Ever bustling New York city is dotted with street food cars in almost every corner of the street in Manhattan downtown area, catering to the taste buds of all New Yorkers, tourists, and office goers alike at a competitive price (New York standards).
One such street vendor in the historic Washington square park (one of the best-known public parks in New York city), is Kumar, a Tamil from Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It is easy to locate him/ food cart in the park by the serpentine queue by the side of his cart.
He is so popular that Wikipedia has an article on him, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NY_Dosas
and he is active in social media platforms like Instagram and Face Book as well,
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nydosas/?hl=en ,
Face book https://www.facebook.com/NYDosas/ in addition to his own web page
Enthused by his popularity and recommended by our children, we went to Washington square park and waited patiently in the queue for about 45 minutes and when our turn came, he started speaking to us in Tamil by hearing our conversation in Tamil when we were in the queue. We had a good discussion with him and understood that he started his Dosa cart around 30 years back and now a contended US citizen and operating only a few hours a day. All cooking is done by him, and he employs a person for packing and delivering the orders only. His business strategy is that he tries to interact with every customer in their own language (he speaks 7 languages, he said) as far as possible and explains the health benefits of his food to them.
We have ordered all the varieties (including his signature item, Pondicherry Dosa) on sales on that day and were not disappointed. Anyone going to New York, we recommend visiting NY Dosa man in Washington square park and I am sure his Dosa would not disappoint you as well.
Opmerkingen