Tag: Cheap Eats View All Tags

Street Food in Peril: LA Cracking Down on Bacon Hot Dogs

August 29, 2008 at 10:30 AM | 0 Comments

OK, it's not quite the '92 riots, but the Los Angeles streets are indeed boiling over with the latest friction between cops and everyday folks. The burning topic this time: Bacon hot dogs.

A marquee staple of LA street food, bacon wrapped hot dogs have been declared unsafe by the LA Health Department, which deems bacon too risky health-wise to be fully cooked on the street. The cops have subsequently cracked down on the pork-on-pork action, ticketing offending vendors. Earlier this year, Drew Carey took to the streets for reason.tv to investigate. (He's sympathetic to the hot dog vendors, if you couldn't guess.)

Now LAist reports that just last week, there was a major bust right on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with police literally picking up hot dog carts and throwing them in the garbage. What gives, law enforcement? Those dogs were the only decent eats on Hollywood Boulevard!

Related Stories:
· Battle of the Bacon Hot Dogs [reason.tv]
· Killin' the Bacon [LAist]
· Street Food coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jslander]

Peerless Mexican Street Food in Williamsburg

August 10, 2008 at 3:40 PM | 0 Comments

We remember what it was like to backpack across Europe on a shoestring budget. A couple hundred bucks had to last through multiple countries, which meant that eating in restaurants was out of the question. Hence, the old backpacker cliché of bread and cheese on a park bench was elevated to a mantra, and delicious street food was a rare indulgence.

Penny-pinching visitors to New York who are "tuned in" enough to spend some time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn should make a beeline to the corner of Bedford Avenue and North 12th Street (across from the Turkey's Nest) for some of the finest - and cheapest - Mexican street food in the city. From Thursday through Sunday, a nameless food cart (we asked) turns out fantastic chicken, steak, and chorizo tacos for $2.50 a pop, along with $4 quesadillas and decadent elote (Mexican corn on the cob on a stick) with mayo, lime juice, parmesan cheese, salt, and red pepper. The food is straight-up yummers.

Take your Mexican feast across the street to McCarren Park, find a bench or a patch of grass, and chow down while assorted softball games are played on the diamonds. Plenty of people accompany their meals with draft beers poured into Styrofoam cups from the aforementioned Turkey's Nest, but drinking in public remains illegal in New York, and just because your beverage is in a unmarked container, don't think you can't get busted. I've seen it happen. Better to scrape together your remaining money and belly up to the bar for a digestif.

Related Stories:
· Turkey's Nest Tavern [New York Magazine]
· Street Food Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Victor Ozols]

Eat 'n Sleep in Portland :: Laughing Planet and Bluebird Guest House

August 28, 2007 at 2:30 PM | 0 Comments


Our Eat 'n Sleep feature profiles a restaurant in a random city and a hotel nearby. It's kinda like that old show "Dinner and a Movie" but you know, with restaurant and hotels. And better jokes.

This past weekend hundreds of rabid runners gathered in Portland to race from the top of Mt. Hood down to the Pacific Coast in the largest relay race in the world. Only those crazy enough willing to run a leg of the 197-mile overnight race were assigned numbers. So where did those looking for serious nourishment before running the Hood to Coast relay go to fill their bellies? And where did racers weary from the open road finally rest their legs? Only Jaunted's got the answer.

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More Haute Hot Dogs in Miami

June 22, 2007 at 11:08 AM | 0 Comments

We think of Miami as having more or less two types of restaurants. You've got your divey Cuban spots-slash-seedy diners for hangover nursing and you've got your over-the-top small-plates-sharing hot spot of the week.

But Dogma Grill deserves a category all its own--and with a new location opening up next month in North Miami--it's making a bid to be the city's foremost gourmet hot-doggery.

At the current Design District and Miami Beach locations, you'll find dogs beyond the basic, if that's your thing: Chicago (onions, tomatoes, peppers and pickles), El Macho (brown mustard, cheddar, tomatoes, onions and jalapenos) even the Tropicale (secret sauce, mozzarella, bacon and pineapple). Speaking of foods that could nurse a post-clubbing hangover: How do two gourmet dogs for under $10 sound?

Related Stories:
· Dogma Grill [Official Site]
· Miami Beach hotels [HotelChatter]

Dining Cheap in New York City

June 8, 2006 at 10:30 AM | 0 Comments


EuroCheapo, that guide to budget beds in European cities that, in the interest of complete disclosure, also employs one Jaunted contributing editor, recently launched a New York City Cheap Eats feature to accompany the site's also newish NYC budget bed listings.


Written and compiled by T.J. DiChristopher, the Cheap Eats feature divides staff faves into three categories: the very cheap, the splurgeworthy, and desserts.

The obvious budget options like Grey's Papaya are here, but so too are kick ass and somewhat neglected NYC restaurant gems like Soul Food spot Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too on 110th between Columbus and Manhattan and Ghenet, Soho's best Ethiopian spot, on Mulberry between Prince and Houston.

If you run into a throng of Germans at Miss Mamie's or Ghenet this summer, methodically writing check marks next to names of restaurants on a dog-eared piece of paper, there's a good chance that EuroCheapo will have sent them there.

[Image via jxv23/Flickr]