Portland 5: Nong’s Khao Man Gai

My first food cart experience in Portland was Nong’s Khao Man Gai (Thai style Hainan Chicken Rice), and after having plowed my way through the Food Cart Festival later that week I’d still say that Nong’s is my favourite. Maybe I’m just too Asian-at-heart to pass up tender poached chicken atop rice cooked in chicken broth and a salty, gingery, hot sauce to pour over the whole thing. Plus a simple mustard green soup on the side.  You don’t even get a plate, they just wrap it in paper and hand it to you. How authentic! All that’s missing is a fistful of Bangkok pollution.

I’d suggest that Nong’s smiley and joyous personality has something to do with her success and that may well be the case but this is damn good chicken rice. Madhur Jaffrey went 3 times in as many days. What more proof do you need?

It would be highly negligent to mention Portland’s food carts without mentioning Food Carts Portland, a “practical guide” to the PDX food cart scene and from what I’ve seen THE goto website for cart info.

Tagged as: food cart, hainan chicken rice, portland, thai