Midtown Lunch

Got a number of tips this morning from lunchers who spotted Bobby Flay visiting Vendy Award nominated carts today.  He started at the Jamaican Dutchy cart this morning around 10am, then moved on to the Biryani Cart, before finishing up at the Wafels and Dinges Cart around Noon.  He was filming a segment about the Vendy Awards for next Friday’s edition of The Early Show on CBS.

Meru (from the Biryani Cart) told me after he didn’t hold back on the spice because he knew Bobby could take it.  Photos of kati rolls being consumed, and fans going crazy… after the jump.

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Taking a branding page from the 53rd & 6th Street Halal Guys, the Biryani Cart (on 46th & 6th) has gotten t-shirts of their own.  The question is… how long before the other vendors on the same block start wearing red shirts to confuse customers!  More carts should have shirts… and sell them to the public.  I’d totally buy a shirt from a cart.  You?

Related:
More Cart Shenanigans: Beware of the Yellow Sweaters

One year ago this month 20 Midtown Lunch’ers converged in Bryant Park to taste 13 plates of street meat and rate them in an event that became known as Street Meat Palooza.  The Famous Halal Cart on 53rd & 6th was crowned the winner, and we vowed to return one year later to give another set of carts a chance at unseating the champ.  Last week a new group of lunchers once again converged in Bryant Park to blind taste test and rate 15 different street meat carts, many of them nominated by you.  Food was consumed, scores were given, and a new winner has been crowned.  Ladies and gentleman, Midtown Lunch’ers, and street food enthusiasts from around the world, I’m excited to give you STREET MEAT PALOOZA 2.

Some of you may be asking, “What exactly is street meat?”  Well, for the purposes of this contest it is an order of chicken and lamb, served over rice, with “white sauce” and hot sauce.  In Midtown it is often referred to as “Halal Food” (the Muslim equivalent of Kosher), but in this case the method of preparation (or its degree of holiness) is not important.  As long as you serve something called chicken and lamb over rice (with white sauce and hot sauce) it could be Palooza’d.  7 carts from last year were granted automatic entry, while the other 8 were culled from your nominations.  Carts received separate scores for chicken, lamb, rice, white sauce, hot sauce, and value, plus received an overall score (the most important.)  Every judge was also asked to choose a top 5 at the very end.

Keep in mind there are no losers in Street Meat Palooza, just different degrees of winning (I see the good in all street meat).  Just getting picked to participate meant that somebody likes the cart, and every single entry showed up in at least one judge’s top 5.  In other words, this isn’t a contest as much as a celebration- and just because a new champion has been crowned doesn’t meat that last year’s winner is no longer great.  It just means that on any given day, any number of amazing Midtown street food vendors might be putting out “The Best” plate of street meat.

Here are the results…

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In what shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody, the map part of this morning’s New York Times article about Midtown Lunching meant big business for some of our favorite carts today. The famous Halal Cart (on the SE corner of 53rd and 6th) had a longer line than I’ve ever seen (maybe to try their new kofta kebab?), there were reports of longer than normal lines at the Biryani Cart, and the Jamaican Dutchy ran out of jerk chicken before Noon. (Apparently there are a few people in Midtown who read the New York Times?) Anybody go to XPL, or one of the other spots on the list? Reports are welcome in the comments…

Always Hungry has a write up on Tabla’s Indian street food “cart”, which is set up in front of the restaurant located next to Madison Square Park. It’s a little pricey, and way out of the Midtown Lunch boundaries- but the piece distinguishes between the kati roll (which we all know very well) and the “Frankie”, a term you are seeing more and more in NYC.

A Frankie is an Indian wrap best described as a Mumbai burrito. The construction of a frankie sounds very similar to a Kati (Roti) roll, but among the Indian community they could not be more different.

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Lunch’er Josh, aka NYC Foodie, tipped me off to a new cart called Aamir Halal Food- which is serving chicken tikka and lamb over rice on the opposite corner diagonally across the street from the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th). According to Josh, the new cart is run by Aamir Hussein- who just so happens to be the father-in-law of Meru, the owner/chef of the Biryani Cart. When I stopped by to ask Meru about it yesterday, he called the new cart “competition” and admitted that it was in fact his father-in-law running the cart, and serving very similar food. He stopped short of saying it was causing “a problem in his family” (my words, not his) but I could see he wasn’t too psyched about the whole situation.  If I had to translate the look he gave me into words, I think it would be: “it is what it is”.

Totally in the mood for some street meat (I’ve been on a street cart tear lately) I headed over to this new unauthorized copy of the Biryani cart to see what was going on.

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Meru, the owner of the Biryani Cart (on 46th & 6th), may have claimed to love country music in the Vendy Award program last year, but when it came time to choose a song for the official Biryani Cart website, he went with the Bee Gees “Too Much Heaven”.  NSFW people.  NSFW. [Biryani Cart/Sandwich Land Official Website] (make sure your sound is on)

Update: Erin from Serious Eats: New York sent along a Bee Gees video that makes me wonder if Barry Gibb used to hide kati rolls in his chest hair. (That *must* be the connection!) The video is after the jump…

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After its Vendy Award nomination, and people’s choice victory, the Biryani Cart on 46th btw. 6+7th flirted with a second cart (parked next to the original cart) to accommodate the demand. It was a little confusing for customers, who didn’t realize which cart was serving kati rolls and which cart was serving their chicken tikka masala and chicken biryani. Once the lines died down, the second cart disappeared… but last week it  reappeared right next to the original Biryani Cart as “Sandwich Land”, a cart dedicated to sandwiches.

The new sandwich land cart (which is parked directly to the right of the original cart) features two burgers, two cheesesteak sandwiches, a variety of pita sandwiches, and their non-Indian spiced chicken and lamb over rice plates. And of course… an entry for the Midtown Lunch sandwich challenge.

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On Tuesday, Midtown Lunchers got a sneak peak of the Biryani Cart’s brand new “Sandwich Land” cart.  Parked just to the East of the original Biryni Cart (on the SW corner of 46th and 6th), the new cart features a whole line up of burgers, subs, and pita sandwiches- plus a few standard chicken and lamb over rice options. Because of the bad weather, the sandwich cart won’t be out the rest of the week… but will make its grand “re-opening” return on Monday. (And yes, they do have an entry for the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge.)

A full look at the new cart’s menu, plus new specials available today at the original Biryani Cart, are both after the jump…

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