Under an elevated subway track in Queens, Victor José Hernández was whipping up the pepitos that he had perfected at a street cart in Caracas, Venezuela. Layering freshly grilled chicken and beef with a half-dozen other ingredients on a split roll, he doused the heaping pile with homemade garlic sauce and grated Cheddar cheese on […]
Read MoreTag: Food Trucks and Vendors
In Belém, Brazil, Addictive Dishes are Flavored by the Rainforest and the River
A foreign visitor walking through Praça Brasil, a leafy square in the Amazonian port city of Belém, might think that the whirring blenders at a dozen nearby food carts were creating the most authentic açaí bowls on earth. That would make sense, for Belém is the capital of Pará state, the global epicenter for growing, […]
Read MoreOne Block. 8 Food Carts. One Choice: Fuchka.
Naeem Khandaker believes he can see the future, and the future he sees is fuchka. Mr. Khandaker claimed he was the first person in America to sell the Bengali snack — crispy and orb-like, sweet and spicy in a single bite — when he opened his street cart five years ago on a busy corner […]
Read MoreNew York Has Issued 14 New Food Cart Permits. 10,000 Vendors Want Them.
Elsayed Elgammal, who runs a cart called Mando Halal Food, has a loyal clientele that lines up for his signature chicken and rice dish. But after more than two decades on the same corner in Long Island City, Queens, he still doesn’t own his business. He pays about $20,000 every two years to rent a […]
Read MoreTurning to Street Vending, New Migrants Find a Competitive World
Standing on a subway platform deep below Times Square, Natalí Tualombo, a newly arrived migrant from Ecuador, sold water bottles and sodas from a cooler, her 4-year-old son sitting at her feet. It has become an increasingly familiar sight in New York City, where nearly 120,000 migrants have arrived since spring 2022. Ms. Tualombo said […]
Read MoreAn Ice Cream Tour of Mexico City
Mexico does not have a long history with ice cream. The country’s first versions of the dessert were akin to snow cones, made from ice that was harvested from the summits of the country’s volcanoes and transported via donkeys and mules to urban areas. With a dash of salt and fruit mixed in, these “raspados” […]
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