The Red Hook Food Tent scene started with a soccer game. Some 4 decades back (500,000 in “taco years”), a Guatemalan liga began playing on a set of semi-remote fields in Brooklyn near NYC's oldest and largest housing projects. Nothing was organized; families and friends simply brought food so they wouldn’t go hungry watching people play ball.
Informal was the operative word: home-cooked meals, barbecued meats, and cold beers...

The Red Hook Food Tent scene started with a soccer game. Some 4 decades back (500,000 in “taco years”), a Guatemalan liga began playing on a set of semi-remote fields in Brooklyn near NYC's oldest and largest housing projects. Nothing was organized; families and friends simply brought food so they wouldn’t go hungry watching people play ball.
Informal was the operative word: home-cooked meals, barbecued meats, and cold beers. Laid back.

Things unfolded like good old-fashioned slow cooking. The soccer caught on, and new leagues arrived with new players from new countries, who brought new families, fans, and (most importantly) food. The number and diversity of the vendors grew, and folks began selling their eats under pitched tents. Now there are 13 vendors, give or take, from across Latin America selling delicious home-sytle eats on the cheap.