For anyone that has eaten from many different Halal carts know that not all carts serve the same hot sauce. I mean it’s hot sauce but not all of them are actually hot. Some may just give you a slight kick in the throat while some will burn your face off. So far I haven’t found a hot sauce that really kicked my ass, until now.

The 3rd Ave Halal cart on 41st street is run by a very nice couple. On my 1st trip, the lady warned me about the hot sauce being very spicy so I only got a small squirt of it.

The lamb and chicken over rice ($5) was decent, but nothing special.  The hot sauce, on the other hand, was the real star.  The lady in the cart was not kidding about the spiciness. Even with just a little bit, the heat was quite intense. It would’ve been fine if it was a slow burn, but the heat kicked in pretty much right away. By the time I was done with my meal I was sweating a whole lot.

Even though their combo over rice was pretty standard, I have found myself drawn back to this cart again and again thanks to the addictive hot sauce.  I didn’t see the sign for their fried fish, which Blondie tried last year, but I imagine it would go amazing with their hot sauce. I’m planning to ask them for that the next time I’m there.

Halal Cart, Northeast corner of 41st Street & 3rd Avenue

There are no rice and meat plates listed on the menu, but the guy taking orders knew exactly what I wanted. I went the somewhat unexciting route and ordered chicken for comparative purposes, but obviously the protein selection at El Rey is one thing that separates it from traditional street meat carts (I did try to get some chorizo as well, but they were out). I let the guys build the plate themselves without much input from me because I wanted to see how they would normally serve it, but my mind was racing at the possibilities (queso fresca, guacamole, etc.).

I ended up with a plate of rice topped with beans and chicken, and a side of lettuce topped with pico de gallo. They used a white sauce I’ve never seen at El Rey before and their red hot sauce. I asked them to top it off with some of their awesome creamy, spicy orange stuff. All in all it cost me $7.

It was enough like “Halal” street meat that I don’t think anyone would mistake it for a full on Mexican dish consisting of rice, beans and chicken. But once I mixed everything together, the hearty beans, small amount of pico, and orange stuff made this a street meat experience unique from any other. The hearty beans in sauce add another layer to the entire dish once they’re mixed in. Their white sauce has a cool, light feel to it, so if you don’t like the heavy mayo stuff at some carts this might be a good option. And the little chunks of white meat chicken might be boring on their own, but they nicely complement everything else that’s going on, and they’re a nice change of pace from the stringy, dark meat found at lots of carts.

As a big fan of street meat that brings a little something extra to the table, I’d rank El Rey’s unique version right up there with Midtown’s best, and I’m sure it gets even better if you ask for some more Mexican flourishes. El Rey regulars and street meat lovers looking for something different should take note of this off-the-menu option.

El Rey Del Sabor, 43rd btw. 5+6th

We get pretty excited when new halal carts pop up in Midtown.  Even though there is practically one on every block, new ones don’t come along that often.  So when I spotted Tazy Halal Food (on44th btw 2+3rd) last week right across the street from my office, I had to check it out. The menu looked like pretty standard Halal cart stuff (chicken and rice, lamb and rice, gyro and etc), but the cart quickly proved me wrong.

The chicken and rice ($5), at first glance, looked pretty standard. The pieces of chicken weren’t anything special (big chunks, dark meat, tender, juicy, and filled with the typical Halal food spices). Then once I dug into it, I found pieces of carrots, cauliflowers and loads of onion that were cooked with the chicken. I found the addition of vegetables cooked along with the chicken to be quite good and different as I have never seen carrots or cauliflowers in chicken and rices. The rice that Tazy served was different also. It was brown (similar to dirty rice), had bits of lentils which I thought was another great touch and wasn’t mushy or too dry. The guy at the cart also gave me a falafel and some not-so-crispy fries.

I did find the white sauce a bit thin and visually the hot sauce seemed to be nonexistent, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t spicy. The heat slowly built up and by the end I was sweating. Could these guys be a darkhorse pick for Street Meat Palooza 4?  Technically they’re half a block out of bounds, but we might need to make an exception!

Tazy Halal Food, 44th btw 2+3rd Ave

A while back fellow lunch’er Goats had mentioned a halal truck on Mad btw. 27+28th. But my craving for street meat comes and goes. Sometimes it’s the farthest thing in my mind while sometimes I’ll happily eat it every freakin day. And it just so happened that while I was walking down on Madison Ave, I found the halal truck that Goats talked about and the smell of curry drew me in. It smelled delicious and struck my halal food craving.

