One of the easiest parts of acclimating to central Midtown after seven years in Midtown south has been the getting used to the variety of cart food. No less than half a dozen mobile food vendors surround my new office building. One of the most noticeable has been Kims Aunt Kitchen, which manages to waft a garlic-scented breeze past me as I walk down 46th Street every morning.

It’s been years since we’ve given the cart some proper attention so, I decided it’s about time to follow up on the fried delights that this cart had to offer.

The prices have gone up since Brownie checked out their fish sandwich as a lent option. Sandwiches run from $4-5 and platters top out at $8 for a combo platter – more on that below.

The platters come with a salad – which is to say iceberg and some sad, pale tomato slices – and your choice of white rice, fried rice or lo mein. Given all the chicken and rice available from the halal carts, I almost always go for the noodles from these guys to change things up a little bit.

For the first two months of visiting Kims Aunt, I pretty much only got the bulgoki on lo mein ($6.50). I know, I’m supposed to be checking out the variety of food available, but the sweet sauteed beef and onions kept calling to me.

Finally, my lunching sensibilities kicked in and I decided to try out one of the sandwiches. Like Brownie, “Thou shalt not eat fish from a cart” has always been one of my street food commandments, but I figured if she, Blondie and Zach have all enjoyed it, I should give it a try.

I ordered the flounder sandwich ($5). It was a decent size and packed with fried deliciousness. Honestly, I don’t know enough about fish to say why the flounder is a dollar more than the whiting, but I did enjoy it.

Recently, I stopped by Kims Aunt looking for something I hadn’t tried before. I decided to double up and go with a combo. For $8, I got chicken and shrimp on fried rice. It’s not a bad deal at all. There was no skimping at all, I got a pile of chicken, six shrimp (they promise five) and a large portion of rice. They dispensed with the sad salad and chucked another scoop of chicken in that compartment.

I hadn’t expected the shrimp to be fried (somehow I missed this article from 2009), but in hindsight, how else would it have been served? It’s got a lot of breading around it, but it was still pretty tasty.

Like Zach, I still have no idea who Kim is or what kind of food this is even supposed to be. Bulgoki with its sweet, tangy marinade would seem to indicate Korean, but the rest of the menu and the Latin staff don’t really follow that assumption. What really matters, though is that you can still get a pretty great meal on the cheap here.

Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, 46th street (btw. 5th + 6th)

Got word of two street vendor price hikes going down on 6th Ave.  First up is Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart on 46th and 6th.  Lunch’er Susan sends word that they raised their prices last week.  “The fish sandwich is now $4.”  Still pretty cheap by anybody’s standards, we can’t help but wonder if the oil spill had anything to do with this (although we’re guessing it doesn’t.) Also jumping on the price hike bandwagon is Kwik Meal, the already-kind-of-pricey cart on 45th and 6th.  According to this post in the forums, a sign went up last week saying that starting today they’d be raising their prices on chicken, lamb, shrimp, and fish due to “rising costs”.  Not sure what the actual increase will be, but I guess we’ll find out today.  Hopefully these are just two isolated incidents, and not the beginning of some big trend (like the giant price hike wave of 2008.)

With a budget of $30 between the 3 of us, I wanted to make sure to have savory with some sweet.  And of little nibbles mixed with more bigger servings.  Find two co-workers and this could your lunch today. Here’s what we had:

Stop #1: Austrian Food from Schnitzel & Things, in their regular Thursday position, 48th between 6th and 7th.

Our order: a bratwurst sandwich with sauerkraut and mustard on ciabatta, $5.  We hit Schnitzel shortly after they opened, and in spite of the cold there was still a short line.  Not too bad a wait, but if you’re attempting this in colder weather, it would be worth it to call your order in.

At five bucks, this sausage made for a substantial kick off to our tour.

Stop #2: Indian/Bangladeshi from Biryani Cart, 46th Street between 6th and 7th.

Our order: one Spicy Buradi Chicken Kati Roll, $3.  You really can’t go wrong with Meru’s Spicy Buradi Roll.  My guests had never had a kati roll and they loved the spicy, sweet combination of this roll.

Stop #3: Israeli from Moshe’s Falafel, 45th Street between 5th and 6th.

Our order: 4 falafel balls, $2.  Moshe’s takes some flack on ML for their poor sandwich layering, but at $2 for 4 sizable falafel balls, it makes for a filling a cheap snack.  And since they douse your entire order with tahini and hot sauce upon request there’s little risk of not getting the saucy bites that you want.

Stop #4: “Korean” from Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, 45th Street between 5th and 6th.

Our order: a fried whiting sandwich, $3.50.  Ok, this might not be a traditional Korean dish like bulgogi, but it’s my favorite thing from the Kim’s.  My friends were astonished  that the sandwich was so big, so cheap, and so fresh tasting.  If sharing one of these sandwiches I highly recommend ordering it on a hero roll–less chance of the bread disintegrating.

Stop #5: Belgian from Wafels & Dinges

Our order: a Liege wafel with Belgian chocolate and strawberries, $5.  Brussels and Liege wafels at W&D run $5 with one dinge (topping), but if you follow their twitter they generally have a special password for an additional free dinge.  The Brussels wafels are a good choice if you want a waffle that’s more like what most Americans think of as a Belgian waffle, but the Liege wafels with its pockets of crystallized sugary goodness, might be a better pick if you want to show off a treat that’s hard to find outside of Belgium.  After polishing off our Liege, my friends were sad that there isn’t a W&D truck in the Seattle area.

Stop #6 Mexican from El Rey de Sabor, 43rd and 6th, north side of the street

Our order: a chicken tamale, $1.50. El Rey de Sabor gets a lot of love on ML and though this was my first visit to any of their carts, I can see why. Their chicken tamale was tender and delicious. My dad is a born and raised Southern Californian and has instilled this little New Englander with an appreciation for the good tamale. I can definitely see coming back to make a lunch of these.

Stop #7 Trinidadian from Trini Paki Boys Cart, 43rd between 5th and 6th, south side of the street

Our order: doubles, $2.  The curried chickpea filled doubles from the Trini Paki Boys cart is one of my favorite all time ML discoveries.  Even though neither of my friends had ever tried Trinidadian food before they are both adventurous eaters and were blown away by the doubles.  It was their hands down best of the tour pick for being “unique, tasty, and filling.”

Stop #8 Moroccan from Little Morocco, NE Corner of 39th & 7th Ave.

Our order: chicken and lamb combo over rice, $5.  Clearly street meat had to make an appearance in the cart tour extravaganza, especially since my friends had never experienced the wonders of chicken and lamb over rice before.  It was a tough choice on my part in terms of which cart we would get our combo from. Biryani Cart was a heavy contender, though they were ruled out fairly early on since I wanted cart variety and I already knew that we would already be stopping for kati rolls there.   53rd and 6th was a little out of our way and wouldn’t work out timingwise. Kwik Meal was considered as well, but ultimately eliminated from contention for budgetary reasons–in order to hit  10 carts and still stay within the $10 each budget, I had to find a combo platter that would come in at $5 or under.  I had read about Little Morocco being midtown’s “best new street meat” and was intrigued by their shipped directly from Morocco harrissa.  After the Spicy Chicken Buradi Roll, the ample hot sauce from Moshes and Kim’s, and the doubles, my friends had proven themselves capable of handling some heat so I knew they were ready for some Moroccan harissa action.  Little Morocco’s harissa and platter did not disappoint.  It’s such a beautiful thing to introduce out of towners to the wonders of white sauce and hot sauce.

Now I must caution that at this point in the tour more moderate eaters might be feeling a little bit of stomach fatigue.  Trying to be a considerate host, I asked my guests if they were ready to pack it in.  Their response?  “We’ve got 2 more carts to go.  Let’s hit it!”  With my friends determined to complete the 10 cart challenge, we pressed on.

Stop #9: American from the Treats Truck, in position on 38th street and 5th ave

Our order: a chocolate chip cookie, $1.  It had been several stops since out waffle, so it seemed right to go for another sweet treat and what better to represent American comfort food than a chocolate chip cookie?  Some of Kim’s treats tend towards the pricier side, but at $1 for a nice, soft chocolate chip filled cookie, this is one of my favorite Treats Truck bargains.

Stop #10: Jamaican from the Jamaican Dutchy Cart, west 51st and 7th Ave

Our order: a beef patty, $2.  The Jamaican beef patty was supposed to have come early in our tour which I had planned to conclude at the Treats Truck, not far from my friends’ hotel, but unfortunately I hadn’t taken note that the Caribbean  Spice Truck, normally parked near the Biryani Cart on 46th, had gone missing, so for our last stop we back tracked up to the Jamaican Dutchy cart on 51st street for their beef patty. A perfect spicy cap to our 10 cart tour.

And now the final tally:
Bratwurst from Schnitzel & Things: $5
Spicy Buradi Chicken Kati Roll from Biryani Cart: $3
Falafel Balls from Moshe’s: $2
Fried Whiting Hero from Kim’s: $3.50
Chocolate and Strawberry Smothered Liege Wafel from Wafels & Dinges: $5
Doubles from Trini Paki Boys Cart: $2
Chicken Tamale from El Rey de Sabor: $1.50
Chicken and Lamb Combo over Rice from Little Morocco: $5
Chocolate Chip Cookie from Treats Truck: $1
Beef Patty from Jamaican Dutchy: $2
Total spent on lunch: $30 or $10 per person.  Mission accomplished!

A few post tour notes.  We started our tour at close to noon on a Thursday afternoon and didn’t run into too much line trouble.  Eating as we went along we managed to finish the 10 carts within about 2 hours and this included me playing tour guide filling my guests in on each cart as we went along.  If you were meeting up with a group of midtown based friends you could probably do a similar “tour” in less time in picnic form by dividing and conquering with the food pick up.

This particular tour comes with a shitload of food for three people. If you have a moderate to light appetite you could do less carts for a cheaper per head lunch price and still come away satisfied or do the same amount of carts and just invite a 4th person along.  I crafted our stops based on their convenience to my Rock Center office and with the exception of the beef patty snafu, kept us heading in a southward direction focusing predominantly on carts in the 6th ave vicinity.  The stops were based on some of my favorites with ML recommendations that I’ve never tried mixed in and the entire tour was crafted to hit the 10 carts, 10 different cuisines at $10 per person in a decently timely manner on a Thursday.  When creating your own food tour you might have other priorities or other must visit stops.  And with the twitter trucks like Wafels & Dinges, Treats Truck and Schnitzel and Things be sure to always check their twitter for location.

What stops would you have on your own midtown cart tour?

Today is the first Friday of Lent, which for many practicing Catholics means no meats. Now there’s plenty of other great midtown meatless options, but for me there’s something about Lent that goes hand and hand with cheap fried fish sandwiches.

Last year Blondie humored me on my midtown fried fish sandwich battle royale where in one lunch hour we pitted the Filet-O-Fish from Mickey Ds vs. the BK Big Fish, vs. the Premium Fish Fillet from Wendy’s and the fried whiting sandwich on white bread from the Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart.

Even the most hardcore street food fans have to admit that fish from a cart is kind of sketchy. And “Thou Shall Not Eat Fish from a Cart” is one of those street eating commandments that I had unfailingly observed until last year. But Kim’s has so regularly received the nod from Zach and fellow midtown lunchers that I had to put aside my squeamishness and give it a try.

Not surprisingly the fried whiting sandwich from Kim’s Aunt easily bested all of the chains in terms of size, value, and taste. When it comes down to it, a well made and fresh fried fish sandwich is a million times better than a previously frozen one from a fast food chain.

For that taste test we got the sandwich on white bread, but I’ve since discovered that this big sloppy sandwich is best enjoyed on a hero (loaded up with tarter sauce and hot sauce, of course.) At $3.50 it’s the same price, amazingly enough, but you don’t have to worry about your bread disintegrating on you.

