the United States many times since his maiden voyage in 1984 when he visited the families of Stanford students he’d met at the Florence villa that university owned. Remembering his first trip to the states, his expression still carries the awestruck quality of his younger self.

Pappa al pomodoro.

“It was a beautiful experience,” he said. “Visiting the national parks and seeing the Grand Canyon, the big cities. I mean, you see New York in the eighties, oh my god, to us, coming from Europe it was like, wow.”

After that first trip, he worked the front of the house—as waiter, manager, wine buyer and menu consultant—in several high-end Italian restaurants in New York and San Francisco. He met Elizabeth at the former Etrusca restaurant in San Francisco where she was supporting herself as a waitress, saving on food bills by taking full advantage of shift meals at the restaurant while attending graduate school in English literature.

The proprietor.

“She was the cutest one there,” he said. They dated, then moved across the country to work in New York, he at Pino Luongo’s Tuscan Square in Rockefeller Center, a forerunner of market-based restaurants like Eataly, and she at Gramercy Tavern. While it may have sounded glamorous from the outside, they realized that they weren’t able to spend much time together or enjoy the city. Plus they were missing the slower pace of life on the West Coast.

“We realized there’s something about the West Coast lifestyle, it’s closer to a Mediterranean life,” she said.

Read the rest of the article.

Quick Hits: Retrolicious and Pah Dee

If you somehow miss the bright pink food truck with its flock of pink flamingos, look for the Jetsons vintage t-shirt and the beaming smile on the face of Kimmie, the owner and head Retro-teer of the Retrolicious food cart.

A friend and I stopped in at lunchtime and I was instantly hypnotized by the description of their version of the Cubano sandwich called Damn That Castro. They give it the panini treatment, that is, pressed and grilled,  yet it was still a substantial hunk of a sando, with big slabs of fall-apart tender pork, pickled onions, aioli and just the right amount of melted, gooey cheese.

The potato salad on the side was of the vinaigrette-dressing style rather than a mayo-egg version, and quite nice. Word has it their crispy chicken and mac'n'cheese is awesome, too…and with a BLT, meatloaf, grilled cheese and chicken-and-waffles, this place looks like a hit.

Details: Retrolicious, 1930 NE Everett in the Green Castle cart pod. 541-409-9271.

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Ever since my brother moved his wine shop, Vino, to the perennially hip-and-happening food mecca that is 28th Avenue, I've been watching the corner of 28th and Burnside transform from depressingly dingy to downright dazzling. And with the addition of Pah Dee Thai in the spot formerly occupied by the scary darkness of Hungry Tiger Chinese, the transformation is complete.

On a recent summer afternoon the sliding windows were open and tables were dotting the sidewalk, making the walls almost disappear and allowing the breeze to cool the intimate yet comfortable interior.

A friend and I opted to share a couple of plates, and we were knocked out by the lemongrass shrimp salad. A base of romaine lettuce has enough structure to stand up nicely to a scattering of cilantro topped with sautéed tail-on shrimp and lemongrass in a warm fish sauce-inspired dressing. So fresh and full of the deep umami-ness that can prove dangerously addictive, the memory of this dish will have me coming back again, and soon.

Details: Pah Dee, 6 SE 28th Ave. 503-360-1453.

A la Cart: Heavens to Burgatroyd!

I loved the xiao long bao at the now-defunct Asian Station food cart. And when I had Cliff Allen's porchetta at his then brand spanking new People's Pig, the skies opened and angels sang. So when I heard that Kevin Sandri, who wooed and won me with his Jersey-goes-left coast Garden State cart, had opened a new cart called Burgatroyd, I had to check it out.

The burger at Burgatroyd.

With both carts in a pod called Mississippi Marketplace on the corner of North Mississippi and Skidmore next to the Prost! bierstube, he's putting out some of the best cart grub in the city. Burgatroyd is a fiendishly simple concept: take a healthy patty of really good burg, slap it on a substantial brioche bun and let people choose from a vast list of condiments.

Sauces? They've got 'em!

Calabrian chile aioli? How about caramelized onions? Or maybe a pickled gardiniere is more your speed. Mushrooms, a pineapple slice, an egg, pancetta and various cheeses are all there, too, just waiting for you to create your own monster-burger for a few extra dimes. Plus as much sauce as you can take, including some of David Barber's incendiary Picklopolis habanero and jalapeno sauces.

Plus he's figured out that with their burgers, people like a little libation that can be had, and even consumed with your food, at the pub next door. Like I said, the guy is fiendishly clever.

