New York Street Food

(credit: NYSF)

We first ran across the Chinese Mirch truck at the Choice Streets event a few weeks ago.  At that event, trucks only gave out a sample of their food, and we were looking forward to seeing what else they served.  The truck’s slogan is “chinese food. indian flavors”, which sounded promising.

Since I tried their momos at Choice Streets, on this visit I ordered duck sliders (bao), which cost $8 for an order of 3.

(credit: NYSF)

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(credit: NYSF)

Last night at Choice Streets, there were over 20 of NYC’s best food trucks.  It was a fun event, but we’ve been to most of the food trucks before.

One truck we had not been to was Chinese Mirch.  That would have been difficult because last night was their debut!

The truck said Chinese Food | Indian Flavor.  Sounds interesting.

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(credit: NYSF)

Yesterday we told you about what we thought was a new food truck from the sibling team behind the Bian Dang and Fishing Shrimp trucks.

Last night we ventured out to 4th Ave & President St in Brooklyn to see for ourselves, and found a brand new food cart.  The way things are going in NYC with food trucks these days, a cart is a cheaper and safer way to go.  Then you only have to worry about other vendors, not the police too.

It was only their 2nd day on the street, and they want to roll things out slowly, so they only had one item, Five Spice Pork Belly Buns.  They cost $3 each.

Click through to find out how it was, as well as to get a look at their future menu.

Pork bun at the cart (credit: NYSF)

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Where I’m working in San Francisco is quite a bit out of the way from most of the food trucks, but I did read about the Truck Stop, an alley off Mission St by 1st St where three trucks park every weekday.  I later found out why they crammed three food trucks into a narrow alley.

The Truck Stop was only about half a mile from where I was, and yesterday they had Chairman Bao, Curry Up Now & Kung Fu Tacos.

Everything looked great, but I had to make a choice, and went for 2 steamed buns from Chairman Bao – pork belly ($3.75) and spicy chicken ($3.25).

pork belly steamed bun

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After taking some time off during the winter, and visiting Taiwan for some inspiration, Bian Dang returned to the NYC streets last week.

Bian Dang, which is Taiwanese for “lunch box”, started out in 2009 as NYC Cravings and were nominated for a Vendy Award that year in the Rookie of the Year category.  Last year they changed their name to something more traditional – and changed the design on their truck into one of the most beautiful food trucks in the city.

Early last year they also opened a stand at Food Gallery 32, which is in an Asian food court at 11 West 32nd St (bet 5th & 6th Ave).

Bian Dang has delicious Taiwanese fried chicken, pork chops and assorted side dishes.  We ordered Taiwanese fried chicken for $7 and zongzi for $4.

The fried chicken at Bian Dang has crispy skin flavored with Chinese 5-spice powder.  This gives it a really nice flavor, and infuses the chicken underneath as well.  It’s moist, tender…and delicious.

You can barely see it in the photo, but under the chicken is white rice with Bian Dang’s s secret weapon, their pork sauce.  Bits of pork, herbs and spices are mixed with some greens into a sauce that tastes great with white rice.  I guess this isn’t a place to bring vegetarians.

Bian Dang describes their zongzi as a Chinese tamale, and is also called sticky rice or sticky rice in lotus leaf in other places.

First you take off the string, then unwrap several large leaves.  Inside the leaves is a mound of rice, and inside the rice is a veritable goody bag with Chinese sausage, peanuts, mushrooms, ground pork, soy beans and a little bit of greens.

The rice in zongzi can sometimes be too salty, but Bian Dang’s zongzi is not.  This is a very tasty dish , and quite filling for $4.  It can be a bit tricky opening it up and peeling some of the rice off the leaves, but I really enjoyed it, with all the different bits steamed inside the rice.

We’re glad to welcome Bian Dang back to the NYC streets for another season. You can follow them on twitter here (where the background still has the NYC Cravings logo) or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed.