One of the oldest food trucks in New York is Rickshaw Dumplings. I first tried them at the 2009 Vendy Awards, where they were a finalist for the Vendy Cup.

They have since expanded to two trucks, three storefronts, and they just opened a new kiosk in the Times Square pedestrian plaza.  You can find the truck locations by following them on twitter here.

Today’s Lunch is Thai chicken basil dumplings and a cold noodle salad from Rickshaw Dumplings, which costs $9.

Although I’m not usually a big fan of chicken dumplings (pork or shrimp, baby!), the Thai basil chicken dumplings at Rickshaw Dumplings are among the better chicken dumplings I’ve had.  They had a nice flavor with minced chicken, basil, carrots and cellophane noodles make a tasty filling.  The dumpling wrapper was soft and springy too.

One thing that has improved since I first tried them is the peanut sate dip that comes with the Thai chicken basil dumplings.

peanut sate dipping sauce

The peanut sauce used to have a processed-food type of consistency and flavor, but it now tastes much more organic, and has a little bit of heat as well.  You can see a lot of spices in the peanut sate dipping sauce.

I also really like the cold noodle salad from Rickshaw.  There’s lots of stuff in there – carrots, bean sprouts, scallions and sesame seeds, among others.  It makes for a nice refreshing side dish, even though it’s cold as ice outside.

cold noodle salad

The Rickshaw Truck is a bit pricey, with either 6 dumplings for $6, or 6 dumplings and a side dish for $9.  You can get cheaper dumplings in Chinatown – but I’m in midtown during the day, and there aren’t many Chinese restaurants in my immediate vicinity.

Rickshaw Dumplings are obviously are doing something right, with this much expansion over the past 2-3 years.  Let us know what you think.

icken

crab shell pie

Shanghai is rightly known as a street food mecca.  The variety of street food in Shanghai is among the best in the world.

CNNGo has a mouth-watering list of 35 of the best street foods in Shanghai and other popular snacks from around China.

Click here for a quick trip to China.  Just make sure you aren’t hungry first.

soup dumplings

We received an email from Bian Dang telling us they are doing a FREE lunch promotion today with LevelUp.  Both the truck and store will be giving out free lunches of up to $10 in value.  All you have to do is to sign up for a free account with LevelUp.

Click through for more details on the promotion and LevelUp, which sounds like a company with an interesting concept.  LevelUp did a free lunch promotion last week at the Schnitzel & Things store, and Oleg told me it was a great success.

The Bian Dang truck is scheduled to be on Vanderbilt Ave & 46th St, but check their twitter here to make sure.  The truck is expected to be open until 4pm (or until they run out of food).  The store is at Food Gallery 32 at11 West 32nd St (bet 5th & 6th Ave).

How LevelUp works is you register to get your own personal QR code. Use it to pay (and save) at hundreds of local businesses in town. Instant digital receipts show what you spent and how much you saved.

Each day they feature a new merchant for you to try out. You’ll get $5, $10, $20 in credit to spend on whatever you want there. To use it, just pay with LevelUp!  Didn’t use it all?  Use the rest next time.  Spent extra? Pay the rest with LevelUp.

The first time you pay with LevelUp at any merchant, you’ll immediately get credit applied to your purchase.  As you go back, you’ll unlock more credit to use on whatever you want at that merchant. Sounds like a good deal to us!

The holidays seem to come earlier and earlier every year.  Thanksgiving used to be the unofficial start of the holiday season, but in the past few years, it seems to start right after Halloween.

Last year we enjoyed some great meals from vendors at the Columbus Circle Holiday Market, especially Pies-N-Thighs and Cascabel Taqueria.  While the Columbus Circle and Union Square Holiday Markets are not expected to open until Thanksgiving, the Bryant Park Holiday Market is already in full swing.

There are plenty of holiday shops selling gifts of all types, in addition to an ice skating rink, 2 ping pong tables (!), a carousel – and a bunch of food shops.

