Okay, it doesn't have to be New York City street food, wherever you live is fine.

Just now, I had 2 "dirty water dogs" with mustard and relish, a pretzel with mustard and a Dr. Brown's cream soda.

I love the chestnuts, come wintertime, that the street guys sell all over mid-town. In the summer, it used to be mostly granitas--shaved ices, but now most vendors carry different tropical fruits, like mangoes and papayas.

Anyone have any favorite "street foods"?

NYC winters contain the most wonderful and unique aromas (and smells ) in the world

Yes indeed, Geoffy!

The shore owns the summer smells, what with the boardwalks and all, but wintertime aromas belong to mid-town. No doubt.

They don't have "street foods" around here. When I was in NYC, after much debating in my mind, I decided to buy a hot dog from one of the vendors. The smell got the best of me and it simply sounded good. I didn't think it was bad at all. Did I make a mistake buying from a vendor? Oh, also another time, I bought a pretzel and a soda.

I find these vendors, be them food and/or pictures/art or whatever, a very unique part of NYC. But then, I'm just a tourist, what do I know?

TIS

I'll tell you what else smells of New York City, more than just about anything else to me. When you're walking up the ramp to Grand Central, the smell of the coffee early, early in the morning. I never tire of it.

We're all tourists, TIS. My grandparents (all 4) were tourists at Ellis Island. They just never bothered to leave.

That's what is really puzzling. Both sets if my grandparents came to Ellis Island, but where to I end up???? Michigan! I coulda been a NYer. "I coulda been a contenda."

TIS

The smell of New York City soft pretzels cooking over the hot coals!

Hot dogs, pretzels and definitely chestnuts! Oh, and I can't resist buying that "beef" on a stick, although God knows what it really is. I love to eat street.

Eat street? Or Street eat?

Are they not interchangeable???

I'm not gonna go there.

In NYC do you have Food trucks? Also known as "Roach Coaches"? They are everywhere here and I think they would be the equivalent to your street vendors.

Nearly all of the trucks are either Mexican food, or a generic American/Asian combination food. Several of the popular Mexican food restaurants here started as food trucks and became so popular that they were able to open a restaurant.

Yeah... we have them here, too, but most of our vendors have carts (that they attach to a car at the end of a day and simply drive away).

6th Avenue in midtown (especially in the 50's) has the most dense population of these guys. They cater to office workers who come pouring out of the huge office buildings at lunch time. Most popular are hot dog carts hawking their dirty water dogs (or tube steaks)... they'll usually provide some toppings (in addition to the regular mustard you can get sweet onions, sauerkraut, chile, etc.). Many will sell knishes (about a 3" square potato pancake), too. I try to stay away from them for hygenic reasons but I'll break down every so often and get a few dogs.

I used to like to get falafel from the street guys (its crushed chick pea fried into balls and then put onto some pita bread with sliced lettuce and tomato and then topped with a tahini sauce).

Similarly, another good choice for me then was a lamb gyro. Its thinly sliced pieces of lamb meat topped by lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a tahini type sauce. It was generally wrapped either in pita bread or a wrap.

The early morning crowd would line up at carts selling coffee and bagels or doughnuts on their way into work. They're cheaper than going into a restuarant (for takeout) and they're a lot faster, too (New Yorkers HATE to wait for anything).

As others have already said here, the smell of chestnuts roasting during the fall/winter months is an absolute joy. Those carts tend to concentrate closer to the Christmas stores but you can find them virtually all over the midtown area. Its so "holiday" like. Only thing is I don't like eating them.

The pretzel guys are the biggest ripoff.... I think the pretzels now sell for $2; they're usually stale and somewhat tasteless.

Bibble,

The thing about NY vendors is they have such a variety of food/snack vendors. Here in CA (at least SoCal) it's always Mexican food. In NYC it's much more.

Anyway, glad to hear that others eat from some of these street vendors, because I found the smell of various foods very tempting. However, chestnuts??? How did I miss those vendors? I like Chestnuts. Roasted? Seasoned? What's special about these nuts?


TIS

Just walk along Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) during the winter, TIS. The chestnuts are fire roasted, and the smell? Good God, it's heavenly. There's usually a heavy concentration of chestnut vendors by Rockefeller Plaza, in keeping with the Christmas season.

In some areas, at least between the Garden and Port Authority Bus Terminal, you can get hot tamales on the street -- but I never felt that brave...

Yea, here there are certain types of vendors I stay away from here as well, including some ice cream trucks. One definite "clue" to stay away is when you see the truck go by and the name of the business is hand painted sloppily on the truck. Add a mis-spelled word or two and I'd be on my way.

TIS

Oh, I love the Chestnut guys. There was one across the street from Alexander's on Fordham Road. When we went shopping there, and I saw the Chestnut Guy, I knew that Christmas truly was around the corner.

When we were in Italy in November of 1999, my cousin asked us to run an errand with him and his wife. When we got out of the car, I could smell a Chestnut Guy, and I just sort of sighed, Le Castagne!! (not sure of the spelling, btw). My cousin immediately went over and bought me so many chestnuts that I was eating them for three days!!

I had to revive this thread because I just had an awesome
salted pretzel and a potato knish with hot mustard from a hot dog truck on Allerton Avenue.

Burp.

I love street food. I wish I could have it more often.

What? No Yoo-Hoo or Chocolate Cow to wash them down? What kinda New Yaka are ya?

Man, I love YooHoo! I could drink gallons of it.

I love it too.


I also loved Chocolate Cow. Does any one remember chocolate cow? It came in a brown can with a picture of a cow on it.

I remember it, DC. I think it was actually made by Yoo-Hoo if I'm not mistaken. I haven't seen it in years though.

We have one street vendor here in Morgantown, Byrd. He's originally from New York and he's got a hot dog stand he sets up every night outside of the bar I go to. Byrdman is the shit.. he's gone through some tough times, did some time, and now he's the most honest, stand up guy I've ever met. Really good guy. If you're ever in Morgantown and you need some advice, look up Byrdman.

PS: His hot dogs are delicious. I had two with chili, cheese, coleslaw, and hot sauce (1, 2, 3.. ewww) last night and it was an orgasm in my mouth.

Bogey, you sure have a way with words!


Today I grabbed a Potato Knish from the vendor outside of my office. Delicious!

Was it a purple potato knish?

I'm a big fan of Nuts 4 Nuts, they can be pretty addictive.

Hmmm... Never heard of Nuts 4 Nuts. Must be strictly a Manhattan phenomenon. Guess it didn't make it down to the Wilds of Brooklyn where we rabble live.

But, truthfully, I wouldn't mind the variety - especially considering what we have in my neighborhood: Food carts. But it's strange - there is a major subway station just a few blocks from where I live, and right by the entrance there has been a 24-hr. food cart stationed on the sidewalk for around three or four years. Within the last year, two more identical food carts have taken up residence on the same block. Who the hell granted a permit for that?? They block sidewalk space and almost nobody buys food from the two newer ones anyway. Just a public nuisance, as far as I'm concerned.

One? Alright... But three? All within one very small block? Ridiculous.


This one's in Manhattan, not Brooklyn, but you get the idea as far as the particular type of food cart I'm talking about.

Signor V.