Residents of hard-hit areas of the Northeast corridor continue to band together to return essential services and a semblance of normal life to their local communities since Hurricane Sandy struck five months ago. In the seaside community of the Rockaways south of New York City, one local hip hop “boy” decided to drop his mic and lend a helping hand.

Mike Diamond, known as “Mike D” as one-third of legendary rap crew the Beastie Boys, teamed up with his business partner and creative designer Robert McKinley, to help out the neighborhood that he had previously enjoyed as a prime surfing spot.  The result was the Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck which brings hot, free, meals five days a week to residents in the Rockaway area who were affected by Sandy.

“Rob and I went out there–like a lot of other people, we felt compelled by our connection to the water, and surfing, so wanted to lend a hand and see what was needed. We loaded up his station wagon with supplies, went out to the Rockaway Surf Club, and we quickly saw that one of the things that was more sorely needed was hot food,” said Diamond in a January interview with Bon Appetit magazine.

That initial trip bloomed into a partnership with a group of concerned restaurant owners who were able to quickly organize into a fully operational food truck operation that has served 19,000 free meals of chicken, rice, beans and vegetables to date. Sandy recovery has been politicized in Washington and FEMA and the American Red Cross received widespread criticism for its slow and confusing response to damaged areas. Diamond says the glaring need for basic supplies for victims drove him and his partners into action in the early days of the crisis.

“If we were the kind of people who were patient, there were trucks the mayor’s office was offering, and all these benefits that we probably could have gotten, but what we realized was that you couldn’t be patient,” he told Bon Appetit. “Patience would not have met anybody’s needs…these American cheese and white bread sandwiches from the Red Cross aren’t cutting it.”

So, now more than five months since the storm hit, Diamond is looking to change the food trucks focus.

“There’s still the need for warm food out there, but our real goal for this summer is to help revitalize the local economy,” Diamond told Rolling Stone Tuesday. “So we’re trying to switch the truck over from giving away food, to charging for food but having it become staffed, run and operated on every level by citizens of the Rockaways.”

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/05/from-beast-to-feast-mike-ds-sandy-relief-food-truck/

Socorro Carranza, serving up Tamales on Broadway in Astoria

Astoria is known for it’s great food – restaurants and shops, mostly – and over recent years it has seen more and more street food. Here are some of the best we’ve come across (so far).

The Tamale Lady

Originally profiled in our Unsung Tacos of Astoria post, the discovery of the tamale lady – AKA Socorro Carranza – was a beautiful thing. She serves up delicious tamales on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings on Broadway near 37th Street. You can find her near the Delgado Travel sign. Tamales are $1.25 and she sells a variety of tamales – spicy chicken, queso, and sweet pink tamales, just to name a few. You can also purchase champurrado (masa based drink) and arroz con leche (think loose rice pudding) from her.

El Rey Del Taco Truck

Huarache from El Rey Del Taco

This is Astoria’s most well-known taco truck. They have locations on both 30th Avenue (in front of the Rite Aid) and Ditmars Blvd (in front of the CVS at 31st Street), though I must admit I prefer the 30th Avenue truck. You can choose among a variety of Mexican classics – quesadillas, tacos, and huaraches (they make the masa boat fresh for each order), and you can even get a Philly cheesesteak there.

King of Falafel

Chicken Platter + White / Hot Sauce. Image source: Jando S on Yelp

Freddy, the proprietor of this cart, has won the coveted Vendy Award twice – in 2009 and 2010 – and shows no sign of resting on his laurels. He and his assistants are out there 6 days a week from 11am to 9pm, creating some of the best street food in all of Queens. Take your pick – awesome tubular shaped falafel, chicken and rice, beef and chicken kebabs, and shawarma. Be sure to get both white sauce and hot sauce, no matter what you order. And while you’re in line, you might be lucky enough to be handed a freshly made falafel to munch on while you wait; his cart is extremely popular, so there is often a line of people waiting to order. Many of the dishes come with a side salad, which is made up of lettuce and tomato and their wonderful pickled vegetables – try the pickled turnip! Broadway and 30th Street. -Excerpt from Food Lovers’ Guide to Queens

King of Souvlaki

Chicken souvlaki pita at King of Souvlaki. Image source: Tastoria Queens

We’ve recently seen increased chatter about this place, including an article by our own Tastoria Queens, as well as over on Astorians.com. Some feel they have the best souvlaki in Astoria. Apparently they’ve been at the corner of 31st Street and 31st Avenue since 1979 and have developed quite a following. They do both chicken and lamb on a stick, in a pita, and on a platter. Their french fries are cooked in olive oil, which is a nice touch. Check them out and let us know what you think.

