Midtown Lunch

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  I don’t know who Kim is, or his Aunt, but they have a pretty awesome cart.  I first wrote about this place months ago, when the Bulgogi Cart first appeared on 49th St.  Brand new, and so full of promise, I was excited for Bulgogi Sandwich, and cheap Korean food from a cart.  And then, it disappeared.  Frantic, I found myself wandering the streets in search of something… and by coincidence, Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart had just hung a handmade sign, touting their very own bulgogi.

I tried it, and remembered thinking it was good, but not as good as it could be.  It turned out to be better than the actual Bulgogi Cart on 49th, but not as good as the version Cafe Duke serves on 51st.  Even so, it was from a cart- and Kim’s Aunt Kitchen earned a place on my list of return lunches.  They had a pretty extensive menu of fried seafood, and random Chinese dishes like Lo Mein, but the draw for me was definitely the Bulgogi.

Flash forward a few months, and the cart gets picked by NY Mag as one of the best carts in NYC… for their Fried Fish Sandwich.  Fried Fish Sandwich you say?  Methinks it’s time to revisit Kim’s Aunt.  So back I went for the $3.50 fried whiting sandwich… or what I now come to think of as “The Best Bargain in Midtown”.

Fishy sandwich porn and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

It’s that time of year again!  The date for the 3rd Annual Vendy Awards has been set, and a new website has just gone live, where you can buy tickets and nominate your favorite Street Cart.  The first year, Midtown represented as the Halo Berlin Cart took top honors.  Last year, we didn’t even have a nominee.  It’s time to bring the Silver Vendy Cup back to Midtown!  

This year’s event will be held on Saturday, September 29th from 3-8pm and tickets cost $60 in advance.  It has sold out the past two years, so if you want to attend, get your tickets early.  All proceeds benefit the Street Vendor Project, a non-profit organization that works to help protect all street vendors from social and economic injustices.

To get more info about the event, buy your tickets or nominate your favorite street cart, go to http://www.streetvendor.org/vendies.html.  Nominees will be announced on September 1st.

A few months ago I got an email tip about a Halal cart that also served fried shrimp.  It didn’t occur to me how weird that was until I finally got around to checking out the cart and saw their sign for “Halal & Seafood”, which if you believe some interpretations of the Koran, would essentially be the same as a cart putting up a sign that says “Kosher & Pork”. 

While some might think Halal means “Chicken & Rice from a cart”, the actual translation just means permissible under Islamic law.  While it is usually used to describe food, the word can actually be applied to anything.  Haraam is the term used to describe things that are forbidden under Islamic law.  Certifying meat Halal has to do with how the animal is slaughtered, with blood and pork being 100% forbidden.  The rules dictating what is halal are very similar to the Kosher laws, although the two terms are definitely not interchangeable.  Seafood is up for debate as different sects interpret the Koran differently.  While most agree that fish is halal, some Muslims feel that shellfish is haraam, because they are bottom feeders, and the Koran strictly forbids eating predatory animals. 

That being said, I am not Muslim, and if a cart wants to throw some fried shrimp on top of that plate of chicken and rice, I’m all for it!  What I got, a +/- and cart porn after the jump…  Read more »

The new Jiannetto’s Piza Truck is parked on 48th btw 6+7th. There are “No Parking” signs everywhere, so I’m not sure how long he’s going to last at that location… but as of right now, Midtown West has got it’s very own pizza truck! He claims they will be at that spot for good, but we’ll see. If it moves, i’ll let you know…

Related: Two Well Known Carts Getting New Locations in Midtown
Related: Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck

Well, the line at Carnegie John’s has finally died down enough for me to try it.  NY Mag wreaked havoc on the Midtown cart scene last month when they released their street cart issue.  It spotlighted some Midtown Lunch favorites (The Jamaican Dutchy, Hallo Berlin, Kim’s Aunt Kitchen & Kwik Meal), but also opened my eyes to a cart I had never heard of.  The legend that is Carnegie John’s.

The cart is named for its location, right next to Carnegie Hall, where John serves up Hamburgers, Chicken, Gyro, Steak & Shish Kebab, all cooked to order.  Which partially explains the line.  Ever since the NY Mag issue came out, the line at this cart has been out of control- and if you want a burger, you’ve got to go on the early side.  He usually runs out by 1:30.

What I got, food cart porn and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

Two well known cart vendors, Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck (here in Midtown), and Calexico (in Soho) have new carts in production that will be appearing in Midtown in the next month or two.

Jiannetto’s Pizza, which already has two trucks in Midtown (one on Park+52nd, and one on 47+Vanderbilt), has another truck in production that will go somewhere on 6th Ave.  The new location will be perfect for those of you on the West side looking for some Sicilian Grandma style pizza out of a truck (and are too lazy to trek to Park Ave.)

Calexico Cart Photo posted to Flickr by ext212
Read more about it at Writing With my Mouth Full

Even more exciting than that- Calexico, a Vendy Award nominated Mexican cart situated in Soho, are having a new cart manuafactured for them to go in Midtown.  The cart will be burritos only, but will undoutedly feature their famous carne asada.  Should be up and running in the next month. 

More news on both of these new carts as it comes in… Thanks to tipsters Matt & Nancy for passing this info along, and as always, if you have any news, tips or recommendations, email them to zach@midtownlunch.com

For anyone who loves street eating, NY Mag had a great feature in this week issue.  If you missed it, be sure to check out the day in the life of a hot dog vendor, a great interview with Sean Basinski from The Street Vendor Project, plus a lot of great cart facts, and the NY Mag list of the Top 20 Food Carts in all of New York City.  The biggest news- Midtown will be getting a Sammy’s Halal soon (the #3 cart on the top 20).

