Midtown Lunch

A couple of exciting tidbits from the world of Midtown street vending this morning.  First up, I just got word that Kwik Meal’s Muhammed Rahman will open his new pasta cart today.  It will be parked next to the OG Kwik Meal cart on 45th and 6th and will have three options: Angel hair w/ chicken, shrimp, or vegetables in red sauce.  Can’t wait to hear from the early adopters about this one.  Feel free to send photos to zach@midtownlunch.com.  Also going down today… Schnitzel & Things and the Street Sweets truck are parking together today on 52nd btw. 6+7th. Schnitzel burger, followed by fresh oven baked chocolate chip cookies?  Sounds like a plan… (although, as always, you may want to check the ML Twitter Tracker for confirmation before heading out.)

Related:
Famous Street Meat Vendor Branching Out With Italian Food Cart
Schnitzel Burger is Everything That is Fun About Food
The Street Sweets Truck Top 5

Photos courtesy of Food in Mouth

Midtown Lunch’er Danny was all about carts on his blog Food in Mouth this week, giving a big thumbs up to Street Meat Palooza 2 winner Kwik Meal (on 45th & 6th).  Sadly, the spicy pork tacos at El Rey Del Sabor (on 43rd btw. 5+6th) were plenty spicy but not as porktastic as he would have liked.

Related:
Street Meat Palooza 2: Our New York City Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown Crowns A New Champion
All Midtown Lunch Posts about El Rey del Sabor
All Midtown Lunch Posts About Kwik Meal

The sidewalk battle between Kwik Meal’s Muhammed Rahman and his brother (also Muhammed Rahman) got picked up by the New York Post on Sunday.  The article tells the brother’s side of the story (“I’m working for him a long time. He make money, and not give it to me”) and adds that he plans to “become a permanent fixture” on 45th and 6th in a few weeks. We’ll see if there is any room on that corner, once Kwik Meal opens their Italian food cart!

Related:
Kwik Meal Kin Stirs Up Weekend Vendor War

Muhammed Rahman just can’t make up his mind what do with his fourth Kwik Meal cart.  Originally dubbed Meal Obama, the cart was forced to change its name to Kwik Meal IV and move from 37th and 7th to 38th and 6th.  Business wasn’t great, so when Rahman’s brother parked a cart on 45th and 5th (the spot which used to be occupied by the now gone Kwik Meal 2), Muhammed decided to move Kwik Meal IV  back to 45th and 5th (to reclaim his spot from his brother). Business wasn’t great there either, so a month ago Kwik Meal IV moved back to 37th and 6th.

Now comes the craziest news of all!  According to a sign that Lunch’er Dennis spotted on the original Kwik Meal cart (on 45th and 6th), the new plan is to open a cart serving “Italian dishes”.  I spoke with Rahman and confirmed that he is planning on parking Kwik Meal IV next to the original Kwik Meal cart, and will indeed be converting it into an Italian food cart. The plan is to serve pastas similar to the ones he serves at the pizza place he owns in Harlem, and if all goes well maybe some soups as well.  Pasta from a cart?  At the very least it should be interesting.  The cart will open sometime in the next two weeks.

Related:
Day in the Life: Muhammed “Kwik Meal” Rahman
From Russian Tea Room to Cart and Back Again- Kwik Meal’s Muhammed Rahman is Cooking in a Restaurant

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