Inkwatu

Street Food

Street food has an indelible emotional impact on our memories. I shared some photos of my recent trip to New York, in particular photos of street food vendors (some of which are included in this post) with family and friends. I got several nice notes back in which they recounted early memories of street food in New York. One friend said that some of his earliest memories involve his grandmother buying roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes from vendors for them to munch on while spending an afternoon in mid-town Manhattan. Another, my sister, told me that her earliest memory of anything was of eating a hot dog with sauerkraut on it from a street vendor in New York. I have a similar memory of eating a sauerkraut dog on a New York street corner as a child.

Intense memories. And not just from childhood. From a recent trip to Asia, I still have almost photographically detailed mental images of street vendors and their food. From my youth, I can still taste the salted boiled peanuts I would look forward to buying when we visited our Mississippi relatives. So, it’s no surprise, when trying to think what I could blog about on my NYC trip, that I chose the street food that’s available on almost every corner.

Halal Food Carts

The overwhelming majority of vendors sell halal food. The term, halal, has, as that Wikipedia article describes, various meanings. In brief, in the USA, it means the dietary laws followed by Muslims which are similar to, but not the same as–or interchangeable with–Jewish kosher dietary practices. Every major city on the planet, New York, London, Paris, etc., has numerous halal restaurants. I’m not Muslim, so the spiritual significance of the dietary practices are of only background interest to me. For me, it’s the taste, and halal tastes great.

Every time I’ve had halal food, in a restaurant or from a street vendor, the person serving me always eagerly asks, “Do you like it?!” It seems to be of genuine importance to them that someone who is not Muslim enjoys this food. And, I’ve had a similar experience with every culture’s food I’ve eaten: Native American dishes, food from a large number of different Asian nationalities, various African cuisines, the amazing number of different Mexican, South and Central American culinary traditions, Indian/Pakistani styles, and the different European cuisines (which have an huge variety all their own). Each time the purveyor of foods was intensely interested to know if I, who am not a member of their culture, enjoyed their food. Each time it was easy to answer Yes. Each time they were pleased and answered with a huge grin. Remember “ping pong diplomacy”? Maybe falafel diplomacy would be even more successful.

The halal street food menus were primarily a choice between chicken or lamb or a mix of the two. The meat was served either on a soft pita bread–a la a Greek gyro–or over yellow rice with lettuce. Some of the stands served a sausage which, of course, must have been something other than pork. I wished I’d thought to ask their composition at the time, but I didn’t. If someone knows, please comment. Whether one has the chicken, the lamb, a mix, and on bread or over yellow rice and lettuce, one also has a choice of white sauce (again, like on a Greek gyro) or a really hot red sauce, or both. It’s a full and very satisfying meal, and eaten sitting on a bustling street corner in Manhattan, a special treat.

Fruit and Juice Stands

The fresh fruit stands are something that we desperately need here. Imagine a typical scorcher day here and being able to stop for a second and bite into a juicy peach, or a toss back a handful of blueberries. I realize that Tampabay area made the street vendor hall of fame a few years back with our hot dog stands manned (wrong word) by models in t-back thong swimsuits. Nevertheless…we could do with some fresh fruit stands.

I’m not sure if there’s any connection to the fruit juice stands in NYC, but halal dietary laws forbid the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The only predominately Muslim nation I’ve visited is Malaysia. There, as well as on Malaysian Airlines which I was fortunate to travel, a wide variety of fresh fruit juices were always available, I suspect, because of the dietary restrictions. Malaysia also has a sizable minority which is Buddhist, for whom the consumption of alcohol is considered less than ideal. Regardless of the reason, it would be delightful if the world had more fresh fruit and juice stands.

I get a kick out of watching the endless variety of people and their different attire standing in line: locals blue jeans and t-shirts, tourists with cameras, business men and women dressed for success, some men in baseball caps, some women with scarves, big purses, little purses, high heels, flip-flops, work boots, wing tips, designer fashion, off the rack…all standing in line. There’s something almost philosophical about queuing up. It dramatizes our common humanity: ultimately, we all have to humbly stand in line. (That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.)

