By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — Inwood’s worst kept culinary secret is finally officially out.
Patacon Pisao, the neighborhood's 5-year-old Venezuelan mobile eatery, is one of five finalists in the Vendy Awards, the contest that pits street food vendors against one another.
The mobile restaurant's owners, Lilliana Velasquez, 41, and Adolfo Gonzales, 58, were delighted when they first discovered that the food from their hometown Maracaibo, Venezuela, was a hit with the largely Caribbean Inwood community.
“When they began to eat patacons it was something different, they said, ‘What is this? No more chimichuri for me,’” Velasquez said, quoting her Dominican customers and explaining that "chimichuris" — which take their name from the Argentinian marinade — are a Dominican variation on fast food hamburgers.
Some describe “patacones,” the eatery’s namesake entrée, as a "Big Mac" that substitutes two flattened fried green plantain patties for a bun and offers a choice of shredded beef, roast pork, chorizo or chicken for a filling, and is topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato and a special sauce.
For the past several years — the eatery’s five year anniversary is on Aug. 13 — throngs of people have lined up to snack on fried treats made to order from the truck, which is hidden in a parking lot on West 202nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth avenues.
The customer are made up nearby club-goers looking for a late night munchie fix or neighbors who live near the elevated 1 train that roars by a few blocks away. The lines form at 7 p.m., when the truck opens, and people keep queuing up until the truck closes down at 6 a.m.
Come Sept. 25, Velasquez and Gonzales will be trekking from Inwood to Governors Island to compete with four other finalists for the title of Best New York City Street Food Vendor. The duo has a good shot at the award if the amount of devotion, both on line and online, is any indication of their talents.
“It becomes an addiction,” said Harlem resident Joseph Rodriguez, 31, who ordered the popular patacon “full,” which features three meats, cheese and the regular toppings plus cilantro and cream on top.
"I first found this place three weeks ago and I’ve been back four times since. We'll be back again,” Rodriguez said of his plans to return with his five-year-old daughter, Grace, who is also a huge fan of patacones.
