Magic Beans indeed.

Runs up to the airport are not to be wasted. When I set Scot off to California earlier this week, after dropping him off at the wee hour of 5:30am, I headed by Voodoo Donuts on the way home. Tonight, when I fetched him and Kris both from the 'port, I suggested we grab dinner at one of the pods of food carts that have popped up in PDX in the past few years.

The concept has gotten a lot of press in various places, for the variety you can present in a small area, the low start up costs, and the value for the customer who can benefit from a great cook working with low overhead.

Taking a quick look online, I found the pod at Mississippi and Skidmore, easily accessed off of I-5. The web page for the area said carts were open until 10pm during the week.

Um... no.

We were there at 7pm, and only two out of nine carts there were open. Kind of a bummer, but the gleaming yellow of Magic Beans called to us. Okay, it was the single offering that drew us in: falafel. I love falafel. LOVE. FALAFEL.

"You've not had my falafel," the cutie behind the counter assured me. "It's made with black eyed peas today." Apparently he experiments with his beans. Not just the run of the mill garbonzo here, nosiree!

For $6 you get fries--fantastic, tasty, well seasoned shoestring fries. Normally I HATE shoestrings. But these were a perfect balance of crisp and tender, with some awesome spices on them. YUM. No ketchup to be had, but some malt vinegar if you choose.

Photo from Magic Beans' FB. Ours wasn't QUITE so
generously stuffed w/ veggies. But it was good. 

The falafel comes on a moderate sized thin pita, and is filled with three good sized balls of deep fried mashed bean goodness (FALFEL!), a cucumber salsa, lettuce, carrots (pickled?), feta cheese, peperoncini and tzatziki.

YUM.

Wash it down with a glass of iced tea which you can spruce up with one of two infused sugar syrups: tonight's choices were a cinnamon cardamom or orange anise and were quite heavenly (I tried the former). Easy access, ample street parking in the area, and covered seating. Despite the lack of options, I'm glad we stopped by.