Hot Dogs and Knishes

Of course, the archetypical, hot dog cart still is omnipresent on New York street corners. Kosher dogs, of course. And, knishes (”knish” is pronounced “ka-NISH,” rhymes with “dish”). Knishes are kosher stuffed pastries, sort of like our empanadas here in the Tampabay.

Another allure of street food is its sense of carefree freedom…from the vendor’s point of view. Some of us want to run away and join the circus. Others want to run away and have a hot dog stand. I actually knew such a person. He even went so far as to buy a stand which, as I remember, never left storage until another friend of his used it to try out the fantasy. It wasn’t as carefree as either person had hoped, and nowhere near as lucrative as they’d projected. It was hard, hot, exhausting work with a sometimes difficult general public. Last I knew, the stand was back in storage.

Jamaican Jerk

There’s a couple more things I’d like to try next time I get to go to New York. One is to try this Jamaican jerked food stand. But, also I want to see if I can find some other nationalities of street food. I didn’t make it to Chinatown this time, but I don’t remember ever seeing any Asian street food there. There must be some, somewhere in the city. Same for Indian/Pakistani street food. Is there any? I think I saw a Russian or perhaps Turkish street food vendor down in the lower east side, but I didn’t have the chance to determine for sure. Next time…! If anyone knows where to find other types of street food in NYC, please let us know.

Bagel and Donuts

I avoided the bagel and donuts stands because of all the starches, but others–why is it always the thin people?!–were busy filling up on them. The donuts and pretzels and bagels all looked very fresh. I wonder where they’re made, what the supply chain is for the various foods for all these stands. Obviously, the street food stand itself is just the tip of an iceberg of logistics and preparation that makes it possible. The friend I was with wondered, too, about the pecking order for stands and what rules governed the various positions. It would seem that some people had to move from time to time, getting to share key locations, whereas some people never had to move…a complex web of unknown dynamics.

Setting Up and Moving Around

From time to time, a stand would be closed up and moved, just a few feet, exchanging places with another stand. Sometimes a stand would be closed up and taken away entirely. Once, I saw three in a row, being dragged by hand into location from some warehouse. I never saw a stand being pulled by a car or truck, although there were some stands with built-in propulsion. One company seemed to service most of the stands with halal supplies. The following little 30 second video I cobbled together from a series of still shots I took as a vendor went about his morning chore of setting up his stand. It was fun to watch, although I think I might have annoyed him, considering a gesture of impatience he finally made. Nevertheless, he let me continue.

Open Until the Wee Hours

It seemed that some shops stayed open until late, late, late at night. One in particular, near the Avenue of the Americas, one that always had long lines anyway, would have an even longer one late at night. For sure, the emotional tone surrounding the food carts and the streets themselves change after dark. There was a blog theme I admired during the Beijing Olympics which limited itself to shots of Beijing after dark–a lovely idea. Since each city has its own unique personality after dark, I may try applying that idea to St. Pete some day. For sure, the emotions you see in these after dark street food scenes are different than the sunny smiles of the pictures that opened this article.

There’s something about the body languages in the final shot (below) that reminds me of Edward Hooper’s “Nighthawks.” I guess it’s because the “Nighthawks” involves food, late at night, isolation within a teeming metropolis, and expressive body language. It was late (well…late for me) at night when I took that picture, after emerging from a subway while walking back from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) where we watched the city transform from day, through dusk, into night–in itself, an emotive display.

During this trip, I got to see Hooper’s “Gas” at MOMA. I haven’t been to NYC very often. Every time I go, I go determined to make it to the Metropolitan. I never make it past MOMA. My only consolation is that I’m assured I’ll never see all of the Metropolitan in one lifetime anyway (sort of like the British Museum which is cosmic in its vastness).

A friend who has been to New York often suggests that a good motto when visiting that city is to tell yourself, “I’ll do that next time.”

Next time…I’m getting a knish.

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