One of the best thing, to me, of living in New York, is the variety of cuisines you can get from an outdoor food vendor. I mean, because of the rich cultural mix we have, with immigrants from practically all parts of the planet living here, you can get some really interesting foods from the food carts found all over the city.
My own particular favorites are the middle eastern food carts that sell gyros, falafels, and other assorted middle-east dishes. The flavors and the quality of the foods are sometimes better than some fancy restaurants, and of course you can't beat the very reasonable prices. You literally can find Indian, South American, Chinese, Japanese, Caribbean, and other international cuisines represented among the food carts vendors.
Not to be forgotten among all these exotic foods, is the ever popular hot dog, with the classic toppings of either onions or sauerkraut and mustard, yum! And the classic roasted chestnuts and pretzels can still be found, as people just love the aromas of these foods.
Naturally, this public preference, has sparked a bunch of complaining from the
established restaurants. Especially those that charge you a ridiculously
high price for food, that sometimes is not as good as the street food
vendors', with the restaurants sometimes demanding that the city ban the food carts, because they take business away from them. But the popularity of these carts, has made it tough for the
city to try to ban them, although they keep trying.
Most people here agree that New York would be a pretty boring place, food-wise, if these multi-ethnic food carts were forced to get off the streets. I myself, have signed the many petitions that have been circulated to save the street vendors. After all they are part of the fabric of New York life.
