Whiffies

(Please read part 2, posted March 2012. Whiffies also has another cart near SE 2nd and Oak, which surfaced in fall 2012.)

Whiffies, a food cart located at the corner of SE 12th Ave. and SE Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland, Oregon, offers sweet and savory fried pies.

July 2011 menu

Again, being the adventurous eater that I am, and really seeing no one signature item out there at Whiffies, I went for their Jamaican and Ricotta savory pie ($5).

Jamaican & Ricotta fried pie

A shot of the filling...albeit a horrible picture

Again, another mixed review. A successful fried pie has the flaky crust, yes, but it also hinges on a flavorful filling. The latter was not achieved here.

I thought the pie was fried perfectly to a very appetizing light golden brown. The pastry was flaky and light, adding to the blissfulness that is a fried pie. However, the filling needed more salt. The Jamaican beef had a pleasant cumin-like flavor to it, and I could see little bits of ricotta cheese in there, but I was searching for more flavor. The saltiness in the ricotta is not enough, folks.

Also, fried items are risky on my rating system because excess grease can really be a turn-off to me. Here, I appreciated that my pie was fried to order (as it should be), but the pie was still slightly greasy from the oil it had just cooked in.

It's also a pretty small portion for $5. It was basically a snack...a pretty expensive snack.

Not the best of experiences at Whiffies. Maybe I should have tried one of their sweet pies instead. There's always a next time, but for now, a relatively poor score.