As an enthusiastic traveler, I’ve developed a fondness/borderline obsession for street food. From puffed rice bhelpuri to rice noodle soup, ice-cold chicha morada to fresh-crushed sugar cane, hot dogs to hot dog, I’ll try anything being sold from a pushcart or taco truck at least once. Carts make it possible to serve fresh-cooked food to a hungry public at a much lower price than what the same food would cost at a restaurant since the overhead is much lower. And what with the still-growing ranks of the unemployed, it’s dawning on many of them that street food doesn’t have to mean substandard food; while some are joining the burgeoning number of food cart vendors, still others wait in line for their turn to nosh on an inexpensive breakfast burrito, bowl of gumbo, stir-fried rice, pulled pork sandwich, or crème brûlée.

Though street food has always been a staple of the New York experience, it’s new North American nexus may well be Portland, Oregon, whose vendors are not just concerned with serving food, but in many cases, with sustainability as well. Sure, you can still get a hot dog in Portland, but wouldn’t you rather get an omelet made with cage-free eggs, an organic fruit Popsicle, a meatloaf sandwich made with farm-direct meat, or a vegan rice bowl seasoned with “fire-breathing dragon” sauce? Catching up with the trend, food carts in San Francisco and Southern California are rolling in and up, offering organic asparagus soup, cooked-to-order Thai curries with seasonal vegetables, and antipodean meat pies made with organic lamb among other gourmet goodies. Combining old-fashioned sales techniques of visibility and mobility with the paperless modern conveniences of social networking (particularly Twitter) and blogging (especially at www.foodcartsportland.com), food cart vendors are finding that their biggest concerns aren’t finding enough custom for their trade, but having enough to go around when the custom finds them. But don’t fret, the more popular these mobile munch-purveyors become, the more chance there’ll be even more menu options at your next encounter.

Photo: The Ruby Dragon, via foodcartsportland.com