Shantel Walker, a Papa John's pizza maker struggling to get by because of her very unpredictable hours, joins an effort to pass laws in New York City Council that require fast food companies to confirm their employees' shifts two weeks in advance.

Learn more about the Fair Workweek Movement at fairworkweek.org.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Surbhi Sahni, a chef and non-profit program manager, explains why helping low-income women develop professional kitchen skills shouldn't be called "empowerment."

Support economic opportunity for women by contributing to Sapna NYC (sapnanyc.org) and Hot Bread Kitchen (hotbreadkitchen.org).

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

Chef Ella Schmidt built her restaurant in Bushwick to evade gentrification, only to realize that it's coming for her next.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

A chef and food television producer who has plated gourmet meals for every occasion, Adam C. Banks describes what makes the illusion of food styling so easy to believe.

Follow Adam's work at instagram.com/adamcbanks and adamcbanks.com.

Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

Maurizio Asperti, owner and inheritor of Staten Island’s oldest restaurant, will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t run the shop out of passion. He runs it out of duty.

In response to the United State travel ban, the Muslim owners of a Jewish Deli in Brooklyn host a fundraising dinner for refugees in need.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Alejandro made bread at New York's Tom Cat Bakery for 10 years. In April of 2017—when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement performed an I-9 audit of the company—he was given 12 days to leave his job, without severance or support.

Since that day, Alejandro has joined other food industry employees in the city to organize for more humane treatment. For him and for others who have quietly built productive lives in the United States, the dream is simple: a future where their hard work is recognized as a contribution.

Director's Note: This story does not have any footage of Alejandro working, because taking such footage would place undue stress and risk on him. Please appreciate this more direct glimpse into his perspective, and support his work by visiting brandworkers.org.

Music by James Boo.
Subtitles by Ricardo Davila.
Special thanks to Alejandro, Diana, Gabriel, other Alejandro, Angel, and Neil.

Freda Nokaly and Doaa Elkady, founders of Spice Tree Organics, explain why the stress of taking on parenthood and entrepreneurship at the same time is ultimately the best choice for their families.

Music by Dorian love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

Haig Schneiderman, the owner of Knish Nosh in Queens, explains why people have such a deep connection to the food that this longtime local institution serves.

Alex Koones founded Babetown, a supper club for LGBTQ women and people who don’t conform to binary gender. Acknowledging her privileges as a light-skinned woman in the queer world, she strives to create a gathering where the wounds of racism and transphobia within queer communities can be healed, one dinner party at a time.

Koones also uses Babetown to pay respect to the lesbian salons of previous decades, literally safe spaces where queer women could socialize without fear of violence and discrimination. However, she sidesteps the well-tread atmosphere of a bar in favor of food, which she uses to build a peaceful environment for camaraderie. The result is an informal and intimate place for dinner, dialogue, and new relationships that's open to any kind of queer woman, trans person, or non-binary person in New York.

Attend the next Babetown by visiting beyourownbabe.com.

Sulma Arzu-Brown and Majora Carter recently opened the first third-wave coffee shop in their working-class Bronx neighborhood. When describing their work as "self-gentrification," they stress the importance of local ownership.

Visit the Boogie Down Grind at instagram.com/boogiedowngrind.
Music by Dorian Love.

At a dinner party on the Lower East Side, a gay Syrian refugee rebuilds his life with a new sense of hope.

Music by Justin Andrew Johnson (instagram.com/justinandrewjohnson).

The beige composting bins being handed out by New York’s Department of Sanitation may seem small, but they're part of a much bigger plan. Louise Bruce, Senior Program Manager at NYC Organics, explains this unprecedented effort to end the definition of “food waste” as we know it.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

At the heart of a suburban oasis in the Bronx, Skip and Louise Giacco run a neighborhood ice cream parlor dedicated to how ice cream should make you feel.

Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

When writer Cindy S. Johnson set out to write a Haitian cookbook, she ended up on a journey to connect others to their past, present, and future.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Donnelly Marks (instagram.com/donnellymarks).

Two farming consultants on a mission to make locally grown food more accessible realize that the microgreens might be the next big thing in urban agriculture.

