Secrets of the City

My mother has fond memories of a guy who sold tamales for 5 cents each from a bicycle cart in 1940s Indianapolis.

I want to see more tamales here. I love ‘em. A fruit stand would be nice, too.

Eat in the Skyway. Cleaner, faster, better.

There is an awesome falafel cart in Westport in Kansas City that stays open until a little after bar close. It is the perfect snack for late night drunk munchies. I would love to have one here.

At the turn of the century there were also pickpockets (which are rampant still in Europe) and coal dust. According to accounts, conditions in those stands were unsanitary. Half the year, walking the streets in the cold is just not practical.

I don’t understand the desire to romanticize something like this.

So you can’t a tamale for nickel. BFD.

Boy, someone pissed in the rat’s wheaties this morning.

I’d like a taco stand, please. Anywhere within 3 blocks of my office.

It is a shame that state fair style food on a stick isn’t available on street corners during the rest of the year. The area’s street food tradition is alive and well, but confined to a few acres a few weeks per year.

In Vancouver, I saw a bunch of hot dog carts branded “Mr. Tubesteak.” I want some street tubesteak to be available in every city.

(Mr. Tubesteak also provided good veggie dogs for those of us who swing that way)

Oh Rat, you crabby pants, you.

Last summer on Thursday’s Nicollet Mall farmer’s market, they had a section from the Global Market that included a taco/tamale stand. It was EXCELLENT. I hope they come back this summer.

OK, fine. Go to the Global Market. I don’t understand what the city has lost without this aspect of city life.

Andy addressed it briefly with some psychobabble about a “a two-tiered system of interacting with the urban fabric” if you wanna read the story.

I read the story. My point is, I like food, I think it is fun to buy food on the street, and I’m not overly concerned with germs.

While I’m dreaming, I’d also like a stand that made a steak + french fry sandwich. I’d only go there a few times a year, but man, would that hit the spot.

@Jonathan: But wouldn’t having Fair food available year-round everywhere really cheapen the joy of making a pig of oneself in August? In fact, you can frozen corn dogs at the supermarkets now … and frozen White Castle slyders. That doesn’t make either of them so special to me now.

Perhaps the city could coordinate something in one of the empty lots on the Mall…it would be like the annual Ribfest debacle, but with good and various foods.

And perhaps Max can ban the stupid, fun-sucking Rat out of any topic that asks people about things they enjoy, or suggestions therefor. People like stuff that you don’t, Rat…might wanna get used to that.

My neighborhood has tons of street food vendors. They are all acting illegally, but they have some good food. Shaved ice, these corn wheel things with lime and chili powder, fruit, chicken, BBQ, it is all there.

What’s psycobabbly about saying the skyways make for a two-tiered system of interaction, Rat? Tier one: if you have a job, you use the skyways. Tier two: if you don’t have a job, you use the street.

Los Angeles has a lively street food scene. Toronto does, too, including Greek, Ethiopian and Jamaican foods (but the article in the Globe is now pay-per-view).

What probably discourages more food vendor activity around these parts is our weather.

That, and the general lack of a sense of adventure. Skewered teriyaki squid is really good but I don’t know many Scandahoovian types who would enjoy it.

I kinda thought the “lack of a sense of adventure” thing would play into it, too, noodleman, but the fact that people around 1900 were enjoying spicy hot tamales threw my typical impressions of what Minnesotans like or don’t like for a loop.

I think the weather is definitely the main thing, but I’d chalk it up to a lack of density and (it pains my pinko heart to say this) overregulation.

Is Minneapolis that much colder than Toronto, for example?

I don’t think it gets so brutally cold in Toronto as it can become in the Twin Cities.

I think that back at the turn of the century folks might have still had the “settlers or pioneering spirit.” Then Applebees/Perkins/TV Dinners etc came along and introduced the masses to chicken strips and Ranch dressing. Those simple strips of chewy battered deliciousness obliterated our tastebuds and stomped out our culinary adventure streak faster than buffet shellfish.

That said it does all bode well for my street food cart dedicated solely to sauces. I’ll have all manner of accouterments and trail suspiciously close to the other street vendors. The name of my cart “Dunk yer Junk!”

KC, the corn stuff and oh! the mangos w/chili & lime: YUM. Mmm, illegal street food…

Aw, the Rat’s okay; he’s a grump, but kinda friendly.

I wonder how a stand selling chicken strips and ranch dressing would do?

Toronto is not as cold as Mpls.; we established that in some long-ago thread.

@spells. I’ve never called you stupid. Or anyone else for that matter.

The mangoes with chili and lime are excellent.

Oh, here we go…now it’s time to play the victim. What’s the difference if I call you stupid if I think that you’re stupid?

You come into most threads for the sole reason to provoke a reaction, and when you get one, you get defensive. And I consider that pretty stupid.

Its probably stupid on my part for it to get to me this much, but I come here multiple times a day for enjoyment. That enjoyment is sadly lacking these days. Damn, I never would have thought the troll that would kill this for me would be the Rat, but so be it.

Let’s not make this about personalities, please. Yes, The Rat is predisposed to popping into threads and firing off something cynical or cutting about it. Respond or don’t; if it bothers you, just ignore it.

Awright, spells. I’ll back off if you will.

Toronto is south of us.

And isn’t there some street vendors on Nicollet Mall during the summer? Especially during farmer market days? So we are not completely devoid of them.

Lots of independent places on the skyway and I personally didn’t find Rats comments remotely cynical.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been out for cocktails downtown, so maybe they do exist now, but I’ve always been surprised that there wasn’t a hot dog cart or two for late-night/after-bar snacking …

The climate in Toronto is similar to NYC.

The Mill City Farmers Market has “street food,” of sorts. So does the St. Paul Farmers Market in Lowertown.

Tier one: if you have a job, you use the skyways. Tier two: if you don’t have a job, you use the street.

that’s inaccurate.

A pizza wagon in Istres, France pretty much killed my desire for street food.

A third bout of food poisoning pretty much killed my adventuresome food predilections.

We ate paella at a food stall in Provence. Of course, this guy was wired up and microwaved it before he served it to us.

We had that too, thankfully it was cooked properly.

Anything living in that paella would have been nuked.

Uhhhh, not to bring on the Portland comparisons, but I want this: http://www.thewholebowl.com/what.html I don’t even care if it’s in a cart or not.

esquared I want that too!