Portland: Day 4 - Food Carts, Stumptown & Pioneer Courthouse Square

After the Library and PSU, we were hungry! That could only mean one thing since we were in downtown Portland! Food Carts!!!!! Lunch was at the Food Carts on SW 10th & Alder . More about the food carts on this blog. The pic below shows the cart "Asian Station"...

I had my eye on this Bosnian menu (click to enlarge). You can also check out their mouthwatering and computer screen licking inducing photos here. Do it now and be prepared to swoon over the photos!

OMFG - I loved this food! I believe the woman working the cart was Ziba herself, a very lovely and friendly lady...Here's a nice write up of her cart here. from another blog.

While I was ordering food at Ziba's, Bert was down the block near Asian Station with TC. Here are more food carts along the same block...

More here...This was a Thai place...

German food cart:

I wish I had my notes, but this dish was from the Asian Station food cart. Bert got this for TC - It was rice with curry, coconut milk and chicken. There was also a bit of turmeric in there (hence the yellow color) and really soft potatoes...

This was the Bosnian BUREK (Meat pita): [beef,onions,potatoes,spices] $5.50. This was delicious! I could have eaten 2 of these! The bread was so light and flaky, not at all like the pitas you get at Greek or Arabic places...

This was the ZELJANICA (Spinach): [eggs,spinach,cottage cheese,sour cream.] $4.95 . I got this for Bert since he was going "meatless". This was just as tasty as the Beef Burek.

Next up was my entree - the CUFTE Special (Meatballs) which are Cufte (meatballs) in a creamy white sauce with garlic, includes two ustipaks (fried bread).

Cross section of that meatball - too bad Bert wasn't able to taste this. He was on his "no meat for Lent" kick. His loss.

This is an "ustipak", which is Bosnian fried bread. This was so damn good - fluffy and light and chewy at the same time!

Bert also got soup dumplings at the Asian Station. Unfortunately, by the time we all started eating, the soup was no longer hot...TC liked it though!

Here's a Peruvian food cart. If we had more room in our stomach's, we would have eaten here too. Okay, I would have eaten here...

One of the famous Benson Bubblers. This had four fountain heads. There are some that have just two. More on the bubblers here and here and here! I think these are so cool!

After a brief rest at the hotel, we headed out again to explore the city. We went to another location of Stumptown Coffee Roasters(for Bert's coffee fix). Sorry, I forgot which one this was...

Walking around downtown, we noticed that there was a lot of public artwork...

Here's one example...

We checked out Pioneer Courthouse Square. Unfortunately the Courthouse is undergoing renovation and we couldn't get in. There's supposed to be a spectacular view of the city from the cupola at the Courthouse. It wasn't that crowded when we were there...Apparently this is place is used for big events, rallies, etc...

More of Pioneer Square...

Closeup of the Courthouse

People watching with TC...We are next to a stepped fountain...According this Portlandonline.comthere are many fountains in Portland...This one is called Pioneer Courthouse Square Waterfall Fountain on SW Broadway between Yamhill and Morrison

"In the late 1970's the City acquired this land for use as a public square. Architect Will Martin designed the square and its waterfall fountain in 1983.

In early 2006 the Portland Water Bureau completed a major restoration of this fountain. The total cost of the work was approximately $122,000 – and the project took care of leaks, repaired places that had corroded over time, restored bronze mask features in the trough part of the fountain, cleaned all granite surfaces and regrouted places that needed it. The project replaced membranes beneath granite surfaces that prevent leaking.

At full capacity the main fountain cycles 900 gallons per minute while the upper trough recycles 300 gallons per minute."

Sign at the square:

Bert and TC next to a sculpture of a bear catching a fish...According to the same website mentioned earlier, this is another example of a fountain called "Animals in Pools" on Yamhill and Morrison between SW 5th and 6th

"Ten fountains with twenty-five bronze sculptures of Pacific Northwest animals were installed in 1986 for the Local Improvement District for the MAX light rail. Designed by Georgia Gerber."

Here's Everest College. - turns out there's a bunch of their locations in the U.S. and in Canada. Never heard of them until I looked it up online...

Another random food cart! I love the variety here and I only wish that San Diego could be like this.

and more carts!

More to come!