Fine. It is kind of refreshing.

Vendy Awards

Far be it from someone who was raised in Atlanta ever to have a nice thing to say about that other cola, but the Village Voice blog had a post up Wednesday on Pepsi’s newfound social responsibility. The company opted to put the money it otherwise would have spent on Superbowl advertising toward community projects, in what it’s calling Pepsi Refresh. People and organizations can apply for grants of amounts from $5,000 to $250,000. What the heck does this have to do with the purpose of this blog? We’re getting there. One of the proposals, which visitors to Pepsi’s site can vote on, is from the founders of the Vendy Awards, an annual event held in New York to honor the makers of street food. Sean Basinski wants to take the Vendys nationwide, and we concur. More promotion for street food means more street food. So go vote.

Truck Food Nation

John T. Edge; photo by Angie Mosier

The best sentence ever written about my friend John T. (“To call John T. Edge a food writer is like saying Herman Melville wrote booklets on fishing.”–Jack Pendarvis) will give you an idea of what the world thinks of a young man I like to describe as “the next R. W. Apple.” Check Wikipedia for a list of accomplishments too long to reproduce. His approach to food–half hedonistic; half academic–mirrors my own to some degree. His new project, a book about street food to be published by Workman, will explore America’s passion for truck food and feature groovy gorgeous photographs shot by Angie Mosier, whom I know best as a chef, a baker, and a food stylist. Few people know that Edge sought to make a living operating a hot dog cart in the streets of New Orleans and I have seen how passionate he is about the topic. Check out the site Truckfoodnation.com for a preview of the work. While scrolling through dozens of food carts and remembering the ones where I have eaten, sometimes with Edge, I couldn’t help but wonder whether there will be a chapter on Atlanta….