You're Invited

It's that time already! Midterm is upon us, and us along with our fellow classmates will be presenting our hard work thus far. Anyone is welcome to attend, and all feedback is welcomed and encouraged! See you next week!

Where the magic happens

Today was an exciting day! We went to Queens to meet the mastermind at Cyber Metal Tech, Andy Hor. This shop custom makes carts to order. "What do you want to cook?" he asks first, then the cart is made to fit. "It's the American Dream," he says, "to bring your food here, and buy a cart. So I make them carts to sell their food."
They were all so shiny and full of possiblities! I wanted to stand inside of them, fire up the grill, and bring in the customers! Some day maybe, some day...

Award Winning

So we finally met the famous Muhammed. His cart is the 2007 Vendy Award Winning Kwik Meal cart located on the SW corner of 45th and 6th Ave. Though he was incredibly busy, (always a steady line of regulars) he took time out to talk with us. Unfortunately we did not have the chance to sample any of his food,...yet. We will be back, and we are looking forward to it. In the meantime, there is an excellent blog about a day in the life of Muhammed, Kwik Meal style. Check it out on the Midtown Lunch website.

Falafel for everyone!

Luckily today we went on a class field trip to MOMA, which just so happens to be in the same neighborhood as the majority of our research. So since we were walking by,...we introduced the rest of our colleagues to the world of street food, falafel style. It was especially enjoyed by our two professors, Matthew Burger, Chair of Industrial Design at Pratt, and Jeff Kapec, Principal at Tanaka Kapec Design Group, Inc., this was their first Falafel experience!
Mustafa speedily served up all of us, and even gave us a deal. Now at least everyone understands just how difficult street research can be. Having to eat great meals all the time, it's so very rough!
This upcoming week, me must try Kwik Meal, and meet the famous Muhammed!

Beware of Tourist Pricing

As we noticed today while interviewing two very unhappy customers, watch out for the vendor with no pricing on their signage. Make sure to ask the price up front, or you may get profiled and recieve what is know as "the tourist deal." This means the vendor charges you a couple of bucks more than they should. The two visitors to the city we talked to today, were not so happy to have paid $7 dollars for their gyros, I wouldn't have been either!

Falafel Heaven

A morning with royalty. We went back up to Queens, and spent the morning watching Freddy set up. Truly a model of efficiency. Young, old, and everyone in between seem to love him. The secret to success seems to be (beyond great food) ; a smile and great customer service. Apparently it's not a dying art!

Street Food- Portraits

A fellow foodie we recently discovered is Jocelyn Baun, who we discovered off of a link from the Street Vendor Project. She is currently doing a project on Street Vendor portraits. Her work can currently be found in two places; her website jocelynbaun.com (click on portfolios-street food), and Cafe Sutra in Brooklyn, but only until the 29th of Feb.

She sent this photo of her work so I could put it on our site, just love it! Her photos are amazing!