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I'm always a bit suspicious of outside food. I eat it sometimes, and so far I've been ok (knock on wood). But every now and then I hear of people getting the worst diarrhea or other problems. I can't help but think one of these days it will be me. Anyone have similar experiences?
I've been eating street food in various countries for a good while now, and I haven't ever had a bad experience. I have seen some fairly gross looking carts here and there, but I just avoid those. For the most part, NYC street food seems perfectly fine to me. I mean, at least they're doing a lot of the work out in public where you can see what they're doing. Who knows what goes on in kitchens, eh?
And I feel that Halal carts, while delicious, shouldn't be as dominant as they are. I'd like there to be more competition with a greater number of different foods being offered. Ideally, I'd like every ethnicity be competing wildly with their own ethnic cuisine street vendors--seriously, the street vendors in East and Southeast Asia had way more variety than the vendors here.
And I feel that Halal carts, while delicious, shouldn't be as dominant as they are. I'd like there to be more competition with a greater number of different foods being offered. Ideally, I'd like every ethnicity be competing wildly with their own ethnic cuisine street vendors--seriously, the street vendors in East and Southeast Asia had way more variety than the vendors here.
I agree, I'd prefer more diversity in street food. I doubt you would get every ethnicity though. One reason why Halal food is so prominent is that there are many low-skill poor Middle Eastern immigrants in NYC. Some immigrants are not as poor or low skilled (Japanese, for example) and may not want to work in food carts all day long.
Also some cuisines may not be suitable for street cooking. Sometimes you need things like running water, or an oven.
I agree, I'd prefer more diversity in street food. I doubt you would get every ethnicity though. One reason why Halal food is so prominent is that there are many low-skill poor Middle Eastern immigrants in NYC. Some immigrants are not as poor or low skilled (Japanese, for example) and may not want to work in food carts all day long.
Also some cuisines may not be suitable for street cooking. Sometimes you need things like running water, or an oven.
There's the new spurt of young'uns in trucks selling the odd items here and there (so far I've seen bbq, taiwanese food, belgian waffles, and tacos), so hopefully those are actual sustainable businesses rather than trust fund experiments. Also, I'm sure the vendors can figure out a way to adapt some of the foodstuffs since most cuisines have a variety of foods and many geared towards easy preservation and preparation.
Are these sidewalk food vendors spread out everywhere or are they all clumped up together?
In Taiwan we have night markets, which is actually just lots and lots of food carts clumped together. And you'll rarely see a food vendor by himself with no other food vendors around.
They're usually by themselves, or in heavy foot traffic areas, there might be one on every corner. There's nothing like the night markets here though--the closest you'll get are certain parts of Flushing and even then they're tiny compared to the night markets.
I agree, I'd prefer more diversity in street food. I doubt you would get every ethnicity though. One reason why Halal food is so prominent is that there are many low-skill poor Middle Eastern immigrants in NYC. Some immigrants are not as poor or low skilled (Japanese, for example) and may not want to work in food carts all day long.
Also some cuisines may not be suitable for street cooking. Sometimes you need things like running water, or an oven.
Well it is cheap, you can't beat five bucks for a large meal of chicken, rice and lettuce.
I actually asked a guy in Herald Square about the lack of knishes... he said it was the state and mumbled something about how it's tough to sell them because the state or whoever their governing body is... he told me that if they sell knishes they have stricter guidelines... not sure if there's any truth but that's what I was told.
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