Vendy Awards

NYC/LA/PHILLY/NOLA/CHICAGO

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Nothing goes better than street food served up by the better street vendors in Philadelphia and Brooklyn Brewery suds, than booty-shaking tunes brought to us by the one and only, DJ FROSTY.

Check out his tunes, like him on facebook, and get you moves ready for Saturday.

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Check out the Vendy Award Spread in the April Issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray featuring recipes from 2012 NYC Vendy winners Lumpia Shack, Melt Bakery, Piaztlan Authentic Mexican Food, Cinnamon Snail and Phil's Steaks!

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Thanks to Todd Price and The Times-Picayune for an awesome story on the NOLA Vendys! This piece really captures why we do the work we do. Read it here http://bit.ly/Z5pfyU

AND Join us! http://bit.ly/ZqVTL2

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Feast on the bounties of the swamp at our Slow Supper with DinnerLab during #NOLAMash, the proceeds of which benefit Slow Food New Orleans. The swamp-to-table menu is:

Quail eggs in cocotte with creamy crawfish bisque and garlic crostini w/ Brooklyn Silver Anniversary Lager

Alligator, green onion croquette, cilantro-meyer lemon crema w/ Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

Swamp chowder, crawfish, turtle, pork belly, rutabega, turnips + cornbread w/ Brooklyn Local 1

Confit frog legs, rapini, cabbage escabeche, turnip-yogurt w/ Brooklyn Local 2

Cumin, kumquat rubbed catfish grilled in banana leaf, smothered collard greens w/ a Brooklyn Ghost Bottle TBD

Grits, creole cream cheese flan, strawberry compote, pecan crumble w/ Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Get your tickets here.

(via Manchac swamp, Louisiana - Image)

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If you are looking for a swamptacular time, I recommend this big time.

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We are so excited to be a part of the The Brooklyn Brewery Mash--talk about a killer line up! Here's what's going on in New Orleans next week, including the Nola Vendy Awards on Wednesday 3/13 http://bit.ly/168Ak7r

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We are THRILLED to announce the 9 finalists for the 1st Annual New Orleans Vendy Awards:

Empanada Intifada

Fat Falafel

Foodie Call

Hot Tamale Mama

La Cocinita

Ms. Linda’s Soul Food Catering Company

Taceaux Loceaux

Vaucresson Sausage Co.

Woody's Fish Tacos

The Vendys will be held on Wednesday, March 13th from 7-10pm at the Historic French Market. More info and tickets here.

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Soho Sabrett by Ralph Goings

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Small Batch String Band+Street Food=A Match Made in Hedonist Heaven

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Nectar (Almond & Vanilla) Cream & Coconut Cream Snowball @ Imperial Woodpecker

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All this planning for the 1st Annual New Orleans Vendy Awards gets me thinking about 2012 Vendy Best Dessert Finalist Imperial Woodpecker Son-Balls. 

If you or any of your loved ones will be in New Orleans on March 13th, come on by!  www.streetvendor.org/vendys/nola

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The Mash heads to NOLA, March 13th - 16th. 

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Oh yeah. Check out the NOLA Vendys on March 13th. Brooklyn Brewery Beer will be flowing! 

http://vendysnola.eventbrite.com/

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We had the chance to eat from our first Cambodian food vendor yesterday as they are not as common in Siem Reape as there are in Bangkok. This is “Nom Cu Cai”-a dumpling of sort filled with greens. It is pan fried and served with a spicy homemade sauce. Cost was 1,500 riel or $.35. Made a great afternoon snack.

