Check out my Moveable Feast (Conde Nast Traveler’s food blog) post about Taxi Gourmet.
On Monday night, I set out to accompany Layne on a Taxi Gourmet adventure in New York. We met it Times Square (the NYC equivalent to the obelisco) and hailed the first empty cab we saw. Layne explained that Taxi Gourmeting in New York is different from Buenos Aires because the cabbies are less open to talking, especially because of the plastic partition. So, she has a new routine where she asks the driver if he’d be ok answering a few questions before she gets in the cab. If he says yes, she gets in, gives a random destination, and then chats with him about his life. Midway through she’ll change the topic to his favorite restaurant, and if he names one, asks him to take her there. But if the place is far away (Queens, Brooklyn, etc.), she writes down the name and address with plans to check it out later.
Our first cab driver didn’t seem to understand the questions, and told us he didn’t eat anywhere in the city. Next. We hailed another cab and our driver, Muhammad, was friendly and willing to help. He told us about winning the immigration lottery to come to the U.S. from Bangladesh and his children back home. His favorite restaurant, he said, is a pizza place in Astoria where he lives, but he also loves a traditional Bangladeshi place in the financial district where he eats during every shift.
So to the Bangladeshi restaurant we went, where we ended up eating peas and rice, curry chicken, and other mushy vegetables (all too salty and overall didn’t taste so great). Layne said she’d had better, so I guess my adventure won’t be topping her charts.
More photos to come!
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