We took a quick stroll around the park, although we didn’t go up and down every aisle, so this may not be a complete list.

On the 42nd St side of the park near 6th Ave were Wafels & Dinges, Vegetarian Oasis and Mmmm…Enfes (boreks, golzeme and baklava), pictured below.

On the 40th St side near 6th Ave were Diggity Diggity Dog (hot dogs with funky toppings) and there were a couple of two ‘Wichcraft stands in the park.

Towards the 5th Ave side was Dumpling Soup House, which I stopped at for Today’s Lunch.

There were also a few cider, pretzel, churro and miscellaneous snack stands, but the above places are where you can get lunch.

I ordered Shrimp Noodle Soup ($6.25) and a side of Steamed Pork Dumplings ($3.50 for 4).

They had a decent good selection of dumplings, noodles dishes, noodle soups, and also some street fair fare (Italian sausages, grilled chicken, mozzzarepas).  You can see the menu here and here.

I poured dumpling sauce over the steamed pork dumplings and picked up one to eat.  It was pretty soft, but I was still able to pick it up.  The filling was minced meat, but there wasn’t anything distinctive about it.  I put some hot sauce on the remaining dumplings, which added some flavor, but I wouldn’t call these dumplings anything but average.

The dumplings might be a little better fried than steamed, but I don’t think that would make them a whole lot of difference.  They weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either.

The noodle soup was along the same lines, with a few provisos.  The shrimp dumplings in the soup were so soft, they fell apart when I picked them up.  There were 2 shrimp dumplings in the soup, plus egg noodles and a few pieces of carrot and bok choy.  The shrimp dumplings had a funky taste, kind of fishy.  They didn’t have a distinct shrimp taste.

At least the noodles were not too soft – they were still on the firm and springy side.

The broth itself was chicken based.  Initially, the soup was a little bland, but I added a little hot sauce to this as well.  This helped because as I got further along, the broth was more flavorful, although it wasn’t spicy.

Today’s Lunch from Dumpling Soup House was ok, but nothing special.  The dumplings ranged from average to funky tasting, and the soup was average too.  As I was waiting for lunch, the guy in front of me got a noodle dish that looked decent, and believe it or not, the grilled Italian sausage looked fat and tasty, although they serve it teriyaki style (?)

For lunch, I would stay towards 6th Ave on the 42nd St side.  In a row by the ping pong tables were Wafels & Dinges, Vegetarian Oasis and Mmmm…Enfes, which all looked really good.  I almost grabbed a borek before leaving the park, but decided to wait until next time.  They should be there until Christmas Eve.

There are some great food vendors at Madison Square Park Eats, and we’ve enjoyed some great lunches over the past few weeks from Asia Dog, Roberta’s Pizza and Calexico Carne Asada.

Today’s Lunch is a mango salad with lemongrass chicken ($7) and a Beijing ya bun ($4) from the Kong Kong Street Cart stand.

We spoke with the guy at the stand, and while they do not have a street cart, they are associated with the Home on 8th restaurant at 391 8th Ave (bet 29-30 St).

The mango salad had strips of nicely grilled chicken, shredded mango, crushed peanuts and cashews, and it was served over thin buckwheat soba noodles with citrus sauce.

This was a cool, refreshing dish on a hot day that wasn’t too heavy.  The warm chicken contrasted with the cold noodles and mango, and the citrus sauce, which was slightly sweet and slightly vinegary, really picked things up.

If you’re a vegetarian, this dish was also available with vegetarian soymeat.

The Beijing ya bun was even tastier than the mango salad.  It had roast duck in a hoisin barbecue sauce with shredded scallions on top and thin slices of cucumber on the bottom.  The duck was a little fatty, but duck is often like that.  The bun was soft, and overall, this dish was delicious.

Today’s Lunch was definitely tasty.  After trying this lunch, I would be willing to try their restaurant, Home on 8th at 391 8th Ave (29-30 St), which was likely their intention in setting up the stand.  Guess it worked.