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Check out the delicious street food SVP lawyer Matt has been eating on his year-long food-filled adventure.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH WAFELS & DINGES FOUNDER THOMAS DEGEEST

Thomas DeGeest is the Brussels, Belgium native and former IBM management consultant turned pastry jockey who founded Wafels & Dinges in 2007. At the time of its launch, the gourmet food truck movement in New York City was in a stage of infancy. The crumbs from these tasty Belgium-inspired treats helped to pave a path for an entire movement that would go on to receive international attention. In 2009, Wafels & Dinges was awarded the Vendy Award for Best Dessert, the zenith of two years of bitter work and sweet determination. Like other famous food trucks such as DessertTruck and Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Wafel & Dinges will open a storefront in Lower Manhattan in the fall. Later this summer, a Wafel & Dinges test kitchen with tours and waffle making activities will also be opening to the public, satiating the foodie voyeur needs of the masses.

Here, Thomas DeGeest gives us a rundown on what Wafels & Dinges is up to, and how the business is growing by leaps and bounds.

How has Wafels & Dinges expanded since your 2009 Vendy Awards win? We’re doing very well and we’re having a lot of fun. We went from one truck to two trucks and five carts. One of the most important things that happened is that we got a lot of recognition from the home country thanks to the Vendy’s. Winning the Vendy’s was a very big deal for the people in Belgium to the extent that we got a visit from Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde last year. That was a great recognition for our efforts of improving the waffle quality in New York.

Wafels & Dinges has a test kitchen in the works that will soon be open for tours. What can you tell us about that? We have a prep kitchen which is basically our 6,000 square foot dough production facility in Gowanus, Brooklyn. We’re soon going to be starting tours for people who are interested in seeing how we make the dough and how we get our operations ready at night and things like that. In about a month our so, we’re going to be giving tours.

When people visit the production facility, what will they get to do? You’re going to get a look behind the scenes of how one of New York’s mobile vending businesses operates. You’re going to get to see the process of making Liege waffle dough. You’re going to be able to participate in the process of making the dough. You’re going to make some waffles on site. You’re going to get to see how our storage and loading procedures work for the carts, how seven operations with products are loaded every night. Mobile operations is not an easy thing, so you’re going to get to see how all that works. You’re going to get a close look at our waffle irons to see how heavy they really are. You’re going to learn a little about waffle history and you’re going to learn about different types of waffles in Belgium and the differences in culture between American and Belgium waffles. We’re still putting it together, but it’s going to be interesting.

What is your role within the operations of Wafels & Dinges currently? I still work one day a week in the truck. I love working in the truck still. I think it’s important. One of the things I spend a lot of my time on is figuring out what our store is going to look like. We’re still a growing company, so I’m dealing with some of the more boring parts now of building a business, instead of just operating a truck.

Since the launch of Wafels & Dinges in 2007, how do you think the food truck culture in New York City has changed? There are more trucks, obviously, a lot more than there used to be. There’s also a trend of more carts. I’ve seen some people try to start waffle carts, too, and that’s okay. I think more choices for the people of New York is good. Of course, it brings some logistical problems with it because sometimes there’s a little bit of overcrowding and things like that.

There have been no changes in the regulations for food trucks since I started my business. I know that Street Vendor Project has done some work in terms of lowering fines for vendors, but none of those things have come into effect yet. The main issue is that there are some obsolete laws that are still on the books that the city hasn’t updated and that make it very difficult to operate a truck.

As a founding member of the New York Food Truck Association, how do you think it has influenced the food truck scene? I think it’s a great organization that is very influential in terms of creating a solid culture of collaboration and collegiality between the food trucks. They also try to have a civilized dialogue with the city about what needs to happen in order to improve our industry. Having a dialogue with the city is not always one of the most effective activities you can engage in, but you try.

What advice would you give someone who is interested in opening a food truck? Go to work for another food truck for a year to see if you like it and to get acquainted with the reality. Get acquainted with what it is like to work 16-17 hours a day. If you want to be successful, a lot of times that’s what it is going to take. My best advice is to try it, see how it feels, and if that’s what you want to do, pursue it.

