

But Portland is something else: the new face of America's maverick food cart movement. We know this because no one else puts it together like we have -- the volume of experimenters, the variety, the pedigreed ingredients (duck confit on the best baguettes at $5.50 -- are you kidding?!) and the punk-rock shacks. As Next Generation food creatives abandon the heat -- and expense -- of restaurant kitchens to create their demented little houses on the prairie, they are inventing their own model of modern restaurateuring.



Multnomah County has 450 carts, a 20 percent jump over last year, with another 32 carts under review. The surge comes with an ace in the hole: No other big city is friendlier to vendors, with affordable licenses (a mere $315) and unrivaled access to real estate (average rent $500 a month). You've seen them yourself: block-long shantytowns that are the food courts of the future -- the growing cluster on Southwest Alder between Ninth and 11th; the late-night frenzy at Southeast Hawthorne and 12th; the student-friendly nexus at Southwest College and Fourth; and the first sign of food cart gentrification, the just-opened Mississippi Marketplace, a development on a once-forlorn empty lot.



Streetside dining has been the food story of the year. These top 10 picks all share an obsession with craft and flavor that rivals top restaurant chefs. What's impressive is how these cooks are sourcing farm-fresh ingredients just like the city's best chefs.



The only difference is you might find yourself sitting next to a fire hydrant in the rain. Trust me: One bite and you won't care.











