steveb leatherworks: the blather

New Yorkers by and large know food. The city is stuffed with all manner of nationalities and these newcomers bring their indigenous (mm, good word, eh?) foods to the city making it one hell of a smorgasbord for the food savvy and culinary curious. Near every block in NYC has some food, almost always a pizza joint, a deli and a street meat vendor.

Street Meat=a delicacy served on the street from a food cart of one type or another. Street meat vendors have developed quite elaborate merchandising environments…see the Rafiqui’s set up below. This enterprising person has a few of these carts in the city, probably licensed or rented to family members..a common scenario. My man JeffT used to be a Rafiqui’s regular…man when he brought that shit back into the cube farm it absolutely reeked to high heaven…in a good way, as long as you liked onions and whatever stink leaked from the container.

Speaking of that..why is it that others people food stinks, when our own doesn’t? hmmm..clue me in, iffin ya wood.

Surprisingly, the food from most of these carts will not send you scurrying for the shitter with a raging case of ptomaine (another good word, eh?), au contraire, some of these guys really kick out the jams…my Soup dude being one of them. No shit, this guys sells the most kicking corn and lobster chowder you’ve ever had – and chili that is outstanding.  To boot he is a hard working dude that puts in the time, effort and has the skill to delight the tongue. I am a regular, or at least used to be…moving out of the area has precluded me from enjoying his fare.

So  – when visiting NYC, dig in, look for a cart that has a line and jump in. Chances are you’ll get some good stuff and if the weather is good, I encourage you to eat outside on the street..to really experience what its like to…be a savvy NYC food ho’

One more thing – if you see dirty water hot dog carts that look like this (see below)… shine them on…as that is a pretty sure fire path to finding out just how hard a toilet is to find in the city…when ya just got to have one…nuff said…a-ight?