Last week’s lunch of fried chicken from the Jerk Pan got me thinking about jerk chicken.  I really like the jerk chicken from Jerk Pan and Jamaican Dutchy, but they are pretty different from each other.

Not wanting to repeat myself, I decided to try the jerk chicken from the Trini-Paki Boys cart.  If you’re not familiar with them, the Trini-Paki Boys cart is one of the better street carts around, and is located on West 43rd St just east of 6th Ave.  They are tucked between one of the El Rey del Sabor carts and a generic halal cart.

If you’re not sure which cart is theirs, it’s the one with the friendly woman sitting in a chair handling the money while her son and daughter-in-law handle the cooking.  One of them is Trinidadian and one is Pakistani, hence the Trini-Paki Boys cart, named after their sons.

The chicken over rice from here is excellent, especially with some tamarind sauce.  But they started making jerk chicken a few months ago, and this is the first chance I’ve had to try it.  Today’s Lunch is the medium sized jerk chicken ($6) from the Trini-Paki Boys cart.

The jerk chicken from Trini-Paki Boys had thin slices of boneless chicken with jerk seasoning that was more like a rub or paste than a sauce.  With the jerk seasoning and hot sauce, this was a seriously spicy lunch!

The chicken was tender and didn’t have any funky stuff in it like fat or gristle.  It was pretty tasty…and spicy.

There were also a bunch of veggies served on the side – chickpeas, cabbage, carrots and peas.

Another thing Trini-Paki Boys does well is their basmati rice.  It’s fluffy and aromatic and lightened up the dish.  The rice was peppery too, but not as much as the jerk chicken.

You might ask what’s the difference between the jerk chicken at Jamaican Dutchy, Jerk Pan and Trini-Paki Boys?

Jamaican Dutchy’s jerk sauce is similar to a light brown peppery gravy.  Jerk Pan’s is more like a sweet and spicy bbq sauce, but less ketchupy.  The jerk from Trini-Paki Boys is not a sauce at all, but is more of a spice rub or paste.  They are all good, but don’t have much in common with each other.  It’s more a question of what your preference is than which one is better.

I’ve been meaning to try the peppered steak from the Jamaican Dutchy for a while now. It’s their Wednesday special, but I keep forgetting to go there on Wednesdays. The one time I remembered about a month ago, they were out of peppered steak by the time I got there, and it was only a little after 1 o’clock.

I didn’t want to make that mistake again, so I headed out a little earlier than usual for Today’s Lunch, peppered steak (regular for $9 or large for $11) from Jamaican Dutchy, on 51^st St just east of 7^th Ave.

Based on my past experiences with the Jamaican Dutchy, I knew the regular size would be plenty of food for lunch. Walking back to the office with lunch, my suspicions were confirmed by the weight of the package.

Opening up the container, the smell was pretty fragrant. Instead of chunks of beef, it was sliced into strips and cooked with green peppers, onions and a few lima beans.

The beef was not fatty at all, in fact it was pretty lean – and there was a huge amount of it. I can’t imagine what a large portion would look like.

The whole shebang had obviously been stewed for several hours, which tenderized the meat and made the peppers and onions really soft and tasty.

Contrary to its name, the sauce was not peppery at all. The name of the dish refers to all the green bell peppers in there. It’s not easy to describe the sauce, other than to say it was a delicious brown sauce, but it wasn’t thick like gravy. It seems to be a beef broth base, and it was a little tangy and a little sweet.

In addition to peppered beef, there was a huge mound of rice & beans and a cabbage salad on the side.

Even though there was a lot of it, the rice & beans were actually fairly light for this notoriously heavy dish. It was mainly rice with some beans, and I could detect allspice and nutmeg in the rice. Tasty stuff!

Today’s Lunch was as good as I hoped it would be. The beef, peppers and onions were good, as was the rice, and the portion was a standard Jamaican Dutchy portion – meaning very big! I heartily recommend the peppered steak at Jamaican Dutchy, who was a 2009 Vendy Award finalist.

Just remember the portion sizes.  If I got a large, I probably wouldn’t have to eat for a week!

Website – TheJamaicanDutchy.net

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We don’t usually associate street food with wine, although Dan Delaney of Vendr.TV had an episode last summer with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV that paired New York Street Food with different wines.

Earlier this year, we learned how to cook Indian street food at the Miette Culinary Studio and had a wonderful time.

Combining these two things, The Astor Center is holding two cooking classes where you learn how to prepare street food from the Caribbean and Mediterranean, then learn the best wines to pair with the food.  Click through to find out what food will be cooked and more details on the classes.

In the Mediterranean street food class, you will cook Pimiento Peppers Stuffed with Cod and Chorizo a la Sidra (hard cider) from Barcelona, Roman rice balls stuffed with cheese, an onion, olive and anchovy “pizza” from Nice, grilled mackerel sandwiches from Istanbul, fava bean patties from Egypt (similar to falafel), and a seafood-filled Brik, a delicate Tunisian turnover.

The Mediterranean street food class takes place on Sat, Sept 11th from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM and the cost is $125.

