Brunch is a big thing around our house. We rarely go out, because we enjoy making and eating brunchy dishes at home, in our bathrobes. We love both fancier and heartier brunch fare.

Given this, the current egg shortage has been hard to bear. So I've been looking for brunch dishes that require very few eggs, or none at all. One of them is something we had in Oaxaca, enfrijoladas:

See, as an American I was very familiar with enchiladas (who isn't?), but never realized before visiting Oaxaca that enchiladas is just one of a suite of "en-*-adas" dishes, all of which consist of dipping tortillas in some kind of leftover sauce and folding them.

• enchiladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover chile sauce
• entomadas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover tomato sauce
• enmoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover mole
• enfrijoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover pureed beans

Notice the "leftover" part of the description; these are all breakfast dishes, because you make them with tortillas (which you always have if you're Mexican) and some leftover sauce, maybe from dinner last night.

Importantly, enfrijoladas consist of tortillas, bean sauce, cheese, and sometimes garnishes. No eggs required (although topping them with a fried egg is delicious).

Now, for my readers who are more familiar with Tex-Mex enchilada casserole, these enfrijoladas are going to seem kind of minimal. But that's really how en-whatever-adas are for most Mexicans, both in Oaxaca and Mexico City. It's a quick breakfast dish, consisting of just tortillas, a sauce, and some cheese. The "stuffed enchiladas" which are standard in so many Mexican-American restaurants descend more from enchiladas suizas, a fairly elaborate restaurant dish from Mexico City.

They are, however, very filling. And easy to make once you get the knack of things.

The recipe below says "Oaxaca-style black beans", which means some black beans, slow cooked with epazote, garlic, onion, chile, and avocado leaf. If you don't happen to have any on hand, but you do have some canned or vac-packed refried black beans, or canned whole black beans, then just season them as follows:

• 2 cups refried or pureed cooked black beans
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 to 1 tsp powdered Mexican chiles (ancho, guajillo, or pasilla)
• 1 tsp dried epazote (if available)
• salt to taste

You'll be making a sauce from the pureed beans. The only part of this recipe that takes some learning is getting the bean consistency right. You need to coat each tortilla in the beans, which means that they need to be neither too thick (in which case the beans won't stick) or too liquid (in which case the beans will drip off). Once they're hot in the pan, start with them fairly thick, and then add warm water to thin them until you have a consistency that works for you as you dip each tortilla.

Because of the beans, enfrijoladas are a lot more filling than you'd expect. The recipe below makes a very hearty breakfast for two people (4-5 tortillas apiece) or a light breakfast for four people (2-3 tortillas apiece).

Enfrijoladas Oaxaqueñas

• Around 2 1/2 cups Oaxacan-style cooked black beans
• 10-12 good quality corn tortillas
• Warm water, as needed
• Salt, to taste
• 4-5oz crumbled queso fresco, or finely shredded queso Oaxaca
• 1 medium or large avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced (optional)

Equipment: comal, griddle, or large steel pan; 9-10" frying pan, preferrably nonstick; small tongs; towel or torilla warmer

If starting from whole beans, puree them as finely as you can. If they're too thick to puree easily, add a little water. If you're looking to make this as fancy brunch, then push the puree through a seive to remove skins, but I never do this.

Put both the comal/griddle and the medium frying pan on the stove over medium heat. Put the beans in the frying pan, and heat, watching them for when they start to bubble. Turn your oven onto low, around 200F.

While the beans heat, toast the tortillas. Get the comal/griddle very hot (350-400F), and toast the tortillas on each side for a minute or two. They should bubble slightly. Wrap the toasted tortillas in a towel or place them in a tortilla warmer.

The beans should be getting hot by now, or concurrently. Stir them, and then add warm water, a little at a time, as needed; you're looking for them to be thick but still liquid, about the consistency of a hearty tomato sauce or a smoothie. Taste to see if they need more salt. Turn down the heat, and stir periodically to avoid scortching or boiling.

Now it's time to make the enfrijoladas. Get a stack of plates ready, near the stove. You will need to work quickly with each tortilla, so make sure that everything you need is within reach.