Visit Our Name Is Farm and Sky Vegetables to learn more about vertical agriculture.

Jeannie Ongkeo, a 65-year-old chef who moved from Laos to Queens in 1976, has preserved the recipes of her youth--despite the fact that New York's Laotian community is practically invisible. Although she's retired from cooking professionally, Ongkeo still brings Lao cuisine to life when she partakes in tak bat, a simple ritual of feeding Buddhist monks who are forbidden from feeding themselves.

Every few weeks, Ongkeo and her family visit her local temple with a home-cooked Lao specialty in hand. There, she joins the Thai majority in a communal ceremony that's still practiced today in many towns across Laos and Thailand. Feeding each other and keeping their shared tradition alive in this corner of Queens, they reconnect to the one reason that anybody should become a cook in the first place.

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Betty Campbell-Adams stepped up to run the family bakery when her husband passed away in 2007—but she didn't realize just how well the role of CEO would suit her in the years to come.

Learn more about Lloyd's Carrot Cake at lloydscarrotcake.com.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Mychal Johnson, a community organizer in south Bronx neighborhoods where families must compete with shipping and delivery businesses for green space and clean air, calls out the unpaid balance of New York's food supply.

Learn more about Johnson's work at southbronxunite.org.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Kieran Farrell and Dave Lopez, co-owners of Gun Hill Brewing, didn’t think twice about building a brewery in the Bronx, where they both had childhood roots and hopes for a successful business. Their facility in the north Bronx was the first to brew beer in the borough since the 1960s, a reminder that craft beer isn’t so much a newfangled business model as a return to the fundamentals of beer—which beer drinkers across the United States are embracing at an exponential rate.

What Farrell and Lopez did not expect was the enormous hit their taproom has been with the locals in their blue-collar neighborhood. Rather than the stereotypical beer snobs one might expect, many of the patrons coming through the door often had never tasted a microbrew or learned about the various kinds of beers that can be made once you have control of the process.

Learn more about Gun Hill Brewery at gunhillbrewing.com/, and visit the taproom at 3227 Laconia Ave, Bronx, NY 10469.

After a business dispute tore him from the Bangladeshi restaurant he spent a decade building, Khokon Rahman uses a fried chicken shop as the first stepping stone back to his community.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

After fleeing the political and economic crisis in Venezuela, Adriana Urbina cooks pop-up dinners to preserve her culinary heritage and send aid to the country she’s not allowed to set foot in again.

Learn more about Chef Adriana and Tepuy at tepuydining.com.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

When her critically acclaimed Mexican restaurant was unceremoniously closed, Chef Denisse "Lina" Chavez seized an unlikely opportunity to move her culinary career from the Bronx to Brooklyn.

Learn more about Chef Lina's food at elatoraderobrooklyn.com.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

At Queens' most genuinely Thai bar, a sister and brother sweat every detail—from the decor to the boat noodles served on weekends—to create a place they can call home.

Read the whole story at Edible Queens, and visit Pata Paplean at 76-21 Woodside Ave. in Elmhurst.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Jackie Ho (instagram.com/ohhophoto).

After a failed attempt to present African food to New Yorkers, a cultural ambassador decides that giving up is not an option.

Learn more about the Jollof Festival at jolloffestival.com and afropolitaninsights.com.
Music: © "Mama Told Me" by Osekre and the Lucky Bastards.

For Keizo Shimamoto, inventor of the ramen burger and a soon-to-be ramen noodle manufacturer, success is not the creation of a runaway hit. It’s a never-ending quest to learn, teach, and create a culinary foundation that will stand the test of time.

Learn more about Chef Keizo’s ramen dream at goramengolife.com.
Music by Dorian Love.
Cover photo by Donnelly Marks.

Helen You, who makes over 100 kinds of dumplings, has learned the essential truth of this food: It will turn any moment for anybody into a celebration.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Masjid Al-Hikmah, an Indonesian mosque in Queens, has been hosting one of the city's most vibrant food events since 2005. Taking place several times throughout the warm-weather seasons, the mosque's Food Bazaar brings Queens' Indonesian home cooks out of the woodwork to introduce the rest of New York to their cuisine.

