Food-cart vendors offer a world of choices

There's a world of choices for a lunch out in Richmond. And that's just on one corner.

Stretching a block south and a block west from the corner of 11th and Marshall streets, you can get Chinese, Indian, Jamaican, Mediterranean and Greek food, among other choices, from street-cart vendors.

Take a walk around the corner, and you'll find hot dogs, chicken salad and wraps, too.

Count'em up, and there are as many as 14 food carts on the blocks skirting the edge of the campus of VCU Medical Center.

"I love it," said Janice Silver, a nurse at VCU for the past 15 years, as she quickly ordered from a burrito cart without looking at the menu. "And this place is the best."

Standing inside the cart, flour tortilla in hand, Kelly McCabe said the competition is tough but that the challenge keeps the business fun.

"Bring your A-game, and the customers will find you," said McCabe, who has run three carts near the intersection for the past three years. "The competition down here is great."

While the days are getting shorter and the lunchtime strolls a bit brisker, there's still time to sample fare from around the world at the carts. Some will close for the winter, but most stay open most of the year. (Don't go looking the last two weeks of the year, though; with Virginia Commonwealth University on holiday break and the nearby state government in hibernation mode, most vendors take those weeks off.)

The VCU Monroe Park campus has an assortment of carts, too, and tasty Latin-inspired fare is often available at rolling lunch wagons that set up shop near some of the larger construction sites in the area.

On Marshall Street, about halfway between 11th and 12th streets, Tommy Joe Martin and June Jarrett good-naturedly complained about the number of vendors near their Christie's of New York sandwich cart, but neither seemed worried that their fellow cooks could take their business.

"It smells good, doesn't it?" Martin said, luring customers in for a closer look at the peppers and onions Jarrett had sizzling in front of her.

"We can handle it," Jarrett said, enjoying the heat from the grill on a crisp, wet day last week.

"It can be a tough way to make a living," said Martin, "but I love it. It takes the right person to do this."

Simplicity is the key to success.

Christopher's Runaway Gourmay -- around since 1985, it is the granddaddy of downtown food carts -- offers four kinds of pasta, three kinds of salad and five side items. For $6, you can get chicken salad, fruit salad, a wedge of cheese, a piece of bread and a drink. The chicken salad -- with tarragon and golden raisins -- is the most popular, but you can also choose lemon dill tuna salad or creamy shrimp and pasta salad. Pasta choices include sesame noodles and fettuccine with feta and tomatoes.

At the Chinese cart on Marshall Street, the vendor sells $5 platters of such staples as chicken and broccoli and General Tso's chicken that are pre-made but still steamy hot and as good as any takeout you'll find in a strip mall. For another dollar, you can get a vegetable egg roll. The fortune cookie is free with every order.

At the other end of the block, the guy at the Indian cart offers eight entrees -- curried fried okra is a favorite -- scooped over rice fresh in front of you.

At other carts, it's even easier. The hot dog guy is the hot dog guy. Want to get fancy with your $4 lunch, drink included, use mustard and ketchup. (Not that a real hot dog aficionado would use ketchup, but that's another story.)

"You can get anything," Silver said.

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .