Foodtrucks in the Middle of my Road.
It’s only been two weeks, but they’ve flown by quicker than I’d imagined. I started Day 1 super excited about all the delicious GrubSpots I’d be visiting, but by week’s end, the germaphobe in me began to develop symptoms of hypochondria. I started getting nervous about what I’d eaten, and began to worry about the cleanliness of things like my tamales from a garbage bag and whether or not that pretzel rubbed elbows with a few dirty water dogs on the way to my mouth. The only reason I pushed forth was my watching endlessly my own anticucho nomming at Morocho. If this germaphobic hypochondriac from Queens can eat veal heart and lamb in the first week – what’s to stop him from an all out Andrew Zimmernesque grubfest of devouring nothing but the strangest of strange?
Until I wandered onto the streets of Corona at 11 on a Saturday night and witnessed street after street of the strangest and most foreign StreetGrub – goat, tripe, tongue, blood sausage, and basically everything under the moon that would feel at home under the word “cringe” in the dictionary. I was overwhelemed, and went back into my “safe” zone, ordering the safest dish of beef con arroz. I needed to hit restart, and found refuge in an all-day BBQ block party in Flatiron the very next day. I felt recharged and ready to jump back out of my element, so I started week two with a Meatless Monday (I’m a devout carnivore, so this was like T-Rex suddenly having a change of heart and deciding to nom only on grass and leaves instead of Barney). It was a big deal to me, but by day’s end, my stomach was happy, and I’d checked off another of my mini challenges. In actuality, I enjoyed it so much I’m considering Meatless Mondays for the remainder of the month.
As I reach the midway point of my little journey, I’m realizing that food truck owners and chefs offer more than just an alternative to your normal brick and mortar fare. They’re the underdogs, and as such, take that extra step in bringing you the best, most fruitful interpretation of their own distinctive cuisine. It’s not just hot dogs and reheated frozen knishes anymore – in most cases, these are top-notch gourmet meals cooked and prepped in a kitchen no bigger than your closet.
My readers have often commented on the colorful pictures my amateur eye managed to capture (I’m a fauxtographer!), but it’s all in the quality of ingredients. As my palette begins to open, my mind follows suit to the culture and sense of community food trucks bring to their customers. It’s like the crime-deterring side effect of people-watching through windows at Starbucks - and by bringing people out onto the streets, grubbing in the hustle and bustle of the city no longer becomes a necessity, but one of pleasure. It’s a change in pace I’ll gladly welcome with mouth wide open.
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Hello Steve! Liked this piece very much! I heard you stopped by our cart, sorry I missed you! I especially liked the last part of your article. I believe you are starting to see something I fell in love with through the years of organizing/training street vendors at VAMOS Unidos http://vamosunidos.org, the sense of community. It goes pass the money, it is the realization that our jobs and way of life is hanging by a thread, and that we must somehow figure out how to care for one another in order to protect ourselves and survive. Vending is also something so natural but so demonized by the large corporations. The biggest threat we pose is the example that small, community/family ran, businesses or structures do so much more for the economy as it spreads the wealth more evenly. I am glad to see you are starting to see this part of the field. Saludos!!!!
Hi Rafael- yes, I just happened to be around USQ and it was late too, so I was surprised to see Miguel still there. Thanks for the comment- I started this challenge simply to force myself to eat different food from the street, but I’m learning so much about the industry now!
All of the owners/workers have that strong sense of a tight-knit community because they’re part of that small-business landscape that like you said, is often dwarfed and pushed out by large corporate dollars that buy up super influential lobbyists. I’m definitely starting to see the light- and am glad to be able to shed some of that insight to my readers that may or may not have delved so deeply into this community and its issues before.
I think it goes farther than just serving food, vendors are also indirectly contributing to so many other spectrums of the community – deterring crime by bringing people out onto the streets, bringing more low-cost food options to consumers, and just generally promoting more face-face interaction from vendor to customer, and customer to customer, etc – interrupting the whole electronic-only social circle that we’ve all become so adept at accepting (myself included). I’m definitely not saying it’s bad, but as a NYer, I’ve always been in a rush to get lunch, a rush to go home, etc, and having eaten at nothing but food trucks thus far has really slowed down that train of thought and allowed me to enjoy the company of fresh faces. Anyway, as always, I appreciate your words Rafael and thanks for the link to Vamos Unidos!