Taste of Poland: Food Cart Review

SAUSAGE FESTIVAL: Kielbasa at the Cartlandia carnival.
By Martin Cizmar

If it's been a while since you stopped in, you might be surprised to discover just how much Cartlandia has become a weird little world. While most Portland pods remain confined to ever-narrowing lots and still enforce old-fashioned ideas about stylistic exclusivity, the self-described superpod is becoming a semi-autonomous village, complete with a parking shortage, dueling kebab shops and a remarkably diverse crowd.

Add one of Portland's oldest food carts, Taste of Poland, to the mix. Founded in 1995, this Saturday Market fixture recently opened a new cart back by the electric boxes.

Taste of Poland would make any pod better. The couple that owns this place make their kielbasa and pierogi from scratch every week. It's classic Eastern European comfort food—rich, paprika-spicy and coated in dairy.

The kielbasa ($6) is reason enough to go: half beef, half pork, smoked over alder and cherry, with lots of pepper and no nitrates. The meat plays nicely with a whole drawer of assorted spicy mustards even if the buns could stand to be a little fresher and crisper and the onions could use a little more caramelization. The pork keeps coming, with tiny crumbles of pink bacon on top and a warm stew of cabbage with roast pork on the side.

Pierogi ($4 for four, $9 for 10) are homespun, with mealy mashed potatoes hanging loose inside the chewy noodle. They're covered in grilled onions and served with a quarter-pint of thick sour cream and a little salad of tomatoes and cucumbers in dill to balance out the richness.

Potato pancakes are pan-fried until they have a light brown crust and served with more sour cream and a little applesauce for dipping. With the closure of Stan'wiches, and Grandpa's Cafe closed to those who are not members of the Polish Library Building Association, it's hard to get housemade kielbasa and pierogi in this town. Well, now there's a place, out in the city's most dynamic pod.

  1. Order this: Kielbasa ($6) and pierogi ($4).

EAT: Taste of Poland, at Cartlandia, 8145 SE 82nd Ave., 863-6924, cartlandia.com.

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