I have been eating at the wrong halal trucks because I have never gotten a falafel with my lunch before! Fries, sure.  I’m always hoping for some fries but a random falafel will do. $6 is a dollar more than what I usually pay for a combo over rice, but this one was really good. As usual the pieces of lamb were pretty standard  but the pieces of chicken with the taste of curry were excellent. Combined with the hot and white sauce and the rice it was a perfect bite. I’d be happy to eat from this halal truck if I was in the area more often. Oh, and you have choice for rice (white or yellow).

Even though the truck itself seems pretty generic, the curry flavor made it stand out. And they were friendly too. I also liked that this truck is parked so close to Madison Square park. Eating outside makes everything taste better.

Madison Ave Halal Truck, Madison Ave btw. 27+28th St.

One day I decided to check out Jerk Pan after spotting them a week earlier on Park Ave. Though once I got to the spot, they were nowhere to be found (I wonder if they were kicked out by the cops as well?) On my walk back to 3rd Ave, I saw the blue Halal cart and decided to give them a try.

I got chicken and lamb over rice with white and hot sauce for $5. Just by looking at it, it looked pretty standard stuff. When I dug in I realized the pieces of chicken were all dark meat. Tender juicy dark meat. I’m sure many other Halal carts serve their chicken meat like that but it was my first time seeing that (yeah I don’t eat enough street meat). So that was a nice plus. The pieces of lamb were good but didn’t standout compared to other street meats.

I’m not a huge fan of spicy. Sure, I’ll sometimes get a craving for something spicy (usually kimchi) and when it comes to street meat I obviously get the hot sauce. And boy does this one pack a punch, so much so that I had an extra appreciation for the cool white sauce and the salad.

If you’re around 46th & 3rd Ave and is craving for some really spicy street meat, give this Halal cart a try.   think I smell a Street Meat Palooza 4 contestant. Oh, and before leaving with my lunch I noticed their Friday fish special. Guess I know what I’ll be eating on Friday.

Blue Halal Cart, 46th St and 3rd Ave

Websites and Twitter accounts have become an invaluable tool to many mobile food vendors. The internet is generally the playground of new school vendors with fusion-y menus, gourmet ingredients, and (mostly) smart, aggressive marketing campaigns. But every once in a while, an old school vendor decides to step into the cyber-arena with amusing/confounding results. Such is the case of Kimo Food (aka the self-proclaimed best street food in NYC), a cart whose site actually makes them harder to locate (and features picture of other people’s food, lifted directly from Midtown Lunch!)

Their location page points you to 45th St. btw. 6+7 and even has a picture of a cart with a Kimo Food sign on it. But when you get there, all you see is the Sarah’s cart that has been there for years. It looks like the cart on the website, but minus all the Kimo Food signage. The cook assured me the carts were one and the same, which means they doctored their own photo so that no one would recognize them.

And that’s not the end of the internet shenanigans. On the menu page of their website, among stock images of professionally photographed food, Kimo uses a picture I took of a Little Morocco plate of chicken and falafel over rice. They even use it twice… for two dishes that don’t feature falafel. I’m no fuddy duddy, I’m hip to the “everything on the internet is in the public domain” game, but this just isn’t very good presentation.

Between ludicrous Best in NYC claims, a hard to find cart, and pilfered pics, Kimo Food was clearly a must try.

I went with the lamb and chicken over rice, the universal measuring stick for standard street meat carts (there’s a bunch of fluffy yellow rice under all that). At $7, it was plenty of food for lunch, but you can get much more gut-busting plates of street meat other places for less, so the more gluttonous Midtown Lunch’ers should consider themselves warned.

At this point, I assume Midtown Lunch readers know what they’re getting from a cart like this. There is nothing here to make Sarah’s/Kimo stand out as much as Little Morocco or the Trini Pak Boys or Kwik Meal, but there are a few things that I think put it above many of the anonymous carts out there, namely the inclusion of fresh grilled onions and green peppers. They break up the monotony of a fairly homogenous meal, and add a nice bit of crunch (and some nutrition?). I was also impressed by their hot sauce. The heat hit me immediately, but it didn’t really build in intensity after that. It was a presence throughout my whole lunch, but it never became painful. And that’s kind of exactly what a hot sauce should do.

Other than those few things, Kimo is pretty standard street meat, which means it’s delicious. This is no destination cart, but when you’re looking for a very standard plate of street meat at a fair price and without the lines of more popular carts, Kimo Food/Sarah’s delivers.

