Thursday, May 21, 2009
Street food
After a very long wait with plenty of attendant hoopla, the new A La Cart street foods are available. Yonge and St. Clair got the jerk chicken, and I tried it today.
Very disappointing. It's a chicken breast, presumably marinated or at least dusted in a jerk dressing, charcoal broiled, wrapped in a pita with some shredded lettuce and mango strips. Sounds good, eh? But the chicken was dry, the lettuce crappy, and the mango a bit underripe. Worst, the jerk was missing any pepper. It had some flavour, but it was so bland. They've got to spice it up and add some sauce or dressing. And it was five bucks!
So street dog is still king, at least at this corner. An Italian sausage is only $3.50, is more filling, and - given the fat content - much moister. Plus you can get a drink, which the jerk cart doesn't offer.
One more point. As I was about to pay, the lady doing the transactions - I don't know who she is, the operators are a Jamaican man and woman - asked me to go around the "front" because I was with Archie. Hey, lady, you're on the sidewalk! What's Archie supposed to do, walk on the street? He's already walked past your cart about six times since you opened. Also, your front is where your back should be. That is, you're selling to pedestrians, you should be facing the pedestrian traffic, not the street. In fact, they face the street (I assume) because they want to attract cars going by, which they do. And parking enforcement, who is already cleaning up from this operation. When I was coming back from Sobey's, the lady was talking to an inspector from the City. I wonder if he mentioned that.
As we got home, I saw Angry Drunk Guy having a beer in the sports bar patio. I almost didn't recognize him at first: he looked sane. It struck me that he must come here around lunch time and drink all day until he's completely pissed.
It's Mr. T's birthday. He's 57. Another guy who ought to be older than me but isn't.
Very disappointing. It's a chicken breast, presumably marinated or at least dusted in a jerk dressing, charcoal broiled, wrapped in a pita with some shredded lettuce and mango strips. Sounds good, eh? But the chicken was dry, the lettuce crappy, and the mango a bit underripe. Worst, the jerk was missing any pepper. It had some flavour, but it was so bland. They've got to spice it up and add some sauce or dressing. And it was five bucks!
So street dog is still king, at least at this corner. An Italian sausage is only $3.50, is more filling, and - given the fat content - much moister. Plus you can get a drink, which the jerk cart doesn't offer.
One more point. As I was about to pay, the lady doing the transactions - I don't know who she is, the operators are a Jamaican man and woman - asked me to go around the "front" because I was with Archie. Hey, lady, you're on the sidewalk! What's Archie supposed to do, walk on the street? He's already walked past your cart about six times since you opened. Also, your front is where your back should be. That is, you're selling to pedestrians, you should be facing the pedestrian traffic, not the street. In fact, they face the street (I assume) because they want to attract cars going by, which they do. And parking enforcement, who is already cleaning up from this operation. When I was coming back from Sobey's, the lady was talking to an inspector from the City. I wonder if he mentioned that.
As we got home, I saw Angry Drunk Guy having a beer in the sports bar patio. I almost didn't recognize him at first: he looked sane. It struck me that he must come here around lunch time and drink all day until he's completely pissed.
It's Mr. T's birthday. He's 57. Another guy who ought to be older than me but isn't.
# posted by Stephen @ 4:05 p.m. 
