Japanese Food to Portland Food-carts

Last weekend, my friends and I did some food-hopping. First, we tried this Japanese restaurant in Pearl - Portland, Oregon called Masu Sushi. It was a really nice place, perfect for a casual-fine dining. The place looks fine, but since the food is 'snackish' the dress-code is casual. Happy hour available 3-6pm on Monday - Friday, 5-6pm on Saturday - Sunday, and EVERY NIGHT 10pm - close.

St. Helen Volcano. This was the second best dish I tried. The candle-like on the middle is a cucumber that actually was just for decoration. This sushi contains "Whitefish, crab, scallops, shrimp and avocado, baked with volcano cream sauce, eel sauce, and smoked bonito" The top part tastes like mayonaise with a touch of cheese. It was a perfect mix. (8/10)

This is Japanista, "Spicy crab, spicy tuna, and kawaire with seared hamachi, cilantro, and red jalapeno on top served with hana and sweet chili sauce." This to me was the third best because the sauce was amazing. It was like takoyaki sauce and mayonaise. I'm a huge fan of mayo and so anything with mayo tastes good in my mouth. (6/10)

This was the two Sake that my friends tried. Let's start from the right, it's Bunraku Yamahai, "brewed using traditional methods, this sake is smooth, earthy, and slightly dry. You can keep the bottle!" The one on the left is called Hakutsuru Sayuri Nigori, "sweet and creamy revealing light tropical flavors" My friends thought Bunraku was stronger that Hakutsuru. To them, Hakutsuru was too sweet.

Last but not the least, this was my favorite of all. This is called 'Death by Sushi' it consists of "salmon, unagi, crab, avocado, and cream cheese rolled and fried then topped with masago, green onion, fantasy, and eel sauce. It was a perfect combination of cream cheese and crisp. It was a little bit spicy, but the crispiness topped it. (8/10)

After dinner, we decided to head for supper. We went to Hawthorne Foodcarts and that's where you can find my favorite food-cart. I was talking about Potato Champion, they offer fries with different kinds of sauces. AND, they open from 12pm till 3AM.

This is Fries with Satay sauce. For those who don't know what satay sauce is, "peanut sauce, bumbu kacang, or also called sambal kacang is widely used in cuisines of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and China." 

Pulled-Pork Fries. This is what I think heaven looks like. Fries topped with stew cooked pork shoulder and BBQ sauce over it. Nothing can top these pork fries. I'm not a porky-lover kind of person, but this made me fall in love. There are different sizes of portions: Small (personal), Medium (Sharing 2-4 people), Large (5 or more). This was 9 out of 10!

Masu Sushi
406 SW 13th Ave
Portland, OR 97205
(503) 221- masu (6278)

Potato Champion
1207 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 683-3797

(Photos credit: Ignatius F S)


Twitter: @cathkosasih
Web: www.catherinekosasih.com