Kimo Food/Sarah’s cart, 45th (btw. 6+7), website

The +
They serve standard street meat, done well
Their green peppers and onions break up the monotony of sauce drenched proteins and rice
They are clearly fans of Midtown Lunch

The –
It’s basically the same street meat you can get anywhere
The prices are just a little bit high considering the amount of food and the quality

After reading luncher “GreeZeyFreezey’s” second rave about the White & Hot Halal Truck last week, I decided to finally check it out. It’s been a while since I’ve had any street meat and the time seemed right for a chicken and lamb over rice. I was just about to order when I noticed that they offered kofte over rice as well. You don’t see that nearly as often as ‘lamb’ or whatever’s in that gyro loaf. Given how well reviewed these guys were, I decided to try it out.

I asked for the kofte and he warned that it wasn’t ready yet and would require five minutes or so to cook. I had the time, so I went for it. In the end, it didn’t take significantly longer than it would have anyway.

My initial fear upon seeing the kofte (the griddle is raised, so I couldn’t see it until he was packing it up), I was afraid it was just some generic burger patties tossed with some seasoning. It wasn’t. The meat definitely tasted of lamb and was fully seasoned inside and out. Topped with the hot sauce, it was hot enough to get me sweating. Not killer, but it’s pretty powerful.

The meat itself is a little chewier than I expected, almost tough in some areas. Not sure what that’s about, but it didn’t distract from the meal. I missed the part about asking for the basmati rice, so I ended up with the regular yellow rice. Since that’s what I usually get, it’s fine, but next time I’ll have to try the good stuff.

GreeZeyFreeZey mentioned that these guys might be moving up to the 40’s at some point. I hope that’s not true. The truck is a great addition to an area with much fewer street meat options available than up there.

White & Hot Halal Truck, 33rd & 5th

We at Midtown Lunch love our kati rolls, and it’s no secret that we’re huge fans of the Kwik Meal cart (on the SW corner of 45th and 6th). Up until earlier this week, kati rolls and Kwik Meal were mutually exclusive, but no more! Thanks to a tip off from ESNY in the forums, we learned that Kwik Meal recently started carrying these Indian delicacies, so I hurried over to 45th St and 6th Ave to check ‘em out.

That photo looks really familiar…

At long last, what is easily my favorite street cart (Kwik Meal), and what is easily my favorite street food item (kati rolls) are finally together, like a Double Rainbow of awesome things. The new kati rolls, which come in chicken or vegetable flavors, are $3.50 each or can be purchased as a pair for $6. Not only is the price the same as Biryani Cart’s, but the size is roughly the same as well. And they even used Zach’s photo of the Biryani Cart’s kati rolls on their sign (no photo credit, but it’s OK, we still love them). Interesting choice of signage aside, flavor was clearly going to be the only way to differentiate between the two.

I dug both rolls equally as much – the vegetarian version was brimming with al dente bits of broccoli, green bean, peas, onions, tomatoes and other vegetable strata, slathered in Kwik Meal’s tasty white sauce, and tightly bundled into a buttery paratha. The richness of the paratha and the crunch of the vegetables make this a hearty and like-able handful of food, despite the lack of animal protein. The chicken roll was plump with tender cubes of peppery smoky chicken, peppy from the white sauce, and opulent from the well lubricated paratha. Though in hind sight I wish I had asked for a touch more of their acclaimed spicy green sauce.

It’s tough to claim allegiance to one roll over the other, but as much as I enjoyed Kwik Meal’s kati rolls I still found myself yearning for Biryani Cart’s version and their craveable je ne sais quoi of secret sauces and spices. I still love the lamb over rice at Kwik Meal, but Biryani Cart’s kati rolls are the still the best (for now). Has anybody else tried the new Kwik Meal kati rolls? Let us know what you think in the comments.

I noticed a couple of new developments in the world of food carts during a little Midtown wandering yesterday. First off, a new halal cart has entered into the Midtown fray on the NW corner of 49th and Park Ave, directly across from our friends at El Rey del Sabor. The cart, Meals on Wheels, apparently set up shop there two weeks ago, and are pricing their chicken and rice platters at $3.99. Added bonus: the interior still has that “new cart” shine.

Further on in my walk, I came across the infamous Fried Chicken Cart (55th+Mad). Not only are they still selling fried chicken (I didn’t check to see if it’s still coming in styrofoam containers), but they’ve added a $6 Spaghetti & Meatballs platter to their menu. Is two a trend? Please let 2011 be the year of the spaghetti & meatballs!

Early adopters please leave your thoughts in the comments.