This weekend was the first of at least 8 concerts that I will be attending around Portland and writing about between now and the end of the year.
In addition to being a foodie mecca, Portland is the home to a lot of great concerts, whether the artists are from the Northwest, or just passing through on tour. This weekend’s concert was Seattle band Pearl Jam at the Moda Center.
With the concert scheduled to start at 730 pm, I decided to head across the river to get a bite to eat first. Looking on Google Maps, I found a food cart pod just over the Morrison Bridge at 1015 SE Stark St called Lil’ America (As we’ll see below, it wasn’t until I was already in line ordering that I saw a sign, found the site and learned more about the unique peculiarities of this particular pod, which had no bearing on the quality of the food).
Lil’ America’s eight food carts are located around a central courtyard with picnic tables and raised covered areas at the back with seating for probably about 60-80 people throughout.
Prior to arrival I reviewed several of the cart’s sites on Google Maps, looking at pictures and reviews to try and get a head start on picking out what I wanted. I knew I was going to get some Korean fried chicken, but beyond that I hadn’t settled in on anything specific.
Once there, I entered the courtyard and quickly walked down one side and back the other scoping things out and getting an overall feel for who was open, what dishes they were offering, what the prices were, and which carts seemed to be more popular than others amongst the locals. Upon making the roundtrip back to the entrance I settled upon a Korean chicken wing appetizer from Frybaby. They normally come 3 to an order with one sauce. However, because they only had four wings left they gave them all to me and let me split my sauces into Soy Garlic on two wings, and a Gochujang-based sauce (Korean red pepper paste) on the other two.
The full wings (Drumette, flat and tip) were appropriately seasoned and spicy, had a wonderful crunch on the skin and breading (as any good Korean chicken should) and offered a great starter dish for my exploratory meal. The shredded green onions were superfluous and definitely not needed, but the cubed pickled daikon (white radish) they provided is a must. The slightly sweet and acidic veggie is a perfect palate cleanser between bites of spicy Korean chicken. After donning the clear plastic gloves they provide (because the wings are hot and very messy with the sauce) the wings took about 10 minutes to savor and destroy down to the bone.
I’m a huge fan of lumpia, so it was rather convenient that Makulit a PhilAm cart serving up unique Filipino American street food, was next down the line. The order of three pieces came with a vinegary garlic sauce with what looked like Siling Labuyo (Filipino peppers) for a little heat and probably a little fish sauce. The perfect accompaniment to a fully meat-packed and crispy set of spring rolls.
Now that I had indulged in a couple appetizers, I needed to start looking for a main dish, and I was deciding between Mexican or Guyanese. I had briefly seen the sign for Bake on the Run during my initial survey, but I wasn’t sure if it was a gimmick or what (Interestingly, this Top Chef episode shown below featured food from the African diaspora and chef Gregory Gourdet, who is now the owner of Kann, a Portland 2024 James Beard finalist, that I was considering eating at when I decided to go with the food cart. It turns out the contestants visited with Bake on the Run prior to their cook to gain inspiration around African cooking).
What I did notice while eating my other food was that the line for this cart was constant. There was always someone at the counter ordering up what appeared to be massive plates of very delicious food, so I decided to join them. The menu itself is a bit confusing but the chef owner, Michael Singh, was super helpful and friendly when I got to the front of the line and engaged in conversation.
I landed on Guyanese Chana, a vegetable dish with tender boiled chickpeas and potatoes marinated in a tomato-based curry that included scallions, onions, carrots, “magic and love” as they say. It reminded me of Korma, which is probably my favorite Indian vegetarian dish.
I had noticed that really none of the other carts offered up a desert so when I also saw the “Bake Bombs” on the menu that included a chocolate truffle wrapped in a thin layer of Bake (their fried dough essentially, think New Orleans beignets) I knew I had to go for it. They flash fry the Bake Bomb causing the truffle to explode inside. They then roll the balls in powdered sugar and drizzle with melted Ghirardelli Premium Chocolate. They note on the menu that this is, “The world’s first edible epiphany”.
I received my little buzzer device to tell me when the food would be ready and proceeded to wait. While waiting I thought I’d get a Cold Brew from Speed-O Cappuccino. I had noticed the logo and name previously but didn’t think much more about it and figured they were just fast.
When I went up to order my coffee I saw that there was another sign that was a large print of an Eater article about this food cart, so I read through it. I won’t go into it here and will let readers take that journey on their own. All I can say is that when I got up to the counter to get my coffee and engaged with the cashier my only thought was, “Ok, now that makes sense”.
