We Finally Catch Up With the Dosa Cart
For the vegetarians, the street food scene may sometime feel a bit boring, since it’s mostly all about street meat. And to meat eaters, vegetarian food can seem kind of boring. But every body loves a good dosa! So when we first heard about the newish Dosa Cart spotted in Midtown last month, it was a big deal. For people unfamiliar with dosas, they’re a South Indian specialty. It’s basically an Indian crepe, made from rice and lentils, that can be filled with many different fillings. We first heard about this cart parking on 39th and 7th, but it appears as if they’ve settled in at a spot on 39th and 6th- and for just $5, how could I not check it out?
In true street food form, you get to see the dosas made fresh right in front of you (which is pretty cool) and if you eat it right away it’s still going to be a little bit crispy on the edges. Dosa fans might be disappointed with the lack of height and crunch (like the ones you get from Minar) but that would be really hard to eat on the go. They fill the dosas here with some sort of potato filling which helps because the wrapper itself isn’t all that substantial. They also give you the option to get it spicy (with green chilies?), but I didn’t see him put any into the dosa…
You get the dosa chopped up into four pieces, and two little containers of condiments. One is an almost-white sauce and the other is sambar. The white sauce wasn’t really a sauce the way that street food lovers know white sauce. It’s not some creamy consistency type of thing, it’s more like a mushy type of sauce. I tried a little of it by itself to see what it was, and it turned out that it was the hot sauce, and packed plenty of heat! (So if you’re skeptical of eating a lunch without meat, but love the heat, this sauce could be your saving grace.)
The cart also serves up falafel but I didn’t try it- mostly because I didn’t see a deep fryer on the cart. If I’m getting falafel, it better be freshly fried. Even so, the dosa left me moderately full and for only $5 you have plenty of cash left over for a nice dessert at the Miss Softee truck or the Treats Truck. All in all, the Dosa Cart is a great new addition to the Midtown Lunch landscape and hopefully they find enough business to stay around 39th street and keep serving up their wares to eaters looking for (and open to) a vegetarian lunch.
Dosa Cart, NE Corner of 39th and 6th ave.
Posted by Danny at 11:45 am, June 24th, 2010 under Dosa Cart.
15 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
15 Comments
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How did the Dosa taste?
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Now why would you expect the review to give, you know, a review of the food.
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no coconut sambar? weak.
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seriously, what was the filling like?, a photo of it? this site has been so weak since zack left.
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I REALLY miss Zach.
Carrion, please.
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Where did it go??? I went searching for it at 2pm today and it wasn’t there, or 39th & B’way, OR 39th & 7th! Really could’ve used some dosa.
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39th and 6th according to the article….you go to the wrong place?
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No, I said I went to 39th & 6th. It wasn’t there.
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the white dip is coconut sambar, the red sauce is salmon stock. stuffing is just spiced potatoes (u can see it on the grill in the pic- yellow stuff)
it’s good enough for me for 5 bucks!39th and 6th he says he’s there from 11am to ??
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This is a very bad review ! The white sauce is not a sauce !!Its coconut chutney
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I love dosas (shout out to the Dosa man in W. Square park!) and it saddens me to see this review bastardize such a delicious dish. “Mushy type of sauce?” 3 seconds worth of googling would have let the author know that dosas are typically served with coconut chutney and sambar.
Hoping the author will redeem himself with a falafel review of this cart :)
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Let us not forget, brethren and sistern, that redemption can always be achieved via consumption of a Walgreen’s sandwich. Hallelujah, and pass the condiment packets
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From the pic it looks like the cart was on 39th east of 6th on the north side of the street. I just went over there and it wasn’t there (about 1:30). So I went into Curry Dream across the street where they have some new, cheaper takeout specials – 2 veg from the buffet plus rice or naan for $4.95 or chicken or goat curry plus one veg for $5.95. $1 for extra rice or naan (like if you want both rather than either/or). I got the chicken with dal makhni and it’s fine – chicken’s a bit salty, but overall a good deal.
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he’s gone missing again – past 2 times i went out there (39th and 6th) the cart hasn’t been there. if anyone sees him, can you get/post their cell phone so we can check beforehand if the cart is there?
SOOOooo goood!!!!! but the cafeteria basement at the ganesha temple in flushing (featured in bourdain) is still the best…(sorry no not midtown bound)