I should point out that sometimes people go several blocks out of their way to go to a specific falafel cart.
Perhaps the cold in New York, as apposed to the balmy temeratures in San Francisco, helps reduce the risk of food going bad? NY-street vendors, at least in winter, are pretty much operating in a big open air fridge.
I don’t know if the ambient temperatures matter much when those hot dogs have been sitting in that lukewarm water all day!
I gather the hot dogs in NYC are really fresh.
When I was new to New York–back when LaGuardia was still mayor–I had a hot dog from a street vendor. You remember the Patty Duke Show theme song, where they said, “a hot dog makes her lose control?” I think she and I ate from the same cart. I lost control of just about every bodily function, for about a week.
Really? Is it a health code thing, a business competition thing, or a city aesthetics thing? Or some kind of holdover that needs some serious revision so we can get some good gyro and pizza vendors in there? Because that would seriously rock.
Here in the burbs of Chicago, one of my favorite places to eat used to be one of the food trucks (we called 'em roach coaches) that would be by construction sites and by factories - they were my favorite lunch. In Palatine, we still have guys who pedal pushcarts and sell tamales (which I don’t eat cause I really don’t like Mexican food) and Italian Ice guys with pushcarts.
I work in downtown Cleveland and I frequently will get a hotdog from a cart if I happen to be on the streets at lunchtime. They are the only place you CAN buy a hotdog these days unless there’s a Dairy Queen nearby.
My favorites are the Gyoza trucks, the Roti Man (in the financial district) and the Knish trucks. Oooooh! I also love the onions in tomato sauce from the dirty dog trucks!
I’ve never even seen a food truck in the time I’ve been in Atlanta.
We have them in Philadlephia, too. I have eaten at plenty of them. Many times the food is better and cheaper.
There are a lot of them on the Univerisity of Pennsylvania campus. Both when I was a student and employee there, the carts were a source of good, cheap, varied eats. I could eat a nice big meal for $2. Chinese, middle eastern, greek, the ever popular cheesesteak/hoagie, you get the idea.
Of course, the university tried to ban them several years back because their shitty over-priced corporate tenants couldn’t compete. Fortunately it didn’t work.
That’s one of the bad things about where I work now. I’m in the burbs, with no real option but the corporate cafeteria.
However it is my last day here. I think I’ll have a falafel sandwich tomorrow.
Hells yeah.
Bagels and tea from the cart in the morning. Spicy street-meat and rice for a yummy lunch or dinner. Hot dogs and pretzels occasionally.
They cook everything right in front of you. I’d daresay it’s a lot more reassuring than eating from a restaurant kitchen which you can’t see.
There’s a fairly involved process to get a pushcart approved in SF, involving the Department of Public Health, Tax Collector and the police and fire departments. And heaven help you if you want to operate a cart at a park as that opens up a new layer of permits. Another kink is that carts must be within 200 feet of a “toilet room” and a letter must be obtained and filed that the cart operator has unrestricted access to same.
200 feet isn’t really all that far, so carts are effectively tethered to buildings.
Did you ever have the soft hot pretzels from in front of the Franklin Institute? Yum.
Dooku, I figure since the four food cart vendors we have are in tourist-heavy Union Square, they’re probably fine.
NYers, you must understand that if you didn’t grow up with them, some guy with a dirty metal box with wheels, filled with water and hot dogs is a bit disconcerting, even if your brain knows that they’re regulated and checked out.
When I worked in NY (when Lindsay was mayor) I had a hot dog every day, and never got sick. The pretzels are great (no mustard). That was before all the interesting varieties they have now.
The hot dogs were cheap and fast, and gave me more time to sit in Paley Park and read.
Hm. My DH has eaten street food all over the world (including what he and his buds jokingly called ‘monkey on a stick’ in the Philippines - they never did find out what kind of meat it really was) and claims never to have gotten sick from any of it. I’d say your odds of sanitation are probably better here in the U.S. than in many other countries, so I wouldn’t be afraid to try SF street food at all.
I would NEVER eat street food, in any city-the risk of getting hepatitis is real and growing. Plus, unless the vendor wears gloves or has access to soap and water-means he is transferring everything he has touched into your lunch. Not to mention the sooot, ash, and diesel smoke falling onto your food-and pigeon droppings…bleechh!
A few years back we were touring san Juan PR-and asked the cab driver to stop so we could buy some food from a street vendor-his reply was “don’t…we call this place hep alley”! :eek:
I did last Christmas. They were very good.
romansperson: What is a DH as used in your post?
ralph124c: Would you care to cite your dubious claims concerning “the risk of getting hepatitis is real and growing”? Does it actually apply to NYC or SF?
Jim
So, do you personally inspect the kitchen of every restaurant you eat at? How about the factories where any processed food you buy is produced?
As for street food outside the western world, I often feel a lot more confident watching my food being cooked freshly for me at a street stall. The only time I’ve got sick from food in Asia and Africa was from ice cream in a five-star hotel in Kenya. The freshly cooked mystery meat from stalls in Zambia, Cambodia etc? No problem.
Having said that, I certainly never buy from the hot dog stalls in central London, but that’s largely because I gather most of them are actually ultimately owned by rather shady, if not outright criminal, gangs. There was a BBC undercover investigation a few years back.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten from a typical street vendor, but I remember a few hot dog carts that used to hang around when I was at York university. Pretty good food… great for when you were really busy in one of the parts of campus that they were based… (like the chem/comp - sci lib stretch) and didn’t want to go to the student union or a college pub just to grab some food. 