Take each tortilla, one at a time, and press it into the bean sauce. Flip it over with the tongs, and get the other side coated with the beans as well. Fold the tortilla in half, and put it on a plate. Repeat, and put the next folded tortilla overlapping the first. Keep going, adding between 2 and 5 tortillas to each plate depending on people's appetites.

When a plate is full, sprinkle it with the cheese, and place it into the warm oven. Get started on the next plate.

As you go, you may need to add a little more warm water to the beans to keep them at the right consistency. If there's beans left after dipping all the tortillas, you can add more water to get them really liquid and then pour the bean sauce around the enfrijoladas on each plate.

Once all the enfrijoladas are made, make sure the last plate gets a few minutes in the oven (for the cheese to soften), then take them out and decorate with the avocado slices, if using.

Serve, together with Oaxacan coffee (if you can get it) and juice. Salud!

Q&A

Can this be made vegan?

Easily, just skip the cheese. You could also use vegan cheese.

Can I use flour tortillas?

No.

Could I use other kinds of beans?

Sure, why not? Black beans just have a bit more flavor.

Shouldn't I dip the tortilla in hot oil?

That's a lot more mess, and also not the way it's done in Oaxaca.

Who would have believed that one day the abandoned filling station at 72nd & Prescott would host a real food cart pod? Certainly not me. And yet, today, it definitely does, with a taproom, coffee, five carts and a restaurant across the street.

This page is the best guide you'll find to all these food carts. Bookmark it; I'll update it periodically with the changes in the pod.

They are carts, though, so opening hours and menus can vary. Particularly, most of the carts cut back on hours during the rainy season, and expand them during the summer. But sometimes, carts are just closed.

The Pod consists of the old filling station and its grounds, and neighboring properties. Inside the filling station is Junior's Coffee in the mornings and early afternoon, and Upright Brewing in the late afternoon/evening. Three carts sit on the Upright/Juniors property. Next door, in front of a disused HVAC shop, are two additional carts. Finally, there is a middle eastern deli (Samo's) across 72nd from the whole complex.

The food cart pod has ample outdoor seating, about 1/3 of which is covered from rain. Because of the angle of the sun, during sunny days you'll want to move around the outdoor seating; only about 1/3 is actually shaded in the aftenoon. Upright/Juniors has a small amount of indoor seating, including three small tables, and around 12 bar seats. If you're eating inside, you should really order a drink from whichever business is open (Juniors or Upright).

Information last updated November 9, 2024

Junior's Coffee

Serves: Coffee, espresso, and tea

Location: Inside the main building

Hours: 7am to 3pm, 7 days a week

Junior's coffee is the 2nd coffee outlet by the folks who also own Guilder (the Princess-Bride themed cafe). They offer espresso drinks, coffee and tea 7 days a week, and a very small selection of pastries. They roast their own fair trade, organic, family-farm coffee, which is also available by the bag.

Juniors/Guilder is the only coffeehouse I know of in Portland that offers shakeratos in the summer.

Upright Brewing

Serves: 10-12 beers on tap, plus assorted things in bottles and cans.

Location: Inside the main building, behind the bar

Hours: 3pm-ish to 10pm, weekdays, noon-10pm Sat & Sun

This is the 2nd taproom for Portland-based Upright Brewing. Their beers skew towards real ale, side-taps, and other artisan service, including sours, a British-style bitter, lager, pilsner, and saison, as well as the mandatory IPAs. Particularly, if you appreciate a lower-alcohol beer (4.5-5.5%) so that you can have multiple pints without falling off your stool, this is your place.

DesiPDX

Sadly Closed

Maybe they'll come back someday. Their original location, in the Prost! foodcart pod, is still open.

Schmunchburger

Serves: Burgers, fries, and the Schnitzelwich

Location: Cart along 72nd ave

Hours: 1pm to 8pm Tues-Sat (usually)

Schmunch adds a burger-and-fries option to the food cart pod, although their burgers are a little special.

Yes, they do have a veggie burger option. They also theoretically have schnizel sandwiches, although those seem to run out a lot.

Niños Birrieria

Serves: Tacos, quesadillas, birria, quesabirria, chips, etc.

