I was first introduced to Tastebud after finishing a Cyclocross race a few years ago (check out cyclocross if you are not familiar. Cyclocross=Awesome! Cyclocross in Portland=Awesomer! 😂 ). After the race, I was exhausted from pedaling my butt off in the mud and rain for 45 minutes. I was sopping wet, cold, muddy, and hungry. Then I felt a sudden rush of energy out of nowhere. A feeling sent down from the heavens. I had picked up a scent...the smell of wood burning, charred dough, and I swear I could smell the cheese melting! When it comes to pizza, I am like a blood hound. In the distance, I saw the source of these rejuvenating fragrances...a pizza food truck! The pain of the race mostly went away, and briskly walked (I didn't want to be dramatic and run - lol) over to the Tastebud food truck.
The story of how Tastebud came to be is interesting. The concept started small for Max Doxtader...baking bagels, bread, and pizza on his farm. Then the idea grew by including these items at farmer's markets and baking out of a wood fired oven on a trailer. Then Tastebud upgraded to the AWESOME food truck pictured above, which you will see around Portland at catered events, races, markets etc. The latest chapter is their first brick and mortar restaurant in Multnomah Village. This is where Veggie Doughboy and I visited this past week.
Tastebud also used to make Montreal style bagels, but they discontinued this. I am glad I got to try them before they stopping producing them. They inspired me to bake them myself. You may not know this, but Montreal is known for their bagels, similarly to New York. The two cities have a rivalry over who has the better bagel. Montreal style bagels are traditionally boiled, made with malt syrup, and baked in a wood fired oven.
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| Margherita / Nausicaa |
As you can see in the photos, Tastebud allows half and half pizzas. We love it when this is the case, so we can try more combinations. The pies are larger than most as well. Two pies between the two of us was more than enough. The Nausicaa was the only meat pie we ordered. It is made up of a tomato sauce, pork sausage, taggiasca olives, mozzarella, and shaved fennel. I opted to add Mama Lil's peppers to this bad boy as well. I loved the sausage on this pie. It was so fresh and I liked how it was concentrated into quasi-meatballs. This was a great pie. The crust is component where Tastebud excels. The crust had excellent crunch, airiness, flavor, and chew. This was the case on every pie we tried. My only critique was there didn't appear to be much of the Mama Lil's oil flavor. I may start asking for this when I add Mama Lil's - the oil from the jar is like liquid gold and drizzling it on the top makes a big difference.
As is tradition Veggie and I ordered the Marga. We both felt the ingredients were among the freshest (this was the case for every pie) we have had all year. The Marga had sliced tomatoes in addition to the red sauce base, which is the first time we had seen this at our visits. We both felt like the Marga was a solid pie, but lacked certain key flavors. We didn't taste enough sauce - either there wasn't enough, or it didn't have enough punch. We also didn't get the slight salty flavor from the mozzarella. The Marga was our least favorite pie of the night.
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| The Golden Hour / Cipolla |
I can't recall ever having corn on pizza before, but loved it! I loved how the corn was hidden under the cheese, and yet it was still crunchy. I enjoyed being surprised by subtle bursts of crunch and sweetness. This was our favorite pie of the night.
The Cipolla includes roasted wild mushrooms, spinach, arugula, garlic confit, feta, and provolone. The flavor combination on this pie was excellent. The different textures of the toppings was genius. The spinach and arugula were crunchy. My guess is these were topped at the end of the bake, then the pie raised on the peel to the top of the dome to quickly char them, where the oven is the hottest. From a textural perspective, the garlic confit, wild mushrooms, and cheese juxtaposed the crunchy toppings near perfectly. The flavor contrast with this pie was awesome as well. This pizza had the potential to be one of the best we have had all year, but it is just missing one thing in our opinion. The crust came out a bit soggy. Likely all that cheese saturated the crust during the bake. This took away from the crust qualities we mentioned earlier in the post. That being said, this was still a "upper crust" pie. 😜
Definitely put Tastebud on your list. We don't think Tastebud is getting enough press for quality product they are putting out. You will see they scored near the top of the list for us this year. Do yourself a favor and check them out at the next Cross Crusade race (starting in October), we think you will love both the race and the pizza!
Overall Rank: #4 (Tie)
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