FiDi Food Cart Tour With Turnstile Tours

Tomorrow is the 8th annual Vendy Awards (3rd year at Governors Island). The Vendy Awards may just be one of my favorite events to attend. I missed out last year but I’m pretty damn excited for this year since many of my favorite trucks/vendors are nominated for an award this year (Uncle Gussy’s, Torta Neza, The Cinnamon Snail, Piaztlan Authentic Mexican Food, Melt Bakery).

Another person that I know is a big fan/supporter of street food is my friend, Brian Hoffman aka Eat This NY. He’s such a big supporter of street food, he even gives food cart tours in the Financial District and Midtown (along with his fellow tour guides from Turnstile Tours). I thought it would be the best time to take one of their tours before the Vendy Awards. I have heard many good things and Blondie from Blondie and Brownie went on his tour last Wednesday and had a blast.

Brian started the tour off with a little intro of himself, the tour and a little history lesson about NYC street food.

Here’s everyone sitting down enjoying their first taste of NYC street food, jerk chicken from Veronica’s Kitchen. Surprisingly few people from the UK said there aren’t any food trucks in the UK. I may just have to go to the UK to investigate this.

Afterwards, Veronica herself was nice enough to spare a moment of her busy time (we were there right at busy noon lunch time) to chat with us.

You know the food will be AWESOME, when the line is that long.

Fluffy, perfectly fried falafels over a bed of rice from Adel’s #1 Halal. Tasty!

Many people were familiar with “NY pizza” (or what they thought to be NY pizza). Here, Brian took us to Jiannetto’s Pizza truck for some delicious grandma slices. Fresh, hot straight from the truck.

While digesting our food, Brian took us around for a history lesson. He showed us a map of old old OLD New York when it was first colonized by the Dutch. He also showed a little piece of history that was right beneath us, the old foundation of Lovelace Tavern, which served as the second city hall for New York.

Annnnd the eating resumed. Beautiful meatball sliders from Our Heroes’ sliders cart.

For our last savory bite of the tour, we visited The Bistro Truck for some delicious Moroccan.

Thomas, the owner of Wafels & Dinges is rarely at the truck so you can tell by Brian’s face just how happy he was to see Thomas.

I had a great time at the tour because it wasn’t just a food tour but also an educational one. I love history. I love learning about things that we normally overlook or just don’t have the time to notice. I also love the chance to chat with the vendors themselves and to hear from them (and Brian) the struggles of running a food cart/truck in NYC.

We visited a total of 6 vendors and that’s just the tip of the NYC street food iceberg. There’s so much to explore in this city and Brian’s tour is a GREAT starting point, a delicious starting point.

Looking for something fun and tasty to do while in NYC? Be sure to check out the food cart tours (plus many other tours) on Turnstile Tours.