Yes, those are holes in the container created by the hot oil.  That can’t be good for you.  Of course, I ate the chicken anyway.  (Not going to let good fried chicken go to waste, right!)  When Bossman checked this cart out, he got two pieces of the regular chicken, and two chicken tenders.  On the day I was there it was chicken wings. Not sure if they have different pieces on different days, or maybe now they’re only serving wings?  They fry the chicken fresh to order, so wings make a lot more sense for time purposes.

Pretty tasty overall, I had them add their vinegary hot sauce- which pretty much turned these bad boys into buffalo wings.  The fries were surprisingly tasty, and made this quite the deal for $6.

A friend tested out their chicken over rice, which was fairly standard.  Rice was a little overcooked for my taste (I prefer the dry basmati rice that you get at 53rd & 6th or XPL), and I can’t agree with her choice of BBQ sauce over hot sauce (sorry, I’m strictly a white sauce hot sauce kind of guy) but it was edible.

Overall, a tasty lunch… despite the fact that my lunch melted the container that was holding it.  I guess I’m saying go forth at your own risk.  Next up… the grilled hot dog cart!

Fried Chicken Cart, SW Corner of 55th & Madison

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.

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.)

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

Got another great tip from the commenter who goes by the name of “Bossman”:

You want to talk about crazy ass shit? There’s always been this Halal cart on 55th and Mad (Southwest corner) that had a fryer setup. Convenient when the urge strikes for fries along with your street meat. Aside from that there’s nothing that stands out about the place. I used to frequest it because they’ll throw your gyro on a hero and I always found that held up better than pita. The guys are real nice and if I found myself getting lunch at 2:45 (like today) I’ll hit it up.

So today I see a sign saying Fried Chicken w/ fries (4 Pieces) $6.00. It’s all your fault Zach- prior to reading ML I would’ve ran for the hills, nowadays it just raises a bunch of questions:

Fried chicken truck, yes. But cart? Has Zach done that? How could they? Pre-cooked and just warmed through?

…and finally “how could I not?”

Anyway, what I got was 2 tenders, a wing, a drumette, and a thigh and fries all freshly fried (obviously they’re better at dishing the food than counting it). Of course, it’s not your Grandma’s chicken but it was pretty damn good for what it was (especially as a conduit for hot sauce). What will they think of next?

The photo he sent in, after the jump… 

Yummy! I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you sir.  Fried chicken from a cart!  How could I not we all not. Got a lunch you want to share?  Feel free to email it to zach@midtownlunch.com