Dutch Tacos

It rains a lot in Portland. The other day I heard somebody say "Yesterday I saw Oregonians with umbrellas." That is a sign that it was raining really hard. Of course, it is a rain forest. Despite the rain Portland is home to one of the most vibrant outdoor dining scenes in the nation, maybe the world. Food carts, are an interesting phenomenon. It came from a combination of organic food loving hipsters who had just graduated from college (or maybe not) and wanted to start a restaurant. But starting a restaurant takes a lot of start up money that these hipsters didn't have. So instead they start a low budget food cart. One of the very first was FlavourSpot. FlavourSpot was run out of a video store parking lot on Lombard street. Like a number of carts it serves a foreign variation on a classic dish here in America. In this case waffles. When the hipster manning the truck gives you your waffle he hands you a foil and wax paper wrapped package with just a little corner of waffle sticking out on top. As you unwrap the foil and pull down the wax paper you find a waffle folded in half. Then you bite in. Depending on what you ordered you may taste maple syrup and sausage, or nutela, or turkey, Havarti and bacon.

Tonight Cy is making a home made version of these so called "Dutch tacos". He's mixed together the waffle batter while Dad was shaping sausages, then Cy got together all the fillings while Dad read the instruction manual for our waffle iron. (It's a really nice waffle iron but we've used it once in the year since we got it. Our last waffle iron was an antique that exploded into a ball of blue sparks and acrid smoke, at least it made our Saturday morning a little more exciting. Maybe better to stick to antiques that don't involve electricity.)

The waffles look good, but they don't all get done at once. For the fillings we have a sort of self serve filling bar. Set out for the waffles is lemon curd, whip cream, strawberries, maple syrup, and sausages. Mmmmm.

That was good. It was delicious and sweet, or delicious and savory depending on the fillings. And there's plenty of leftovers. Our thick Belgian waffle iron isn't quite on par with the thinner circular ones at FlavourSpot. These took only about 45 minutes to make, perfect for anybody to make on a week night, and there's plenty of leftovers.

While we absolutely love these home made waffles, it's good to know that there are experts we can go to for still better "dutch tacos" on the cheap. The ambience of a picnic table in a parking lot on a cold rainy morning can be magical. Friends and family are what make a meal.

I almost forgot, heres FlavourSpot's website http://flavourspot.com