Food Trucks

This is a catch-up post. H had left the food trucks for me to do… But, I never wrote that post.

There is no doubt that food trucks are important for encouraging innovation in Adelaide. Let’s hope that burden of red-tape doesn’t drown them.

In the United States – the street food scene is vibrant especially in New York. Below are our experiences with food trucks.

New York
There a food trucks in New York but they are not so easy to find. There are certainly a lot of street vendors selling lots of hot dogs and pretzels. Some, however, seemed to have especially long lines.

We found four trucks in New York. Funnily enough, two of them were dumpling trucks. The first was in Times Square and was a snack after a show and three were along the five boro bike tour. At the Conedison rest stop there was free grilled cheese quarter sandwiches and at the bike festival we benefited from a short queue at the japanese dumpling truck and followed by dessert from the waffle truck (all incriminating photos have been destroyed).

Times Square Dumplings
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Quarter Sandwiches
Five Boro Bike Tour - NYC '13

Staten Island
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Boston
The presence of food trucks seemed to be much more obvious in Boston. There was a daily congregation of food trucks near South Station. We had the pleasure of sampling three trucks. The first was completely unexpected in somewhat deserted area in an old port area around the corner from the Institute of Contemporary Art. Their name says it all the Chicken & Rice Guys… they sell chicken and rice.

Chicken n Rice
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When in New England one must eat lobster. What better place to get a lobster roll from than the Boston Shuckin Truck. This was followed by dessert from thecookiemonstah.com

Boston Shuckin Truck
Boston

Me eat cookie! Om nom nom nom!
Boston

Night New York Bike Ride

Yes, it is true, we are back from our holiday. But sometimes you realise that you had so much fun, that you forgot some important posts. So, here is the first of a number of catch-up posts that I will make to the blog – so that in the future, I will remember what I did!

Certainly one of the highlights of our trip was a 6 hour night bike tour of New York. We saw a lot of lower Manhattan and experienced the different night life in these areas. The tour is operated by Bike the Big Apple.

While it was a cool night, it was clear and dry – making for some good photographs. I was testing the limits of my Canon EOS M. Greater camera if you can wait for it to focus – whassup Canon? As you will see below, it operates surprisingly well in low light.

Riding the backstreets of China Town
NYC night bike tour

Alongside the Brooklyn Bridge
NYC night bike tour

Riding up the Brooklyn Bridge
NYC night bike tour

Skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge
NYC night bike tour

No Cars on Wall Street – but Bikes are o.k.
NYC night bike tour

I prefer NY traffic over Adelaide traffic.
NYC night bike tour

Washington Square Arch
NYC night bike tour

The Standard of the High Line
NYC night bike tour

Times Square
NYC night bike tour

New York food roundup

There is no doubt that food is something New Yorker’s take food seriously. Every day we found a an impressive food experience. Let’s share just over a week of great experiences with you.

Saturday
We arrived from Australia on Saturday night and headed straight for Eataly. A food store, bakery, gelateria, brewery, kitchen store all in one. I posted this blog entry about Eataly.

Eataly
Dinner at Eataly

Sunday
On Sunday night we went to Paulie Gee’s, we’ve shared our story in this blog post.

For lunch, however, we had some fantastically simple lobster at the fish store in Chelsea market. It’s hard to believe how cheap lobster is over here. Supply and demand? There is a lot of demand… But is there a lot more supply? Or is there something else happening in Adelaide.

Lobster
Chelsea Market

Monday
11 Madison Park was a fantastic experience. It was the story of New York imaginatively presented. We had the perfect NY picnic, NY cookies, NY soda, NY cheesecake. The dining room seemed to be an old bank and the service was friendly ant attentive. Highly recommended for people to get a NY feel through food. There has clearly been a lot of collaboration between the chef and local producers.

Steaming
11 Madison Park

Tuesday
Perfect spring weather demands a salad outside the New York Public Library does it not? Fortunately there is a great little restaurant just out the back overlooking Bryant Park.

K waiting
Bryant Park

Wednesday
You know we love sushi and sashimi in Japan. But, for an innovative French treatment of fish, there is no doubt that Le Bernardin is the best fish we have ever had outside of Japan. The service was impeccable and the environment created inside and outwardly plain building near time square was quite impressive. The matching of the wines with the dishes was perfect.

Yummm.
Dinner Le B

Thursday
Well, I could talk about eating at the Crab Shanty Shack and H’s ordeal with crabs… But I won’t.

Crabs anyone?
City Island

Instead I’ll tell you about Junior’s. Junior’s is a famous Brooklyn institution – known around the world for its cheesecakes. It opened a satellite store in Grand Central Terminal in the early 2000’s. In 2009 they opened a new restaurant near Times Square. We just happened across walking back to the hotel from Kinky Boots…. We had to go in.

Junior’s BLT
Last Import-100

Friday
Friday was a food expedition day to lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. There is no doubt that one of the food discoveries of the week was humble flat bread from SCRATCHbread. H had the chopped egg salad melt and K had the mushroom melt. Fan-bloody-tastic, Adelaide needs these!

Flatbread Brooklyn Style
Scratchbread

Saturday
So many amazing food options in New York. We spontaneously decided to check out Momfuku Ssan Bar. With a no reservations policy it was easy, turn up put your name on the list, go for a walk, and return when you get your e-mail or SMS. Return and eat fantastic food. The atmosphere is energetic and communal. Focus of the food is local.

Veal’s head terrine and sardines
All Imported-1408

Sunday
Hungry after a big bike ride. We needed to replenish the fuel tank, but we really didn’t want to walk too far. Yelp to the rescue – oh mighty yelp, where can we eat within a few hundred metres from the hotel? Mighty yelp told us that Pio Pio 8 had pretty fantastic Peruvian chicken. We agree.

Better than take away BBQ chicken
Pio Pio 8