Midtown Lunch

*Sigh*  You’ve got to love the local news… Last night CBS2 filed this overdramatized report about the perils of eating street food. Apparently two guys in New Jersey were found guilty of running an illegal (and gross) commercial kitchen out of their house in New Jersey, so it clearly calls into question the cleanliness of all street vendors (it must be dirty… look at those black and white shots of the griddles!)  We’re not claiming all street vendors are clean, but it is a fact that the DOH gets far more complaints about people getting sick from restaurants than street vendors (a point glossed over in the piece.)  The report ends on a lighter note, pointing to “clean” vendors like the Dosa Man, Wafels & Dinges Truck and Street Sweets as the “good guys”, and also mentions that “with more licenses expected soon” (doubtful) and “more TV chef superstars expected to get into the business” there is no end in site.  Really?  Maybe those people should read this.

Photo courtesy of Ambitious Delish

Unsurprisingly, the Frites N Meats Truck’s first day in Midtown (on 52nd btw. 6+7th) has been an eventful one! According to Lunch’er MattZ, the line was 30 people long by 12:30 and they stopped taking orders at 1:30pm. But the real kick in the balls came at the end of service… according to Esther from Ambitious Delicious the cops hassled the truck for parking in a metered spot and forced them to leave. Thankfully they let them serve out the rest of the customers who had already ordered, but other sources say the cop told the truck if they parked on that street again they’d be towed.

Between that and the mixed reviews in the comments we’re not sure what this will mean for future visits to Midtown (after all the La Cense burger truck started off strong before petering out and disappearing.)

Forgetting about the comparisons with the Carnegie John’s burger for now, Lunch’er Adam Prato seemed to like it. His report is after the jump…

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The new DOH street vendor rules took effect on January 1st, and even though they admitted the no seafood rule was a mistake and won’t be enforced, there is another new law that is causing some discomfort (literally.) Last week a Downtown street vendor had his permit confiscated when he left his cart unattended to go to the bathroom- which is now outlawed under the new rules. (The vendor knew he was violating the rule, but he has a tumor in his colon, and couldn’t hold it in any longer.) So this morning the Street Vendor Project held a protest in front of the DOH in an effort to get the new law repealed. No word on if the protest worked, but we wish them luck. Insert urine joke here… or instead, feel bad that a grown man with a tumor will now be out of work for at least a few weeks because he went to the bathroom. (Or you can do both.)

Photo courtesy of the Village Voice

Photo courtesy of Blondie

The ML Twitter Tracker is looking like a school cancellation list… Cravings Truck, Jiannetto’s, Rickshaw Dumplings, Street Sweets,  Treats Truck, and Wafels and Dinges have all “called in sick” today.  But for a lot of the old school vendors it’s business as usual.  The Biriyani Cart (on 46th and 6th) and Kwik Meal (on 45th and 6th) are both working today, and when we asked O’Neill about his Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st and 7th) he replied “Ain’t no snow going to keep us from working!”  Gotta love it.

If you actually made it into work today, and can stand to be outside for an extra few minutes- support your street vendors today.  And let us know who else is out in the comments…  these vendors are busting their ass for us, and the fact that they are out today shows you that every penny they make is super important. Let’s show them some support.

UPDATE: via Twitter… “The tamale lady in front of the Mexican embassy (oft lauded by Midtown Lunch) is so hardcore. She’s still out there, even with all the snow! “

I know it’s freaking cold out there these days, but don’t let that deter you from the street meat!  Street Vendor business always drops off in the winter, and this year is no different.  I’ve already heard from a number of vendors that business has dropped as much as 60%, and it’s not just the cold… it’s the wind too.  So as tempting as it is to eat at whatever crappy chain is at the bottom of your building, get out there and help your favorite street vendor make it through the winter.

