Midtown Lunch

If there is one thing you lunch’ers should know about me, it is that I love me some seafood. I can’t even think of one kind that I don’t like, and I feel like I don’t take advantage of eating it for lunch enough especially since many of the carts downtown serve some sort of fish or shrimp. Awhile back, Chris tried out the beef stew from what he called the $5 Lunch Truck (you may remember it as the one in which the commenters questioned whether it was Eritrean food or not), and a couple of people including Lunch’er Tom had said the fish ($5.50) from this place was really good. That endorsement and the price made it a done deal in my book. Did I find the fish of my dreams? Click through to find out.

Despite its somewhat offbeat location, the truck gets a steady stream of customers ordering goat curry and fish. I put in my order for the fish and noticed the amazing smell coming out of the truck as I waited. I got pretty excited when I saw some mysterious red sauce being ladled over the giant piece of tilapia in the container. You get a choice of white rice with chickpeas or yellow rice. I was indecisive, so I asked for half and half.

When I opened the container I was greeted by the sight of the most delicious looking lunch I’ve had in a while. The giant piece of fried fish was covered in a red sauce speckled with pepper and onion chunks.

It was hands down the tastiest piece of fish I’ve had in a long time, but if you don’t like spicy food I would stay away from this because that sauce packed some heat. I also had some hot sauce squirted on the top, but didn’t even notice it since there was already some spiciness going on. Tom had mentioned there being an overwhelming taste of rosemary on the fish. I did see some flecks of it in the sauce, but couldn’t really taste it much. Maybe they dialed back the  rosemary action?

In addition to the usual lettuce salad and the heap of rice, there was a little bit of bright yellow curried potato, carrot and cabbage on the side along with a couple of dill pickle slices and peppers to add some randomness.

This was a hefty pile of food that filled me up even though I didn’t plow through all that rice. What made this fish was the sauce, and it was different from anything I’ve tasted. If you are a fan of fish and like spicy food, I would highly recommend checking this out, but do it soon. A sign on the truck said they’re taking a long weekend and will be gone starting Friday and returning on Sept. 8.

$5 Lunch Truck, corner of Ann St. & Nassau