STREET FOOD
Vital Ital RAS RODY BRINGS FARM-FRESH VEGAN JAMAICAN CUISINE TO SANTA FE By Joanna Manganaro Toto · Photos by Douglas Merriam
Ras Rody on his food truck, Ras Rody’s Jamaican Vegan Kitchen in Santa Fe.
When I lived in New York City in my twenties, I had an unlikely friendship that revolved around vegan food. It began while we were both working on a runway show in the pressure cooker environment that is New York Fashion Week. While my job entailed crawling around on the floor putting shoes on models and racing down city streets with awkward parcels of clothing clutched in my sweaty arms, hers involved wearing designer heels, clattering away on her laptop, and flattering Very Important Fashion People into submission, which made her a VIFP, as well, by association. I’m still not totally sure why she chose to spend some very rare moments of free time with a scrubby underling like me, but I appreciated her insight and generosity, and I loved hearing all of the fashion 32
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gossip. We took to getting together every few months at the Greenwich Village location of Souen, a vegan macrobiotic restaurant that had gained a reputation for catering to fussy VIFPs, neurotic wellness junkies, people with food allergies (perceived and actual), or, as in my friend’s case, some combination of the three. Over unseasoned steamed vegetables, rice, and legumes, I basked in the glamorous glow of my fine-boned, Swiss-educated friend’s attention. Looking back, the food could not have been all that great—one of the “dressings” they offered was just smashed up carrots in water, I’m fairly sure—but I genuinely liked it. There was a sense of beauty in the austerity. When I peered into the takeout box holding a combo plate from Ras Rody’s Jamaican Vegan Kitchen food truck in Santa Fe earlier this