00:00 (baby crying)
00:02 (speaking in foreign language)
00:06 - This is the beef noodle soup.
00:22 This is the beef pastikers.
00:25 (speaking in foreign language)
00:28 (speaking in foreign language)
00:35 (dramatic music)
00:54 - I'm waiting for customer coming.
00:57 Normally they come in like 5.45 to 6 o'clock.
01:00 Every customer coming, I know 99% of the customer.
01:05 (speaking in foreign language)
01:12 (speaking in foreign language)
01:16 I'm the only one who provide the facility for them to go.
01:33 This gentleman, the Chinese, he's a plumber.
01:37 Every day before he go to Long Island City,
01:40 he will come in to grab some light lunch
01:43 and then go to work.
01:45 When I come to this country in 1981,
01:49 I walk around the midtown.
01:52 At that moment, all you see only hot dog,
01:57 pizza, peanuts, these three.
02:00 I said, "Gee, it's very boring."
02:02 So I said, "One day if I got chance,
02:05 "I gonna show you how the street food in Taiwan
02:10 "is like."
02:11 This is the original that I start the business.
02:14 I sell in the pasticle, the dumpling.
02:18 So when you see this truck in Manhattan,
02:20 don't forget to say hello.
02:22 I start the business with the pasticles.
02:26 I stay the same standard like 15 years ago.
02:30 I grow my own pork.
02:34 You want about 30% of the fat
02:39 and not 70% of the meat.
02:41 My father helping me, he's my first hand
02:46 and the left hand and right hand.
02:47 Okay, he's everywhere.
02:49 1980 something, this lucky guy or unlucky guy,
02:54 (laughs)
02:55 he come to apply it.
02:57 After I found him, he's a very nice, honest people.
03:01 So he's the one who running in and out, in and out.
03:06 - How would you describe her?
03:09 (laughs)
03:11 - He tell you later, don't tell her in front of me.
03:15 - Long, long story.
03:17 I work with her more than 20 years we are together.
03:21 - This is pork jelly.
03:23 It's from the pork skin.
03:25 You wanna make the dumpling more rich and more juicy.
03:29 If you eat a lot of this jelly,
03:32 your skin will be beautiful.
03:34 Less wrinkle.
03:35 (laughs)
03:37 This is the old traditional way to cook it.
03:40 This is choy.
03:43 Choy.
03:44 Choy.
03:45 Choy.
03:45 Okay, I call this Chinese Viagra.
03:47 (laughs)
03:49 It got a lot of good vitamin in there.
03:53 So the cabbage, we gonna grind it.
04:01 We cut it into small pieces.
04:03 Do you believe I bought this machine all the way from Taiwan?
04:09 (laughs)
04:11 Just put into the box and put into my luggage
04:15 and bring it here.
04:16 You see, you make it, grind it into small pieces.
04:22 One more machine need to come out.
04:26 Spinning machine.
04:28 Like when you washing the clothes.
04:29 She's shaking.
04:32 (laughs)
04:34 Now you gonna suck out all the water from the cabbage.
04:40 This is the herb, all kinds of herb, the spice oil.
04:45 When we process the pork, it got a lot of grease.
04:52 And some of the spice, it take away the grease.
04:56 I need four hours to cook.
04:58 So most of the Sunday I'm here, I do the pork jelly.
05:03 I do those because when I process this type of stuff,
05:08 I don't want anybody to bothers me.
05:10 That's what I spend time here.
05:12 (laughs)
05:13 Lots of work.
05:14 The street car, I only sell the dumpling.
05:21 I've been selling that for eight years straight
05:24 before I open the restaurant.
05:27 I have to consistently set up the format.
05:32 Everything maintain the same.
05:33 It's researcher.
05:35 Everybody know if you wanna go eat pastik
05:38 and go to Apple, the food cart.
05:40 (upbeat music)
05:43 (speaking in foreign language)
05:47 (speaking in foreign language)
05:51 (speaking in foreign language)
05:55 (speaking in foreign language)
05:59 (speaking in foreign language)
06:27 (speaking in foreign language)
06:56 This is antique.
06:57 Antique leather.
06:59 The more you wear, the more shiny it gets.
07:04 This is my winter uniform.
07:07 (laughs)
07:08 Every winter I wear it.
07:10 Before I was a fashion industry,
07:20 whatever lady accessory, you name it, I make it.
07:23 I read the advertisement, they said,
07:25 "Food cart for sale."
07:27 (laughs)
07:28 That car is owned by a Chinese young gentleman.
07:33 He said, "Can you really handle it?"
07:36 I said, "You don't know my power, so don't judge me."
07:40 Until now, he still come to see me, visit me.
07:45 He call me big sister.
07:47 We gonna cook the one you make this morning.
07:50 You wanna put the oil slightly touch,
07:55 not a lot, okay?
07:56 I had the best location in 72nd and Broadway,
08:01 right in front of the Trader Joe's.
08:03 But when the city, they changing the regulation,
08:07 they move the bus stop two feet near to my food cart,
08:11 then I have to force to move.
08:14 Every time when I go somewhere,
08:17 whole bunch of people, they come to fight.
08:21 This is the ugly part of the street food.
08:25 Plus, I'm getting too young (laughs)
08:32 to push the cart.
08:33 You know the food cart, it's about 5,000 pound.
08:37 Every morning, I have to transfer
08:39 three food cart to the street.
08:40 Okay, let's go taste the food that you make this morning.
08:45 This is the top seller, the pork.
08:49 Okay, please sit in.
08:51 (laughs)
08:51 (slurps)
08:52 (upbeat music)
09:16 Everybody have their own character.
09:19 Five finger, one short, one long, one tall, one short.
09:24 You have to try to work together.
09:26 When we go home, we just sleep.
09:28 Then this morning, we are here already.
09:31 So, this is a family.
09:33 We make our own chili oil.
09:39 This is the chili, Sichuan chili.
09:42 When they start to grind this one,
09:43 everybody sneezing.
09:45 (laughs)
09:47 (upbeat music)
09:50 (speaking in foreign language)
10:18 Sichuan chili, yes.
10:20 Star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon, the spice.
10:24 Make your mouth numb, peppercorn.
10:27 This is the chow go.
10:28 You need to break it in order the fragrance comes out.
10:33 Smell it.
10:34 (speaking in foreign language)
10:45 (speaking in foreign language)
10:49 Hi, good morning, Crabby.
11:08 (speaking in foreign language)
11:11 Okay, get the cell set.
11:15 I just switch.
11:16 (speaking in foreign language)
11:22 Hi, Captain.
11:29 Hi, I'm the busy bird.
11:33 If I'm really tired, you know what I do?
11:36 I sit here, I meditate.
11:39 I sit down, I calm down, close my eyes,
11:43 and then for five minutes, the energy come back.
11:46 Try, okay?
11:48 You don't put the negative energy on your mind,
11:52 on your heart.
11:53 You are not happy, go to eat something, drink something,
11:57 and then one coffee will make you,
11:59 "Hmm, energy come back."
12:01 They ask me, "How many more years you want to work?"
12:06 I said, "As long as God give me the energy,
12:11 "give me the ability, I will keep going."
12:14 Every day I'm happy, working happily.
12:19 (upbeat music)
12:21 (upbeat music)
12:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments