nosh nook #98 - wednesday, july 29, 2009

from street vendors to red hook restaurant: calexico rolls out flavor (link)
07.28.09 - ny daily news - by veronika belenkaya

dude. the vendys are less than sixty days away! 9.26 bitchez! do i dare fork over eighty simoleons to go? don't they have some sort of press pass that's free? something you just flash at people & they let you through & give you tasty food? calexico, last year's winner of the top prize, has since opened an online store with t-shirts & gone on martha stewart. i also read somewhere that they cater in the f'n hamptons...how swanky. anyway, i was checking out the menu from their soho cart & seriously...they have a black bean soft taco with something called "crack sauce." if we learned anything from the eighties, it's that you can never go wrong with crack.

...so now calexico is totally turning their vendys triumph into the creation of an actual physical calexico location here in brooklyn, on union st in red hook. as the daily news explains, calexico is the brainchild of three brothers from the california border town of calexico. since opening the soho food cart back in 06, they've "worked seven days a week, 16 hours a day," "saving money from burritos" to raise enough money to open the restaurant, which has "all of the cart's famous items, including shrimp grits, salads and sandwiches - and nothing on the menu costs more than $8." plus you don't have to go to stupid soho to get some! i am so going to me eat some calexico soon. mark my words.

you know...in nyc, we could essentially have a sort of minor league system for restaurants, a system where they start out as food carts & trucks, test the waters, see if there's enough of a customer base for opening something not on wheels. i write a HILARIOUS weekly neighborhood column for fuckedinparkslope that covers every business in park slope & since that makes me an expert, let me tell you...SO many restaurants come & go these days & by starting as a food cart or truck, you not only have the low overhead thing going for you, but you have the current food cart/truck trend/buzz going for you. in some ways, it'd be better. hopefully, there'd be less failure...something we could definitely use less of these days.

nosh nook #41 - monday, may 11, 2009

a snacker's guide to bangkok street food (link)
05.10.09 - the washington post - by nick malgieri

one night in bangkok and the world's your oyster. the bars are temples but the pearls ain't free. you'll find a god in every golden cloister and if you're lucky then the god's a she. i can feel an angel sliding up to me. --murray head

bangkok's known for a lot of things, some savory, some not so savory. the rumor is that given its location in thailand, you can get all sorts of really authentic thai food there, especially in their plentiful markets, which are filled with food vendors hawking a wide array of dishes & snacks.  frankly, i don't see myself making it to bangkok any time soon to verify such claims, so i'm relying on the good graces of the washington post to do so.

nick melgieri recently visited bangkok's markets for the post.  he notes that "thais are inveterate snackers," who fully embrace food-on-the-go.  as a result, you can find vendors everywhere--on sidewalks, off the main streets and right outside their own homes--selling tasty treats.  unlike street vendors here in nyc, whose kebabs are pretty much guaranteed to be cooked in a fine layer of general street dust, "bangkok offers a very sanitary street-food experience."  as one who avoids the nyc street vendors because i'm convinced i'm going to get some sort of food virus, sanitary conditions are a major plus.

while there, melgieri made a trip to bangkok's chinatown--one of the best areas in the city for street food.  with american photographer austin bush at his side, he visited a range of places with crazy-sounding names like "mangkorn khao" and "phat thai ok."  other languages are funny!  at these places, they sampled a handful of dishes filled with noodles & seafood, apparently all prepared by colorful chefs with quaint quirks.  they can prepare their food from high above a pair of stilts for all i care.  as long as they serve pad thai, it's all good in the hood.