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A Staten Island Yankees game is a good excuse to eat some classic stadium food. It’s also a place for families to kick back and be a part of baseball in a way that’s impossible in the major league.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).
Cover photo by Jackie Ho (instagram.com/ohhophoto).

Nano BIlliards Cafe is the kind of restaurant that people tell tales about—if they’re lucky enough to find it in the first place. The cafe, which takes up six seats in the corner of a billiards hall that’s a stone’s throw from Yankee Stadium, operates mostly as a takeout counter during the afternoon, when the tables are covered in tarps. The sign reading “restaurant” painted on the outside of the building reads like a relic from a previous lifetime, and to the unwitting passerby there are no other indicators that one of New York’s best chefs is hard at work inside.

Anita Romero, that chef, shows up with her husband at 5am, six days a week, to begin preparing the handful of stews, meats, and sides that she’ll be serving for lunch. She takes no shortcuts when building the multilayered flavors that leap out of the unassuming steam trays where each dish will end up. And until the end of the workday she cooks, takes orders on the phone, and serves walk-on customers from kitchen so cozy that everything she needs is literally within arm’s reach.

Music by Dorian Love (dorianlove.com).

Ask a New Yorker what they’d expect to see at the epicenter of Brooklyn’s Park Slope, and they might not be surprised by the answer: a wood-fired brick oven in a historic public park. What would surprise them, however, is what self-proclaimed oven steward Jace Harker does with it: invite literally anybody to show up and put literally anything edible into that oven.

Read the whole story at Edible Brooklyn, and participate in the next Community Baking Day by joining Harker's Meetup Group.

Music: © "Stuck in Between" instrumental by Derock Tucker (derocktucker.com).

New Yorkers with Mongolian ancestry may not be easy to recognize, but Byamba Darinchuluun uses an fashioned picnic to bring them out of the woodwork. Read the whole story at Edible Manhattan, and Learn more through the Mongol Heritage Foundation.

When Alex Gomberg joined the family business, he committed to making sure the fourth generation of Gomberg Seltzer Works would not be its last. The Brooklyn-based seltzer manufacturer had suffered the loss of a lifestyle, as seltzer delivery (and in many homes, seltzer itself) faded into history books. Although their factory in Canarsie still supports a handful of octogenarian "seltzer men" and their delivery routes, Gomberg is establishing a new business model for a product so old-fashioned that the bottles used to contain it are up to a century old.

Re-branding his operation as the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys, Gomberg now delivers seltzer as a specialty drink for restaurants, bars, and events throughout New York. One of his leading tactics for getting people excited is to serve them a perfect egg cream. That classic Brooklyn drink--made from milk, Fox's U-bet chocolate syrup, and the best seltzer you can find--has won Gomberg awards. Yet, the real prize he's looking for is the moment that customers realize that they're tasting a piece of Brooklyn history.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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When Lou Gaudiosi announced that his family's legendary pizzeria, Sal and Carmine, would begin delivering pies to the neighborhood, he broke one of his late grandfather's golden rules. He also took responsibility for keeping the business alive, carrying on his grandfather's craft by adapting to the realities of a New York slice business that isn't what it used to be.

Visit Sal and Carmine Pizza at 2671 Broadway in Manhattan. 

© Soundtrack credit: "Dream Pie " by Justin Andrew Johnson.

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On September 22, 2015, New York street vendors of all stripes, seeking regulation changes that would improve the standing of their small businesses, descended on City Hall to make the case for their shared identity. Their protest followed nearly two years of work with city officials on a vendor reform bill that has yet to make it to the city council floor.

The vendors' leading request is an increase the number of general vending permits available to New Yorkers who want to work. While this "lift the caps" campaign has been underway for two years, the limit on permits has been set to roughly 3,000 for much longer: since 1981. In this episode of 1 Minute Meal, Street Vendor Project leadership board member Mohamed Attia explains how important lifting this cap is to the economic survival of vendors trying to make a living in the black market that the cap has created.