Normal eaters may have a hard time polishing off this sandwich in one sitting–I clocked the white bread version in at close to 11 ounces last year (for all the mathologists out there that’s a bit more than the weight of 2 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches.) McDonalds typically runs Filet-O-Fish promos during Lent, but I last year I found their 2 for $3 deal to be more like 2 for $4 in midtown. If you love fresh fried fish sandwiches and you have a hearty appetite to boot, Kim’s fried whiting does not disappoint.

THE +

• I love freshly fried sandwiches.
• I want a delicious and filling lunch for under $5.
• I support cart food of all kinds.

THE -

• Eating fish from a cart scares me.
• What’s a fried fish sandwich without the odd chemical aftertaste?
• Give me back that Filet-O-Fish, give me that fish…

Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, 46th street (btw. 5th + 6th),

At this point everybody should know that Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart (on 46th btw. 5+6th) makes the best (and cheapest) fried fish sandwich in Midtown.  And I’ve even tried their bulgogi beef and lo mein.  But did you know that their fried shrimp are pretty spectacular as well?  As you may or may not know, I’m a big fan of the fried shrimp from a cart.  Little Morrocco (on 39th & 7th) does a nice job, as does the Halal & Seafood Cart (on 39th & 5th), and the 100% Halal Food Cart (on 54th and Park).  But those little jobbies pale in comparison to the monsters being served of the Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart.

Check ‘em out after the jump…

Holy mama-jama.  These are some serious fried shrimp.  And relatively cheap too!  I decided to go the combo platter route, with shrimp (they give you 5!)  the bulgogi beef, and lo mein.   The breading is slightly thicker on these bad boys than on the shrimp from other carts mentioned above- but not nearly as much as say these shrimp I got from that random new by the pound buffet, so it’s all good.  Also, as a warning… they might look like tempura fried shrimp, but the breading just tasted like standard breading, not panko.  So don’t get too excited if tempura is your thing.  They’re also slightly under-seasoned, but that’s solved pretty easily with some hot sauce (and or tartar sauce.)

I had also forgotten that the beef really bears no resemblence to any sort of decent bulgogi, and the lo mein is fairly tasteless and mushy… so next time I’ll probably go for the plain shrimp platter (or the shrimp + chicken or fried fish combo.)  It’s $6 and you get 8 shrimp!

Related:
Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart Gets a Proper Look See
The Best Fried Fish Sandwich in Midtown is at Kim’s

Related:
Lent PSA: My Favorite Fried Fish Sandwich in Midtown

I finally got a chance to visit Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart on 46th btw. 5+6th (right next to Moishe’s) and i have to say- i’m so glad i did! I ordered the fried flounder on a hero. Yeah everyone else in front of me was getting lettuce and tomato on white bread, but why bother? Slap on some tartar and hot sauce and we’re good to go. Also because of the quantity of fish (so much!) I went for the toasted hero so as to enjoy every last morsel. Wow- $4.50 never tasted so good!!!

But then, things went wrong back in September…

So it’s been a hot minute since I hit up Kim’s Aunt cart, decided since the Bulgogi [price] was going up that it was as good a time as ever. Well kinda wrong. This time I had to get the flounder because they were out of whiting. I got my same fixin- tartar on a hero. But this time the hero was noticeably smaller and stale. Also, where before you got 2 nice pieces of fried goodness, now I only got one (albeit a large one.) Priced at $3.50- can you really complain? It’s filling and tasty- just not quite what it was before.

But last week, The Flooz returned and found that all is right with the world…

The last time i went to Kim’s Aunt lunch cart, I was a bit disappointed with the sammy. They have made up for it. Or maybe they were just having a bad day? Or maybe they were getting complaints? I dunno but my $3.50 is back to being an awesome deal!

Hmmm- the photos all seem to look the same to me (and the price discrepancy is a little weird) but whatever… I think I’m in the mood for a fried fish sandwich now.

