Cue burning lips, watering eyes, and flaming skin. Five spoonfuls in, I noticed I was the only one in the restaurant wiping her nose. Once I got past the combusting chilies, there was garlic, cilantro, and ginger upon ginger. If an exclamation mark had a flavor, it might taste something like Manchow soup.
This week’s featured cabbie is Fabio Peralta, a New York hack who inspires his fares to get in touch with their creative sides. The moment a passenger climbs into his back seat, Mr. Peralta hands her a pen and paper and tells her “to create art, any kind of art.”
If you happen to get into a yellow taxi in New York City or anywhere in the world this weekend, please salute your driver. Obviously, I've always believed that we should appreciate our cabbies, but until I started the journey from observer to participant, I didn't realize how much respect they really deserve.
Every week, Taxi Gourmet features a cab shot from a different part of the world. This week's photo comes from Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll, who captured this fun picture of two bicycle cabbies in Rivas, Nicaragua.
When I walked into the 24 hour Indian-Pakistani-Chinese cafeteria, the first thing I noticed was the bug zapper. A server watched me grab a seat as he sliced ginger into a metal bin. My chair rocked opposite a trash can piled with dirty dishes. It was the archetypal hole in the wall.
I would argue that all taxi drivers lead double lives to some extent, but some cabbies are especially creative when it comes to how they spend their time away from the wheel. In Tokyo, Riichiro Nakajima works as a Charlie Chaplin impersonator when he's not speeding through the city in his taxi.
