Liver Sandwich From a Cart… How Could I Not?

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What does 3 years of hardcore Midtown Lunch’ing do to a psyche?  For one thing it alleviates all food fears. I will pretty much eat anything at this point.  (Except for a sandwich from Walgreens… but that has nothing to do with fear.)  I feel kind of proud thinking back on some of the ways I’ve sacrificed my body in the name of of this site. Eating at Tad’s Steaks after being dared by a reader gave me a sense of personal accomplishment, although no dare was necessary to get me to try that street ceviche from the Ecuadorian lady on 46th Street (although some called me insane for that one.)  I admited to being incredibly frightened of the Kashmir Buffet.  but surprisingly less scared of the jury duty tripe lunch from that Chinatown cart (in fact it was a revelation.)  But all those seem like child’s play compared to this…  a liver sandwich- from a Midtown Halal cart.

Remember that cart with the liver sandwich I posted about back in February (on 55th & Madison)? Well, I finally tried it on Tuesday… and amazingly, survived to tell the story.

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The liver from the Charcoal Grill Cart starts off as a whole steak (it’s beef liver), and gets cooked on their grill.  It had been marinating in something, although I’m not sure what. Thankfully they cook it to order (liver is not something you want to cook, and then reheat when it gets ordered), and there is no mistaking the smell as it sizzles away. It takes about 5 minutes, so be prepared for a little bit of a wait.  Once the steak is cooked, they slice it into chunks and pop it into an Italian sub roll.  They offered lettuce and tomatoes, but I asked for grilled onions, white sauce and hot sauce (had to be done.)

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I enjoyed myself… but you’ve got to really love liver to be down with this sandwich.  It’s funky (obviously), and even the white sauce and hot sauce don’t fully cover up the taste (although, if you’re a true fan- why would you want to cover up the taste, right?)  I guess I might prefer the fried chicken livers from Piece of Chicken, dipped in maple syrup (everything tastes better breaded and dunked in syrup) but if you love liver and love Halal food- this is an excellent melding of the two.  And it’s a pretty big sandwich, with a lot of meat, for $5. If you can finish the whole thing, you are a true people’s champion.

Charcoal Grill, NW Corner of 55th &  Madison

25 Comments

  • Yippee! I think the original post about this was one of the first I read on your site. I’m glad you tried it!

  • You’ll eat that and not the walgreen’s sandwich? Your eating-morals are ass-backwards man.

  • I just vomitted in my mouth looking at that…Thanks for taking one for the team Zach….—-I guess. UGH. Next time, I want to see a curried or cilantro’d brusselsprout sandwich (that is the next nastiest combination I could think of).

  • Obviously he sells enough of them to make it worthwhile to have fresh liver everyday. So who are all these people getting liver sandwiches in midtown? Personally I like my liver chopped and only once or twice a year. Not sure if I could east a whole “steak” of liver like that.

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    it certainly looks delicious…hope i get to this level one day.

  • I am not a crazy fan of liver, but I am awfully curious after reading that…

  • Zach did it have veins or grizzley bits? That’s my memories of eating beef liver, Blech!
    Though i love chicken livers, yum.

  • With this you have completely redeemed yourself for the Walgreen’s fail. I would rather run my hands through Adam Prato’s beard before sampling that.

  • Hey Cosilicous, leave Adam’s beard out of this! Some of us still have to eat lunch. Actually,on second thought, kudos on how random a comment that was. For the record, I do think Mr. Prato’s beard looks relatively clean and dandruff free, so I’d sooner run a tad’s steak through it than take 1 bite of that liver sandwich. Why????? That is just—gross. Organs. BLEEEECCCCHHHHH!!!!!!!

  • Where has Deep Fried Walgreens Sandwich been? Just think about it Zach (You could always dip it in some syrup!)

  • Calf’s liver is ok…..but beef liver…as mama said…all the veins…and tubes….no ‘ta….and ive eaten haggis from a cart @ 1 am in Glasgow.

    And where’s the mick pub revue?

  • Cosi – something tells me that I’d rather you eat the liver sandwich than touch me :)

    Goats – Is this what you normally do with a steak? Did the habit develop because your parents did this to you in order for your pets to pay you any attention?

  • goats … dying laughing here … OMGWTFBBQ thanks for this!

  • @adam … dream on, fellow geek. :)

  • Yeah, we should keep this civil. We may be in a situation where we’re working together some day :)

  • Wow—- I love chopped liver, and calves liver sauted with onions. Beef Liver— Ewwww

  • Even all of this talk of liver and beards can’t distract me from the fact that today is FRIDAY and there is no photo of Harry! what’s up with that?

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    I just wonder how many of the people who claim to hate liver have actually tried it recently. Or how many are just carrying forward childhood rebellion against Mommy ordering you to eat the liver.

    I find that when I retry many of the things that I fought against as a child, I now find them delicious. And liver is one of those things that I now like. Very much!!!

    Harvey

  • I understand where you are coming from Fishman, but I fully agree with Rudy. The veins and tubes in beef liver are naaaaasstay! I love chicken livers and probably calf, but I’m not sure if I’ve had calf liver? But yeah, in general the good parts of liver are funky in a delichious way. and Zach had it right, you need caramelized onions with it. So damn good.

  • I’m curious if you like beef liver in general Zach… I was surprised to see it on the grill so big… I’m just kind of… in a sugar shock right now… but ummm… wow.

    I’m not sure I like liver… I eat it sometimes and it’s good, othertimes it’s awful… maybe I just like ‘good’ liver lol

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