The big graphic on the side of the Neue Southern food cart

The idea of ordering quail for dinner conjures images of linen table clothes, fancy silverware, expensive wine, snooty maître d’s, and a service bill large enough to erase the national debt of any one of several developing countries.

Well, things have changed ’cause there’s a Neue Southern sheriff in town that serves up Southern Fried Quail right from a food cart/truck. At a price that is affordable for regular folks.

[You would think that in order to have quail as your main course at dinner you’d have to be at fancy restaurant. Not any more. Quail is on the menu at one of Portland’s food carts. That’s right, a food cart that serves quail.]

Neue Southern PDX, located at SE 26th and Belmont, has come to Portland by way of Greenville, SC, where Neue Southern was one of the very first food trucks in that city. It would be fair to say that classically trained chefs, Laruen Zanardelli and South Carolina native Graham Foster, were pioneers in the street food culture of Greenville.

Lauren and Grahams’ mobile-food enterprise helped to establish new regulations that blazed the trail for more food trucks to open in Greenville. After becoming enamored with Portland’s progressive food culture, they made the trek to Oregon. Appropriate don’t you think for culinary pioneers such as these?

At the time of their appearance on Tasty Tuesday, Lauren and Graham had been serving food at Neue Southern PDX for less than three weeks. Their food so impressed host Steven Shomler that he immediately requested they visit the show.

In addition to the Southern Fried Quail, you will find items such as the Pacific Oyster Po’ Boy, The Steamed Bun, and the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie (yeah, baby)! Oh, and the hot sauce, you must try the hot sauce.

For details about these dishes see Neue Southern PDX’s menu at their website. They use seasonal ingredients so items on the menu are subject to the availability of ingredients.

Listen now as Rebecca Webb and Steven Shomler talk with Lauren and Graham about their journey to Portland and their mobile, orange-and-blue, gourmet food establishment.