Courtney S. « VendrTV

Courtney S.

New York, NY

Name: Courtney “The Cart” Scott

Age: Older and wiser than Dan Delaney

Location? What’s street food like there? Currently squatting in NYC. Street eats in this city are as diverse and delicious as the people. There are lots of impostors to wade through, but when you get to the heart of NYC’s street food (with the help of VendrTV) you’re rarely disappointed.

Occupation: Marketing Director and freelance blogger/host

Favorite type of food: Cheese please.

Least favorite type of food: Americanized Italian irks me. I grew up in Long Island, where most Italian restaurants served gargantuan portions of over-sauced chicken parmesean, over-creamed Alfredo and over-cooked pasta. How under-whelming.

Favorite street cart of all time? My favorite street treat is Vin brulé (mulled wine) served at stands along the decorated calli of Venice in the winter. Two EURO get you a piping hot cup that swirls with the scent of cinnamon and cloves. One or several cups pair impeccably with a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts, also sold on the street.

Craziest thing you’ve eaten? As a child I ate my fair share of Play-doh, as a pre-teen, ChapStick, and as an adult I’ve got this fried tarantula sitting in my luggage that I’m waiting for a special occasion to try.

Is there anything you won’t try? I’ll go head-to-head with Andrew Zimmern…but give me a banana, not a chance. I’m somewhat banana-phobic, actually. Texture, smell, peel; they each bother me in deep but different ways. The texture is too stringy and mushy. The smell is too over-powering. And the peel is floppy and brown.

If you were to open a street food cart, where would it be and what would you serve?
Kumara fries deserve a cart and a monument. As @adrocker once said, “Kumara fries are one of the most glorious inventions of our time.” The cart should reside in the Kumara capital, Auckland, New Zealand. I spent six months living there and survived largely on a diet of this fried root veggie (think sweet potato but more earthy, less sweet).

Here’s a recipe for Kumara at home:

Ingredients

2 lge Kumara, washed and dried
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Cut the Kumara into 1 cm fries. Toss with olive oil, salt, cayenne and pepper.
Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes until the fries are tender and beginning to brown. Serve hot.

Any interesting street food stories? @DanielDelaney and I were cart-hopping one night after dinner…Dan way over-ordered from the Dessert Truck, then again from the adjacent Crepe cart. Plates of bread pudding, cups of chocolate mouse and Nutella crepes ended up being distributed to the hungry, homeless street kids hanging around Astor Place. A memorable day in street food.

When did you first have street food? 16 years old…jacket potato stand in Covent Garden, London. My best friend, Stacey, had a crush on the vendor. Spent half our holiday eating potatoes.

MR_Softee