Mexico Blvd

Tacos from the Mexico Blvd truck

This is a newcomer to the street food scene in Astoria and they make some tasty food. They use organic chicken and their tortillas are from Tortilleria Nixtama in Corona. Their guacamole is made fresh every day, and it’s great. They also sell horchata, one of my favorites, and a variety of other auguas frescas. Personally, I love the chicken taco with cheese – the meat has a lovely smoky taste to it, and the cheese adds extra richness and savory flavor. Yum. Keep an eye out for their terrific special – 2 tacos, 1 guacamole and chips, and any drink for $10. 31st Street near Ditmars.

Are there other Astoria street food vendors you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments or via twitter at @weheartastoria!

http://weheartastoria.com/2013/03/finally-friday-astoria-street-food/

The Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck is staffed by NYC restaurants for the next 3 months. There is not enough hot food out in Rockaway, for residents or all the many police and sanitation workers who are working so hard in 12hr shifts. All businesses are shut.

We will be feeding 1500- 2000 per day. The food truck will be staffed by friends we have in the restaurant world. So far we have Chef Sam Talbot , the Fat Radish, Spotted Pig/ Breslin, Back 40, L’artusi/ D’ell Anima, Zach Lynd from the lobster truck etc.. The idea is to get each restaurant to handle one day in the week. In addition, as all residents who work with in Rockaway are with out jobs as all businesses are shut, we will have one consistent local site manager to assist all restaurant crews with day to day ops.

There will be a cohesive daily menu giving people on site a steady availability of warm and healthy meals. The truck will operate for the next 3 months. This is key for all the work that desperately needs to be done on site.

Thanks so much

Mike D and Robert Mckinley

http://www.wavesforwater.org/fundraiser/rockaway-plate-lunch-truck?dlpage=45

Take the Spirit of America mobile kitchen, a stockpile of nourishing food and a corps of committed volunteers and you have a recipe for disaster relief.

“Spirit of America is cooking out some awesome, hot food for the folks,” Jim Plympton told us.
He is a Red Cross volunteer from the Roanoke Valley, who set aside his pressure washing business to man the mobile kitchen in New York.

“I’ve been volunteering with the Red Cross since ’84, 28 years,” Plympton told us Wednesday morning. “It’s just the most important thing I think of to do.”

And he’s not alone.

Southern Baptists from Ohio, Michigan and Virginia were cooking the meals when we visited. Emergency response vehicles came from Washington, DC, Gainesville, Georgia and many other communities. And the American Red Cross had brought in volunteers from across the country.

The operation at Fort Tilden is one of four kitchen sites set up in the region. So far it has prepared more than 150- thousand meals, and  Red Cross workers have delivered them in the coastal communities nearby.

David Winchester is an Ohio volunteer with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief organization. “It’s satisfying to know that even without the lights on, even without gas stations,” Winchester told us, “we can come in, we can set up in a field, in a parking lot.”

Church volunteers from Virginia are lending a hand. Janet Clay lives in Rockville near Richmond. “I feel like I need to help,” she said. “This is my fifth deployment for disaster relief and I just feel there’s a need.”

Each disaster is different. Hurricane relief is rare this late in November, but the volunteers we met were prepared to spend the holiday away from home.

“This is where I need to be this Thanksgiving,” Jim Plympton told us, “so hopefully we won’t be here too awful long, but we can get back, maybe Christmas at home.”

