Midtown Lunch

Normally we don’t post about things happening on weekends (unless it’s something awesome like the Vendy Awards), but there’s a pilot event this Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market at the South St. Seaport that sounds pretty cool. It’s called International Meats Local and involves Vendy winners including Solber Pupusas, A-Pou’s Taste and Veronica’s Kitchen cooking some of their regular dishes with sustainable, locally-sourced ingredients. There are early bird and general admission tickets available here for $30 or $20 respectively, and they include tastes of the food.

While walking down Water St. a couple of weeks ago I spotted an A-Pou’s Taste cart on the east side of Water St. between Maiden Lane & Pine. When I asked if they were there permanently, the girl working inside told me they were trying the spot out and it must be a good location because they were still there on Friday. At first I thought the cart on Liberty (at Broadway) had just moved, but that one is still there so those of you in the cart wasteland over on Water St., go get yourselves some Taiwanese dumplings or cheap soups!

Having eaten everything else on the short menu of Taiwanese dumplings and Chinese spaghetti at A-Pou’s Taste cart on Liberty (at Broadway), I decided on a rainy day that it was time to try their soups. There’s hot and sour and corn chowder on offer for the low, low price of $2 for a small and $3 for a large. Even if the soup ended up not being amazing, I figured at least I wouldn’t be spending a lot of money to find that out. Read more »

The handful of vendors on Liberty St. at Broadway that were ticketed last week and asked to leave by the management of 140 Broadway are still selling food. About 250 petition letters from concerned lunch’ers were collected in three days last week, according to the Street Vendor Project which has been helping the affected carts that include A-Pou’s Taste, Biryani House and 99% Vegetarian Food. The letters are being sent to building management this week, and the vendors hadn’t been bothered by the police again as of late Monday.

Taiwanese potsticker seller A-Pou’s Taste seems to be a permanent fixture in the line of carts on Liberty St. (at Broadway), and I had only eaten there when they were fairly new at the first ever Pushcart Market and still trying to work out some major kinks (mainly, long waits). Since then they’ve moved from the East Village to the Financial District and every time I walk by there’s a line so I figured it was time to eat there again for review purposes before the Vendy Awards this Saturday where they have a shot at being crowned the Rookie of the Year.

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Wow, I never expected to see so many carts and trucks I’ve eaten at nominated for Vendy Awards! The Rookie of the Year Finalists were announced yesterday, and both A-Pou’s Taste and its Taiwanese potstickers and the 99% Vegetarian Food carts were nominated. Hopefully they gave each other a hug or high-five when they found out, since their carts are a stone’s throw from each other on Liberty St. at  Broadway. One of the other nominees was the Cinnamon Snail, which I had a delicious vegan doughnut (really!) from at the Push Cart Market. With Mexicue and the Souvlaki Truck rounding out the list this category may be a tough one.

If you didn’t get a chance to try the Taiwanese dumplings at the A-Pou’s Taste cart at the Vendor-Organized Pushcart Market back in June, today’s your day. On my walk to work this morning I spotted them on the increasingly crowded plaza on Broadway & Liberty a couple of carts down from the Biryani House. I really liked the beef and kimchi variety I tried and the chicken ones were OK too. At $6 for 10 large dumplings, it’s not exactly dirt cheap, but it saves a trip to Chinatown.