3 Grub Street Food Festival Eats That We Need in Midtown

Sunday was the Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair. As expected, the food was extremely diverse and, all-around, pretty incredible. But, with over 100 vendors, no human — not even myself — could possibly taste one of everything. Of course, I did my best, and while there were some Midtown Lunch favorites like the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and Mexicue, the real stars seemed to hail from out-of-bounds spots like the Lower East Side and Brooklyn.

Here are three vendors that we should all hope will make their way to Midtown ASAP! Please?

Asia Dog

Hot dogs with Asian toppings. Sounds like a perfect Midtown Lunch to me, and, despite our past pleas for Japadog to open in Midtown, it’s definitely still missing from the current swath of menus from which I’ve ordered.

First, choose the type of dog — beef, organic beef, chicken or veggie. Then, you pick a topping. The kimchi lover will gravitate immediately towards the Ginny, topped with kimchi and seaweed flakes. The concept is simple, but the mix of spicy and acidic flavors really do work well. Want something even more unexpected? Try the Ito, which is topped with Japanese curry and homemade kimchi apples. I’d never even heard of kimchi apples, but the sweet, flavorful curry and spicy apples enhanced the hot dog.

One dog is $4.50, so two should fill you up, while staying under budget.

Mighty Balls

The sliders from Mighty Balls were pretty great, and at $3 each, you can get a few and still stay under ML’s $10 budget. With a choice of three kinds of meatballs, four sauces and different cheeses, the combinations are endless and never boring!

I know this will sound crazy, but I’m really glad I tried the veggie slider (over pork and beef) with the spicy African onion sauce. If I’m not mistaken, the sauce’s heat came from spicy brown mustard, which the veggie patty and soft roll nicely offset with subtle sweetness.

Miss Lily’s

Miss Lily’s served the best jerk chicken I have ever had. The dark meat chicken was grilled on-site, with delicious-smelling smoke wafting everywhere. Onsite grilling meant perfectly charred skin on the spicy dark meat chicken. They smartly paired sides of sweet jerk corn covered in jerk mayo and coconut — also hot off the grill — with the chicken.

If Miss Lily’s came to midtown, I might never eat anywhere else ever again.

3 Comments

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Not exactly midtown, but you can get Asia Dog during concerts at Central Park Summer Stage at Rumsey Playfield. I had a couple before the WILCO show a few weeks ago.

  • ugh – asia dog is so bad. Buy some Hebrews national from your grocery store and top with kimchi. done.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    yeah, i had the same reaction. I’d rather get a package of nathan’s and top that with kimchi myself.

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