Where is your favorite location in which Wafels & Dinges operates? One of my favorite locations is Park Slope. We’re been going there since the very beginning. We’re been extremely loyal to that spot even though business slows down sometimes during the summer. We make a point of going there and always serving our customers there. The numbers may be higher in Manhattan somewhere, but we have such a great customer base in Park Slope that, for me, its one of our best spots. There’s a lot of history there, five years of going there every single Saturday, being in the same spot consistently. I don’t think there are a lot of food trucks that get celebrated like that.

Editor’s Note:  Lauren Cannon blogs at UpendED, an intensive program for budding entrepreneurs who are interested in launching their enterprises as small-scale mobile units. She also contributes to Inc. and entrepreneur.com. We would like to thank her for her engaging interview series for the Vendy’s Blog. Stay tuned for more interviews with finalists.

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BEST ETHNIC FOOD CARTS IN THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT (VIA MOTB)

As promised in our last post about food vendors, we’re in the process of scouting NYC’s five boroughs for the best hidden gems in the food cart/food truck scene in order to nominate them for a Vendy Award.

Last trip out, we explored food vendors in Midtown with the Urban Oyster team on one of their two food cart tours. This week, we took their other food cart tour, which focuses on the Financial District (aka FiDi, the area surrounding Wall Street).

Starting today, July 8, Urban Oyster will be running a week-long promotion that will give you $5 off an Urban Oyster food cart tour when you buy tickets for this year’s Vendy Awards. Buy your tickets in the next seven days for a discount on the FiDi or Midtown food cart tour or another great Urban Oyster tour.

Here are links to some of Urban Oyster’s favorite food carts in FiDi: Veronica’s Kitchen (Yelp site) Adel’s No.1 (Yelp site) 99% Vegetarian Cart (Yelp site) Korilla BBQ Souvlaki GR Wafels & Dinges

Other Urban Oyster favorites not included on this particular day’s FiDi tour: Jiannetto’s Pizza Bahn Mi Cart (Yelp Site)

One point we made in the last post is that street eats are a great way to check out several different cultures without a plane ticket and without having to hike all over the city (though we think both of those options are quite fun). On this version of the tour, we tasted our way through small samples of:

Trinidadian/West Indian food

Vegetarian food (prepared by a pair of Mexican brothers)

Egyptian halal (we had West Indian halal food on the Midtown tour – Trini Paki Boys cart is also great halal food)

Greek food

Korean food

Belgian food

For more photos from the Urban Oyster FiDi Food Truck tour, click here.

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BROOKLYN SCOUTING FROM LACEY

Yes, this installment of Street Food Friday is really Street Food… Tuesday. So let’s just pretend it’s Friday then, shall we? 

One Saturday, I did what I had never done before… I had ventured into the depths of Brooklyn ALONE… all in the name of food trucks. In reality my friend Brian was supposed to meet me but wasn’t able to last minute, and I was in super safe Williamsburg. But we’ll pretend that I was being super adventurous on my own from the get go.

The main purpose of this field trip was to discover and investigate Brooklyn food trucks for the Vendy Awards. My coworker and dear friend Emily works with them, and had enlisted me to research and take on this expedition as her proxy, since she couldn’t make it out that weekend. Regardless, I spent a few days researching, mapped out my course, and was off!

First stop was the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg (27 N. 6th St btwn Kent Ave and East River). I hadn’t been to the Flea yet, so I was excited about that, but I was even more excited because this particular Saturday was the first Smorgasburg, and a bunch of food trucks had set up shop. First stop on the agenda, The Milk Truck!

After some pondering, I went with the Three Cheese Grilled Cheese, and an Arnie Palmer to wash it down. The line for the Milk Truck was long, but for a made to order grilled cheese, it was worth it. While the Arnie Palmer was only OK (it was a little tart for my liking), the sandwich was DE-vine. The cheese was melted to perfection, in between panini pressed bread. It was just the right amount of crispness, without being toasted to the consistency of a hockey puck. At first, you couldn’t taste the blue cheese, but then it slowly hits your palate, blending in perfectly well with the apple slices. It pained me to have to leave half the sandwich behind, but really, if I finished it, I wouldn’t have been able to visit any of the other trucks!

