"The first rule of Vendor Fight Club is you don't talk about Vendor Fight Club." Freddy the "King of Falafel" in Queens. [Photograph: Erin Zimmer] What's it like becoming a street vendor? "You get fat and develop arthritis," said Freddy Zeidaies, aka "the King of Falafel," who's built a little kingdom of street meat-loving fans in Queens for almost a decade. Last night, he sat in the audience as a panel of five people (who care and know a lot about street food) debated the future of sidewalk cuisine at the Astor Center in Manhattan. Does it have to be from a cart or truck? Any old contraption? Is the recent boom a direct outcome of a nosediving economy?... More