With coffee in hand I waited another 10 minutes or so until the buzzer went off and I was handed a heaping serving of Chana by Chef Michael.
They served it over a steamed basmati rice and accompanied it with Chef Bibi’s Famous Peppersauce.
Chef Michael also handed me a box with the four Bake Bombs. He warned me to give them a minute to cool down and then pop each one whole into my mouth before trying to eat it. “Under no circumstances try to take a bite or it will explode hot liquid chocolate all over you” he warned…. I took him at his word and told him that I would eat the Chana first to give the Bombs time to cool. “Oh no, you need to eat the Bombs while they are warm” he said. “Ok, life is uncertain, eat dessert first” I replied, took my food and sat down.
I opened the Chana, poured the one container of hot sauce over the dish and took a bite. It was tangy and perfectly spiced from the habaneros, but it wasn’t enough. I went back up to talk to Chef Michael again to ask what was in it and try to get some more. He started to hand me a handful of the little cups of sauce, but because I was headed to the concert, I could only take one more to pour over the plate and give it just the right amount of heat and tanginess that it needed.
At this point the Bake Bombs had cooled a little, so I popped one in my mouth. Look, I’ve had beignets at Cafe Du Monde in the French Market of New Orleans as they come off the line fresh and hot at 2 in the morning. Let me also tell you that they have NOTHING on these Bake Bombs. These were special, very special.
I wouldn’t go back across town (I mean “across town” in this case is a quick 8-minute drive) for the Chana as I think it needs more salt and other seasonings to deepen the flavors, but I’d go there and a lot farther for some more of those Chocolate Bake Bombs. Yes, yes I would.
It was running up to 7pm now and the concert was supposed to start at 730 so I needed to make my way over to the Moda Center. I grabbed a Lyft for the 5-minute ride and within 15 minutes I was scoping out the view from my seat in the arena.
The opening act started pretty promptly at 730 pm. For one night only Portland was treated to a local band called Is This Real? which is a Tribute band to The Wipers, a Portland punk rock band formed in 1977 that became, “…better known after the wildly popular grunge band Nirvana covered two songs from Is This Real?. Nirvana’s frontman, Kurt Cobain, spoke of being heavily influenced by the band.”
The band really rocked on vocals, base, guitars and drums for the next 30 minutes and I will definitely be looking up their discography to see what else of theirs I might add to my playlists.
After Is This Real? wrapped up their set the stagehands spent about 15 minutes getting things ready for the opening act, Deep Sea Diver, a Seattle Indy Rock band that has put out three albums and I believe is about to publish their fourth (It was really hard to hear the lead’s voice clearly when she was speaking in between songs). When she was singing, I found her 45 minutes to be shrill and off-putting. This is most definitely not a band that I ever want to hear again.
After another 30-minute break to get the stage ready (and enter fashionably late I suppose) at around 930 the Seattle-based headliner band, Pearl Jam, came on stage. They are currently on tour to promote their new album Dark Matter. They have played Portland 11 times during their career, but they have never played the song Release, the 11th track on their debut 1991 album Ten, in Portland. They opened with this song, and with 20,000 fans joining them, blew the doors off the arena.
From there, the next 90+ minutes were a combination of songs from their new album and classics like Daughter, the third track on their second 1993 Album Vs. with lyrics by vocalist Eddie Vedder. I say 90+ minutes because at 11pm I had been sitting in the rather small seats or standing for 3 1/2 hours and I’d had enough music for the night and decided to get a jump on the crowd and a Lyft home. I have no idea how much longer the band went, but everything I heard from them I enjoyed and I definitely got my money’s worth.
The Moda Center is a nicely sized arena (holding 20K) that brings in the big bands, but still offers great seats no matter where one sits. This was a fun concert in a great venue for starting off the 2024 concert season, and I am excited to see what the rest of the year offers.
Stay tuned for additional “Dinner and a Show” articles as I chronicle at least the following concerts I’ll be attending throughout the rest of 2024:
Aug 14 - Sammy Hagar / Loverboy
Aug 25 - Santana / Counting Crows
Sept 2 - Def Leppard / Journey
Sep 5 - Doobie Brothers / Robert Cray
Sep 22 - Lynyrd Skynyrd / ZZ Top
Sep 25 - Green Day / Smashing Pumpkins
Nov 21 - Aerosmith / Black Crows