Location: truck in front of 7131 Prescott Street

Hours: 10am to 9pm 7 days a week

Niños is the always-open standby for this pod, rarely closed during dining hours. Birria lovers will find lots to eat here, but others have options as well, including fish tacos and taquitos; they have quite the menu for a food cart.

Note that when they say "hot", they mean it. Do not take the "bomb shell challenge" unless you regularly participate in hot pepper eating contests.

They have a breakfast menu too.

They're also a good option for non-beer-drinkers since they regularly have aquas frescas.

R-Haan Thai Kitchen

Serves: Thai standards, including noodles, stir-fries and rice dishes

Location: cart in front of 7131 Presscot Street

Hours: 11am to 8pm Thursday-Monday

R-Haan is the newest cart, and I've eaten there only once so far. The cart offers everything a typical American Thai restaurant would offer, including Pad Thai, Tom Yum and Panang Curry.

Pine State Biscuits

Serves: Biscuits and Gravy

Location: Airstream on the left side of Upright building

Hours: Friday 4pm-9pm, Sat/Sun 8am-2pm

This is yet another outlet of the Portland-leading biscuit franchise. They offer biscuits, biscuit sandwiches, and biscuits with both meat and vegetarian gravy, plus assorted seasonal specials. They're pretty much just open for brunch on weekends.

Samo's

Serves: Middle eastern street food, plus diner griddle standards

Location: Across 72nd ave. from the food cart pod, in the Samo's building

Hours: 9am to 10pm 7 days a week

You may have noticed the lack of a felafel/schwarma cart. Well, that's because Samo's is just across the street. If that's what you have a yen for, hop across the street, get your schwarma wrap, and come back for an Upgright beer.

Several years ago, on Haight Street, there used to be an Eritrean restaurant called Massawa, founded by a burned-out freedom fighter. For around two years of that restaurant's two decades on the Haight, they did brunch as well as dinner. We loved this brunch which included foods you'd never see anywhere else in San Francisco, like kecha fitfit. However, the breakfast dish we loved the most wasn't any of their more traditional Ethiopean breakfast foods: it was their romano bean scramble.

Since we left San Francisco and Massawa left the Haight, I've reverse-engineered the scramble. Every year, when we collect our first harvest of romano beans in the summer, it's the first thing I make with them. You can make it too; it's quite delicious for such a simple breakfast dish.

romano bean scramble

• 3 Tbs clarified butter or ghee (subs. vegetable oil with a little butter)
• 1/2 to 3/4 pound romano beans
• 6 eggs
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 to 1 tsp berbere spice mix (subs. chili powder)
• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• salt

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a pinch of salt. Stem the beans, and then cut them into 1 inch pieces. Peel and mince the garlic cloves.

Heat the butter/ghee in a large nonstick frying pan. Fry the beans with the minced garlic over medium heat for a minute. Cover for 3 minutes to allow them to steam. Uncover, stir, and fry until all moisture is gone and some of the beans have browned in spots. Check one for tenderness.

Add the berbere and paprika to the beans, using more berbere is you like things spicy, and fry for around 30 seconds, stirring. Turn up the heat to high and pour in the eggs, and keep stirring to coat the beans and scramble the eggs. Turn off the heat and serve as soon as the curds are set.

Add salt to taste; serve with toast.

Note: substituting string beans for the romano beans does not work in this recipe. The taste and texture are too different.

TL;DR: New blue and red syrup birds in the online store.

We love real maple syrup. And since we tend to do some kind of pancakes or waffles every weekend, we have reason to pour a lot of it. A decade or so ago I decided it was time to solve the problem of "how can I drizzle syrup on my breakfast without slopping it everywhere and ending up with a pool in the middle of the plate?" Regular pitchers, even small creamers, tend to pour out way too fast and make a mess -- not to mention wasting expensive syrup.

So, I made some 4-5oz pitchers with very narrow, conical spouts to drizzle a controlled stream of warm maple syrup. These worked really well. My sweetie observed that they looked like birds, so I added eyes and toes to them and the syrup bird was born. I settled on two "plumage" color schemes; varigated blue with yellow beaks and toes, and bright red with black beaks and toes. I've been selling them ever since.

