Take a croissant, split it in half, lay it on a grill or flattop and heat all those wonderful buttery layers to unleash that moment of umami smoothness.   Then when you load the croissant with a seared crab cake, local, fresh arugula and spinach, a tomato slice, citrus mayonnaise and the final glory of a beautiful duck egg fried just right and you’ve just had one of the greatest morning breakfast sandwiches.

It was at the Salt Box Cafe where this gustatory revelation occurred.  On a perch along the Eastern Prom the truck is parked overlooking the water where owner/chef Matt Glatz holds court.  He built the kitchen cabin, which is on a flatbed hooked up to his truck.  His apt motto “tiny house, big taste” says it all.

Terrific croissant and crabcake sandwich

It’s a sandwich that’s definitely worthy of a Serious Eats episode on the Cooking Channel.  And even though Portland has a fair number of food trucks trolling the city, this is by far a winner when most others are merely helter-skelter.

And the food truck with a view

Still, good food is everywhere in Portland these days, and the list of where to go for meaningful meals gets bigger and bigger—from the sublime to inspirational basics.

I loved the classic grilled cheese sandwich with a cup of tomato soup at Becky’s earlier this week.  Yes, classic diner food without having to leave town. There was nothing fancy about this meal.  Plain whole wheat bread, slices of American cheese– perfectly grilled resulting in a sandwich that was buttery, creamy and crunchy, as a forthrightly basic grilled cheese should be.  Even the cup of tomato soup had merit: creamy, acidic and just the right smooth texture.  For about 6 bucks it can’t be beat as the epitome of a satisfying lunch-counter meal.

Becky’s classic grilled cheese and tomato soup

Onto Isa for the evening meal this week, and there we ordered one of the finest examples of gnocchi of anywhere I’ve had in town. On the menu list it’s called spring gnocchi–an understatement that barely describes these little puffy bundles of pasta, so light and feathery soft.  Made with sweet pea and parsley it’s regaled in a sauce of fava beans and artichokes with little bits of mushroom and bread crumbs that give crunch and textural pop.  Our other courses—very good but no match for the gnocchi—included a delicious eggplant pasta and the restaurant’s famous lobster taco.

Isa’s spring gnocchi and eggplant lasagna

Continuing on with these peripatetic culinary adventures, the new Somerset Pub at Whole Foods (see review) makes a very decent lobster chowder.  It’s more robust than the typical bisque with little cubes of potato and nice chunks of lobster in a reasonably thick soup base, which perhaps bordered on being just a bit too thick.  Still the buttery, Sherry spiked soup was a good antidote to assuage the unseasonably cool weather.

Lobster chowder at Whole Foods Somerset Pub

On my way out I stopped at the new coffee bar and experienced an excellent Chemex method coffee.  It takes about five minutes for it to seep through the process: finely ground coffee in the filter and steeped in hot water at 200 degrees that’s administered by a programmed spigot, the carafe is set on a scale and the process is complete when the brew reaches 500 grams of weight.  It’s enough to fill a large cup  of precision coffee at 3 bucks.  The coffee itself is from the store’s own label, and there could be some improvement on that score to use more rarefied beans.

Precision made Chemex coffee at Whole Foods

And what’s become my favorite go-to place in Portland—attested to by hundreds of other on an y given night—is the new Scales (see review) on the wharf.  I dropped in for dinner at around 9 PM the other night to have a light meal.  The place was still pretty full, though the bar had plenty of room.  The menu has lots of small plate items and it’s easy to pick and choose to add up to a meal without having fork over for the $30 entrees.

I was intrigued by the three-bean salad with tuna confit.  It turned out to be the standard three beans: green, wax and garbanzo beans (all freshly prepared, of course).

Clockwise: three bean salad, fried clams, Parker House rolls at Scales

It’s bathed in a dressing that’s infused with a briny tuna confit; you don’t encounter pieces of fish but instead benefit from the saltiness of the confit essence in the dressing.  It’s then topped with a soft boiled egg and the whole dish is as filling as a main course.  I didn’t stop there and had a small plate of fried clams.  These are very tasty: great breading but I only wish the clams were a larger variety with bigger, meatier bellies. I didn’t have dessert but lingered over an order of Parker House Rolls.  Maybe this is a foreign word to millennial gastronomes, but these are classic yeast rolls, a mainstay at dining tables from the ancient regime of the 1950s.  Try them.