GRC Annual Meeting & GEA Geothermal Energy Expo:

8 Portland, Ore., Meals for $8 or Under (The New York Times)

Portland, Oregon is the host city for the GRC Annual Meeting & GEA Geothermal Energy Expo, September 28 - October 1.

(Courtesy The New York Times)

Portland, Ore. — bike-friendly and, to this New Yorker, shockingly affordable — might also be the most delicious small city in America. So, finding myself there with about 30 hours to spare at the end of a West Coast trip earlier this week, I didn’t have to think too hard about a plan: rent a bike and look for a few cheap meals around the city.

Make that really cheap meals. And even avoiding the food carts and trucks that have been famous around town (and are old news for Frugal Traveler readers), my options were seemingly unlimited. I zoomed around on a rental from Everybody’s Bike Rentals ($25 flat, since there’s no Oregon sales tax), roaming about 40 miles and having (tastes of) 15 meals or meal-size dishes, all recommended by friends and colleagues. All were $8 or less, not including tip, and were as satisfying as they were eclectic.

I’d no sooner try to define the “best” cheap meals in Portland than I would chime in on the city’s much-commented-on process of gentrification, in which the Portland food scene is very much entwined. So instead of a “best of” ranking, here’s just a plain old list of eight high-value examples of the city’s uniquely energetic frugal food scene.

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