Christmas and the Holidays!

While running various errands and shopping it is inevitable that I am out of the house at meal time. Yet, with the holiday shopping I try to go cheap and fast... (no comments from the peanut gallery please). So there has been a lot of fast food lately. Which results in midnight drive through runs to all night fast food joints.... which leads to ridiculous questions... But that is another post.

So, we went adventuring and Apocalypse.Mom and I stopped at Pizza Baron. It is a cute little Pizza shop at 122nd and Division, in what is left of a dying strip mall. I had been there years ago with Painter Lady, and years before that with my parents. But memory often tricks me into thinking things are way better than they are. Unfortunately, that is how it went with Pizza Baron.

The service was accommodating to a fault, almost creepily so. They literally wanted to fix any problem we had just so we would order. And it didn't take long to figure out why. We were there for lunch, which consisted of pizza and salad bar. Pretty typical fare for a pizza joint now-a-days. We saw three other people come in, one was a regular. The place is decorated with team trophies and banners for all the youth sports in the area, and  they obviously back all of them. There is a big screen TV in the back room, an arcade on one side of the restaurant and a large fireplace in the middle.

It is a cute, quaint little place that looks to have been great at one time, but now is mediocre at best. Which is sad, it has so much potential. The food was ok... not bad, but not great either. It was an ok price for what we got, the salad bar needed a lot of help. But the service was good and quick and it was a quiet lunchtime retreat.

It is something I would like to see make a come back. I remember them being really terrific when I was a kid, and I would like it to be that great when I take my kids or grand kids (Someday, don't get any ideas boys) there. However, right now it is a place I would go if I didn't have anywhere else to try at the moment. And as it is surrounded by a Papa Murphy's, Burger King, Taco Time, and there is a Chinese place pretty close. I have a lot of other options.

But that is how my lunch at Pizza Baron went. What did you think Apocalypse.Mom?

Cartlandia...

First, I only had one goal for this day…. Known in my brain as that Saturday we all went out to shop and ended up eating out of street carts.  It is a widely known fact, I absolutely dislike food carts. I had a bad experience… (BTW do not eat Tacos de Ojos. They pop when you bite into them and if you are the friend sitting next to the guy eating them, you can hear them pop…) in Mexico.  So, my goal was to see “Snow White and the Huntsman”. I had been attempting to make time to see that movie since opening weekend. (And yes, I finally saw it… Last weekend… at home.) So, when we drove past the Cartlandia and we all agreed to stop, I was already not caring… so long as we got to the movie on time… I was good.

Second, It isn’t really that food carts turn my stomach, or that I think they are unclean or anything like that. It is very simply that my food tastes run rather simple and most of the time, in my experience, food carts screw up the whole burgers and fries thing. After all, there is a reason that I am named the REDNECK widow… So, all of that being said… I really enjoyed my lunch there.

I followed the girls through most of the area until my body just wouldn’t do it any longer. It wasn’t too long though as my arthritis got the better of me and I needed shade and seating. Which lead me to the seating area. It was nicely shaded with a pop-up… ten by twenty if I’m not mistaken. Under it was a lovely set of table chairs and a picnic tables already taken by a nice family.

I decided that the all-beef hotdogs and fries sounded right up my alley, so I headed over to Relish Gourmet Hotdogs. So for around five dollars, I purchased a giant (and delicious) hotdog with as many of the fixings as possible. With it came a huge basket of fries, so much so that I couldn’t finish them alone. In fact, even with the help of BellaBabe, PainterLady and SleepyGinger, we still couldn’t finish them.  We ended up donating them to Kanegermin.

So, all in all I loved Cartlandia (Don’t tell SleepyGinger… I’ll never hear the end of it.) And I actually look forward to going there again. I sincerely wish the lovely couple at Relish Gourmet Hotdogs the best of best wishes in their upcoming nuptials and suggest everyone I know go to Cartlandia and tip them well. Weddings are expensive! 

Cartlandia (Food cart pre-crawl)

Saturday was a day of grand plans, a little bit of compromise. But everything turned out well. Redneck Widow and myself were to be picked up by PainterLady and BellaBabe for a day of picking over the bones of a dying clothing store chain. Sad for the chain, good for us. I did the math and over 5 trips to the stores (spread out over a 3 week period) I acquired some $1,500 retail value of clothes for roughly $175. Completely revamped my wardrobe and without breaking the bank. Very, very, happy girl here. But you're not here to read about my shopping finesse.

We met up at about lunch time and after a fortifying stop at Dutch Brothers for caffeine (all hail the Dutch) we were on our way. Our goals were the Clackamas location, Eastport Plaza location, and then MAYBE the Cascade Station location if there was time before returning the Gresham Wunderland for a cheap seats showing of Snow White and the Huntsman and then dinner at the Olive Garden for their endless pasta bowl…Mmmm Pasta.

That was our goal. That was not what happened. The Clackamas location was LOOOOONG gone. The storefront empty, most of the signage removed. So on our way to the Eastport Plaza location we swung into Cartlandia, despite Redneck Widow’s misgivings. One thing Cartlandia has up on other food cart pods I’ve been to is the available parking, very nice.

BellaBabe and I led the charge, up and around the carts, investigating menus, what sounds best, what sounded good… Samples? Sure!

After walking the entire loop and inspecting every menu we settled on splitting a margherita pizza eith white sauce from Krust Artisanal Pizza and a couple of pasties (one Traditional and one Cheese and Onion) from the London Pasty Company while PainterLady and RedneckWidow had hotdogs and fries from Relish Gourmet Hotdogs.

BellaBabe and I ordered the pizza first and then headed across the way to the Pasty cart. The owner of the London Pasty Company was very helpful and understanding about our questions involving the ingredients (allergy issues) and very cheerful with a mesmerizing accent. Which is always fun. Also very emphatic about liking them on Facebook, which in this modern social media age I suppose I understand.

PainterLady and RedneckWidow found a shady table near Relish where they could listen for their orders to be completed. Both were telling us about the sweet couple who owned the cart saving up for a wedding and how very nice they were. Our pizza was delivered to the table and we took the requisite (now apparently gone) photos before digging in.

The pizza had a cracker style crust that seemed to have been pre-cooked and warm sauce ladled on (a bit heavy for our tastes) and then the sliced mozzerella was allowed to "melt" in the residual warmth from the sauce. The tomatoes were cold. BellaBabe and I thought back to Pyro Pizza's crispy crust, hunks of artisinal mozzerella and heat toasted basil... This was not what we wanted. On to the pasties!

Sad, so sad. The "Traditional" was as dry and flavorless as saw dust and left us begging for water. We were hoping for a moist filling with thickened gravy, no such luck. It didn't even appear that gravy had ever been involved in the equation. The Onion and Cheese was.. Well is was overly cheesy mashed potatoes stuffed into a pastry shell. It was a baked pierogie. It was... bland.

So while I know it doesn't excuse the tardiness of this post, remembering this experience was sad.

The highlight of the trip was PainterLady's garlic cheese fries, so good. But I'll let RedneckWidow share her portion of the journey.

Until next time, be tasty!