The American Red Cross and the Southern Baptist Convention didn’t let the holiday pass without a traditional taste of Thanksgiving.  On the menu Thursday, sliced turkey and gravy, corn bread dressing, mashed sweet potatoes, and a slice of apple pie.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-mobile-kitchen-based-in-roanoke-prepares-thousands-of-meals-in-new-york-20121122,0,3216923.story

Founder and Chief Storyteller, food. curated., www.foodcurated.com

What are the secrets behind the top street food vendors in New York City? Come find out!

From tasty homemade white sauces, to spicy meat marinades, to handpicked oregano straight from the hillsides of Greece, food. curated. takes you through a tour of each vendor’s personal stories to find out what makes them one of the best food trucks in the city.

Look out for the “Torta Puma”, a 10+layered torta sandwich that only few have managed to finish alone. Or the $1 Xin Jiang spiced lamb kebabs grilled to perfection under the busy Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown. These are the street food elite, the 2012 NYC Vendy Awards Finalists: six food vendors cooking up special plates unlike any other in the 5 boroughs.

1. The Cinnamon Snail Vegan Organic Food Truck
Schedule: Always on the move, for latest Manhattan coordinates, visit: @VeganLunchTruck

2. Piaztlan Authentic Mexican Food Truck
Schedule: Saturday & Sunday, 10am – 8pm, May-October at the Red Hook Ballfields, Brooklyn @PiaztlanBK

3. Uncle Gussy’s Traditional Greek Cuisine
Schedule: Monday-Friday, 11am -3pm at 51st St and Park Ave, Midtown, Manhattan @UncleGussys

4. Tortas Neza
Schedule: Daily from 1pm-1am at 111th Street and Roosevelt, a few blocks away from Citifield, Queens

5. Hamza & Madina Halal Food
Schedule: Everyday, 10am – 4am at 254-05 Hillside Ave, Glen Oaks, NY

6. Xin Jiang Prosperity Kebabs
Schedule: Monday-Sunday 10:30am-8:30pm at the corner of Forsyth St & Division St, Chinatown

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Congrats to all the finalists! I would love to hear all your comments and thoughts on the videos. Be sure to get your tickets to the big NYC Vendy Awards Event on September 15th.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liza-de-guia/meet-the-2012-vendy-award_b_1854025.html

Food trucks are not a new craze, yet they’re still one of the most popular ways to eat in New York City.

And as the craze grows, with more people opting to eat from trucks rather than traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants, the food trucks improve, offering high-quality gourmet concoctions that you can’t find anywhere else.

But with so many trucks traversing New York City’s streets, how do you know which ones are actually good?

The editors at Zagat recently came out with their list of New York’s 8 Best Food Trucks to help guide us. There are a few unconventional ice cream trucks, a Korean taco truck and a roving waffle mobile..

#8 Kelvin Natural

Facebook/Kelvin Slush

Location: @kelvinslushKelvin makes addictive slush drinks, like ginger slush with blueberries and citrus slush with fresh mint, which are perfect for cooling you down on a hot summer day.

#7 Yvonne’s Jamaican

Zagat

Location: 71st and York Ave.Parked on the Upper East Side, Yvonne’s Jamaican serves up a changing roster of traditional Jamaican and Caribbean food, like jerk chicken, curried goat or oxtail stew. There’s often a line, but it’s worth waiting for.

#6 Wafels & Dinges

Facebook/Wafelsanddinges

Location: @waffletruckThis fleet of roving waffle-making trucks offers a taste of Belgium, with their authentic and delicious pressed waffles, which can be topped with a variety of sweet and savory “dinges” (toppings).

#5 Korilla Food Truck

Flickr/dpstylesâ„¢

Location: @korillabbqThis cool Korean BBQ truck serves tasty grilled meats and veggies with sticky rice. They also make Korean tacos topped with items like spicy kimchi.

#4 Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

Facebook/Big Gay Ice Cream

Location: @biggayicecreamThe Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is a fabulous, dressed-up ice cream truck that serves traditional soft serve flavors (vanilla, chocolate) with “flamboyant” toppings (curry coconut, cayenne pepper).

They also have creative and entertaining names for their ice cream concoctions, like “Salty Pimp,” “Bea Arthur” and “The Mermaid.”

