Making Moustache Cookies at Butter + Love. Photo by Donny.

For his upcoming beer video, Brian interviewed Garrett Oliver at the Brooklyn Brewery, Donny has a new installment in his Foodaisance series at Butter + Love, Rachel lunched at Urban Lobster Shack, Blondie recapped Choice Streets, Brownie enjoyed the sheep’s milk dumplings at Kefi and I got a preview of Bed-Stuy’s newest bar.

Elsewhere in the ML universe… Zach launched a Food is the New Rock podcast, Jamie checked out a truck that serves hamburgers and banh mi sandwiches in Philly and Andrea reported on a sustainable food truck event called International Meats Local downtown at New Amsterdam Market this weekend.

We haven’t check in with Pure Thai (the winner of ML’s Reader’s Poll last year for Best Thai) since they were forced to change their name from Pure Thai Shophouse to Pure Thai Cookhouse. It’s been a favorite of Chris H.’s for a while now and I decided it was finally time to make the pilgrimage to Ninth Avenue for myself.  I came with a few friends so we were able to order more food and stay within our budgets. We started with two appetizers – both on their own are within ML price limit, but neither are large enough for a full meal.

The steamed vegetable dumplings were dramatically green with a ground up mixture of peanuts, tofu, spinach, and garlic inside. The ingredients were all ground together so it was hard to really pick out individual flavors of textures. But with a dip into the sweet hoisin-like ginger soy sauce, they were delicious. A little tough to keep from falling apart, but the tender skins and the earthy mixture worked wonders.

I also really enjoyed the green papaya salad which had a serious level of heat with some cooling sweetness from the crisp papaya shards and a chewy texture from bits of dried shrimp. We also love the Ratchaburi Crab and Pork dish with handmade egg noodles and scallions. Chris raved about it and that’s why I ordered it. I’m so glad I did because the springy noodles had a nice sweet/tart balance and the meat was all fresh and tender.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed with the Wok Stir-Fried Beef with Chili Turmeric. The waitress asked me if I wanted it spicy and so I gave my default answer of “medium.” That might have been a mistaked because it ended up without much flavor. It had a slight creeping heat, but nothing to warrant three (spice) stars on the menu. The asparagus and green beans were fresh and provided texture, but the beef was a little tough and chewy. Even the promising sauce of turmeric and chilies lacked an acidity and flavorful punch.

But the rest of our meal was quite memorable. While I didn’t love everything we tried, I tend to concur with the masses and felt that the quality and depth of flavors here far surpasses most of the other Thai food I’ve had in Midtown.

Pure Thai Cookhouse, 766 9th Ave (btw 51+52nd), 212-581-0999

UPDATE: After this post initially went up we got word that Solber Pupusas and Paty’s Tacos will both be at the event… with more vendors to be announced soon.  Stay tuned!

Thanks to Lunch’er Mike for sending over this one…

“On my way to B&H I passed by this new looking establishment, Zoob Zib (on 9th Ave. btw. 36+37th), which made me think either it was Ewok cuisine or Bill Cosby might be the executive chef. No web presence yet, but it had tables and chairs on the inside and looks very close to launch. It’s literally right next door to Aura Thai, whose previous reviews speak very true about their noodle soups but mediocre to good for their Thai food.”

Just what 9th Ave. needs… another Thai restaurant! Although we guess the “noodle bar” part is intriguing? As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know- and if any early adopters manage to make it there before we do when it opens, feel free to let us know how it is in the comments.

We received sad news in the comments last week. Sam, the halal cart vendor on 35th Street, near 6th Avenue suffered a heart attack while setting up for business Thursday morning and died shortly afterward. Last year, his cart caught my attention due to his method of mixing the sauces in with the meat when on the griddle. The technique helped get him a respectable 7th place in last year’s street meat-palooza.

More importantly though, Sam was warm and friendly to all of his customers. During my visits to the cart, he flirted with the ladies, joked with the guys and put everyone at ease. Days after I wrote the post about his cart, he had it printed up and displayed it proudly for all to see.  His hospitality and pride in his work will be greatly missed.

Photo Courtesy of Detroit Publishing, Library of Congress, Circa 1900

Yesterday we linked to a Crain’s report that has revenue from some food trucks down a whopping 70%, a fact that undoubtedly has to do with food truck owners struggling with unclear laws, a barrage of parking tickets, and other difficulties that make operating their small businesses much more difficult than it should be. Yet this is nothing new, just the latest batch of regulations and restrictions street vendors have had to overcome for centuries.

Since vending from pushcarts has always been a great way for new immigrants to get a start in their new country, the food has changed with the wave of immigrant groups that have come through this city. The earliest street food was not hot dogs or pretzels, but in fact oysters and clams. At one time, this was the food of the masses and even the poorest citizens ate oysters for dinner. As European immigrants continued to come to New York, the street food changed to hot corn, pickles, knishes, and sausages. In the 1970’s and 80’s, it was predominantly Greek souvlaki and kabobs being sold from carts. And then as the Muslim population increased, so did the halal carts which now make up most of our lunches here in Midtown.

Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress, Circa 1915

The first law regulating food carts was known as the Thirty Minute Law, wherein a pushcart had to re-locate every thirty minutes. That was a difficult law to enforce (especially in the overcrowded poorer neighborhood of the Lower East Side) and the law was probably disobeyed more than it was obeyed. In fact, the very first pushcart market was established on Hester Street in 1886 when four Jewish peddlers decided to stay put for much longer than 30 minutes. These markets grew in popularity across lower Manhattan. While many organizations made attempts, there was little regulation at these markets and corruption, uncleanliness, and chaos ran rampant.

Photo Courtesy of Gordon Parks (Library of Congress), Circa 1943

During the Depression the faces of the vendors changed as many people were out of work and took to selling the iconic 5 cent apple from a pushcart. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that during another low point in our economic history, we’re seeing lots of native born citizens taking to the street selling everything from ice cream sandwiches to grilled cheese to Korean tacos.

Moore Street Market; Photo Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library

Around that time, Mayor LaGuardia attempted to put a ban on street food and lose the open air pushcart markets. He established indoor public markets (like the Essex Street Market) and sought to “legitimize” vendors by having them work in a stationary enclosed space. The vendors would now have to pay rent, they were forced to vend in close quarters with their competition, and their customers would have to come find them. Needless to say, this wasn’t a very popular idea and ultimately, of course, street vendors were thankfully not eliminated.

More recently, Mayor Giuliani tried a similar approach in the 90’s to “clean up the streets”. He effectively closed more than 100 new streets to vendors and proposed re-locating vendors back into open air puschart markets. This didn’t work in the ’30’s and it didn’t work back then.

Despite what Crain’s hints at, food vendors are not going anywhere in this city. They’re culturally, economically, and culinarily important. But while the type of food sold on the street continues to evolve, the battle between lawmakers and vendors remains eerily familiar.

Interested in taking one of Brian’s tours? This is just part of the information you get, in addition to six food samplings. Check out urbanoyster.com to find out how to purchase tickets.

It’s not all that uncommon that I run out the door without something to eat in the morning so I was pretty excited to see that Potbelly in Rock Center is now serving breakfast. And even more excited to see that they had steel cut oats. I’m a big steel cut oatmeal fan and I usually splurge for the oatmeal at Jamba Juice, so I had to see how Potbelly stacked up.

Let’s just say it was a big disappointment.  I’m guessing that someone at Potbelly must have misread the recipe because instead of a pinch of salt these oats were crazy salty. How salty? Let’s just say I’ve had cheap ramen with less sodium. If I had tasted this on the premise I would have demanded a refund on the spot, but I was already back at my desk and soon too wrapped up in work to return my oatmeal. Aside from the saltiness issue, I found that the Potbelly oats were just generally overcooked and lacked the toothsomeness that I’ve come to expect from steel cut oats.

While I’m not the biggest Jamba Juice fan, I do think if you like steel cut oats they do a great job. The oatmeal is available all day (a plus for if you’re looking for a cheap afternoon snack or if you’re like me and enjoy breakfast for lunch) and the staff at the Rock Center does a good job cooking it so that it’s never been gloppy, runny or dry in my experience (and the oatmeal texture doesn’t seem to vary as much based on time of day at the Rock Center branch).  And it’s never ever tasted like a salt lick.

Has anyone else tried the oatmeal at Potbelly? Was my experience isolated? Should I give them another shot?

• This 30 Great Sandwiches list includes a few from Midtown [SENY]
• Tabata is the best of the latest NYC ramen newcomers [Village Voice]
• Five Guys’ grilled cheese sandwich is not bad [SENY]
• Margon puts potato sticks on their steak sandwich [SENY]
• Robert Sietsema doesn’t like MomoMilkBar’s Thanksgiving croissant [FITR]
• Hide Chan Ramen is almost just as good as Ippudo, without the wait and the noise [Gothamist]

Yesterday, more than 50 winning lunchers joined us for a free meal at Koreatown’s Food Gallery 32 provided by the fine folks at Google Places. Blondie, Brownie, Chris and I snacked on some great food and met more than a few of the winners.

If you didn’t make it, follow the jump for a few of the dishes that we ate there.

Ojingeo dupbap – Spicy squid over rice

Mul Naengmyeon from Noodle 32

Korean Pork Ramen also from Noodles 32

Ojingeo spicy spaghetti from Pastel

kimchi soondubu jjigae from Hanok

Ojingeo Bokkeum from Hanok

…and some sort of tofu dish that Brownie picked up to go for her mom.

It was great to see so many of the different dishes available at Food Gallery 32, I’m certainly going to give a few of them a try on upcoming visits.

Thanks to Google for the free food and to all who participated (also to Chris for identifying most of the dishes for me). If you came through let us know how you enjoyed it in the comments.