Midtown Lunch

What do you think about when you hear “Fish and dumplings”? For an Asian guy, my mind automatically veers toward dumplings like jiaozi or mandoo or gyoza. But having lived in the South for a little bit, I know that the dumplings you find in a “Chicken and dumplings” dish is not quite the same… Googling tells me that dumplings are simple boiled dough of some sorts, and some variations of dumplings have fillings. Basically all the awesome versions have fillings… As for eating fish from a street cart?  I generally view it as a test of character. Sure, you can eat all the street meat you want, but at this point, it’s not even that crazy to be a street meat lover. You only show your true colors when you’re willing to fish from a cart. So, when the Trini Paki Cart mentioned their new Friday special of fish and dumplings last week, I knew that it was time to test my worth as a street meat eater.

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Back in January we told you that STK would be building a new steakhouse (complete with takeout kiosk) in the Grace Building on 43rd and 6th. That sounded like it might be pretty great, until we found out that it’s displaced one of our favorite street carts! Construction on the whole courtyard has started, and as a result they forced the Trini Paki Boys Cart from their usual location on the SE corner of 43rd and 6th. They’ve been parking on the opposite side of 43rd street (on the NE corner) but are worried that their regular customers don’t realize they’ve moved. If you’re a fan, make sure you get out and support the Trini Paki Cart (Clay is a big fan of their doubles). They’ve been having a tough time making ends meet recently, and this is kind of the last straw.

Their cart is much harder to spot because they’re coming up after a fruit stand and a couple of hot dog carts. If you don’t see them right away, it’s ok. Just walk down past the 99 cent hot dogs and you’ll get to the good stuff.

The Trini-Paki Boys cart (on the SE corner of 43rd and 6th) is well known to Midtown Lunch’ers.  It’s mostly famous for their Pakistani version of chicken over rice, topped with Trinidadian pepper sauce- but Zach was pretty excited to discover that they also served biriyani, dahi bala, polourie, samosas, and most importantly doubles.

I discovered doubles in my college days through a Trinidadian ex-girlfriend. It’s been years since we’ve been on speaking terms, but doubles are still a fond memory. So a week or so ago I finally got a chance to check out the Trini Paki Boys cart for myself- and for once skipped the street meat in favor of a double.

After the jump, some doubles porn and a little background on the whole “Trini-Paki” thing.

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Have you ever been kind of jealous of the winners of Zach’s various cart tours?  Even though I work in midtown and can hit the great midtown carts anytime I want, there’s something to be said about the fun of taking on a bunch of them at once.  To really do it right you need strength in numbers, so when I learned that a couple of my friends from Seattle, would be in town and free for lunch during the week, I started plotting potential food adventures.  Both of them regularly read Blondie & Brownie and they were jealous of the midtown cart/food truck scene.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that we should try to hit as many carts for as many different types of foods as possible and with that in mind, may a present Brownie’s Cart Canyon Tour: 10 carts/10 cuisines/$10 a person…

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It brings me great pleasure to pass along the news that the Trini Paki Boys chicken and rice cart finally passed its inspection this week, and is back on the SE corner of 43rd St. and 6th Ave.  Every two years carts have to renew their permits, and there was a hold up on their renewal this go around- forcing them to use a loaner cart for the past two weeks.  To celebrate they’ve decided to start selling their biriyani every single day from now on.  The only thing that will change from day to day is the meat… today- it’s goat!

Related:
The Hidden Delicious Mysteries of the Trini-Paki Boys Cart

The Trini Paki Boys cart is still waiting on the inspection they need to renew their cart’s license, but in the meantime they’ve decided to rent a licensed cart from somebody else so they can get back to work (on 43rd btw. 5+6th).  There is a small chance they might show up late today with this borrowed cart, but more than likely tomorrow will be their first day back.  Their inspection is scheduled for November 17th, so they should be back in their original cart on the 18th.

Related:
Is the Trini Paki Cart Going Away?

If you can’t go too long without eating food from the Trini Paki Boys cart (the chicken over rice cart on 43rd btw. 5+6th) you might want to grab lunch there before the end of the week. They’re handing out fliers letting their customers know that the permit on their cart is up for renewal, and they might not be in their regular spot next week. Chicken over rice with pepper sauce and yogurt could be good, or you can try one of their daily specials. Naturally we’ll keep everyone updated on their situation next week. (Thanks to Lunch’er Steve for sending in a scan of the flier.)

Related:
The Hidden Delicious Mysteries of the Trini-Paki Boys Cart