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Red hook ballfields
I hate myself sometimes. More often, I hate other people. For example, Ralph Nader voters in Florida in the year 2000. Those people? I hate you, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. A vote in one direction is a non-vote in another; a vote for Nader was a vote against Gore and a vote for Bush, as it turned out. And this past weekend I turned into the Red Hook ball park version of a Nader voter. If you have not been keeping score, New York City officials cracked down on the Red Hook vendors last year and required them to have permits and get actual food trucks with proper sanitation. So the only natural thing for me to do this past weekend was to subvert the rules and buy food from a vendor that was clearly not in a food truck, but instead a picnic table.
It started innocently enough because I was curious about the Serious eats meetup. But like Ed said, the line was over an hour. The huaraches line moved like molasses and the only sensible thing to do was to get a juice and move on to food somewhere else. I had to meet up with a friend in Brooklyn Heights and I started my trek with a juice in my right hand. And then soon, I had a taco in the other hand.
On my walk away from the ball fields, I noticed what looked like a family having a picnic. Right away, something was different because unless this family owned a food slave, it made no sense that ONE person was preparing food and handing it to everyone else... and everyone else was sort of in line... Looked like an illegal stand to me, and I was more than willing to support them because the line was super short.
I asked one guy, "What is she selling?" "I do not know what she is selling. She is my relative." Well of course you do not 'buy' food from your relative at a picnic table in Red Hook... so I asked someone else and she got a kid to come translate for me. Apparently tacos were on the menu... but she definitely had other stuff and if I knew Spanish the illegal food treasure could have been unlocked. Still, I was hungry and a taco sounded delicious.
Smothered in a fiery green salsa, the pork taco was everything that I could have desired. I devoured the tacos in a matter of seconds and pondered about the situation... was my $2.50 a slap in the face to those who spent a boatload of money to buy actual food trucks? Yes. My support of the illegal taco stand was a nay vote to the actual Red Hook food truck vendors. But I do not care. And maybe those Nader voters did not care either. This was about personal satisfaction and hopefully the unintended consequence does not ignite a search for imaginary WMD's. If that happens though, I will hate myself and it will not be anything new.
Like what you've read today? Subscribe to my RSS and never miss a post!Posted by Danny on July 28 2008 at 11:06 am
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Ralph Nader is a republican is disguise.
Janice on July 28 2008 at 12:22 pm
I had an "illegal" taco at the ball park about a month ago, before the vendors came back. I went to the ball park this weekend and it was completely mobbed, and it also had a completely different feel to it compared to last summer, when the vendors were in tents, not trucks, and the patrons all spoke Spanish. This time, most of the patrons are hipsters/yuppies. Not that it's a bad thing... the vendors need to make their money to make up for the cost of the trucks. But if you have to wait an hour in line for "street food," then it's not really street food anymore.
Ang on July 28 2008 at 12:32 pm
YUM. i would kill for some taco truck tacos, but alas, they don't even have real mexican food in taipei. everything is "localized" for the people here.
joanh on July 28 2008 at 11:06 pm
I thought you took a closeup of a snail with green sauce on it in the first picture.
Jack on July 29 2008 at 1:08 am
I went to the Ballfields this weekend for the first time (I went for IKEA & ran over to check out the food). WHAT A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!! My tacos were crap & the wait for them were 45 minutes. The cerviche was okay but too expensive. Bummer!
This is required on July 31 2008 at 11:31 am
Janice,
Yes.
Ang,
Yea somehow I felt great to skip the line and get it from an 'authentic' source.
joanh,
If they had a taco truck in Taipei, my head would probably explode... we should trade. Get some of those food stands in Taipei to come to NY and someone send a Red Hook taco truck over there
Jack,
snails are tasty dude. I think most preparations have it with a lot of garlic though... so you are almost drinking garlic sauce.
howdy,
I think the wait changes the whole experience. Street food should be fast and cheap. Since it's NY, I am willing to bypass the cheap factor a little bit... but slow street food?!?
Danny on August 1 2008 at 10:42 am
Politics aside, that is one tasty looking saucy taco. Can't blame you for 'skipping' the long lines. Get the Rosetta Stone discs for Spanish and get back to the family picnic soon for the rest of the bounty!
Cheers, One Food Guy
scott on August 7 2008 at 5:09 pm