Will brake for fruit carts

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Street vendors can stamp a town with the kind of intense flavor that goes way beyond the food they sell. In Seattle, you can buy an espresso from a cart that rivals what you get at most of the city’s high-end coffee bars; in Rio de Janeiro, vendors crisscross the beaches with grilled shrimp and whole pineapples, dismantled on the spot, that you remember for years (in my case, 15 and counting). Here in Los Angeles, there are the fruit carts that pop up, in parking lots and along bus stops and sidewalks, like their umbrellas, bright and inviting and staggeringly colorful. This morning I found a cart next to a bus stop near the corner of Beverly and Alvarado. As I watched the umbrella flutter above the gorgeous rows of whole fruit, a young man cut pieces of fresh pineapple, mango, watermelon, jicama, cucumber, coconut and cantaloupe. He put them into a plastic bag, then doused them with chile, salt and a generous squeeze of fresh lime. It’s these last touches, plus the unexpected crunch of the jicama and cucumber, that transform this from a pretty portable fruit salad to something miraculous. A plastic fork. A perfect summertime breakfast. (The hotter it gets, the more chile.)

Fruit cart, corner of Beverly Blvd. and Alvarado St., $4 for a large bag of everything, with extra chile.

-- Amy Scattergood