"Before Eem started serving smoked meats and Thai curries in North Portland, Big Blue Thai Barbecue was selling smoky grilled pork, fiery green papaya salad, and fragrant jasmine rice out of a food truck an hour south. Permanently stationed in a parking lot along SE Commercial Street, owners Kanyanat Puthdee and Ray Johnson cook pork and Thai sausage to order on a Japanese binchotan charcoal grill on the truck’s open-air back “porch.” While grilled meats anchor most of the plates, the cart also offers two excellent curries: one peanut-based, and the other a fragrant bowl of green curry with sweet longans. Order to-go or eat at one of Big Blue’s picnic tables, which Johnson had custom built to sit level on the sloping pavement." - Emily Teel
