Eating My Way Through New York City

Cinemagraph — Amy Lombard for The New York Times

In the Bronx last month, Armando Flores Barrera and Ma. Guadalupe Romero slow boiled pork in fat — a way of making carnitas that they brought from Mexico.

I went on a street vendor scavenger hunt through the city. Here’s who else I met →

Eating My Way Through New York City

The Street Vendor Project organized the hunt, which runs through Tuesday, to promote the city’s street vendors during a tough season: “During the winter, there’s less people outside,” Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez, deputy director of S.V.P., told me.

Eating My Way Through New York City

Tony Dragonas serves Greek salads and prosciutto paninis. He’s been street vending for 35 years, and now has people working with him, including one of his sons. Sometimes, his customers have a specific request: “They demand,” he told me. “They want Tony to make it.”

Eating My Way Through New York City

Tenpa Gyaltsen worked construction when he immigrated from Tibet in 2003. Four years ago, he opened a truck in Jackson Heights, Queens, where he sells steamed momos, a dumpling filled with meat and veggies.

Eating My Way Through New York City

In 2015, Jack Xia immigrated from China to Brooklyn, where he opened a restaurant. After closing because of the pandemic, he opened a truck in Flushing, Queens, selling items like a whole squid and lotus root slow simmered in spices.

Eating My Way Through New York City

Zaina Elkordy and her sister, Salma, inherited a food truck from their father last year. They sell shish kebabs and chicken over rice, made with a blend of Jamaican and Egyptian spices. “This combination is made up of me, my sister, my whole family,” Zaina told me.

María Fernanda Erives and Jeff Singer contributed reporting.

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