Flogene's Home Cookin'

Flogene's Home Cookin' is a food cart located in downtown Portland, Oregon (on 9th Ave., in between Washington and Alder). Flogene, originally from Tennessee, has brought her take on Southern fried chicken, biscuits, and more to the Pacific Northwest!

Yeah, go to Flogene's...now!

After reading rave reviews online, I went to check this cart out on a Wednesday, right after 11 a.m. I ordered the Southern fried chicken and biscuit ($6). You can choose what part of the chicken you want (white meat or dark meat). I left it up to them, and I got one drumstick and one thigh. I also decided to try Flogene's potato salad, handed down from her grandmother ($1), which includes diced boiled potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, yellow onions, celery, and other ingredients (ooh, secret spices!).

I expected to wait a few minutes, especially since I'm thinking the chicken will take a while in the fryer. But a mere 30 seconds or so later, the entire meal was in my hands. Whoa! At Flogene's suggestion, I also put some (warm) honey on the biscuit.

Menu (November 2011)

Fried chicken, biscuit, and side of potato salad (Flogene's)

I've had my share of fried chicken growing up (especially since my mom and grandmother also like to cook it up from time to time), but this just may be the best I've had...certainly the best in Oregon. The key here was seasoning the actual chicken, not just the flour-and-egg mixtures that make up the crispy fried exterior. The chicken was extremely moist, just oozing with those delectable juices. While I'm sure some people may think the chicken would be too salty or overseasoned, I personally loved it. I'd rather have a lot of flavor than none at all.

The biscuit was light, buttery, and simply phenomenal. People from the South could get one of those nostalgic moments eating them. The honey was a lovely accompaniment here, and it still wasn't too sweet for my tastes. Hell, I shoulda doused my chicken with that honey! D'oh!

And to make it three for three, the potato salad was excellent. Creamy and seasoned beautifully. The crunch and bite of the onions and the celery really elevated this side dish. While I would have preferred the potato salad a bit colder (it was still warm because it had just been prepared), the flavors basically sent me to cloud nine, cloud 200, wherever.

This was one of those times where I wanted to be seated at a table, with more of this food getting pumped up from underneath and into my plate. So what if I consume about 20,000 calories' worth of their food? I'd just hibernate or work out for the next eleventy billion days anyway. This epic meal was $7 total...yes, please!

My only suggestion to this cart: get on social media, namely Facebook and Twitter. Utilize it a lot. Perhaps they would get exponentially more foot traffic. But in the meantime, this gem doesn't always have huge lines, so it may be a good thing to try them now!

It truly takes a special meal to get a rating above 9 on my food review website. Add Flogene's to that rarefied list! Holy crap, that was awesome.... 9.25/10