Details: Burgatroyd, 4233 N Mississippi at Skidmore. 503-962-9265.

The Frying Scotsman

When a guy gives his business a name that's a bad (though appropriate) pun, who am I to argue? And when he dishes out some of the best British-style fish and chips (or Scottish, as the case may be) to be found in the Northwest, then I'm happy to call him whateve he likes.

James King is just that guy and his cart, The Frying Scotsman, is just that kind of place. My friend Ivy agreed to join me on an expedition to a part of NW Portland that has neither the Pearl's Rodeo Drive drive or the upscale-gone-downscale of 23rd. I'd heard that "Slim Jim," as he's known to friends, was frying up and dishing out some fine product from his converted vacation trailer parked in a small garage (complete with roll-up door), and we were not disappointed.

He offers the usual cod and halibut, but also features more unusual choices like red snapper, mahi mahi and even haddock, a fish that I'd only seen in New England, as well as a salmon special on the day we were there. Each order is well under ten bucks and comes with house-made coleslaw, rich and creamy, and a more-than-decent tartar sauce.

Chips are of the plank variety, but still crisp and well-cooked, and the thickish batter is crunchy on the outside and meltingly tender on the inside. It has the added benefit of staying with the fish rather than other versions where after one bite the fish falls out leaving you holding a soggy envelope of half-cooked batter.

There are only two tables under cover, so if all the spots are spoken for, you can either eat in your car or sit on the curb. But this spot is worth the trip if you're a die-hard fish'n'chips lover, and James' lilting Scottish accent and shy smile only add to the attraction.

Details: The Frying Scotsman, 2219 NW Raleigh. 503-706-3841.

A la Cart: Power to the Pig!

From Bunk to Laurelhurst Market to Tails & Trotters to the brand new Olympic Provisions, Portland is head-over-heels over the pig. Back in the day, Fred Carlo spent months learning how to make traditional Italian porchetta from practitioners of the art in Italy (still not a bad way to go, if you ask me).

Cliff Allen carving him some pig. (If you look closely you can see the juices it's spitting out!)

But these days young chefs can get a taste of that tradition by working with many of this city's meat mavens, like Cathy Whims at Nostrana and Mark Doxtader at Tastebud. Which is precisely what young Cliff Allen did before he bought an old bread truck, painted it bright yellow, added some snappy custom wood paneling and opened The People's Pig.

He's been serving smashingly good porchetta and sopressata sandwiches from his location at the food-cart pod on SW 2nd and Stark downtown for a couple of weeks now, and he's attracting crowds clamoring for the luscious, pork-and-pickled pepper-filled buns he's putting out.

I had my first sample at the recent Olive Oil Garage Sale event, and I can tell you we're going to be hearing a lot more from this plucky fellow and his meaty talents in the future.

Details: The People's Pig, on SW 2nd and Stark, on Stark between 2nd and 3rd Aves.

A la Cart: Sicily in Sellwood

They're all over Portland, scattered from parking lots downtown to abandoned lots all over the eastside, and featuring cuisine from as many countries as you have fingers (and maybe toes). This is the first installment in what will be a regular feature called A la Cart, and you're welcome to add your nominations for those you consider to be the best in the region.

First up is a little wagon that calls itself Garden State ("Italian street food from the Willamette Valley"), a first venture for owner Kevin Sandri, and he's offering some outrageously fabulous fare that is almost all organic and locally sourced. His little quilted aluminum cart sits on a corner in Sellwood that is being developed specifically for food carts, and he's already been joined by a taco cart with a pan-Asian cart rumored to be on the way.

On our first trip there we tried his saffron-flavored arancine stuffed with either sausage or mozzarella that comes with a fresh tomato dipping sauce, then a sausage and sautéed pepper sandwich that had caramelized onions, peppers and a slightly spicy grilled sausage stuffed into a ciabatta roll.

The arancine were crisp on the outside and meltingly moist inside, though the dipping sauce was a bit bland and would have benefited from the addition of something to kick it up a notch. The ciabatta sandwich was fantastic, a nice handful that fills the stomach and warms the soul.

There's always a soup on hand, and the chicken looks amazing. Kevin says he'll update the menu occasionally as seasonal produce changes. And I'll be going back to check this out more thoroughly in the near future.

Details: Garden Sate, corner of 13th and Lexington in Sellwood (5 blocks north of Tacoma). Phone 503-705-5273.