#3 Taïm Mobile

Facebook/The Taim Mobile

Location: @taimmobile This mobile vegetarian Israeli food vendor serves arguably the best falafel in the city: it’s fried, crispy and incredibly flavorful. Pair that falafel sandwich with saffron aïoli fries, one of their fresh salads or a smoothie.

Be prepared to wait.

#2 Coolhaus

Twitter/@CoolhausNY

Location: @coolhausNYThis L.A. import serves incredible freshly-made ice cream sandwiches made from quality ingredients like artisanal ice cream sandwiched between locally-made cookies.

#1 Luke’s Lobster Truck (Nauti)

Facebook/Lukes Lobster

Location: @lukeslobsternyNauti, Luke’s Lobster’s food truck, serves meaty and satisfying Maine lobster rolls. It’s a bit pricier than other food trucks (it is lobster, after all), but it’s still worth chasing after.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-8-best-food-trucks-in-new-york-city-2012-8?op=1#ixzz25Nf9ozK5

More truck owners are turning to shops, as soon as they can.Photo-illustration: Maya Robinson

When Kim Ima launched the Treats Truck in 2007, the hassles that came with working in a mobile kitchen — speed bumps that knock whole trays of cookies on the ground, for instance — were worth it in order to be part of a massive trend. Customers eagerly awaited new trucks’ arrivals in various neighborhoods; media coverage exploded; the whole concept got its own Food Network show. But booms are usually followed by busts, and the food truck business has recently become more difficult. Last month, Ima opened a brick-and-mortar outpost called the Treats Truck Stop, and though she still loves mobile vending enough to keep her truck on the road, her perspective changed: “I feel like I’m in a four-star hotel,” she says of her new Carroll Gardens space. She’s not the only one. Food trucks were once seen as a comparatively low-cost way to open a business (and generate street cred), but as the associated headaches pile up, many truck owners are happy to deal with the added costs necessary to open a traditional store, which can seem downright simple to run in comparison.

“Hands down, brick-and-mortar is easier,” says David Schillace, the owner of Mexicue, which includes one truck, and now, two restaurants. “Running three or four trucks, then working sixteen hours a day, is a nightmare. And it’s still not going to make you rich.” A truck can start up for as little as $80,000, and Schillace says he and his partners needed to raise around $2 million for their stand-alone spot. “We got into the truck business to launch a concept and shop it around,” Schillace says. “It was always a marketing tool, not a cash cow.”

That strategy became harder after every midtown corner got a truck. Though precise data related to the truck upsurge is tough to hone in on — street carts and food trucks operate under the same city permit — David Weber founded the NYC Food Truck Association in January 2011, with fifteen members. Now Weber, who also founded Rickshaw Dumpling Bar and wrote The Food Truck Handbook, counts 42 companies on the roster. Forty percent of them now also operate brick-and-mortar businesses, like Souvlaki GR, Schnitzel & Things, and Mexicue. Those figures don’t include other notable truck-to-shop converts like the perpetually mobbed Big Gay Ice Cream or Bistro Truck, which aren’t members of the association.

As the popularity of trucks exploded, two things happened: The city started cracking down on where and when trucks could actually sell their food, and competition became more heated as the number of trucks on the street rose. Laura O’Neill, co-founder of Van Leeuwen ice cream, which has five trucks and three shops, says competition for prime parking spots has practically become a blood sport — to deal with the hassle, some truck companies send out cars early in the morning to “hold” places.

But truck owners have to compete for a lot more than the best parking places. The first thing: a truck permit from the city. The Department of Health only grants 3,000 annual permits, which each last two years. The waiting list is so long that the DOH hasn’t taken new names since 2007, forcing entrepreneurs to turn to the black market. Individuals pay $20,000 for a permit that the Health Department originally sells for $200. “It’s impossible to afford, and you’re breaking the law,” says Yassir Raouli, the owner of Bistro Truck, who is opening a restaurant called Rustic L.E.S. this month. “And now that the blueprint is out there, it’s becoming even harder to operate in the streets.”

