Black Salt food truck parked at Bunker Brewing in Portland. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky
Confession: You will not find a good photograph here of the Hot Honey Bird sandwich ($13) that I devoured from Black Salt food truck, parked for an evening last week at Bunker Brewing in Portland. I inhaled it before remembering, uh-oh, I was supposed to take its photo first.
I can’t blame my lapse on hunger. In actual fact, I’d been sitting at my computer all day, hardly a big-appetite-building activity. Nor can I blame a long, appetite-stimulating wait for my meal. Though the chicken was fried to order, truck-to-plate took less than 10 minutes, during which time I perused the brewery’s beer list and had a nice chat with the nice fellow manning the taps.
It’s just that kind of a sandwich. The smell, the crunch, the generously proportioned chicken, the junk-food-adjacent look of the sandwich but its miles-better-than-junk-food taste all seemed to combine to bring the eater – OK, me – to a gluttonous state. I gulped, and just like that, the sandwich disappeared.
Black Salt Hot Honey Bird chicken sandwich, as served. Once you start eating it, don’t count on stopping until it’s gone. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky
I had time to notice first, though, that it was packed in a cute little bag, the fried chicken nestled in a shiny, pleasantly squishy roll that had been moistened with lemony mayonnaise. There were pickled chilies and coleslaw, too. The chicken was very nicely fried, hovering on that exact line of crispy and juicy. I could have stood more heat, but I know heat is a personal thing.
The truck, which is decorated with whimsical flying giraffes, also offers a classic fried chicken sandwich, a Seoul Bird (Korean BBQ) and a Buffalo Bird (blue cheese, etc.), the sandwiches ranging in price from $11 to $14. I neglected to ask about the winged giraffes (fried chicken fanatics?), but I did ask about the Black Salt name. The salt comes from Hawaii and, I was told, is sprinkled over all the truck’s offerings.
Black Salt onion rings and coleslaw. Hot Honey Bird sandwich in back. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky
You might say that my order of onion rings ($8) was gilding the lily, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But I say, pshaw, onions are a vegetable. These, like the chicken, were expertly fried, and they came with a small cup of siracha mayo. You can also get hand-cut fries ($7), chicken tenders ($13) and tempura cauliflower, either Buffalo or Seoul-flavored ($11).
In a more serious attempt to fool myself that my meal was healthful, I ordered the Creamy Red Cabbage Slaw ($4). I wish I’d remembered the slaw was already on the sandwich, where it provided a nice crunch. On its own, though, the slaw – made from red cabbage, sliced scallions, a lot of mayo and some heat (cayenne?) – lacked something. I brought it home and doctored it for lunch the next day, adding grated carrots, shaved fennel, chopped fennel fronds and freshly squeezed lemon.
I can’t guarantee that if you go to Bunker Brewing on an evening that Black Salt is parked there you will meet two beautiful golden retrievers at a nearby picnic table, one a lovey 9-month-old who likes her belly scratched. But should you happen to, your evening – already A-OK, after all, from the beer and fried chicken sandwich – just got that much better.
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