Taxi Gourmet – Fasten your seat belt and let the food quest begin…

The man behind the counter at Rangdhonu Cafe laughed a big belly laugh when I asked him if a lot of taxi drivers ate at the restaurant. Given that there’s a yellow cab parked out front every time I drive or walk by the Bangladeshi diner on 36th Ave, I …

“You sat in my taxi,” the subject line read. In light of the conversation that unfolded from 59th and Lex to Punjabi Grocery & Deli in the East Village, I wasn’t so surprised when I spotted Mian Ayyub’s name in my inbox. But I was a little surprised at all …

Does this look like an Egyptian restaurant to you? Not to me. And not to my food-questing companion Jared, whom I wanted to impress with the random magic of a taxi adventure. Still, I walked into Empire Pizza II grasping at hope. In New York City, a lot of restaurants …

“I wrote this song about my wife,” he said, turning down the jazz on 88.3, stuffing a CD into the player and fast forwarding to track #3, “It’s about love and hate and how love turns to hate. I still love her.” We were speeding down Park Avenue when the …

You probably won’t believe me when I tell you that on the night of my first cab ride with a driver from southern China, I just happened to have a Cantonese-speaking friend along for the adventure. But that’s exactly what happened. Even though the cabbie’s English was good, speaking Cantonese …

If you’ve ever been in a long distance relationship, this story is for you. I heard it on Valentine’s Day in the back seat of a yellow cab going from Tribeca to Union Square. Imagine getting married in Chennai, India. Imagine coming to New Jersey in 1998, leaving your new …

“Not hungry!” Zorba exclaimed…”But you’ve not had a bite since morning. The body’s got a soul, too, have pity on it. Give it something to eat, boss, give it something; it’s our beast of burden, you know. If you don’t feed it, it’ll leave you stranded in the middle o’ …

Ground Zero. Photo by taxiberlin.blogspot.com Unless you visit Ground Zero, it’s almost impossible to spot the after-effects of 9/11. Almost ten years after the disaster, New York has done a remarkable job of erasing the bulk of the physical damage from that day. Wall Street hums. Battery Park City glimmers. …

A tango dancer knows when it’s time to leave the milonga the same way a taxi driver knows when it’s time to go back to the garage. Before the last tango, the dancer suffers from a strange mix of anticipation and fatigue. Before the final fare of the shift, the …

No, I’m not going to write another top 10 list. But this was too rich a year not to dish out some highlights. 2010 was the year I got a license to drive a New York cab, the year I realized how closely Buenos Aires was following me (empanada crawl, …