Learn more about the campaign at http://streetvendor.org.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (http://cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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While developing recipes for the menu of her third restaurant, Einat Admony started by tossing Jasmine rice, cumin seeds, orange rind, and caramelized onion into a cast iron skillet, setting it over flame until the bottom was browned, crunchy, and fragrant.

Two months later, the dish had taken on the contribution of Hillary Sterling, who worked with Einat to replace the onions with slices of potato, substitute saffron for cumin, then top the rice with a whole roasted poussin--glazed with a reduction made from pomegranate juice, walnuts, and Persian lime.

The dish is just one example of the collaboration it takes to keep any good restaurant running, in a business that leads to chef worship but depends on a whole team of dedicated cooks.

Visit Bar Bolonat on 611 Hudson St in Manhattan. 

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City Sub, a beloved neighborhood deli in Park Slope, was kicked out of its building in 2014 to make room for new apartment units. When their landlord announced the news, the owner of the shop decided to give up the business and move to Brazil. He entrusted the local legacy he had spent over two decades building to his longest standing employee, Thomas Moran.

One year later, Moran has taken over the business, re-naming it "City Subs" but keeping almost everything else exactly as it was. He partnered with two of his long-time customers to raise the money necessary for the move, then spent several months looking for a location where they could reconnect with their loyal customers, some of whom come from other boroughs just to buy a sandwich and a bag of chips. As other local businesses continue to fold, the new City Subs presents a rare moment of neighborhood revival—served on fresh Italian bread.

Visit City Subs at 82 5th Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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In the Queens neighborhood of Corona Heights, the first warm day of the year is synonymous with an ice from The Lemon Ice King of Corona. Co-owner and store manager Vincent Barbaccia recounts the feeling of that day, and why this ice stand has only become more precious to New York since it first opened in 1944.

Visit The Lemon Ice King of Corona at 52-08 108th St in Corona, Queens. 

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Since 2002, Bronx-based Buddhist monk Thich Thien Chi has been a spiritual guide to Vietnamese Buddhists from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He's also turned his temple into one of the city's most interesting dining halls, working for hours every weekend to serve free vegetarian meals along with his Sunday service.

Thien Chi's use of vegetarian cooking to reduce the number of meat-based meals his followers eat is a novel way to put Buddhist principles into practice. In conversation, however, the monk downplays the significance of the food itself. As this year's Lunar New Year's celebration at the temple showed, a hot meal is but one of many sources of sustenance for a community facing the future.

Visit Chieu Kien Buddhist Center at 2011 Clinton Ave in the Bronx.  

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Each year, Hindu communities all over the world take part in Ganesh Chaturthi, a multi-day festival honoring Ganesha, celebrated deity and "remover of obstacles." In New York this extended period of rituals, prayers, song, dance, and food are hosted by the Ganesha temple in Flushing, Queens.

Already loved for the everyday dishes prepared in its basement kitchen, the temple is a particularly good place to observe modaka archana, where the sweet dumplings fabled to be Ganesha's favorite food are freshly prepared and offered to the deity. Trustee Mohan Ramaswamy of the Hindu Temple Society of North America explains the significant of this ceremony, which takes place on Ganesha's birthday.

Visit the Hindu Temple Society at 45-57 Bowne Street in Flushing, Queens.

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On a nondescript block of the South Bronx, a building superintendent known to the neighborhood as "Piraña" runs a Puerto Rican restaurant from a re-purposed trailer. Lechonera la Piraña specializes in lechon, pastellilos, and alcapurias, but the man with the machete specializes in heart.

CC-BY-NC-SA Soundtrack credit: "Let My People Bugalú" arranged and performed by Spanglish Fly. Recording copyrighted and courtesy of Spanglish Fly.

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Peter Pan Donuts, one of New York's most beloved doughnut shops, has seen the immigrant neighborhood of Greenpoint changed by an influx of developments and younger residents over the past 15 years. 

Co-owner Donna Siafakas expresses gratitude for how lively these newcomers have made her slice of home, but without an essential place like Peter Pan for locals of all stripes to sit at the counter and get along, it's hard to imagine what would link the old fashioned and the new generation together.

