As an automotive writer, I often have the opportunity to visit places that I wouldn’t likely ever see otherwise. The down side is that I am usually only in a city for about a day and a half and I have little more than a few hours to explore on my own. This past Fall I was in Portland for the first time. Once I woke up from my cross country travel induced nap, I headed out for a walk to see a bit of the city.

What I discovered was this really cool food phenomenon. It seems like every parking lot in downtown Portland has a row of these old travel trailers that have been converted to little take out food joints. They are all very brightly painted, looking more like a collection of pop art than a row of kitchens on wheels. It seems as if every culture on the planet is represented by their culinary traditions. Sadly, I had eaten during my transfer in Vancouver and was about to endure enjoy a huge meal at the press event. This meant that there was no way I was going to sample anything from any of these vendors.

Since that trip, I’ve spoken with a couple of people who have lived in Portland and it was explained that these food carts have been in town for years and are a serious lunch staple of office dwellers. Yesterday I came across Food Carts Portland, a great blog devoted to these reviewing these semi mobile sources of lunchtime nutrition.

If I have the opportunity to return, I’ll be sure to arrive on an empty tummy and sample a couple of carts.

Many, many moons ago, my grade 8 school trip took us from Toronto to Ottawa to learn a bit of Canadian history. For some reason, I’ve never been back until a few weeks ago when the FAB east and west kitchens reunited for a weekend of All BBQ, All the time.

One thing I do remember about that trip so long ago was the teachers making a big deal about Ottawa’s Sparks Street, the only street in Canada to be closed and turned into a pedestrian mall. I suppose that was a big deal back then, but today. Well, who cares?

Just a few blocks away is one of the highlights of downtown Ottawa, the Byward Market. I had expected an enclosed place along the lines of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, but what I found was a thriving neighborhood of foodie fun. Outdoor produce stalls, crafts people, flowers, henna tattoos and way way more combine to make the market an exciting place to spend an afternoon. Surrounding the market are literally dozens of hip restaurants, bars and coffee shops, many of which have patios and open air store fronts. This place is a people watchers dream and the perfect playground for a photography hack like me!

Check out the slideshow after the break

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.