Results tagged “latin”

This weekend marks the end of a turbulent season for the Latin food vendors at the Red Hook ball fields. First the Health Department shut them down entirely, then the Parks Department opened up the vending contracts to outside competition. After considerable public outcry, the beloved vendors were allowed to return, but only after spending close to $50,000 each to purchase new stands. What used to be a festive cluster of open-air grills was turned into a homogeneous row of food carts moved outside the park, powered by loud generators. In short, the city sucked the soul out of scene. Marcos Lainez, who sells Salvadoran food, tells the Brooklyn Paper, "We lost that friendly relationship with the customers and it will never come back." And organizer Cesar Fuentes says the vendors also lost money; because they weren't permitted back until July, none of them "were fully able to recuperate from the financial blow of the season."

Get yourself some popcorn, because this week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is taking the hammer to big shot media power-lunch nest Michael's. Turns out dinner there is an overpriced joke: "I thought Michael’s prided itself on produce. Then I had its appetizer of peekytoe crab with spears of white asparagus, which might as well have been spears of white wax for all the flavor they had....[Michael’s] certainly charges like a serious restaurant, levying a tariff of $35 for a lunchtime burger that’s not Kobe and doesn’t ooze foie gras. So it should perform at the level of a serious restaurant. These days, it usually doesn’t." He pauses to lavish some kind words on an omelet, but then it's back to bashing: "Shouldn’t a diner paying $38 for sea scallops get more than two, situated at opposite ends of a long hillock of sautéed snow pea leaves? Maybe that’s enough for a businessperson having a light lunch on a big expense account. For anyone else, it isn’t." Kill the rich! Zero stars!

Yesterday’s notice about the long-overdue return of the Red Hook ball field food vendors elicited comments from disgruntled eaters who were disappointed by the new carts, which limit the vendors’ cooking space and caused massive, hour-plus lines. Commenter sofabait seems to reflect a growing consensus that the new Health Department oversight has changed things for the worse: “The exhaust fumes from their constantly idling trucks totally killed my appetite. Not sure if that is better for our health. The city sure knows how to fuck a good thing up.”

As promised, the beloved Latin food vendors returned to the Red Hook soccer fields this weekend, over a month and a half later than usual. After nearly getting evicted from the park last year, the vendors had to spend thousands of dollars to buy new carts and other equipment to meet the Health Department’s requirements. According to Eater, Cesar Fuentes, leader of the vendors association, called the DOH-mandated changes "a financial and emotional burden… [But] the higher cost would have been to lose the permit, and the tradition...and that we couldn't afford."

The Red Hook Latin street food vendors will finally be returning to the ball fields this weekend after a three month delay that has left some of the 13 merchants drowning in debt. The Brooklyn Paper has it that some have spent over $35,000 to purchase new stands and satisfy Health Department inspectors, who threatened to shut the vendors down last year until a huge public outcry forced the city to reconsider. But was it a Pyrrhic victory? “The losses are major,” said Marcos Lainez, who runs a Salvadoran papusa cart. “It’s going to take at least two and a half years to recover all the money we have lost.”

In “soft-opening” mode since Wednesday, Macondo is a new Lower East Side restaurant (157 East Houston) that aims to “elevate ‘comida de la calle’ (Latin street food) to the gourmet level.” Small plates span the Spanish-speaking world, with cocas from Barcelona, empanadas from Colombia, piragüas from the Caribbean, churros con chocolate from Spain, tacos from Mexico, and arepas from Venezuela.

The folks at Porkchop Express have an informative Q&A session with Cesar Fuentes, the Executive Director of the Red Hook Food Vendors Committee. As enthusiasts await the opening of the new ballfield stands, the good news is that all the same vendors will be returning with their Latin culinary delights. The bad news is that not all of them may get it together in time to return for this season, and the new operating costs for each vendor may ultimately prove prohibitively high for some. Fuentes clears up a few other things in the interview:
• The food tents and the unique 'mercado' feel are a thing of the past, to be replaced by city-mandated mobile food vending trucks.
• Fuentes has "heard some convincing arguments" that race played a role in the city's crackdown after 34 years of operation, but says the word 'gentrification' sums the situation up nicely.
• The vendors might expand their days and months of operation because the new permits are valid year-round.
• Because of the new IKEA, the baseball field food vendors were prohibited from selling in Field #9, across from the store, for this season.

Fuentes still says they hope to return to the fields in mid-June, but according to Eater that estimate may be a tad optimistic. In the meantime, several Red Hook vendors have set up outposts at the Brooklyn Flea: Martinez Mexican (Huaraches), Vaquero Mexican (elotes, fruits) and Soler Dominican\Salvadoran (Pupusas).