Both Austin and Portland have excellent food.

Where Austin Wins:

• Tacos: Totally has the taco market cornered. This is Austin's signature food and it's done well, plus you can find a variation near you that meets your needs of price, size, and flavor.
• BBQ: You'd be hard pressed to find better bbq than has popped up in Austin in the past 5 years.
• Dr Pepper: Or more specifically Dublin Dr Pepper (RIP), Doppelgänger, and Dr B.
• Mexican food: While Portland has some surprisingly great Mexican food (Verde Cocina, and various dive joints all over the place) Texas naturally wins this category both for quantity and average quality.

Where Portland Wins:
Food in Portland I would argue is a bit more varied than in Austin because there's not such a strong taco/bbq market. Not saying that what they have is better, just different and delicious.

• Vegetarian/Gluten-free: Austin does this pretty well, but Portland definitely wins. As an omnivore that can eat gluten I'm blown away by how good some stuff like cashew cheese, quinoa, and al dente kale can be.
• Mushrooms: There's SO much more to mushrooms than button caps and portabellas. If you think of mushrooms as nature's bacon, and then imagine it blending even better with all sorts of food, then that's what it's like. So yummy!
• Asian Food: There's so much good asian food here and it's not just locked down to a tiny area of town for the good stuff (like MT Market).
• Food trucks: While popular in both places, Portland's are much more ubiquitous and tend to have their shit a bit more in order (I'm looking at you Chi'lantro where you can only turn out a single burrito about once per 5 min!)
• Walkability: But wait, that's not food! True, but in Portland food tends to concentrate in these little walkable neighborhoods, so if you grab a bite in one place you can meander to an art gallery, digest a bit, then grab ice cream or cocktails at a small tucked away bar.

Where they tie:

• Hipster food: Chicken-fried waffles with bacon miso glaze. Coffee beer. Noble Pig-style Sandwiches. Portland probably got off to a start faster, but great hipster food can be found in both places
• Local chains that are tasty: For every Torchy's there's a Bunk Sandwiches. For every P. Terry's there's a Little Big Burger.
• Beer: Both places have some amazing breweries. Portland got a head start, but Austin produces some very respectable stuff, and they're more willing to venture outside of using just hops (Portland is starting to figure out flavors beyond hops too).
• Coffee: In the past 3 years or so Austin got its act together and with places like Houndstooth and Cuvee giving places like Stumptown and Coava a great run for their money. Venture outside of Starbucks and both towns will please.
• Ice Cream: Both places have great ice cream with unique profiles. Want quality like Lick and you can find it at places like Salt and Straw

No matter which way you slice it both towns have great food and you could happily try new place after new place and by the time you got bored there'd be a whole slew of new places to try.