Exploring The Trini Paki Boys Veg Menu

Trini Paki Boys have been with us since the early days. They were with us back in 2006 on the street corner of 43rd and 6th, where they remain today. The menu has evolved over the years and still draws in many loyal customers. I checked back and noticed they haven’t gotten any love from Midtown Lunch in a while.

But we’ve got a long history, we and the boys. They’ve participated in the Street Meat Palooza. Chris reported the Shark and Bake last year (a dish with a solid fan base in my office). The doubles have been covered by both Zach and Clay. (If you’re not familiar, doubles are a Trinidadian treat with chickpeas between two slices of roti, and at $2 a double from Trini Paki Boys, perhaps one of the best deals in midtown for cheap eats.) But besides the doubles, the veg menu has been largely unexplored.

Now I know Midtown Lunch is all about the meat, but I’m out to prove you can be just as fat when you eat your veggies. If you haven’t read any other posts about the vegetarian world of midtown, I’ll explain again my main reasoning for going meatless one day a week: variety. Just by going vegetarian one day a week, I’ve been able to try many new dishes I’ve never tried before.

I was really hoping they would have an okra dish as the menu suggests, I know a lot of people can’t stand it, but I love the texture and flavor of okra. But I found out it’s chicken and okra, and they’ve never got just plain old okra for sale. So I’ll have to try that out on a meat day, it sounds great.

If you want the full veggie treatment, there are a few things you can get. Vegetables over rice includes a mix of celery and cabbage (or perhaps sliced up brussel sprouts?), and with some wonderfully soft potatoes and soupy chickpeas upon your request. I believe I got a medium, and this was $5. The size was respectable for the price. The rice was fantastic but seemed a bit greasy. The vegetable/legume to rice ratio was a bit skewed (too much rice, not enough other stuff) but the juices from the veg and chickpeas made the rice good by itself. If you ask for hot sauce, it adds a nice, slow, controlled burn that works well with the dish. As usual the lettuce added nothing. It never does. I should just stop saying yes to that shit.

If you really want a deal, ask for the vegetarian roti for $6 – for one extra dollar you’re gonna get a lot more food. If you are eating vegetarian meals for health reasons, this is not the kind of meal that will help you maintain your svelte figure. The roll has the same ingredients as the platter, minus the rice. The roti is big and filling. The whole thing is too cumbersome and messy to eat with your hands; far bigger than the kati rolls you can get at many places in Midtown.

So, although a lot of you might not go for the same veggie stylez, I thought it was time to bring Trini Paki Boys back to the forefront of our attention… perhaps they’ll also make the finalist cut at Street Meat Palooza 2012!

Trini Paki Boys Cart, 43rd St and 6th Ave

1 Comment

  • Their Doubles are technically vegetarian and much larger than the version I ate yesterday at Ali’s Roti Shop on White Plains Road in the Bronx. Two Trinity Paki Boys Doubles would be more than enough for lunch and for only $4.

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