It’s also much simpler to hire a staff at a shop. On any given food truck, all employees must first obtain a food vendor license, then begin the process of earning their Mobile Vending ID Badge through a citywide system. It takes three months, and the process doesn’t really start until a potential vendor is offered a job. No one can work until they have one, unless they’re willing to risk a $1,000 fine that’s levied against the individual worker, not the business. By contrast, brick-and-mortar rules only require that one person (the manager, usually) in the space has their food vendor license, which is much quicker to earn. Not only does this mean that Ima’s parents could help wash dishes when the Truck Stop shop opened — something they could never do on the Treats Truck — but also that business owners have a lot more flexibility, and leverage, when it comes to hiring.

Another problem is finding a spot to actually put your truck when it isn’t doing business. Per city law, food trucks can’t be stored on private property when not in use — only in designated food depot lots that tend to look like the auto-gastronomic equivalent of a graveyard that’s running low on plots. “It’s like finding an apartment in New York,” explains Ima. “Except with 50 roommates. And they’re almost all big, smelly men.” A spot in one of these lots, if an owner manages to find one, runs between $400 and $800 per month.

And, of course, there’s the size issue: Most of the trucks are too small to accommodate people actually making food, so owners also have to rent commercial-kitchen space in spots like Red Hook, Long Island City, and even the back of a Brooklyn pizzeria, which is what the Mexicue team used overnight when they were first getting started.

Opening a traditional restaurant almost instantly eliminates that last issue, since food prepped in a restaurant’s kitchen can be sold both on site and on the street. But space isn’t the only benefit of running a shop instead of a truck. A week of shitty weather won’t immediately obliterate a customer base if those customers can actually wait and eat inside; parking becomes a non-issue; and getting much-needed regular customers in the door is a whole lot easier when that door is in the same spot. “Check average is also lower on the truck,” says Schillace, pointing to the high number of customers who will grab one taco while walking through Union Square versus those that come into the restaurants for a full meal. All of this means finances are a lot more predictable with shops.

Trucks are here to stay, and they still offer some benefits: those lower costs; the flexibility to try new menu items and find new potential customers; continuous roving advertising. But as more truck operators move to full shops, those perks become increasingly less desirable when compared to the benefits (not to mention, legitimacy) that comes with a brick-and-mortar location. As Van Leeuwen’s O’Neill says, “The store isn’t going to break down at three in the morning on the Williamsburg bridge.”

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2012/07/food-trucks-turn-to-stores-for-convenience-reliability.html?e=grubstreet–20120711

Jason Wang, 24, spearheaded the recent opening of Biang!, Flushing’s first Chinese restaurant to have gentle lighting and a modern industrial design. He and his father, David Shi, have gained a cult following the past few years for their street food-style chain, Xi’an Famous Foods, but Biang! offers a full-service, sit-down experience. In between running errands and paying visits to various branches, Wang took a few minutes this afternoon to chat over the phone.

When I ate at Biang! I realized it was the first time I’d been to a Flushing Chinese restaurant that didn’t have fluorescent lighting. Why do all Chinese restaurants seem to favor it?
I don’t think they favor it, it’s just about cost efficiency. It’s not a cultural thing. If it were up to my dad we’d still be having energy-saving lights. I don’t like the feel of fluorescents myself and don’t use any fluorescent lighting at home either. That kind of lighting doesn’t enhance the food. In China there are well-designed restaurants in the big cities. The Chinese restaurants in Flushing and in Chinatown don’t really represent true Chinese culture as it is today. It’s more about the Chinese immigrant experience in America.

There seems to be a new generation of Chinese restaurants opening right now, with Yunnan Kitchen and Mission Chinese Food on the Lower East Side.
I would not like to be compared to Mission Chinese Food. It’s kind of a reinvention of Chinese food. I’m not reinventing anything. We have authentic Chinese food with Western-style décor.

I saw some young people eating the lamb burger with chopsticks. Is it bad manners to eat with your hands?
Maybe they were just trying to be clean. Or maybe it’s because they were with their friends and didn’t want to look too casual in the restaurant. In my experience breaking bread is very American. You would not see Chinese people doing that, but really, it’s whatever works. I eat burgers with my hands.

You’ve got lamb eyeballs on the menu (in a dish that also includes lamb cheeks, tongue and palate). How many do you sell a week?
Each head makes three or four orders and we sell them at all our stores so we probably go through a dozen heads a week. It’s a very small part of our business.