After scarfing down my half a grilled cheese sandwich (and leaving a grease stain on a nearby ledge from it) I got back in line for The Red Hook Lobster Pound. They are one of the two lobster trucks roaming the city streets, and I was eager to get my lobster on! (I only wish I was one of those nifty plastic bibs you get in restaurants.)

Red Hook Lobster had a shorter line than the Milk Truck, but I think that was due to there not being a prominent sign on the Pound’s tent, and also because the lobster rolls were $16 each. I know for lobster that isn’t steep, but it hit my wallet pretty hard that day. While you could also get a shrimp roll for half the cost, I was here for lobster. I chose Connecticut style lobster (warm with butter) over Maine (with homemade mayonnaise), and chowed down. I have to say, for $16, you get some pretty decent pieces of meat! I even found whole claw meat. The bun itself wasn’t anything special, I viewed it as a vehicle for the lobster meat, and nothing more. It was nice that it was toasted though – made it a little sturdier for the handling. I did notice that some of the larger pieces were a little dry, but for a mobile vendor, I was impressed. I did wish the roll had more scallions though – it was kind of just added for garnish, but it was good with the roll!

I decided to take a break at this point, and head away from the crowds at Smorgasburg. Plus, I needed dessert!! I headed up North 7th towards Artists & Fleas, where Coolhaus was parked.

First off, this is one of the coolest looking trucks I’ve seen out in the NYC food truck scene so far. (Feed Your Hole is up there too.) The woman working on the truck styled herself like something out of a 50′s soda fountain advertisement, and I wanted her name to be Lucille or Betty. She rocked.

There were so many different cookie/ice cream combinations to choose from, that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. I decided to go with a basic chocolate chip cookie, but mixed it up with Nutella toasted almond ice cream. (Mmm Nutella.) You can get multiple scoops in a cup or cookie sandwich, and can also get a ton of different gluten free options. If you get the cookie sandwich, it comes wrapped in edible paper. Right?! Right. The paper doesn’t taste like anything (yes, I tried… all in the name of food trucks), but I suppose that’s a good thing. You don’t want some delicious ice cream sandwich being ruined because the edible paper tastes bad. I do wish the ice cream fit a bit neater in between the two cookies, and also that I had someone to share it with, because it melted so fast in the warm sun! But the Nutella ice cream? Oh man was that tasty. I could have eaten a pint of it.

After my melty, yet super yummy ice cream sandwich, I was once again ready for the savory foods. I headed to Bedford Ave, and walked down to North 3rd to experience the Endless Summer taco truck. Endless summer is a rarity among the food truck movement, because it was around really before the food truck movement gained momentum. It doesn’t have a Twitter account. It doesn’t move locations (it’s always on the corner of Bedford and North 3rd). The truck hasn’t been gussied up in signature colors or branding, save for “Endless Summer” written on the above the front window, and the black outline of a Mexican woman on the side. But seeing how popular this truck is with the locals, it doesn’t need all that.

Compared to general food trucks prices, Endless Summer is cheap! It’s also quick, no frills, no nonsense and even though there’s a line, the one guy manning the truck is quick to fill everyone’s order without missing a garnish. I grabbed a chicken taco, and a Jarritos mandarin orange soda. Without even going into the details of the taco, I have to say how much I loved that Jarritos soda! It was sweet and refreshing, and a nice change from Sunkist. As for the taco, I thought it was pretty good, but nothing fantastic. Maybe because I’m used to all these trucks trying to outdo each other, but the chicken was merely ok. It could have been more flavorful. However, the corn tortilla was nice, and doubled so the juices from the chicken didn’t immediately soggy it up. The raw onion, cojita cheese and cilantro also gave the taco a nice punch, but again, I would have loved little more from the chicken.

