Skip to main contentPortland's neighborhood chippy (that's "fish and chip shop" to you, bampot), the Frying Scotsman, has been serving up traditional British fried food from its Northwest Portland food cart for almost a year now, but only recently began selling Scotland's unofficial national dish: deep-fried Mars bar. Cart owner and Scotland native James King imports the Commonwealth's favorite candy bar specially (it's basically a Milky Way with almonds, but King insists on the real deal. "Chocolate here is not the same," he says, "It's not the full-cream dairy milk we have back home."). He coats each one in the same housemade batter in which he cooks his fish and sausages; submerges it in the deep fryer until a crispy, golden brown crust forms; then finishes it off with a sprinkle of sugar. It looks like a heart attack on a plate. But the smell of chocolate, nougat and caramel melting inside warm, fried dough is pretty much irresistible. And since the item debuted on his menu last month, he says, Portlanders have been flocking to his cart to get their sweet, salty, fatty fix. This week King moved his operation "doon toon" to Southwest 9th Avenue and Alder Street, where he plans to introduce the city to even more of Scotland's deep-fried delicacies. "Deep-fried pizza, deep-fried haggis," he says. "You can deep-fry anything."
WWeek 2015