Kyoo C.
Yelp
June was my first trip to Portland and I had assembled a strategic list of eats around the schedules planned (mainly eating, lol).
Was very excited about trying Bing Mi from all the reviews, and wanted to hit it as the very first meal upon landing in PDX.
Didn't realize PDX food carts assemble in groups in certain lots, so took me a 2nd passing to decide to just park the car and walk to the area Google maps was saying I passed:). Various carts from street to the inside of the lot and finally found Bing Mi at the end of the lot.
Having no experience with Chinese crepes, I had decided to go all-in and go for the Supreme Bing duck/sausage loaded.
Wife chose the Adam sausage/bacon loaded.
Didn't see anything kid might like, so got him some chicken shawarma on the adjacent cart while we waited.
Took a while for it to be ready, with the friendly gentleman near the front of the cart working hard to assemble the crepes on a hot day.
When it was finally ready, felt like a kid getting cotton candy handed to them. These things were nice and super hot!
Looked interesting, but didn't see much in it holding it. First several bites were just eating through the crepe wraps with no real flavor. Undeterred, continued to work down to the super flavors everyone seemed to like on the reviews.
Got some dry cucumber bites and then towards the bottom got some dry sausages and I guess dry ducks. Was trying to savor the flavors of the meat, but they didn't have much flavor to give! The meats were dry and not even fresh, the cucumber had the dry old taste as well. The special sauce, there was very little of it in there and it didn't taste special at all to me, tasted like hoisin sauce maybe (the brown sauce I pour on when eating pho?).
After trying to at least eat the susbtance in it, tossed the ends of the crepe wraps since the whole meal left me with regret due to no flavor! Not sure what I am missing here, maybe chinese crepes are an acquired taste? The food quality and lack of flavor for $18 to me was a bad start to the PDX trip.
Wife said hers was ok, but not sure if having bacon instead of duck makes a difference? I guess bacon is never bad, so maybe it had some flavor at least.
For me, the excitement of trying this went from highs to the bottom of the foods I got to try in PDX. There was so much better flavors to be had, not only in trucks but even in sit down restaurants at this price level.
I don't mind the price if the food is great, but this was flavorless for me.
Maybe if you know and like these types of crepes, give it a go.
Maybe the BBQ pork version is the one to get here for some flavor??? I heard couple of bbq pork orders while waiting for my order.
If never had this kind of crepe like me, I say you can safely skip from the list of eats on a trip.