And just to show that I practice what I preach, I dragged Hagan (the 93 plates dude) to the 53rd & 6th St. cart today, which we proceeded to eat on the street in the freezing cold!  And from what I hear, we just missed the DOH…

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Apparently yelling loud does get the Department of Health’s attention! A DOH spokesperson emailed Gothamist to claim the whole thing was a misunderstanding:

“The Health Department currently prohibits, and will continue to prohibit the sale of raw shellfish from a mobile food cart. However, the wording in the recent amendments to the Health Code effectively prohibit the sale of all seafood, raw and cooked, and that was unintentional. The Health Department intends to fix this, and will not enforce this amendment as written.“

That’s a huge relief! Now how about the smoothie vendors? Do they all need to outfit their carts with refrigerators, or was that unintentional as well?

The brand new version of Article 89 of the Health Code of NYC, which now outlaws all seafood, fish, and shellfish from being prepared or sold by street vendors, takes effect in just 15 days. And as yesterday’s news makes its way through the vendor community (and those love it) it’s looking more and more like the Department of Health slipped this rule in under our noses. A small percentage of vendors in New York City sell seafood, and some might be able to get rid of it without a huge impact on their bottom line- like the tianbula from the NYC Cravings Truck (“chicken and pork chops are our bread and butter”). But for vendors like the Schnitzel Truck and Kwik Meal, (and street food lovers like us) it’s a far bigger deal.

Schnitzel Truck owner Oleg had this to say:

“If fish is stored, prepared and sold properly, why is it assumed to be more dangerous than meat or poultry that can also easily spoil if not kept under proper conditions. We feel that our cod schnitzel is a great addition to the menu and adds another dimension to the overall experience of eating from a food truck. There are numerous customers that only eat the cod from us and we feel terrible that we’ll have to remove it from the menu.”

I also spoke to Kwik Meal owner Muhammad Rahman, and he seemed genuinely speechless that he might have to give up selling something he’s been cooking for years.

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If this is wrong, than I don’t want to be right…

I’m all for the Department of Health making sure our food is safe to eat, but this is ridiculous!  Apparently at the end of last year, the Department of Health adopted a resolution that rewrote many parts of the health code as it pertains to street vendors.  It takes effect January 1st of this year, and if enforced it’s going to have a huge effect on Midtown Lunch’ing.  Namely, no more fish, shellfish, or seafood from street vendors.  Here it is direct from the newly rewritten Article 89:

§89.19 f(2) Fish. No fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal, as defined in Article 81, shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit.

The full ramifications of this are just sinking into my brain right now, and it’s easy to joke about the “safety” of eating seafood from a truck. But think about all the great seafood options being offered right now from carts and trucks in Midtown alone… the fried cod from the Schnitzel Truck, Tianbula from the NYC Cravings Truck, and the always delicious salmon and tilapia served by Kwik Meal (shown above.) And worst of all, what the hell is Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart going to sell?! This must be some kind of a bad dream.

And that’s not all.

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Today’s Washington Post has an incredibly interesting article on how difficult it’s been for new street vendors are having in places like Virginia, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It’s refreshing to see an article this balanced and well researched, a stark contrast to most of the recent puff pieces that make street vending out to be the next cash cow for restaurant entrepreneurs. It talks about the different rules vendors face in different cities, and also reports on some solutions that are being suggested in places like San Francisco.  Even though the article doesn’t really cover New York City, the issues (and the final line of the article) are relevant to us.  “Right now it’s mayhem. If this food truck thing blows up even more, it could get really messy.” [via @biggayicecream]

Related:
News Flash: New Street Vendors Are Finding It Difficult to Make Money
Prediction: New Carts & Trucks Are About to See Some Serious Backlash

I love it when Anthony Bourdain gets all vitriolic on the things that bother him (I find myself agreeing with him pretty much every single time) but I can’t stand by his (totally surprising) opinion about New York City street food.  A few weeks ago, after heaping praise on a hot dog cart in Denver for an upcoming episode of No Reservations, Bourdain was quoted saying some not so nice things about his hometown street meat options:

[“Really awesome”] is not how he’d describe the frankfurters in New York, which are “standard dirty water dogs” and “completely forgettable,” Bourdain said, a snub that he extended to New York street food in general. “The street food in New York is shameful, terrible and indefensible,” he complained. “It’s absolutely appalling.”

He does clarify the statement a bit to exclude the street food of the outer boroughs.

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