Midtown Lunch

It looks like vendor wars don’t just happen during the week.  Over the weekend a little competition popped up for Kwik Meal on 45th Street and 6th Ave., and Lunch’er “Vernon” was kind enough to send us this photo.  Check out the sign!  “Why Pay More Money?  Fahima Halal Food much better than Kwik Meal.” Ouch.  But you know what the biggest kick in the balls is for Muhammed Rahman, the owner of the Kwik Meal carts?  Fahima Halal is owned and run by his brother!  Yup, it’s the same cart that popped up a few months ago on 45th and 5th, before moving to 9th Ave. and 42nd.

Muhammed doesn’t work on the weekends, so he wasn’t at the cart to confront his brother- but he was called and told by his workers what was going on.  Family feuds are nothing new in the world of street meat, but parking next to your brother and undercutting his prices is pretty ballsy- especially when your brother has one of the most popular street meat operations in the city.  Not sure if Fahima plans on staying on 45th during the week, or moving back to their normal spot on 42nd and 9th.  I guess we’ll find out today.

Related:
Kwik Meal Kin Opens New Cart, Touches off Feud Over 45th & 5th
Biryani Cart Gets New Competition From the Strangest Place

Unhappy with business at his new spot on 45th & 5th, Muhammed Rahman is planning on moving Kwik Meal IV back to its spot on 37th and 6th Ave.  I doubt it will make a difference financially (everybody is slow in Midtown right now) but for those of you in Midtown South who were upset when Kwik Meal IV left- you should be pretty happy to hear this news.  As for those of you who work on 5th Ave., you can always go West to the original (on 45th and 6th) or East to Kwik Gourmet (on 47th & Park.)

Related:
Kwik Meal Kin Opens New Cart, Touches off Feud Over 45th & 5th
Meal O’Bama Pressured Into Changing Name to Kwick Meal IV

It sounds like the cops were pretty busy with vendor complaints on Monday.  There was the ice cream fist fight on 50th & 6th, the Schnitzel Truck twittered that cops were called to a vendor fight downtown, and there was this thing on 45th & 5th…

I got word a few weeks ago that the owner of Kwik Meal, Muhammed Rahman, has a brother who opened a new cart on 45th & 5th, and was selling biriyani (in addition to chicken and lamb over rice.) Even though this new venture is not associated with Kwik Meal (this year’s Street Meat Palooza winner) in any way, I was still excited to try the food- after all, cooking skills could be genetic, right?  Sadly though, by the time I made it over to the corner, the brother’s cart had disappeared.

You may remember that Kwik Meal, which currently has four carts in their empire, used to park another cart on the corner of 45th & 5th called Kwik Meal 2, before it was stolen from the garage it was parked in.  They still operate Kwik Gourmet on 47th and Park, Quick Delight on 45th & 3rd, and Kwick Meal IV on 37th and 6th. But 45th and 5th has remained Kwik Meal-less… until Monday.

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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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Speaking of Kwik Meal, I guess last week wasn’t the best week for Meal O’Bama- the fourth cart in Muhammad Rahman’s Kwik Meal empire. Apparently because of complaints from the building he was parked in front of (and surrounding restaurants), the police forced the cart to abandon its spot on 37th & 7th. And to add insult to injury, the cops told Muhammad he should probably change the name of the cart or he was “going to have problems.” The Obama administration has stated in the past that they disapprove of using “the president’s name and likeness for commercial purposes”, but as far as I know there is nothing illegal about it.

The cart has been renamed Kwick Meal IV, and is now parked on the NW corner of 6th Ave. and 37th.

UPDATE: This cart is now parked on 45th and 5th

Related:
Kwik Meal Names New Cart After (Irish?) President Obama

A video has finally surfaced online of Bobby Flay’s falafel Throwdown victory over Taim (in the West Village). Even Bobby’s Food Network assistants were shocked that his falafel won, but Midtown Lunchers shouldn’t be. He got help from Kwik Meal’s Muhammed Rahman. It happens around 4 minutes and 30 seconds in the video if you want to fast forward.

Check out the video, after the jump.

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Looks like the famous Halal Guys on 53rd and 6th aren’t the only quality late night street meat available in Midtown anymore.  The Kwik Meal cart (on 45th & 6th) has decided to try and stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (Before this week, their schedule was just M-F 11am until around 8:30-9pm.)  This is great news for any Kwik Meal fans who find themselves working over the weekend or super late at night.  Owner Muhammad Rahman says he’s going to test it out for a few weeks and see how it goes.  If there’s business, he’ll keep the cart open all night long, indefinitely.

Like Tom Collichio returning to the kitchen of Craft… Muhammed Rahman has returned to the cart that made him famous: the original Kwik Meal cart on 45th & 6th.  He has spent the better part of the past few months manning two new Kwik Meal carts- Quick Delight (on 45th & 3rd) and the hilariously named Meal Obama (on 37th and 7th).  All four of his carts are still in their normal spots… but if you worked near the original Kwik Meal cart, and have been missing Muhammed’s smiling face, this is the week to hit up Kwik Meal for some lamb over rice.

I’ve seen a lot written about that fried chicken restaurant named after our President, but what about our beloved Kwik Meal owned street meat cart “Meal Obama” (on 37th & 7th)?  It seems to me this would be the perfect place for the Daily Show to visit, don’t you think?  And we already know that they are into the street meat.  Anybody know anybody who knows anybody who works on the Daily Show?  Forward this along.  If it worked on Usain Bolt, maybe it would work on Jon Stewart right?

Related:
Kwik Meal Names New Cart After (Irish?) President Obama
Hallo Berlin Mentioned on the Daily Show
Gold Medalist Usain Bolt Visits the Jamaican Dutchy Cart!