Midtown faired pretty well, despite the entire Top 5 being in Queens, and four of the top 5 being in Jackson Heights.  There were those you expected, like Hallo Berlin (54th & 5th) at #6, Kwik Meal (45th & 6th) at #14, and the nighttime Chicken & Rice Cart (53rd & 6th) at #17.  Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart (46th & 6th), which I wrote about their for bulgogi, came in at #18 for their fried fish sandwich.  And our beloved Jamaican Dutchy, got their first accolades by coming in at #12.

The biggest surprise was Carnegie John’s at #8, an offshoot of Tony Dragonas’ cart on 62nd near Madison (which came in at #7).  “The Dragon” Tony Dragonas is pretty famous, but I’ve never made it up to his cart on 62nd, since it is just outside of my Midtown Lunch’ing range.  Carnegie John’s, however is not (56th & 7th Ave).  And NY Mag went so far as to say that their burgers may be better than the ones at the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien!

I headed over to the Carnegie John’s cart yesterday to see what the hype was about, and found this:

The regulars seemed pretty pissed by the crowd, one guy saying in all the time he’s been coming to the cart there has never been a line like this.  By 12:45, they were out of burgers.

There’s always a line at Hallo Berlin, but yesterday it was extra long.

 

 

The same story at Kwik Meal.

 

 

And Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart never has a line… so this was a relative mob scene for them:

 

 

But the biggest surprise of the day was the Jamaican Dutchy.  The shocking picture… after the jump. Read more »

“The Arepa Lady”. “The Dosa Man”. “The Dragon”. New Yorkers love their street food… and while most carts toil away in anonymity, there are a few street food vendors that have achieved legendary status. Singled out by magazines, posters on Chowhound and the Vendy Awards, these “destination” carts draw people across borough lines for some of the best food the city has to offer.  Like most of the great food in New York, most of these special carts are outside of Midtown, but there are a few we can brag about.  Hallo Berlin, Daisy May’s BBQ, and of course the Famous Chicken & Rice Cart on 53rd St. & 6th. (The one with the line at 2 in the morning.)

Now, we have one more to add to that list. The Jamaican Cart. While it may take a lot of time for most carts to build up a following, there was a line 15 people long on the second day The Jamaican Cart appeared. Serving up jerk chicken, and stewed meat, word spread quick and the lines never seemed to go away.  Unfortunately, it didn’t take a genius to realize the lines were more from the slowness of the service, than anything else… but it was still a line. And if people are willing to wait 45 minutes for food from a cart, then it must be good, right!?!

What they serve, food porn and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

Next Thursday (6/7), Midtown Lunch turns 1 year old- and I can honestly say no restaurant, no article, no food or news has has been bigger on this site than Kati Roll.  I wrote about the “Indian Burritos” the first month of the blog, and that page has been read more times than any other piece on this site. 

In a lot of ways Kati Roll sums up the Midtown Lunch experience.  It’s interesting, delicious (obviously), not too expensive, and most importantly it’s only two blocks away from my work, next to one of the more popular places in Midtown (Margon), and yet most of the people I worked with, had never heard of it.  Kati Roll was and still is a testament to the laziness of most Midtown Lunch’ers.  Every day, on the way to boring soups and sandwiches Midtown workers walk blindly past some of the best food in Midtown, without even noticing.

Well- it took a year, but finally Kati Roll has got some competition.  And it comes in the form of a cart!  For a long time this cart toiled annonymously in Midtown, serving up the typical lamb or chicken and rice- just like countless other carts not really worth mentioning.  I first noticed it a little while back, when they hung a hand-made sign on the front that said “Chicken Biriyani Special”.  I made a mental note, but never found time to go back.

Apparently, it has gotten popular- because now the Chicken Biriyani sign is professionally printed, and takes up most of the front of the cart.  In the past few weeks I had started to get emails telling me how good the Wednesday & Friday Chicken Biriyani (or Biryani if you prefer)special is- so this past Friday I headed over to check it out.  Imagine my surprise and delight, when I discovered the even newer sign selling “Chapati Rolls”, clearly a Kati Roll knock off, just a few hundred yards away from the crowd of people waiting for their Kati Rolls to be ready.

Pics of the new Kati Rolls on the block, and a +/- after the jump… Read more »

“What’s the best Chicken and Rice Cart in Midtown for lunch?  I’ve heard a lot about a famous one on 53rd & 6th.  What’s the deal with that place?”  – Jason, 32

Ah yes… the infamous chicken and rice question.  Technically, the “famous” chicken & rice cart on 53rd & 6th is not a Midtown Lunch, because they don’t open until 7:30pm. (Bummer!)  If you base it on the line alone, than it wins hands down, and it was also nominated for a Vendy Award.  If you’ve ever driven down 53rd st. late at night, than you’ve noticed the lines at this cart.  It’s impossible to miss, and it’s usually there until 4am serving up a combo of chicken, lamb, rice, white sauce and hot sauce.  Every time I have to work late, I’ll usually head over there to check it out- but the lines have always been too long to wait.

During the day, there is cart on that corner- and there always seems to be a long line.  I’ve always wondered if people *think* that’s the famous chicken and rice cart (it’s not, by the way.)

My favorite chicken and rice in Midtown, PLUS a trick to eating at the late night, famous chicken and rice cart- after the jump… Read more »