Portland Food Carts: Aladdin's Castle Cafe

On Saturdays J and I have a tradition of going out for lunch and our only rule is to go to a different restaurant each time, which has not been a problem in Portland, so far, as there are so many great options. The only time is gets a little dicey is if it’s a food cart as most of the cart pods in the Portland are in business areas and so are closed on weekends. Thankfully, we solved that problem this week when we found the food cart extravaganza that is A LA Carts at 50th St and Division. There were over ten different carts, encompassing all kinds of cuisine, and open on Saturdays so there will be future reports from this area.

This time we went with Iraqi food at Aladdin’s Castle Café. There are many reasons I love food carts but one is that you see your food being made fresh in front of you and Aladdin’s was no exception. The son takes the orders and the father is standing in the back making some crazy delicious Middle Eastern food. They were both so friendly and nice. This may be the place that breaks our ‘not going back’ rule as there were numerous other items on the menu I wanted to try.

 Lamb schawarma over rice so perfectly cooked that each grain is separate. Served with a crunchy salad and a yogurt cucumber salad. Divine. 

I could easily have eaten everything on my plate but as we entered A LA Carts I saw Scoop—a homemade, handmade ice cream truck I’d read about so I restrained myself with the schawarma (bringing it home for lunch this week) and was able to get a creamy sweet and salty dish of salted caramel ice cream.

p.s. Dessert doesn't fall under the eating rules and for every time we go back to these carts I will be getting this ice cream. I have 9 more flavors to get through.