Here's how you use a syrup bird. First, fill it 2/3 of the way full of 100% genuine grade A maple syrup. Then, warm it up, either in the microwave (usually 15-20 seconds) or in a hot water bath.

Then, pour the syrup over your waffles, pancakes, Dutch baby, or whatever.

Use the side spout to pour leftover syrup back into the bottle.

I recommend hand-washing these; while technically they are dishwasher-safe, the spouts and handles are quite fragile and are likely to get broken in the dishwasher.

Anyway, I've made a new batch of the syrup birds; currently there are two blue and two red ones available for sale. Ready in time for Hanukkah for the syrup-lover in your life!

The birds also work well for soy sauce.

... with pomegranate pips, no less! So PSPSWPP. Seems perfect for the current "pumpkin spice everything" season we seem to be having in the States.

To make these waffles you'll need a good sourdough starter. I'm not going to go over how to build one here; I recommend that you get a copy of Cheeseboard Collective Works and follow their instructions on how to build a natural sourdough. It takes about three weeks, so if you want these waffles tommorrow, sorry.

But for those of you who already have a "shoggoth", as we call our sourdough, here's the recipe. My sweetie created this recipe after some tweaking.

pumpkin-spice pumpkin sourdough waffles with pomegranate pips

Overnight sponge

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sourdough starter (unfed)
1 cup pumpkin

Waffle batter

all of the overnight sponge
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pomegranate

The night before, mix the flour, sugar, buttermilk and starter in a large bowl (I use one that has a 1.5 to 2 quart capacity). Cover loosely (I drape a dishtowel over the top) and leave in a room-temperature or warmish place overnight (I turn my oven on to the lowest heat for about 5 minutes, turn it off, and make the sponge; when I’m done, it’s just the right temperature).

The next morning, mix the eggs, butter, salt, spices, and soda in a small bowl, then add to the sponge; the sponge will puff up significantly.

For waffles, heat your waffle iron to medium/medium-high, and spoon 2-3 tablespoons or so onto each waffle section (use more or less depending on your iron—I have a standard 3x2 waffle iron; a Belgian will take a little more batter). Close the lid and cook until the steam stops, then remove the waffles.

While the waffle iron is heating, cut the pomegranate in half and hold the cut side over a bowl. Whack it with a large wooden spoon until all of the pips come out (and you hit your thumb a couple times and swear). Place on the table for your diners. Warm the maple syrup in a syrup bird for serving.

Makes roughly 24-30 waffles. Diners can spoon pomegranate pips into the dents in the waffles, and add syrup for sweetness.

Pumpkin pie spice, if you don't keep spice mixes (I don't): 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ginger, and ¼ teaspoon each nutmeg and cloves.

To make pancakes instead: heat a griddle to medium (350 degrees if it’s electric), and spoon out 2-3 tablespoons per pancake. Cook until bubbles burst and hold their shape on the tops, and the edges look dull, then flip and cook another minute or so. Serve hot. Depending on your pancake size, this makes 24-36 pancakes. These don't work so well with the pomegranate seeds though.

updated December 2023

As a non-meat-eater, I'm not partial to "fake meat" as a rule. If I wanted to eat meat, I'd eat meat; I don't need a wheat gluten simulation of duck to make me happy. The exception is veggie breakfast sausages (or as we call them, "snausages") for which I have a weakness, mostly because sausage isn't about the meat, it's about the spices. Anyway, I've pretty much had all the brands, so some ratings. Note that I haven't eaten actual pork sausage since 1985, so don't expect any comparisons to real meat.

MorningStar Farms Original or Hot Patties: the ubiquitous supermarket brand, vegetarian but not vegan. The "hot" ones are pleasantly spicy, but either variety could stand to have more interesting spicing. Texture is clearly TVP-based. The best thing about these is the name; as my sweetie points out, they must be made with "Seitan" (English major humor). Not vegan. B

MorningStar Farms Links: The same as the patties, only in link shape. The only decent link-shaped snausages left. They're better if you overcook them a bit; a little char adds needed flavor. Not vegan. B

Moringstar Farms Vegan Patties: Morningstar introduced a vegan variant, and not in a good way. These patties have a mushy texture and leave fibrous reside on the tongue. It's like they took their vegetarian patties and just left the eggs and wheat gluten out, without replacing them. D

