Thursday, February 24, 2011
Food Cart Nightshift Workers @9:30 pm
Various Locations Midtown Manhattan
Every Wednesday I’m going to be going somewhere and taking photos of people working the night shift.
Food trucks have become all the rage these days. Mobile kitchens roam the town selling everything from burgers to steaks to tacos to (of course) cupcakes. They have Twitter and facebook accounts and update constantly to let the hungry masses know which corner the restaurant on wheels will be parked and for how long. However, before the food truck, there was the street vendor selling food from a cart. Usually simple fare, like hot dogs, sausages, meat skewers and pretzels. These vendors are still out there and I thought I’d go out and get some shots of them before the food trucks run them over and put them out of business. I hope you’re hungry!
Okay, one block away from work and we've found a nighttime cart already.
It's a Halal food cart. A lot of late-night carts are Halal vendors. Remember our 53rd and 3rd friend?
And here's the fellow inside of the cart. I ordered a hotdog from him.
And he flew into action. He's got a grill in here, this isn't your average New York dirty water dog.
And a liberal dose of mustard seals the deal. He almost put ketchup on it, but luckily I stopped him in the nick of time. Ketchup does not belong on a hotdog.
And there you go, a perfectly cooked, New York street dog. Delicious!
This woman waved at me as I took a picture of her and her cart.
She was a very nice Russian woman and she happily served me up a pretzel.
Here's a loaded Sabrett cart. I'm not hungry after the hotdog and pretzil, but let's see who's manning this food cart.
He was a nice guy waiting for customers on a chilly evening.
Okay, let's go down the block and see who we can find.
It's the Nuts 4 Nuts man!
Here he is, displaying a bag of his product. Pretty nuts, huh?
That cart has an electric sign on top of it. Let's go check it out.
Pretty fancy, let's see who's manning this food cart.
There's a lot of choices here, foodwise. I kind of wish I wouldn't have filled up earlier.
There's no one in here though. An empty cart.
Hey, here he is, he was taking a break outside of his cart. He told me business was a little slow tonight. Hopefully it'll pick up when it warms up outside.
Speaking of warming up, I was freezing, so it's time to head homeward bound. We'll go down 7th Avenue.
Graffiti on a window on 7th Avenue.
Holy smokes!
Look, it's a station wagon with a thyroid problem.
Health is wealth...
But liquor is quicker. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.
Eating from street vendor carts is a little like eating a buffets in delis around town. You’re kind of taking your stomach on a little bit of a joy ride that sometimes doesn’t end up quite so joyous. I’ve heard street vendors carts referred to as “roach coaches,” and the most disgusting thing I’ve ever witnessed was in Times Square, a long time ago. I can’t remember where I was going, this is years ago, I was probably headed to Show World to go watch the cum cleaners in action, but all of a sudden I realized I was starving. There was a food cart a few feet away, so I went over and ordered a hot dog from the guy. It was the middle of summer, hot and while the cart didn’t look like the cleanest thing in the world, I was starving so I tried to ignore the grime the cart was covered in. I asked him to put mustard on it, but I got a bonus. Right after he applied a liberal dose of mustard to the dog from a dirty, generic yellow squirt bottle, he sneezed. Directly on the hot dog. And then acting like nothing was wrong he spat out, “Buck and a quarter.” He was a big guy and he was holding the hot dog with one hand and held the other out for the money.
“But you sneezed on it,” I said in horror.
“You order, you pay,” the guy said in a clipped accent I didn’t recognize. Wherever he was from, I guess it’s okay to sneeze and serve.
“Forget it,” I said, raising my hands in defense and then turned to walk away. Seconds later and just a step away I felt something hit me in the back. I stopped looked down and saw a hotdog. He threw it at me. I looked up at him in the cart and he was giving me the finger. At least he didn’t hit me with the mustard side.
You have to love New York!
Further reading: The Vendy Awards, The New York Times, New York Magazine and Gourmet.
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