Portland Food

Because I am alone here at present I have been mostly cooking simple foods for myself or getting takeout. But I have sampled a few of Portland's restaurant's while here. They have been stolid, if not distinctive enough to make me want to go back. Since I have eaten at only a few I reserve any comment about the food of Portland. In general, it looks like most cities in the U.S., it's food centered as much on fast food as on fine dining restaurants. I do remember quite a few upscale places in the city center of Portland when I was here in April. The better dining experiences are definitely centered in the center of the city itself. I see few reviews of suburban or non center city places that say much positive.
This is the opposite of New Orleans, where the best restaurants are not always in the city center or even in the city itself. I think the difference is that Portland is an emerging food city (according to locals the ethnic restaurants have come in and greatly upgraded the food here) while New Orleans is a long established food city that will not tolerate a bad restaurant. The competition here is less in terns of pleasing the diner. In Portland, patrons want affordable, stolid food, not necessarily memorable meals that make them debate and crave some food they have eaten.
Too, there must be plenty of good food here, for the people are FAT and there are many places to eat. Coming from a city of fatties I am shocked to see so many heavyweights here, particularly given the area is a sportsman's paradise of hiking, mountain climbing, and other outdoor activities. Maybe the plethora of bread and bakery outlets here account for some of it. No doubt, the baked goods here are superior, the best of the food I have eaten. I think Portland outshines New Orleans in the sweets department.
But the rest of the food....I give the city a grade of C- so far for what I have eaten in restaurants. The best of the main course food I have had here has come from the "trucks' that ethnic groups have set up in Portland. Those trucks do one or a few items and do them very well. I remember one section of downtown Portland that has a truck area for lunch. It was packed with wall street types, eating their Greek lamb gyro, Mexican tacos, Vietnamese pork and rice or Argentine steak sandwiches ravenously. I had lamb from one and it was delicious, better than anything I have eaten here in restaurants.
Since there is little indigenous food in Portland beyond the Alaskan king crab legs, salmon and other stereotypical foods of the northwest, I think ethnic foods rule Portland's palate. (I know I have barely made ardent in the food here and my opinion is premature, but this is just for observational purposes). Yesterday I tried one ethnic restaurant near my home called Gustav's, a German restaurant theme. German restaurants have all but been ousted out of New Orleans because the style never was particularly popular in the city. So I relished a chance to eat German food here. It is the meat and potatoes cuisine I most like (though my arteries might disagree).I ordered a sampler plate consisting of braised red cabbage, mashed potatoes, smoked turkey, a sausage cooked in beer, and a chicken schnitzel. The sourdough bread that came with it was awful, even bitter tasting....too much sour for me. As for the rest, the sausage was delicious and the cabbage real German style sweet apple cider cooked cabbage. The other two meats were tasteless and in no way resembled how they would be cooked in Germany. Gustav's had good reviews here and is packed with locals. But I give this one a low C grade. A restaurant's sampler platter that is the specialty of a restaurant should present it's best efforts. This one was merely adequate. I assume the restaurant is adequate too, yet the packed in crowds make me wonder why. I think this kind of restaurant would not last long in New Orleans. The competition would serve much better food and it would die a natural death.
Wish me luck in finding the 'A' and 'B' grade food here...