Portland Food Carts: Native Bowl and Miss Kate's Southern Kitchen

What: Native Bowl
Where: Mississippi Station Pod (by Prost)
Honeys Heart: Healthy food cart food

I love eating at food carts, but you have to admit, the majority of carts offer less than healthy fare. That's why I was so excited to try Native Bowl.

Native Bowl packs their bowls with fresh veggies, rice, and locally made tofu. Yum!

I decided to try the Broadway Bowl which is made with jasmine rice, garlic tofu, house-made peanut ginger sauce, cilantro, shredded red cabbage, carrots, scallions, and sesame seeds.

I'm not a huge fan of red cabbage, so I could have done with a less generous portion of that, but otherwise, I found my bowl to be quite delicious. Loved the combination of peanut ginger sauce with cilantro.

Doug ordered the Mississippi Bowl with jasmine rice, house-made ranch sauce, barbecue soy curls, barbecue sauce, slaw, and scallions.

Doug was a little apprehensive about what soy curls meant, but in the end, the bbq and ranch flavors of the bowl won him over.

I would definitely recommend Native Bowl if you're looking for a tasty and healthful food cart option!

What: Miss Kate's Southern Kitchen
Where: Mississippi Station Pod
Honeys Heart: Fried pickles

And now we move to the opposite end of the healthy food scale...

Miss Kate's Southern Kitchen is a recent addition to the Mississippi Station Pod. Miss Kate's serves good ol' Southern dishes based off recipes from owner Charles' grandmother, Kate.

I love chicken and tuna salad sandwiches, so I tried Miss Kate's Rosemary Chicken Salad Sandwich ($7.50). Charles threw in a fried pickle too. Thank you, Charles!

Even with the addition of rosemary and pecans, this sandwich was a little too basic for me to justify paying almost $8 for it. The flavor of the chicken salad was good, but not unique enough to order again. I felt like I could make this at home.

Doug ordered the Grilled Pimento Cheese & Bacon Sandwich ($5.50).

I don't think I've ever had pimento cheese before- I actually had to look up what it is. In its most basic form, it's cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and red peppers that have been blended together. No wonder this sandwich was so rich! The combination of pimento cheese and bacon on buttery bread was just too much for me. Doug liked it though, so to each his own!

In addition to sandwiches, Miss Kate's also offers entrees like fried chicken and breakfast items like biscuits and sour cream coffee cake. I think I'll try the biscuits if I go back. Obviously Miss Kate's does not skip on the butter so I'm pretty sure their biscuits would probably be worth a second trip!