My last weekend shift before I take off for two months of taxi adventures in Berlin was my last chance to hunt down an empanada that would measure up to Daniel Beccaria's Buenos Aires standards. New York Adventures
From the Driver’s Seat: The Quest Goes Uzbeki
My last weekend shift before I take off for two months of taxi adventures in Berlin was my last chance to hunt down an empanada that would measure up to Daniel Beccaria's Buenos Aires standards. This One’s for the Cabbies: Top 7 On-Duty Eating Spots
Here are my 7 favorite spots for a cheap, fast, tasty meal/snack when I'm in the driver's seat. Don't worry about parking tickets: they're all within 1-2 blocks of a taxi stand. Top 15 Cabbie-Recommended Dishes in NYC
If I had 24 hours to eat in New York and wasn’t driving a cab, these are the 15 cabbie-recommended dishes I’d definitely have to taste again. From the Driver’s Seat: On Rivalries and Empanadas
In the universe of epic rivalries - Pepsi vs. Coke, Microsoft vs. Apple, Leno vs. Letterman - the ongoing war between yellow cab drivers and the NYPD may not seem all that significant. But it's a very real part of New York's culturescape. Ready, Set, Soul
As we studied the menu on the wall - pigs feet! oxtails! jerk chicken! ham hocks! - I remembered taxi driver Troy Johnson's recommendations. Troy was the reason my three co-adventurers and I were at RCL, and I wanted to be sure we tried his turkey wings and smothered pork chops. From the Driver’s Seat: Bits of Light
This weekend marks six months since I started driving a yellow cab in New York City. I may still be a rookie, but I know one thing: I never would have survived any of my shifts without at least one instance of light. Time Traveling with Troy
When my co-adventurers and I hopped into Troy's back seat yesterday, he told us "you're not gonna get rich driving a cab." And that his girlfriend of 18 years had just left him "because I wouldn't get married." Though he'd just finished drowning his sorrows in soul food, he ended up leading us to...Read more »
Two Lessons and Terrible Tacos (Part 2)
You can learn a lot about a person by eavesdropping on their cell phone calls. And when someone initiates a chain of calls from the back seat of my cab, I feel no shame about listening in. I may be invisible to some of my passengers, but they're never invisible to me. From the Driver’s Seat: Two Lessons and Terrible Tacos (Part 1)
During my last shift, I learned two lessons that are going to be burned on my brain for as long as I’m driving a cab: 1. Never, ever, order an iced coffee 2. Never, ever pick up anyone going to JFK after 3pm and expect to return your cab to the garage on time. Tasting Hossam’s Ritual
I was a little alarmed when I walked into Little Morocco on Friday and saw that every single chair was empty. Wasn’t this cabbie Hossam’s go-to spot for couscous? Hadn’t he told me to make sure I got there early in case they ran out? 