Midtown Lunch

Only two days until the Vendy Awards, and longtime fans of the event might have noticed there is one thing missing… videos! Every year the Street Vendor Project releases videos of the finalists and we got our hands on them. After the jump hear Fatima Khan talking about the origin of the Tini Paki Boys Cart, and Arturo Macedo talking about how he turned a normal doughnut cart into a breakfast eggstravaganza!

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If you haven’t heard by now, our very own Korilla BBQ truck will be competing in the second season of Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. The show premieres on August 14th, and they’ve released a sneak peek of the new season- complete with Korilla getting publicly spanked by Tyler Florence for speeding. Check out the video after the jump…

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Last October, Zach, Chris H., and I spent a lovely afternoon stuffing our faces from food trucks at “Carts in the Parc”, one of the highlights of the 2010 New York City Wine & Food Festival. Luckily for Zach, it also meant meeting his idol, Andrew Zimmern, who not only hosted the event but filmed two episodes for his ‘curbside cuisine’ show “Appetite for Life”. (The same show that had him visiting Schnitzel & Things and Jamaican Dutchy last month.) Well, the show’s clips have finally hit the interwebs, and have Zimmern checking out faves like Eddie’s Pizza Truck and the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (complete with a blurring out of the words ‘salty’ and ‘pimp’.)

Check out the videos after the jump (bonus points if you can spot a certain former Downtown Lunch’er)

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Remember when Andrew Zimmern visited the Schnitzel & Things Truck back in September for his MSN web series Appetite for Life?  Well it turns out he also visited the Jamaican Dutchy!  The video was just posted, and it shows him having a great time making Schnitzel with Oleg, and Jerk Chicken with O’Neil (which he calls the best jerk chicken he’s ever had.)  Check out the video after the jump…

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Speaking of eating bugs… Andrew Zimmern was in Midtown yesterday doing a mini tour of his favorite Midtown food trucks for MSN’s Appetite For Life.  First he hit up the Schnitzel and Things truck, where he manned the fryers and chatted with customers, before heading over to Kelvin Slush for an afternoon cool down.  Our man Chris H. grabbed this photo of him ordering a ginger, mint and basil slush, and the S&T Truck posted some video on their twitter account.

Our favorite is the one in which our hero shames a girl eating a “healthy” lunch into trying some of his schnitzel. Check out all the videos after the jump…

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With all the turf war controversy surrounding Mister Softee trucks, we’ve always imagined Softee President Jim Conway as some kind of soft serve puppet master, holed up in his Jersey lair ruling the summer streets of NYC with a iron fist.  Nope.  Saw him on Fox Business channel last week, and he looks like… well… the owner of a large (and extremely professional) ice cream company.  Miss Softee makes an appearance in the background, and Conway goes into some interesting business facts about Mister Softee- including the fact that the hours are long, and many of their franchises are owned by immigrants from South America, Eastern Europe and West Africa.

Check out the video after the jump…

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Speaking of Street Meat Palooza 3… last night’s episode of No Reservations was a follow up to his ultra popular food porn show from last year. He had cameos from famous chefs, and showed off a lot of expensive food… but the best part of the show for us was seeing our hero down a gyro pita alone on the street from the Halal Cart on the SW corner of 53rd and 6th (the one that pretends to be the famous cart that parks in the same spot at night.) The segment was titled “I Like It Dirty”, and Bourdain waxes poetic about street meat like only he can, likening waiting on the long line to waiting outside a methodone clinic “only more rewarding ultimately.” There’s no doubt that the lamb on pita tasted good, but we can’t help but wonder if he knows the whole story behind the cart he chose!

Check out the video after the jump…

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I’m sure hardcore Improv Everywhere fans have seen this already (because this “mission” happened almost five months ago) but I just saw it yesterday for the first time and felt the need to post it… not just because it takes place in the Trump Tower atrium (on 56th and 5th) but also because I too kind of love lunch.

Check out the video after the jump…

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*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.