Over the past year or so Portland has been hit with an explosion of new food carts. From sinfully rich Guinness cupcakes and spicy, comforting khao man gai, to a veritable army of burritos, pierogis and blintzes, Portland is an Epcot Center of food options for those with cash in hand. However, very few of these carts have reflected a truly Portland culinary vibe, until now.
Whiffies Fried Pie Cart exemplifies that signature Rose City mix of quirky, fresh and packed with enough calories that only a cyclist could work them off in a single night, with the requisite ample supply of vegan options. Whiffies serves up pies similar in shape and size to those Hostess fruit pies you see at the grocery store, though shape and size are where the similarities end between the two. Prices are cheap—savory pies are $4 and sweet pies are $3 each—and the pies are big enough to split with a friend.
On my visit out to Southeast 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard, Whiffies was offering a fresh strawberry pie, along with peach and apple (all vegan). On the savory side of things, the menu listed barbeque beef brisket, chicken pot pie and a vegan pot pie. My partner and I ordered one strawberry and one barbecue beef to share.
The crust is hands down the best part of the Whiffies pie experience. Thick and flaky, not too dry but not too soft or floppy either and—surprisingly—not at all greasy from having been freshly fried.
The pies were served to us immediately after cooking, and while they were toasty warm on the outside, my tongue was somehow spared from being scalded with molten pie filling. How they manage to balance the temperature of the pie inside with the pie outside is truly the mark of pie-frying genius.
The barbecue beef was moist and spicy, mixed with fresh mozzarella that had plenty of stretch to it. The sauce had a nice tangy aftertaste and once again, Whiffies surprised me with how un-messy the pie was. The filling stayed firmly in place within the crust pocket without a single drip. Considering the mobile nature of such a food, Whiffies gets high-fives for their attention to tidiness.
However good the barbecue pie was, the strawberry pie was clearly the star of the evening. Much of the time I don’t like strawberry desserts from restaurants. They are generally far too sugary and the flavor of the strawberries gets drowned out in a sea of saccharine goo. Not so with Whiffies. While this sweet pie was a bit goopier than its savory counterpart, the big chunks of strawberries outshined the sugar used in the filling, giving off a taste that was equal parts tart and sweet, and all strawberry.
Portland continues to see new carts opening practically every week, sometimes only for months or a year. Whiffies has only been open for about a week, but with a concept as genius as fried pie and pies so lovingly and carefully created each night, I have a feeling they’re on their way to becoming a new landmark of Portland’s culinary layout.