(Photos and comments posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Pool by The Flooz)

A friendly little Public Service Announcement for all our practicing Catholics.  If you are looking for a cheap and quick meatless lunch that doesn’t involve a filet o’ fish sandwich from McDonald’s, check out my personal favorite fried fish sandwich in Midtown at Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart on 45th St. just East of 6th Ave.  If you’re not into that, there are plenty of recommendations from my lent post from last year… all of the places listed still apply (except for Ressie May’s which has closed.)  I won’t be crazy enough to recommend Zen Burger (for fear of drawing the anger of all the commenters),  but their whole menu would be lent friendly as well…

Got your own suggestion?  Post it as a comment below…

Related: Friday Guide to Midtown Lent

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…

They have flounder, and sometimes maybe other fish (?) but NY Mag spoke highly of the whiting, and it is the cheapest- so who am I to argue with that?  In the same family as smelts, whiting is also sometimes referred to as hake or pollock.  It’s basically just a plain white fish.  Cheap, and not a strong flavor of anything but fish.  In other words- the type of thing you’re gonna wanna fry.  I ordered, and watched him put the thing together.

I was pretty sure this was going to end up being two different sandwiches but was taken aback when he pulled the fold over move.  In disbelief, my brain tried to wrap itself around the situation.  “You mean… the whole thing is for me?!?!”  Amazing!  So much fish… and for only $3.50.  Borderline ridiculous.  It came topped with tartar sauce and hot sauce, and when properly assembled looked like this:

The world is divided into two different kinds of people.  One group looks at that photo, and thinks “gross!”.  The other group is too busy drooling to say anything.  Which group do you suppose that I am in?

I’m not going to lie to you.  The thing stunk up my office… and not necessarily in a good way.  Used to my lunchtime antics, most people were intrigued by the “delicious” smell emanating from my desk, but I’m sure there were others who were less excited to have their work space stink like a New England seafood shack.  There is no mistaking the smell of fish… and when you buy a fish sandwich for $3.50, you can rest assured it is going to smell (and taste of fish).

And that’s what it comes down to.  If you are one of those people who hates “fishy” fish, this is not the cart for you.  But if you love fried fish, and tartar sauce, and a great bargain- the whiting sandwich at Kim’s Aunt Kitchen will be your new goto lunch.  Feeling like a fancy pants?  Order the flounder for $4.50 and eat like a king.

They still have the bulgogi I tried on the first visit, and it has actually been officially added to the printed menu- along with gyoza.  The quality of the bulgogi meat is definitely better than the 49th St. Cart but it doesn’t have as strong a bulgogi flavor.  For $6 it comes with rice or lo mein.  For $8, it comes with gyoza as well.  Loving the variety, I got the gyoza, and went with Lo Mein just to try it.  The gyoza were not the greatest I’ve ever had (they’re probably just the same frozen ones you can buy in your grocery store) but they have a nice garlic and scallion flavor, and I enjoyed the variety. (I even got a piece of chicken, which I wrote about last week.)

I liked the Lo Mein as well, although its strong soy sauce/Chinese flavors totally overpowered the bulgogi, making the whole platter just taste like beef lo mein.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are looking for Korean food, you might want to stick with the white rice.  I seem to remember that version tasting better.

All in all, I have to give it to NY Mag for this one.  I will eat bulgogi from anywhere… but for fried fish, sometimes you need that recommendation from a third party.  Now if only I could meet Kim’s Aunt… I’ll bet she’s a real special lady.

THE + (What someone who likes this place would say)

• Super cheap
• A ton of food.  For $3.50, you get twice as much fish as you would expect in the whiting sandwich.
• I love fish!  The fishier the better!  Fry it and serve it up!
• I love sandwich bread
• Great variety.  With your bulgogi you can get rice or lo mein- and gyoza!  From a cart!
• The bulgogi is made fresh when you order it.  (i.e. it starts off as raw beef, and is cooked from scratch)

THE – (What someone who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I hate smelly/fishy/cheap fish.  Even when it’s fried.
• Everything is super greasy
• The bulgogi tastes more Chinese than Korean
• The gyoza are not worth the money
• I would never eat fish from a cart

Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart, 46th btw. 5+6th.