Archive for 'Street Meat'

Shredded Chicken Is A Sleeper Hit At Ambizza Cafe Truck

One of the constants in the food truck scene of the Financial District during the past year or two has been the Ambizza Cafe Truck which came blazing in with claims of the city’s best kofta kebabs. That wasn’t necessarily true, but as that was the only dish I’d tried it was time for a return visit.

The truck has been parking at Old Slip & Water every day, even after hurricane Sandy left all of you Lunch’ers down by Bowling Green with few dining options and many trucks abandoned us termporarily due to a lack of parking spots.

Anyway, the short story is I finally did a repeat visit to Ambizza and am happy to report they do a nice plate of chicken over rice for only a couple of dollars more than the street meat carts.  Read more »

Do You Love White Sauce? Pasha’s Might Just Be Your Favorite Cart

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve walked by Pasha’s street meat cart in front of the Chase Manhattan Building on William St. (btw. Liberty & Cedar). In addition to the street meat, they also sell hamburgers and almost always have a special of curry chicken over rice on tap.

When a hankering for some street meat hit, I decided to finally fulfill my curiosity about how theirs stacks up, and find an interesting cooking method at play at Pasha’s. Let’s just say if you really like white sauce, this is your cart.

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Two Out Of Three Street Meat Carts On William St. Disappear

The scene of the disappearance.

In the last couple of weeks, the number of street meat carts on William St. between Maiden Lane and John St. has been reduced to one instead of three. It’s always hard to tell where these carts have gone since they don’t use Twitter, but Biryani House and NY Express Biryani, which used to sit across the street from each other have been MIA, although Biryani House’s original cart is still a couple of blocks away at Liberty St. and Broadway.  Read more »

A-Pou’s Taste Cart Now Offers A Mash Up Of Taiwanese And Indian Lunches

After a streak of offering nothing but Taiwanese potstickers, the A-Pou’s Taste cart at Liberty St. & Broadway has been on something of a streak of adding non-dumpling dishes to the menu. Not that any of us got sick of those delicious, crisp-bottomed dumplings, but maybe they got sick of cooking nothing but them?

To my surprise, when I stopped by the other day to investigate a sign announcing a new chicken curry dish, there were two Indian men working at the cart instead of a tiny Taiwanese woman. The man – who informed me he was Bangladeshi – got super excited when I ordered the chicken curry, proclaiming it his favorite dish. It turns out he should be proud of this Indian curry served alongside Taiwanese dumplings and Chinese spaghettiRead more »

Kofta Is One Of Three Kinds Of Chicken Served At Halal Gyro Express

Whenever I walk by the Halal Gyro Express cart at William St. & Maiden Lane, there’s a line of people, and that’s because they are great at what they do.

In fact, as I visited on a recent day to try their chicken kofta (we’ll get to that in a minute), the man in line in front of me asked what the difference between the chicken tikka and the regular chicken over rice was. He got a pretty long answer which boiled down to the chicken tikka being white breast meat, and grilled to order “so it stays juicy” while the regular chicken is pre-cooked on the flat top and made from hacked up dark and white meat chicken.

There is a third poultry offering at this cart in the form of a kofta kebab, and how often do you see a non-lamb version of this dish? They pre-cook and then chop up and grill the kebab for a couple of minutes. Yes, you’re going to want to try this.

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All Meats At The Gyro House Truck Are Not Created Equal

The Gyro House Truck on Cedar St. (at Broadway) has a somewhat limited menu and thus sometimes I forget about it in favor of kati rolls and Thai food from the carts across the street at Liberty Plaza. They do a mean chicken over rice, and tasty falafel, but I’d heard rumors that the lamb gyro from this truck wasn’t too shabby either (and was in fact championed by one of my predecessors). On a day when salty meat and rice sounded amazing, and it was above freezing outside, I headed over for a street meat lunch.

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NY Express Biryani Adds To Growing List Of Carts On William St.

Many people wanting lunch from a cart tend to gravitate toward the collection on Broadway between Liberty and Cedar streets, but some more interesting options can be found a few blocks away on William St. The stretch between Maiden Lane and John St. is home to a smoothie cart, fruit seller along with a Biryani House cart and Halal Gyro Express which serve an interesting mix of street meat, falafel, biryani, kati rolls and some Afghani dishes. A while ago a new cart called NY Express Biryani started parking right across William St. from Biryani House serving some of the same dishes including kati rolls, biryani and chicken tikka. It wasn’t until yesterday that I walked by, though, and noticed a substantial lunchtime line outside NY Express Biryani so I thought I should finally post about its presence. Have any of you eaten there? Is the food worth crossing the street for?

NY Express Biryani Cart, corner of William & John streets