"Street food" news and stories

Street vendors in New York do a lot more than sell falafel and knishes. They're heroes -- from uncomommon acts such as spotting a car bomber in Times Square, to everyday gestures of kindness such as helping an elderly person cross the street. So the Vendy Awards, the annual prizes given to Big Apple vendors, is getting a new "Most Heroic Vendor" category, reports the New York Daily News.

The award, says the Vendys website, was inspired by Tunisian fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi, whose dramatic act of protest against the Tunisian officials that confiscated his produce and harassed him set the stage for the Tunisian Revolution. (On December 17, 2010, Bouazizi set himself on fire, leading to protests that shook the Tunisian government.)

While the Vendy Award winner is chosen by judges, the heroes among us are chosen by the people themselves.

Want to nominate a New York City street-vendor hero? Cast your vote here.

Natasha Case has worked in some of L.A.'s most prestigious architecture and design offices. She's also been a Walt Disney Imagineer. Fortunately for SoCal foodies, Natasha has traded in her drafting boards and graphing paper for baking sheets and ice-cream makers. She and her business partner, Freya Estreller, are the two "Principal Farchitects" for Coolhaus -- a pimped-out, find-us-on-Twitter truck that offers a variety of architecturally-inspired ice-cream sandwiches. Their menu is full of treats with names that are puns on terms from the world of design -- you can order the Frank Behry, strawberry ice cream pressed between two sugar cookies, for example.

We caught up with Natasha to get the lowdown on Coolhaus and the future of Farchitecture.

More from Natasha Case, Principal Farchitect of Coolhaus, after the jump.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• It's Christmas Eve -- if you haven't bought a present for your gourmand better half; well, we're here to save you with these last-minute ideas.
• Risking one's life by consuming food from dubiously hygienic vehicles was the big food deal of 2009.
• If you're too tuckered out to make a grilled cheese after the gift-buying crunch --and who isn't? -- cook up this oven-made version.
• A Christmas Dining Miracle -- brunch on a Friday!
• When holiday candies depart from traditional flavor and hue, do you skip the seasonal aisle?
• We won't tell if you cheat on your (gingerbread) man with gingersnap palmiers this Christmas.
• Chef Aarón Sanchez is developing a taco town.

A New York food cart. Photo: jasonlam/Flickr

Call it the Summer of the Street Vendor: Food trucks and carts are, it seems, this season's version of artisanal pickles or pastured meats. Whether you live in Los Angeles, Portland or New York, each day seems to spawn a new vendor -- and they're not selling your granddad's dirty-water dogs.

Words like "organic," "natural" and "handmade" are being slapped on everything from burritos to burgers, giving street meat an almost saintly aura and the occupation of street vendor a previously unheard of cachet. Street cart fever has spawned all sorts of coverage, from city-specific blogs to nationwide podcasts like VendrTV.

As with other low-profile aspects of the food industry that have suddenly found themselves ready for their close-ups, the sudden glamour of the street vendor trade obscures the everyday challenges -- some small, some overwhelming -- that come with selling food (no matter how pedigreed) from a big metal box on wheels.

Interviews with two vendors and a call to Slashfoodies to help us find great American street vendors after the jump.

When I was 22, I spent the summer in Indonesia. I was fresh out of college and looking for a little life experience before finding a job and getting down to the business of supporting myself and paying off those college loans. It wasn't an easy trip, but I've always been grateful to have had the experience of it. When I search back through my memories of that summer, one of the themes that surfaces first is food.

I particularly remember a fried chicken breast that a friend and I split early one morning. We had been on a bus all night and stopped in a tiny town for water, bus fuel and bathrooms. When we sleepily asked about food, we were taken to a three-sided tent, where an elderly woman fired up an oil-filled wok. Working quickly, she dropped a whole chicken breast (skin, bones and entire chest structure intact, nothing like the single plump chicken breasts we know here) into the the wok, moving it around occasionally with a handmade spider. When it was done, she wrapped it in a handful of banana leaves, we paid her the equivalent of $.85 and hurried back to the bus. It was delicious.

If you're the kind of traveler for whom the food is one of the most important parts of the journey, you should check out the World Hum's new feature on the Eight Best Cities for Street Food (congrats on your snazzy new look, World Hum!). Their contributing editor Terry Ward has compiled her street food memories from all over the globe, offering a collection of tempting and tasty tidbits that may just convince you that it's time to start planning another trip, just for a bite of the food she describes.

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