Midtown Lunch

It’s been nearly a year since we checked in with the Nixtamalito kiosk over by 1 Centre St. at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, but I was happy I did the other day. I was there to finally check out the tamales which have eluded me every other time I’ve been there. The menu for the kiosk has stayed the same, but I’m happy to report there’s now a cart next to it selling paletas from La NewYorkina! The details on that and the word on the tamales (spoiler: they’re really good) after the jump.

You may recall that Nixtamalito and La Newyorkina had planned to team up last year after the kiosk opened, but as the woman manning the cart told me, city permit troubles forced them to wait until this year to open at this location (there’s also a cart on the Highline). They’re there from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Since it was kind of cold out yesterday, I stuck with my tamale lunch but I plan on buying one of those paletas and telling you all about it soon.

There are six varieties of tamales to choose from, all $3.50. It was hard to choose which ones to order, but I went with a duo of chipotle (slightly spicy, with dark meat chicken), and a verdes (with pork). Most of the tamales have  pulled chicken in them, and there’s a lone vegetarian option with tomato, chiles and cheese that has no lard in the outer shell of masa.

My favorite of the two I tried was the chipotle which had some of that adobo sauce to keep things from being too dry. That was the main problem with the verdes version – it wasn’t bad, but it mostly just tasted of pork and masa with no other seasoning. Regardless, these are some top-notch tamales and two or three make for a nice lunch, or you could combo up with some tacos.

Nixtamalito Kiosk, south side of 1 Centre St. building, (646) 652-9986