Okay all you food cart lovers, if you’re like me, you could easily spend hours roaming around on this site. It’s an upcoming book by John T. Edge. Gorgeous photos by Angie Mosier. This one is in Austin (of course).

Sip is a smoothie & juice business that operates out of an Airstream trailer. It lives in front of Southeast Portland’s People’s Food Co-Op and serves fresh, vegan, organic goodies.

The 100 square-foot 1967 Airstream renovation was done — with a $950 budget for mostly reclaimed materials — by design team Von Tundra.

Oh, and the Food Carts Portland blog makes me want to move to Portland. As if I needed an excuse.

Photo: (top) Brian Heck, (bottom) Darryl James

*Note: It has been clarified in the comments below that this is NOT an Airstream.

A little known fact about Oregon is this: at most rest areas along I-5 you can get a free cup of coffee from a mobile coffee cart. One such coffee trailer — of the patriotic variety — was spotted just outside of Albany, OR. (source)

There’s even a guidebook for those interested in experiencing the roadside delicacies along the interstate, Baristas Without Borders: A Road Guide to Coffee Kiosks on I-5 Oregon & Washington.

But mobile coffee shops are not just a common occurrence in the Pacific Northwest. If you start looking around, you’ll find them everywhere. (Even for sale on Craigslist.) Generally I find most food carts to be tame, lacking a certain spunk.

Here is a recent coffee shop trailer design by Daniel Milchtein. Aside from the hot dog bun roof, I think this design has great potential. Perhaps Airstream inspired?

Speaking of Airstreams, a mobile coffee shop dubbed “The Silver Bean” in Cortez, Colorado proves once again that there’s not much you have to do to an Airstream to make it cute.

(Uploaded to flickr by desertdiva)

Adventures in cooking with greens

Inspired by a recipe my friend Sharon sent me, I baked Swiss chard for the first time today. Michael and I have been trying to incorporate more dark leafy stuff into our diet, so this seemed like a great recipe to try.

This appears to be a rustic French dish, and some look very quiche-like while others look more like what I made… healthy? I’m not sure. But tasty indeed. From what I can tell, it’s a very versatile dish. Whatever greens you have will suffice and it can be seasoned in many different ways. Next time I will try it with leeks. Yum!

Update: Here’s the recipe

Sharna’s Chard Tart

1 pie crust
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 red onion (or white), finely diced
1 pound chard leaves, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup yogurt
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare (or buy) a single pie crust and poke holes with a fork. Heat oven to 425F and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven to 375F.

Meanwhile… add olive oil to a large skillet and add onion, cooking until the onions are soft, 8-10 minutes. Coarsely chop chard leaves (can sub kale, beet greens, cabbage, leeks, any GREENS) and garlic and add to the skillet, cooking until tender, about 8-10 minutes. Season with chopped fresh basil, salt, ground black pepper. A pinch of ground red pepper is optional.

In a bowl combine eggs, yogurt, and grated Parmesan cheese (also good with goat, gorgonzola, blue, etc) add the chard mixture. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tart shell, spreading evenly. Reduce oven to 375 and bake until filling is golden and firm: 25-35 mins.

By now you might have guessed that I have a thing for food-on-wheels… tiny trailers as traveling food stands. Here’s another great example I want to share with you.

Based in Kansas City, full time graphic designer Lindsay Laricks started a part time seasonal business selling gourmet snowcones. She took out a small business loan, refurbished a 1957 Shasta to be her kitchen and storefront and made a glowing snowcone sign that sits on top. Viola! Fresher Than Fresh was born.

No artificial flavors or colors, no high fructose corn syrup, just fresh ingredients and homemade flavors. Do I sound like a salesperson? All I know is, man, I would love to try the blackberry lavender right now.

Lindsay does fundraisers, private parties, and even garage sales. If you’re going to be in Kansas City, catch these all natural superfine snowcones May through September. (More photos and interview.)

The last time Michael was in Argentina he bought a big bag of mate for about a dollar fifty. And how many times has he actually brewed the mate? Very few.

A visit to the Guayaki Mate Bar had us drinking traditional yerba mate from a gourd and bombilla… and inspired us to start brewing it regularly.

We purchased a bombilla ($8) and the barista gave us some preparation tips. It has been a treat each morning this week.

In Bolinas we stumbled upon a self-serve 24-hour farm stand. These beets were so beautiful that I snapped a photo — then we bought them ($3) and cooked them for dinner. Yum!

What do you think of this amazing contraption? Mobile boat kitchen?

It is farmer Mickey Murch’s rolling food van.