STREET FOOD CITY

Can you imagine New York City without street food? For centuries, immigrant street food entrepreneurs have shaped the city’s flavor and culture, one hot dog and halal plate at a time.

MOFAD’s next exhibition, opening on December 6, 2025, celebrates the city’s smallest food businesses, revealing the hidden world behind the iconic NYC food cart, recognizing the ways in which street food vendors and the foods they sold have shaped the city’s foodways, and tracing the challenges faced by street food entrepreneurs of the past to today’s fight for vendor rights.

To complement the exhibition, MOFAD is proud to partner with the renowned World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Bimi®, the leading global celebration of food photography, to showcase an exhibition of curated selection of images from past competitions, capturing vibrant and personal stories of street food vending across the world. These award-winning works – moving, witty, surprising –  in their first-ever New York outing, will be displayed throughout Empire Stores at 55 Water Street, where MOFAD is located, offering a rare treat for visitors.