Boca: (unobtainium) in my opinion the best of the veggie sausage lot. Links only, and only one type, but that one type is heavily seasoned with a variety of spices (including garlic, sage and oregano), and reasonably good however you cook them. Which is why, of course, they are no longer made. A

Gimme Lean: a play on "Jimmie Dean" these veggie sausages come in "chubs" which you need to slice into patties yourself, like "real" pork sausage. They've been "seasoned" with nitrates to give them that "real pork smell", which does make them taste "authentically" like bargain-basement cheap pork sausage of dubious ingredients and safety. D-

Trader Joe's Patties: these used to be pretty good, slightly better than MorningStar patties, but then TJ's switched suppliers to one who doesn't believe in seasoning their TVP and wheat gluten except with salt, and I'm pretty convinced uses cardboard as a filler. These taste like suffering. F

Quorn: Unlike all of the others, Quorn (a European brand) is not made from TVP and gluten: it's made from some kind of ground-up fungus. This gives it a nice mushroomy flavor, not particulary like meat but pleasant on its own. The links have a much better texture than the patties, which are a bit dry. B

Field Roast Apple Maple Breakfast Sausage: these are small and chubby like Vienna sausages. Good texture, but they taste more like sweet potato casserole than sausage, and they come covered in sticky goo. D

Amy's: you'd think the Queen Bee of vegetarian foods would do a better job on veggie sausages, but you'd be wrong. These are basically just Amy's Veggie Burgers, extruded into sausage shape. D-

Sol Cuisine: if I'd noticed that these were "wheat and gluten free" I wouldn't have bought them. The lack of gluten makes for a mushy texture, and they don't have enough spices. Otherwise not bad. C-

LightLife Sausage Links: it's lovely to find a vegan sausage maker who believes in using real spices. Too bad they're not any good at it. The links taste overwhelmingly of sage; their larger sausages beat you over the head with fennel. C-

Gardein Breakfast Sausage Patties: not bad, a lot like the original Morningstar Farms patties, only with a bit of herbs and better texture. Probably the best general supermarket brand. B

Home made snausages: given the ridiculous price of veggie sausage — somehow TVP is cheap filler in a real burger, but becomes expensive when in a box by itself — a number of times I've made my own from mushrooms, onions, wheat gluten powder, TVP, whole garlic and lots of spices. Pretty good, but high-effort and I've never quite gotten the texture right. Also, I can only do patties this way, not links. B+

Hilary's Spicy Veggie Sausage: vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, corn-free, everything-free, these taste about how you'd expect: like cardboard fiber fill with a hint of Tabasco. D-

Beyond Breakfast Sausage, Spicy: like other Beyond Meat products, these have a better texture than most of their competitors, and even give off a convincing amount of rendered fat when fried. But the "spicy" is just hot without any particular pepper flavor; I'd have liked more seasonings to go with the capsaicin. C

Impossible Breakfast Patties: Very meaty, solid patties that don't have the vegetable fat of their Beyond competitors. These have more "heft" than most of the snausages on this list, and are probably meant for biscuit sandwiches. Their main flaw is that they taste overwhelmingly of fennel; if they could fix the spicing, they would move into first place. C+

Meatless Farm Veggie Sausage Links/Patties: snausages always have to balance between taste and texture, because you really can't have both. MF picks a middle-of-the-road route; they're not as "realistic" textured as Beyond, but they have a better overall flavor. Note that the patties are intended to go on sausage biscuits, and as such are a bit large for serving alongside eggs. C+.

Jack & Annie's Savory Breakfast Sausage: You know that eventually someone needed to try making snausages with jackfruit, and this is that brand. These are mainly meant for sausage sandwiches, so they're wide and thin. They're also dense and chewy, in a "meaty" way, but very bland. C-

Nature's Fynd Breakfast Patties: the brand advertises how it is a fungal protein instead of legume-based, and that's completely believeable, because these patties taste like mushroom croquettes. What they don't taste like is sausage. It would have helped if they'd added any spices of any kind, but apparently that would interfere with the "natural fermentation". Suggest using these as filling for mushroom pirogi instead. D