What does a lamb eyeball taste like?
Pretty fatty. It contrasts with the rest of the dish — lamb tongue is chewy, the palate is crunchy since it’s pretty much cartilage and the lamb cheeks are lean meat.

How many eyeballs do you get per order?
It’s varies but usually up to one. They’re sliced. If you see a circular disc of white with a pupil in the middle, that’s eyeball.

Do mostly Chinese people order it?
Half and half, for the novelty of it. I thought only a couple of people would dare to try it, it’s so freaky.

You’ve got a lot of accessible noodle dishes but you also have boiled beef stomach skewers and cubes of pig blood tofu. What’s that like?
We’re taking the pig blood tofu off the menu. It’s black, not that popular and not that great. We’re still experimenting. We’ve added new dishes like mung bean jelly, a Northern Asian thing. It’s a savory cake, gelatin-like, cut into thick slivers, served cold. We’ve replaced our steamed buns with tiny, tiny buns about the size of half dollars, filled with lamb or pork. They’re bite-size, eight to an order. And for a vegetarian option we have tofu skin skewers now.

Your place is full of stylish Chinese kids. They had to wait a long time to get this kind of restaurant in their neighborhood.
The young people are also flocking to the New World Mall in Flushing. It’s styled after a suburban American mall and has a food court and a big grocery store on the ground floor. A lot of people have asked, ‘Why aren’t you there?’ First of all the rents are ridiculous, cut-throat. The food there isn’t that great and it’s overpriced for what it is. I live in Flushing and when I want to eat I want it to be fast and with table service. Before, there were two kinds of restaurants, family-style with florescent lighting or food stalls for a quick bite. There was no medium. Biang! is good for dates and small groups. It’s more Manhattan.

What plans do you have for expansion?
There’s nothing definite in the works, we’ve been so overwhelmed, but we’ve been looking into working with someone else on food trucks. We don’t see it coming to fruition until probably next year. Our commissary, on the border of East Williamsburg and Greenpoint, is now operating, making food for all our stores. We should have a Xi’An Famous Foods storefront there by next year, sort of like Momofuku’s Milk Bar. I’m also looking to see if we can do pop-ups in Boston or on the West Coast. We want to let people know what our food is all about, and give a chance for our fans in other cities to have it.

What do you do for fun when you’re not working?
I work pretty much all the time, day and night. Whatever time I can get off I go out with some friends. I’m kind of a perfectionist and if things are out of my control it drives me nuts. I’m OK for the time being. It’ll be harder to work when I’m older so I might as well suck it up now and take a break later.

Biang!
41-10 Main St.
(718) 888-7713
Flushing, Queens

http://www.papermag.com/2012/06/jason_wang_talks_new_restauran.php

 By Tracey Samuelson | WNBC.org

Food trucks at their new space in a vacant lot at Canal and Varick Streets. (Amy Eddings/WNYC)

If New York City used a bidding system to issue food truck permits — much like it does for taxi medallions or park concessions — the city could add $37 million to its coffers.

WNYC has a fascinating dispatch on the black market that exists for food-truck permits in New York City:

There are only 3,000 citywide, two-year permits, and there are so many names on the wait list (more than 2,000) that the Department of Health hasn’t taken names since 2007….

Where red-brick residential Brooklyn gives way to a grittier industrial neighborhood, there’s an unmarked asphalt lot where permits can easily be bought and sold.

This is a commissary, a one-stop shop where food truck entrepreneurs can get everything they need: purchase a vehicle, order meat and vegetables — and secure a permit too.

On a recent visit to the lot, WNYC asked about buying a permit. A worker took the reporter into a store room full of jars of mayonnaise and pickles, and dialed a number on a cell phone and handed the phone to the reporter.

The man on the other end of the line, who called himself Mohammed, said he could obtain a second-hand permit in a few days, and it would cost $18,000.

New York City’s Health Department charges just $200 for the same document, so the street value is nearly 100 times higher than the official price.

One way to boost job-creation and wipe out the black market would be for the city to issue many more of these permits.

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/06/food-truck-permit-black-market