My food truck frenzy ended back at Smorgasburg, where I hit up Asia Dog. (And the lines were still long! If you go to the Flea/Smogasburg – get there early!) The menu looked amazing, and I had trouble deciding what to get. (I also couldn’t believe I was still hungry, considering all I had consumed.) I finally went with a beef dog, and “the Vinh” as my topping of choice. The Vinh is Vietnamese banh-mi style: pate, spicy aioli, pickled carrots, and daikon, jalapeno, cilantro, and cucumber.

The dog was amazing. The beef was snappy on the outside, giving that great crunch when you bite into it. The flavors went so well together, I made a mental note to get Vietnamese food more often! I did wish that I could taste more of the cucumber and jalapeno, I kind of felt like the dog was smothered in carrots, and it overwhelmed the whole thing. And you can never have enough cilantro, in my opinion.

I had a great time scouting for the Vendys, and I couldn’t believe my stomach made it through all that!! I guess you can never have enough of a good thing.

Make sure you follow @VendyAwards on Twitter for updates and other food truck news. The awards take place in NYC September 24th! Vote for your favorite!

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We know you are excited, we are too. Sign-up here for updates.

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AND THE 2012 VENDY AWARDS WINNERS ARE…..

VENDY CUP

PIAZTLAN AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

THE CINNAMON SNAIL

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

PHIL’S STEAKS

BEST DESSERT

MELT BAKERY

BEST MARKET VENDOR

LUMPIA SHACK

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SLUSHIES FOR GROWNUPS: KELVIN NATURAL SLUSH

Who doesn’t love a good slushie? And the slushes from Kelvin Natural Slush Co. aregreat. Combining citrus, tea and ginger bases with real fruit like white peaches, mangoes, and strawberries, they pack all the refreshment of the icy drinks you remember from childhood without all of the added sugar and food coloring. Their 2010 Dessert Vendy win propelled Kelvin to the top and now co-owners, Alex Rein and Zack Silverman are taking their drinks to the next level with irresistible alcoholic pairings.

Even in the early days they noticed customers were adding a little something something to these grown up slushes to make them for the 21 and over crowd. As Zack says: “People would show up at our truck with flasks and mini-bottles all the time to make their own, what we call, ‘prohibition style’ slush on the street.” This summer they launched a restaurant & bar partnership program working with select restaurants and bars to offer Kelvin “frozen cocktails.” Now you can get boozy slushes at some of the coolest spots around the city: Cafe de La Esquina and Berry Park in Williamsburg, Coffee Shop on Union Square West, the Thompson LES Hotel poolside bar and the Gansevoort Park Hotel rooftop bar AND at the upcoming Vendys VIP Hour!

First a little back story, this past year we’ve been hard at work on New York a la Cart: Recipes and Stories from the Big Apple’s Best Food Trucks. Close to fifty vendors are profiled in the book along with over one hundred recipes, which necessitated some marathon recipe testing sessions with very patient friends. When you’re recipe testing, you never know how the dish will turn out and as our hungry crews gathered, we needed to rally their spirits and keep them in a good mood. The Kelvin Slush boozy slushes proved to be the perfect antidote to the “waiting-for-lunch-blues” and we made them as an aperitif at all of our tastings.

Contrary to this whole Labor-Day-is-the-end-of-summer-nonsense, we still have a couple weeks left and we’re excited to demo a couple easy alcoholic slushes with Kelvin Slush during the Vendy VIP Hour on Saturday, September 15th! This week we’ll be in the test kitchen with Alex and Zack perfecting some special wine and beer based recipes for the day. They’ll pour you slushes and we’ll show you how you can make your own at home. VIP tickets are going fast, so if you’re thinking about getting a ticket or trading up (you can upgrade a previously purchased ticket) don’t wait too long! We hope to see you there!

Photograph by Donny Tsang.