In the Caribbean street food cooking class, you will make cod-fish “patés” (patties filled with bacalao) from the Virgin Islands, curried goat roti (the local answer to the burrito), black-eyed pea fritters from Haiti, Jamaican jerk shrimp, empanadas filled with savory pork picadillo and tostones (double-fried plantains) with garlicky mojo sauce from Cuba.

The Caribbean street food class takes place on Sun, Aug 29th from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM and the cost is $125.

After your culinary creations are complete, everyone will relax around a table as a resident wine expert leads you through a flight of perfect pairings.

A little pricey, but it looks very interesting if you have the dough (ouch!)

It’s freakin’ hot out, so I stayed near my office and went to the Jamaican Dutchy cart on the NE corner of 51st St & 7th Ave.  They were a Vendy Award finalist in 2009, and I’ve tried their jerk chicken sandwich and escovitch chicken, so it was time to try something new.  Today’s Lunch is the sweet & sour chicken from the Jamaican Dutchy cart.

chicken leg (thigh already eaten)

With the hot and humid weather outside, my appetite wasn’t very large, so I ordered the small size for $7.

I don’t know on what planet this is a small lunch because there were 2 pieces of fried chicken on a huge pile of rice with a large side of cabbage salad.  I didn’t weigh it, but this had to be as much food as most of the chicken over rice lunches I’ve had from the halal carts.

The chicken pieces were a thigh and a leg, which were fried with a slightly spicy breading and covered with a light sweet & sour sauce. The chicken was very tender, just about falling off the bone.

The sauce was nice, not too heavy and cloy like it can be in the Chinese version of this dish.  There were also a nice amount of pineapple chunks in the sauce, which I enjoy.

The rice was really good too.  There were a few beans scattered throughout the rice, but this was definitely a rice dish, not rice & beans.  There was a pleasant undercurrent in the rice that took me a little while to figure out, but after a few bites it came to me – allspice (and possibly clove).  Some of the rice had sweet & sour sauce on it, which made it even better.  I would suggest asking for extra sauce on this dish so it seeps down to the rice.

The cabbage salad had some shredded carrots and was decent, but I try not to eat too much cabbage, working in an office with 25 other people.

Today’s Lunch is a solid 8.5 out of 10.  I would have liked some white meat too, but the chicken I had was very tender and tasty, as was the sauce and rice.  If you want to know more about the Jamaican Dutchy cart, you can read our recent interview with O’Neill Reid here.

Her bio – Fidi Mama returned to New York, her birthplace, in 2007. But she is still a foreign correspondent at heart. To make stay-at-home mother days more interesting, she and her 22-month old daughter, HD, scan their Wall Street neighborhood for exotic and delicious street food.  Fidi Mama also studied at the Institute of Culinary Education full-time for two months in the summer of 1995, when it was called Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School. But most of her opinions come from years of eating street food around the world, from Taiwan to Morocco.

FiDi Mama reviews 2 or 3 downtown places a week on her site.  If you are interested in downtown street food options, make sure to check out her Money Grub website.

For FiDi Mama”s first New York Street Food review, we have selected Veronica’s Kitchen on the corner of Front and Pine Street.  Veronica’s Kitchen was a Vendy Award finalist a few years ago, which solidified her reputation as one of the best food carts downtown.

Let’s give FiDi Mama a warm NYSF welcome – and click through for her full review.

Veronica

Location: Corner of Front and Pine Streets.  Across from the Eurostars Wall Street Exchange Hotel. Not far from South Street Seaport and the Wall Street ferry terminal to IKEA.

Grub: Small Jerk Chicken meal with 3 sides ($6.50) plus a 50 cent tip – it cost $7 to feed 1 adult and HD. (Maybe I’m dense, but I didn’t see jerk chicken listed on the menu. The cooks suggested it as their most popular dish.)

Trini-Paki Boys double

Rosa Braz of Oakland just got back from Trinidad and offered up some tips to SF Gate readers.  One of her “don’t bother” tips: Don’t spend too much on food when there are “doubles” – channa inside two pieces of fried bread, an inexpensive, delicious, street food – everywhere. [SF Gate]

For those of us who can’t make it to Trinidad in the near future, there’s always the Trini-Paki Boys cart on 43rd St, east of 6th Ave.  We’ve thoroughly enjoyed their their doubles in the past.  Just remember – they are across 43rd St from their long-term location due to building construction on the south side of the street – right next to El Rey Del Sabor.

Open Trini-Paki Boys double

It’s scheduled to open May 1st, but that’s all we can tell you for now…other than their Twitter address, which is http://twitter.com/islandcafetruck.

We’ll keep you posted as more info comes in.  If you hear anything, please let us know either in the comments or by sending us an email at newyorkstreetfood@gmail.com

I haven’t had chicken for lunch yet this week, so I decided to try the Jerk Pan’s fried chicken.  If you want to try the Jerk Pan truck, which I recommend, they are easy to spot.  Just look for the Jamaican flag with Bob Marley on it flying off the back of the truck, which is parked on the SE corner of 48th St and Park Ave.

Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the Jerk Pan today, they were out of fried chicken, and it was only 1:15.  Since they were out of fried chicken, I invoked an old standby rule – when a food vendor has the name of a dish within their name, it’s usually one of their better dishes.  Based on this unwritten rule, I had the jerk chicken for Today’s Lunch ($8), even though I had a jerk chicken sandwich from the Jamaican Dutchy cart last week.  Let’s call it the Jerk Challenge.

The first thing I noticed was the nicely charred skin.  No doubt this baby was grilled well.  I also noticed that a fork and napkin was provided, but no knife.  As they say in Jamaica, “no worries”.  The chicken came right off the bone with just a fork.  It was literally falling-off-the-bone tender.

Anyone into jerk knows that the jerk sauce is of paramount importance.  The first bite of chicken with jerk sauce gave off a sweet, not spicy, taste.  It was somewhat reminiscent of a bbq sauce, but not nearly as ketchupy as bbq sauce.  After I took a few bites, it got a little hotter, but I did not really get heat until I ate some of the skin.  That’s when the heat finally came out.  The jerk sauce was really good, but I should have asked for some hot sauce, too.

The rice and beans was very good, but there was way too much to eat for lunch.  I nearly got a hernia carrying lunch back to the office today.  (Exaggeration, but not by much).   Rice and beans with some jerk sauce on it was a good, filling side dish.

The steamed veggie side dish was a pleasant surprise.  I didn’t really expect to like it, but it was really good.  The base was cabbage, but there were plenty of carrots, corn, peas and string beans with a mild sauce.  I try not to eat too much cabbage in the office for obvious reasons, but this was excellent.  If you’re a vegetarian, these steamed veggies over rice and beans will keep you full for a week.

There was too much food, but after I ordered at the truck, someone else got a jerk chicken mini platter for $6.  It comes in a smaller square container, not the large rectangular container, but it looked like plenty of food for lunch.  Most of their platter were in the $8 range, but they all came in mini for around $2 less.  They also had curried chicken, oxtail and curried goat today, as well as a ton of sides and desserts.  The truck menu is below.  It’s not one of my better photos, but will give you an idea of the variety.

I really enjoyed Today’s Lunch, and can’t think of any part of it that was not excellent.  I was initially disappointed about not having the fried chicken, but the jerk chicken, rice and beans and steamed veggies were all wonderful. I have to give Jerk Pan’s jerk chicken platter a 9 out of 10.

It’s hard to compare the jerk to Jamaican Dutchy’s because they were quite different.  Jamaican Dutchy’s jerk sauce was more of a peppery brown sauce, while Jerk Pan’s was more of a sweet spicy sauce.  Given the level of quality of each, it’s more of a personal preference which one you will like better.

Shrimp Curry and Roti Canai

Friday’s Recipe for this week is shrimp curry, Trinidadian street food that I had last week at the Trini-Paki Boys cart on West 43rd street for lunch.  This recipe is not from the Trini-Paki Boys cart, but is courtesy of Hawker Street Food, which has a lot of great recipes for street food from around the world.

He pairs the shrimp curry with roti canai , the Indian bread, but I had it over white rice, which is easier.  I’m sure the roti canai is a good choice too, if you want to go the extra mile.

Take it away Hawker:

“This is a fairly simple curry recipe that can be cooked a couple different ways. I like to use canned tomatoes so that I can use roasted without burning anything. There are a couple different ways to do the curry too, and you can choose whether to use whole seeds or ground. Depends what you have handy – we tend to have plentiful ground cumin, so that’s what I use.”

Shrimp Curry

Your choice – for the curry, use:

1 Tbsp curry paste or powder

- or -

3/4 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp coriander

3/4 mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp red pepper

You can either grind this from seeds or use ground spices

2 Tbsp oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2-3 in. grated ginger

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 1b medium shrimp, shelled, de-veined and cleaned

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions

1. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the spices or paste and cook 2 minutes more.
3. Add the tomatoes, water and salt and stir. Bring to a boil, then simmer until most of the water is boiled off.
4. Add the shrimp and stir well. Cover and let the shrimp cook for 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.

Today’s Lunch is escovitch chicken from the Jamaican Dutchy cart, a 2009 Vendy Award finalist.  The cart is located on the northeast corner of West 51st St and 7th Ave, and escovitch chicken is their Friday special.

My first thought was, this is a BIG lunch.  It cost $9, but can easily be shared by 2 people with normal appetites.

There were 3 pieces of breaded chicken, a leg and a breast split in two.  There was a small amount of sauce on it, over a huge portion of rice and beans.  Very tasty, but I would have liked more sauce, although the chicken was tender and moist.

There were also 2 side dishes – one was pickled onions, peppers and carrots that was quite pickled and vinegary and one was a cabbage/carrot salad that was basically steamed vegetables, so you had your choice of sharp or mild vegetables (or both).

To finish the meal, there was a fried plantain.  Nice finish.

A good choice for Today’s Lunch, but I’m going to be full for quite some time (and I didn’t even finish the rice and beans).