Street Cart Food Is Disgusting, 311 Complaints Prove
In the past three years, people have filed 359 complaints with 311 about terrible food carts, the Daily News reports. Biederman also appears as a key source for the News article, and no doubt he advanced this exclusive as part of his campaign to get carts off the street. But the stories are still pretty gross. Food poisoning from an italian sausage sandwich, nasty chicken in the Bronx, and even some gnarly stomach illness from bad bottled water.
They described food handlers working without gloves, workers scooping spilled spices off filthy sidewalks, a bare-chested cook with his body hair wafting onto the grill.
Other extremely gross reports included “something moving” in a hot dog and this little gem, also from a hot dog cart:
“I saw green spots on it, and it tasted bad,” the complainant said. “Also I saw roaches on the cart and now my stomach hurts and my friend also feels the same way.”
Heads up, people: IF A HOT DOG IS GREEN DO NOT EAT IT. This is not a charming Suessical reference, it is just straight-up mold. I promise, the $2 you paid for that is not worth spending all day crouched over the toilet.
Still, 359 complaints in three years for all 5,100 vendors in the city? That’s not the worst, honestly. I’m sure that you could easily have collected a similar number of horror stories from New York’s brick-and-mortar institutions. But if restaurants all have to hang one of those letter grades outside, would it be such a bad thing for street carts to have them too? As of right now, the Health Department tries to do one surprise inspection a year. In the last two years, 24 vendors lost their licenses and some 1,268 violations were handed out. So should we enforce some more serious health standards on food carts? Probably. But you will pry that halal gyro from my cold, dead hands, sir.