White Elephant Asian Fusion

White Elephant was another food truck at the Prost Marketplace pod that reeled us in with the Vietnamese, Cambodian, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian-- and who knows what other Asian tastes we didn't immediately recognize-- fused together in a broad menu at okay prices.Almost went with the Spam & Egg rice-and-kimchi bowl or Namkhao pork & crispy rice plates that were recommended to us. Yet being Banh-Mi sandwich lovers it was the Pho'rench Dip sandwiches ($16) that pulled us in for a try. All the normal Viet flavors were here, but the flavorful Pho soup-broth is an amazing upgrade to a banh-mi sandwich alone. And the cilantro and basil on the sandwich takes it to a vibrancy that run-of-the-mill French Dip sandwiches don't usually achieve. Very nice when 1 + 1 = 3.The prices seem a touch high for a food truck yet we still found the portion fair for price-- and hope we can try other dishes on their menu when we visit Portland again. Service was a touch slow, however, and the potstickers ($8) weren't particularly amazing, so that knocked it a star for us.

I've visited a lot of other carts in the Mississippi pod but had always passed this one by bc it looked to me from the colors, design and name to be just another low quality teriyaki/fusion style pan Asian cart. But upon closer look I saw they offered some interesting stuff like chicken feet and Laotian jerky so I had to try. - Chicken feet: I'm not a huge chicken feet guy but I still like to try the different styles of chicken feet. These tasted like they were steamed a little and then fried a little w/ lemon pepper seasoning. I liked these better than Chinese chicken feet (which I find to be cold & soggy) but still not as much as Korean chicken feet which are just spicy AF to disguise the fact ur eating chicken feet. If you haven't had chicken feet before don't be expecting some delicious meaty delicacy, you are chewing on toes, but hey it's a fun drinking snack.- Laotian beef jerky: very good, served w/ fish sauce for dipping and rice. Has a nice dry rub on it that makes it taste more like steak than jerky.- Crispy rice ball fried rice: interesting to try, pretty good but I prefer more Chinese style fried rice.I've had plenty of Thai & Vietnamese food of course but think this was my first time trying Laotian, it was very good, similar but a little different.

Solid and great tasting meal here! I tried the Spam & Egg which gives you fried spam covered in teriyaki sauce, an over medium egg, kimchi, and green onions all over white rice. The spam was super good and the sauce really added to its yummy flavor. Kimchi was also great. If you've ever bought that brand of kimchi from Costco, that's what it tasted like! I didn't end up eating too much of the rice (you get a generous portion underneath everything) but it was still a delicious and filling meal! I mostly ate the top layer of rice where the various juices from the egg, kimchi, and teriyaki sauce had saturated it.The woman who took my order was super chill and kind too. I ordered around 4pm on a Friday and I'd say a little under half the outdoor sitting was full so not busy at all! I'd love to come back and try the beignets she has! But overall, it was a fairly basic meal, filling, and at a good price! Worth checking out!

Excellent portions for their rice dishes, worth the price. We ordered the waterfall beef and the salt & pepper shrimp. Delicious flavors and seasoned well. The mango in the sticky rice was sour, but the dessert itself tasted good overall. I wish the Thai Iced Tea had less ice though, that was the only thing on the menu that didn't feel was worth the price. We also ordered a Medium spicy Papaya Salad but our mouth was on FIRE. Literally. I didn't know how to get through the dish without water. It was also a tad bit too salty for my taste. I would order here again though!

There were just so many things on the menu I wanted to try, but also wanted to try other foods from other food trucks. So, I finally decided on the Spam Rice Bowl, Uncle O.G.'s Sticky Icky Wings, and Salt & Pepper Chicken Feet. The Spam Rice Bowl was good, your average spam and rice. The wings were tasty. The chicken feet had good flavor, but wouldn't order that again. It was very difficult to eat; too tough. Could barely get any kind of meat or skin or anything off of it.

I didn't order any of the main food but saw they were serving beignets and just had to try them. They are warm and slightly crunchy outside but have a soft texture inside and almost reminds me of the ones in New Orleans. You can even choose an ube dipping sauce instead of chocolate and some others as well. The food looks good here and I wouldn't doubt it is. Definitely try the beignets. Great location with variety here too along with other other carts around in the vicinity.

We came here solely for the beignets after seeing the group of people next to us eating it - it looked SO good so we couldn't miss out obviously lol. The beignets were a hit!They came with either a pandan or ube glaze, to which we chose the pandan. Admittedly, the pandan tasted like just sweetened condensed milk with a minimal hint of pandan, but this didn't take away from our experience at all since the beignets were just too darn good.The powdered sugar was generous and the beignets were light and fluffy with a crunch on the outside when you bit it. Dipped with the pandan glaze, it became super addicting to eat. Our group of 4 ate the entire thing in a matter of minutes lol.The pho french dip seemed like an interesting concept, but we didn't have a chance to try it since we had already eaten at the neighboring food carts. The ambiance of the general area was super cute - lots of picnic tables to eat and a wide range of options to dine at.

I love that their food cart is in a food cart area, so there's cute outdoor seating with some covered. It's located on a busy street with multiple options of food/bars. The person that took our order was very nice.Thai tea can be so hit or miss & they nailed it! It tasted perfect. Just the right amount of tea & sweetness. I got the salt & pepper calamari which was good & fixed my craving for it. It was a tad bit too salt for my liking & there were some clumps of salt. My partner got the fried salmon belly which he loved! I tried some of it & it was delicious. Overall, a yummy place to try while you enjoy the outdoors too!

White Elephant is part of a really nice food cart pod on Mississippi. The location itself is really nice and definitely always pretty busy with a good energy. There's so many options to pick from here, but I always keep coming back to White Elephant.I'm not at all well verse in Laotian food, but this really surprised me! I had the Laotian beef jerky which was very tender, moist, and packed full of flavor. When I hear "beef jerky", my mind conjures images of dry, tough strips of meat sitting in a gas station store for who knows how long. While these are still strips of beef, they're anything but that. Major downside about this place is the hours. I can't count how many times I've swung by here to grab something and they're closed. I think they're closed Monday through Wednesday and the latest they stay open is 7pm... which to me is usually when I prefer to eat dinner.Other than that, highly recommend!

Fried salmon belly. Stupid good. It's crunchy, salty, fatty, decadent, and straight up addicting. We got the plate for $17 and it came with a huge portion of fish! I think it would be too rich for me to finish the whole plate by myself, so I would recommend getting this and something else either here or at one of the neighboring food carts to split with another person. The fish sauce complemented the salmon so well! I wish there was more rice as the salmon was so salty and also that they added a pickled element to the plate. Overall, one of the best bites I've had in Portland!