Visit Peter Pan Donuts on 727 Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 

© Soundtrack credit: "No Glaze" by Justin Andrew Johnson and James Boo.

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Jake Dell, co-owner and manager at Katz's Delicatessen, shares his memories and his respect for the "cutters" -- the people who prepare Katz's world-famous sandwiches and share a special relationship with customers from behind the deli counter.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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Fred Hua, a former shoe salesman turned line cook, opened his first restaurant in 2008. Serving a mix of traditional and creative Vietnamese fare, he named his business Nhà Tôi (translation: "My House"). He ran that house, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for five years, becoming a fixture in the neighborhood until unaffordable rent increases drove him to close down.

Seeking a more creative, community-oriented life, Hua partnered with two art-loving friends to open Nhà Minh (translation: "Our House"). Located in one of Brooklyn's warehouse districts, their venture is equal parts coffee shop, restaurant, and art gallery. While the simple strengths of Hua's cooking bring in enough cash to make the shop financially viable, their bi-monthly gallery openings demonstrate why the space exists at all. Each opening transforms Nhà Minh into a showcase for a local artist, and for one night eaters, art fans, and anyone else who happens to stumble in are drawn together by the warmth of a good meal.

Visit Nhà Minh at 485 Morgan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

© "Found Cat" by Justin Johnson (http://justinandrewjohnson.tumblr.com). All rights reserved.

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Tania Lopez, a Bronx resident who wanted to break the cycle of poor nutrition in her own family, founded Coqui the Chef Cooking School to give children a lasting connection to food.

As she and chef instructor Chris Ackerman hustle to expand their after-school program to more underserved communities in the South Bronx, Lopez pauses to describe how her work is making a direct impact on the students who attend. Learn more about Coqui the Chef at coquithechef.com.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (http://cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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When John Wang set out to build New York's first true night market, he ended up attracting mostly Asian food vendors. But over the months, his vision of a truly international, yet fiercely local experience gradually fell into place. Not only do the dishes being offered pull from across the globe, the population of families, food enthusiasts and passersby who frequent the market has shown the rest of New York what a food market with inclusion as one of its main goals feels like.

Now approaching the end of its first year of operation, the Queens International Night Market has earned its reputation as the kind of Saturday night celebration that could only be found in "the world's borough."

Visit the Queens Night Market on Saturday nights at 90-02 168th St. in Jamaica, Queens.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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A deceptively simple concoction with few ingredients, Chinese "la mian" (hand-pulled noodles) depend on the hands of a skilled noodle to bring everything together -- by pulling everything apart. The noodle-making process brings a natural rhythm to noodle shops like Manhattan Chinatown's Sheng Wang, punctuating the slurping of diners with the sounds of dough knocking against the table.

Visit Sheng Wang in at 27 Eldridge St in Manhattan. 

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Maria Vargas had barely made it to grade school when her father bought La Taza de Oro, a Puerto Rican diner that had moved from the Upper West Side to Chelsea during the 1960s. Almost half a century later, La Taza de Oro is still bustling – thanks to Vargas, her late parents, her husband, and a loyal staff that tends to massive, simmering pots of Spanish rice and carne guisada for hours on end.

These holdouts, however, would be long since gone if Vargas didn't also own the building, operating a business whose profit margin is personal than financial. She holds onto the diner, running it the way her parents did in a neighborhood that they would hardly recognize, in hopes of offering the new Chelsea a piece of the old.

Note: La Taza de Oro has closed, due to building issues that forced the restaurant to close for 9 months, a death blow to its financial stability in a long gentrified neighborhood.

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Galdino Molinero, a fútbol fanatic and food truck owner known to the neighborhood as "Tortas," has named every one of his 18 specialty sandwiches after a different team from the Liga MX. While he's loyal to the Pumas de la UNAM, his lineup of tortas is an all-star roster.

Visit Tortas Neza at 96-15 Roosevelt Ave in Corona, Queens. 

© Soundtrack credit: "Sueños en Realidad" composed and performed by Ozomatli. Copyrighted by and courtesy of Ozomatli.

