24 hr Taco Stand

This may be a response to Deming's word in the previous blog :)

For all of you that live in the top shelf of society and roam about among the pedigree, take a note from those who dine in the street. There is no reason why one should pay 60 dollars for a meal . To quote a friend who shall remain nameless, you only do that in your 25th anniversary or perhaps on valentine's day( to try convince the girl that you just got back together with, after dumping her a month before, that you really missed her). But I digress!!!!

I love Spanish Harlem, it has character charm and most most of all I like the way it makes me feel :) , like a tourist in NYC. When you walk on 116 east of lex the city is alive with young women dancing, kids running, moms yelling, couples having an animated discussion, and preachers yelling the good word through a megaphone as if trying to yell the love of God into you head.

OH good times. This is home. The gray area of life, the place where food is a nourishment for both body and soul at a price that a worker bee can manage.

Here is what you need to know, if you want good street food and are willing to go for the adventure:

Take the 6 train to 116th go east btwn 3rd and 2nd. There you will find a 24hr, yes 24hr, Taco stand where you can get a home made quesadilla with your choice of meat fro 3 dollars.

The full menu is in the second image, but let me just say, I never have spent more than 10 dollars, including tip, to go home complaining of how much I ate.

I love food, simple food, cheap food. Why don't you join me next time ?



Mom would be proud!!!!

Whose idea was it?

This is not a restaurant/food review. But some thoughts about food. Warning, it is a long thought.

Have you ever encountered a story, a painting, a piece of music, or just an idea, created by someone else and that made you leaped off your chair and yelled "that was my idea! he stole my idea!!"

I have....Anthony Bourdain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain) "stole" my idea.

Let me explain.

Anthony Bourdain wrote a most recent book titled "Medium Raw" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Raw). I flipped through the book at Borders one lazy afternoon and stumbled upon this paragraph. The said chapter of the book involved Bourdain's criticism of new restaurants trying to "invent" new food and thus making the eating experience "complicated" for the eater and the creator of food. What followed was this sentences:

"If any good comes out of all the pain and insecurity (of creating new food experience), I can only hope that the Asian-style food court/hawker center is one of them. This institution is way overdue for an appearance (on a large scale) in America. Scores of inexpensive one-chef/one-specialty business (basically, food stalls) clustered around a "court" of shared tables. When will some shrewd and civic minded investors (perhaps in tandem with their city governments) put aside some parking lot-size spaces (near commercial districts) where operators from many lands can sell their wares? Sharing tables, as in classic fast-food food courts? Why, with our enormous Asian and Latino populations, can't we have dai pai dong -literally, "big sign street", the Chinese version of the indigenous food court, like they do in Hong Kong- or hawker centers, like in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur? Or "food streets," like Hanoi and Saigon? The open-to-the-air "wet" taco vendors and quesadilla-makers of Mexico City?"  End of quote

That, my friend, is what I have been talking about for the last 4 years.

As Bourdain pointed out, we do have food courts here in America, the ones in the mall...but the food are bad!!!!

If you have spent time living in any Asian country, what Bourdain said will resonate with you. Or put it another way, think about the food/restaurants that you go back to time and time again. What are they?

Taco, Roast Chicken (Pio), Soup Dumplings, Cumin Burger, Bahn Mi, Arepas, Dosai, Cerviche,  Tamale. You can argue that because we are a multi-ethnic bunch of people, hence we love ethnic food. But i think this is a weak argument. The food that i mentioned are simple, delicious, and affordable PERIOD. NO frill, NO BS, NO gimmick, and won't cost you $60 (inside joke with Antelmo).  Why is the best chinese food in chinatown? The best mexican food in spanish harlem, the best indian food in jackson heights? Instead of waiting for New Yorkers to come out from their "shell" and explore these "intimidating" neighborhoods (literally), why not bring these food all under one roof and make it more accessible to everyone instead of having to seat in a basement mall in Flushing?

the concept is there, the market (new york city) is there for the taking, how to implement? Give me half a million dollars and I will answer that question...

if you can't give me half a million dollars, this is how you can help. Send this article or share it with friends who might share the same sentiment as I. Maybe we can create a new food movement here in NYC, maybe one of your rich friends might be interested as an investor. Maybe Bourdain is secretly working on this project already.....