My state (Or.) is known for hazel nuts and salmon. My city is known for food carts. All over town vacant lots and the sidewalk side of parking lots have been converted into food cart clusters. If you can think of a cuisine it's probably represented somewhere in town. Because they don't have extensive menus they specialize in a few things which I believe often increases quality. Off the top of my head I can think of Cuban, various South American, SE Asian, Mexican, Polish, Greek, African, BBQ, Southern, Korean/Mex fusion, Vegan, Lebanese, Fried Pie, Breakfast, Pizza, Czech, Indian, Japanese and many more that I've never tried or even seen, there must be a few hundred food carts around now a days. It's amazing. http://www.foodcartsportland.com/ has a small round up of some of the carts, but as I look over their site I see many gaps in their knowledge, it would be a full time job to keep on top of it.
The link is great, thanks. Himalayan Food -great idea for a food cart. Pretty broad category to pull from and just a great name. The Indian Food cart looks damned good too. -If I knew of a place where I could quickly walk up and get "Dosa" from a food cart, I'd likely do it once a week. I wish they had more food carts where I live. Have you ever been to Austin? They also have a great food cart scene. Some of the most exciting cuisine happening in cities these days are happening in food carts imo. I love the lack of pretension. We have some here, but not many. There's a cool bar/venue here called Motorco that has live music every Sunday with some food trucks in their parking lot. It's always a good time. Korean/Mex Fusion sounds interesting...
Austin and Portland also share the "Keep Austin/Portland Weird" slogan. Not sure who came up with it first, but they seem to be sister cities in a lot of ways. I've not spent too much time in Portland, but I know Austin pretty well. Awesome town in a lot of ways, but maybe Portland is better since you don't have to deal with 110ยบ in the summer.