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When Michael Burke retired from his job with the Fire Department of New York, he picked up exactly where he'd left off: working at his stepfather's pizzeria in Staten Island.

Denino's Tavern, one of several famous local pizzerias on the island, has grown immensely under his watch. Yet, even as Burke and his family plan the expansion of Denino's into a franchise business, the small-town spirit of the restaurant continues to shine. Intent on preserving the quality of the pies, he also hopes to deliver the feeling of familiarity that's drawn locals and visitors to this neighborhood corner for over half a century.

Visit Denino's at 524 Port Richmond Ave. in Staten Island.

© Soundtrack by James Boo and Nathan Burke. All rights reserved.

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Michael Rogak, owner of Jomart Chocolates, almost never buys new equipment. Much of the machinery in his small-batch factory—including a Hobart mixer the size of an antique bathtub—predates the second World War. Some of it was even bought used by his father, Martin, when he founded the business in 1946.

Rogak and his staff don't hold onto these tools out of nostalgia. Their embrace of the hand-dipped chocolate has more to do with the character of Jomart, where the daily tasks of chocolate making reveal a very personal attachment to the (chocolate-covered) fruits of that labor.

Visit JoMart Chocolates at 2917 Ave R in Brooklyn. 

© Soundtrack credit: "Hand to Mouth" by James Boo.

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When Vijayakumari Devadas founded Staten Island's first Sri Lankan restaurant in 2000, she had no idea that her neighborhood of Tompkinsville would become the biggest Sri Lankan community in the United States. Fifteen years later, her business is surrounded by compatriot eateries, and its homestyle menu still attracts diners from throughout the tri-state area.

The change has been gradual but profound. As Devadas serves a panoply of Sri Lankan specialties to a broad range of customers, she still finds it amazing that a cuisine that was once unheard of in this part of the world is now an everyday meal for the entire city to enjoy.

Visit New Asha at 322 Victory Blvd. on Staten Island.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.

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Mohan Sharma, co-owner of a stop-and-go eatery named Thelewala, transitioned into professional cooking from running operations in five-star international hotels. After years of managing North Indian-style restaurants in New York and Connecticut, he decided to pursue a fond memory from his college years.

The tastiest part of Thelewala's menu is a shortlist of street snacks—mixtures of puffed rice, fresh herbs and vegetables, chopped chilies, and chutneys that hit the tongue with a whirlwind of flavors. Sharma doesn’t serve bhel puri and jhal muri in a paper cone as he might in Kolkata or Mumbai, but the experience is just as lively.

Visit Thelewala at 112 MacDougal St in Manhattan. 

© Soundtrack credit: "Bosco's Country" composed and performed by Sugarman 3. Recording courtesy of Sugarman 3 and Daptone Records.

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Marc Halprin had worked in bagel distribution for 15 years when he was offered a chance to buy Kossar’s Bialys. Obsessed with reviving the old-fashioned bagel recipe in New York, he set that goal aside after realizing that the bialy had just as much history (and just as many tough, unsatisfying renditions throughout the city).

While Kossar's historic bialy and name can be found in stores all over town, Halprin has worked furiously to make good on the bakery’s reputation by perfecting the qualities of this simple, onion-topped roll. In the process, he’s transitioned from being a bagel businessman to a straightforward champion for the taste of old New York.

Visit Kossar's Bialys at 367 Grand St in Manhattan. 

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Khachapuri, an umbrella term for a variety of cheese breads, is something of a national pastime in Georgia. In Brighton Beach, bakers, business owners and Georgian immigrants Shorena Dalakishvili and Mzia Induashvili adapt the rising ritual of khachapuri to South Brooklyn appetites.

Visit Brick Oven Bread at 109 Brighton 11th St in Brooklyn. 

Soundtrack credit: Georgian folk performance recorded by Jeff Greene for Evergreene Music.

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Takumi Ito, the manager of Hide-chan Ramen in Manhattan, grew up on Chef Hideto Kawahara's father's ramen in the south of Japan.

