Midtown Lunch

Lamb over rice. Chicken over rice. Combo over rice. All these things are what brought you here to Midtown Lunch. These things gave us Streetmeat Palooza. This year, one of my favorite carts (Little Morocco) came in dead last. Yeah, out of fifteen competitors they’re last? How could that be? The cart with a great hot sauce and serves kofta over rice (which is hard to find in Midtown), is last?! But I knew that Little Morocco was better than that. And I went back this week to the corner of 39th and 7th to check out something on the menu that was always intriguing to me… fish over rice.

Fish over rice just doesn’t get enough play here on Midtown Lunch. We talk about fried fish sandwiches like Kim’s Aunt. But for those of you who love meat over rice, but want to switch it up every now and then… this is your thing. Little Morocco has Fish over Rice for $5 dollars, and it’s probably one of the better deals you can find for seafood in Midtown.

Little Morocco is known for throwing in extras into your chicken over rice platters, and here they do the same thing. Instead of a falafel ball or french fries, they do it up with some corn. Nothing like sweet corn to pair up with your fish over rice dish. It’s nice to get kernels of sweetness mixed into your bites of fish and hot sauce.

I think they squeeze a little lemon juice onto the fish before it goes on the rice because there was definitely some acidity with every bite of fish. Obviously people expecting the same quality as the Grand Central Oyster Bar are going to be disappointed, but hey, this is $5 dollars. I kind of also like fish over rice because it requires less chewing than chicken or lamb. This makes me sound like a mouth breather, but some of you out there are with me on this one, I just know it. But you’re looking for a quick lunch, eating on the sidewalk, and you’re just downing it. Nothing like mystery fish to help you out there!

So, Little Morocco might not have scored so well with their chicken over rice (Street Meat Palooza 4, anybody!?), but I’ve always been a big fan of their kofta and now I’m a new convert to their fish.  Who’s with me?

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

• Fish on rice is pretty awesome
• Street food with a wicked hot sauce? I’m in!
• The whole point of Midtown Lunch is to try stuff like this

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

• I only eat sustainably raised fish
• Eating fish from a street cart in Midtown is uh…

Little Morocco Cart, NE Corner of 39th & 7th Ave.