Four years after helping Hide-chan bring his Hakata-style ramen to New York, Takumi reflects on New York's own "ramen lifestyle." While it's his job to introduce newcomers to the Hakata-style ramen that has made Hide-chan famous, Ito has noticed that New Yorkers have a particular way of eating ramen that he never knew when he was slurping noodles in his hometown.

© Soundtrack credit: "Tokyo" composed and performed by The Books. Recording courtesy of Temporary Residence.

Visit Hide-chan Ramen on 248 E. 52nd St in NYC.

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The Red Hook Food Vendors, a collection of street cooks from a variety of Latin American countries, won a difficult battle to preserve their place of 30+years at the Red Hook Ball Fields in 2007.

Many fans of the legendary street vendors have been anxious about whether the vendors will prevail over the ongoing struggle with a difficult set of regulations. But as new challenges arise, Marcos Lainez of pupusa vendors El Olomega shares a positive outlook on the future of his family's business--and the community it represents.

Keep up with the Red Hook Food Vendors at 160 Bay Street in Brooklyn.

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When Theresa Wong experienced a Chinese tea ceremony for the first time, she hadn't considered "the difference between drinking tea and tasting tea." Years later, the former insurance saleswoman guides customers through tastings at a small gourmet tea shop for a living. She still considers herself a student, but with every tea ceremony she becomes more the teacher of a tradition that reaches across the globe.

Note: Theresa has opened her own tea shop, named T Shop. You can visit her at 247 Elizabeth St. in Soho, Manhattan. You can also still visit Fang Gourmet Tea at 135-25 Roosevelt Ave in Flushing, Queens.

CC-BY-NC Soundtrack Credit: "Rowan Oak" by Tom Kitty Oliver.

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When Cyrilla Suwarsa’s husband asked her to marry him, he also invited her to move into his apartment, with one condition: her cashews would have to stay outside the house. That’s when Suwarsa’s business, relocated from her living room to a cubicle-sized office in DUMBO.

Importing cashews from small farms in Java, Indonesia, her family seasons the nuts with garlic, palm sugar, coconut milk, Thai chilies and other Southeast Asian flavors. Once each batch is roasted, the cashews are either mailed to customers or sold locally. While the size of the business is as small as one can imagine, its reach extends across the globe, setting its roots in a small farming community on the other side.

Visit Nuts + Nuts  at 145 Front St in Brooklyn.

© Soundtrack credit: "Doorway to Java" by James Boo.

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In the world of street food, Colombian immigrant Maria Piedad Cano is better known as "The Arepa Lady." Her journey to New York reminds us that for those who come to America to make a new and better life for themselves, cooking (even nationally famous cooking) isn't necessarily the life they have in mind.

Visit the Arepa Lady at 70-22 Roosevelt Ave in Jackson Heights. 

© Soundtrack credit: "Tired of Fighting" written and performed by Menahan Street Band. Copyrighted by and courtesy of Menahan Street Band and Daptone Records.

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The much-loved muffins from Blue Sky Bakery may be sold in coffee shops throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the joy of a Blue Sky muffin eaten straight out of the oven can only be experienced at the bakery itself. Even for locals, it can be difficult to show up at the right moment for a fresh muffin—the bakery closes by 2 p.m., and its operations are small-batch to the last.

Still, the perfect muffin is a treat worth pursuing, and owner Erik Goetze is always happy to explain why.

Visit Blue Sky Bakery at 53 5th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 

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Dave Cook, author and photographer behind the blog "Eating in Translation," is New York's most intrepid food reporter. He's semi-anonymously walked hundreds of miles and taken thousands of photographs of foods, businesses, and neighborhoods across the New York tristate area. His notes are spread across some 4,000 posts, consolidating over 8,000 bites of food over the past ten years.

While the majority of New York food writing covers restaurants and cooks, Cook is drawn most of all to community events -- religious gatherings, community picnics, cultural celebrations, and bazaars. Here, he builds a peculiar relationship with the resident cooks of New York and everything they bring to the table. While the promise of a particular dish can inspire an hours-long trek to taste it, Cook stresses that this is only one hint at the greater world, which one can just barely experience by taking a bite.

© Soundtrack by Jason Kelley (http://cowboymusic.bandcamp.com). All rights reserved.