Bian Dang, formerly known as the NYC Cravings truck, was back on the street this week after closing for the winter to open their new space in Food Gallery 32.  The 2009 Vendy Award Rookie finalist changed the name of their truck to Bian Dang (“lunch box” in Mandarin), as well as the truck’s design.

Today they are parked at Carmine and Varick, literally 2 blocks from my apartment.  I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that.

The old truck was nice (below), but the new truck (above) is much more colorful and vibrant.  My wife said it actually looks like a kid’s lunch box.

The food is basically the same (meaning excellent), although Diana told me the dumplings were being made differently from last year.  I’ve enjoyed the fried chicken and pork chops in the past.  For something new, Today’s Lunch is tianbula (fish cake-$8)  and pork dumplings ($3) from Bian Dang.

The tianbula was very similar in size to a schnitzel from Schnitzel & Things, taking up most of the same round, plastic container used by S&T.  The tianbula was deep fried and dense, but it wasn’t fishy tasting at all.  The breading had some nice flavors including Chinese 5-spice powder that lightened up the dish somewhat.

The fish cake was served over white rice topped with Bian Dang’s delicious pork sauce and some tangy, chopped greens.  The pork sauce is definitely one of the best things Bian Dang does.  There were large and small pieces of pork in it, and it was spiced even better than the fish cake.

There were 4 steamed dumplings in the order, which was a nice-sized portion for an appetizer.  Inside the dumplings were a ground pork and greens filling with a light marinade that was pretty tasty.  The dumpling skin was good too, but I have one complaint.

There was no dipping sauce!  I realize the filling was marinated, but the skins were big enough that a dipping sauce would have made them even better.

Today’s Lunch was really enjoyable.  It’s good to see Bian Dang back on the street (and so close to home).  The food is as good as ever, and I love the design of their new truck.

Diana also told me the Bian Dang store at Food Gallery 32 (11 West 32nd St) has more of an expanded than the truck, with new dishes like General Tso’s chicken.  Check it out if you’re in the area.

As a reminder, below is the truck’s menu.  Enjoy!

A few interesting news items on the food truck front.

Fork In The Road reports the Red Hook Lobster Pound is having a third truck built, the Rollin Lobster Love Shack, but it will be their first one in New York.  We told you about their first two trucks running up and down I-95, selling their extremely popular lobster rolls in Washington DC.  Glad to hear they will be giving the home town folks some love too, although they don’t expect to be up and running until May.

However, with the recent NYC ruling against Paty’s Taco Truck, the Red Hook Lobster Pound say they may only be in one spot for an hour or so at a time.  The best way to find them is on twitter @lobstertruckny or @redhooklobster.

They also caught up with the Milk Truck, who sell delicious grilled cheese sammies at the Brooklyn Flea, and are getting a truck too.

The Milk Truck submitted bids to the Parks Department for a couple of locations in Manhattan, but has been keeping busy with the Milk Truck while awaiting word from NYC.  They hope to have the Milk Truck on the road in three to four months.

For additional details on the Milk Truck, check out the Fork In The Road article here.

Lastly, the NYC Cravings truck, who were Vendy Award finalists in 2009 in the Rookie of the Year category, and recently opened Bian Dang in the Food Gallery 32 space in Koreatown, are back on the street in a new truck.  The truck is also called Bian Dang (“lunch box” in Mandarin).  We hope to get over there this week or early next week.

Everyone has asked, why don’t you have a lobster roll truck in NYC? Why only DC? Well folks,  selling food off a truck in NYC is like going to war every day. Nevertheless, Ralph and I decided to give everyone what they want, a moveable losbter feast. Beginning in May, we will be bringing the Best Crustacean in the Nation to the streets of all five boroughs (yes, Manhattan us Brooklyn kids will show you some love) in a friggin’ FOOD TRUCK — the Rollin Lobster Love Shack, Lobby Roll #3 (1 and 2 are in DC). Warning, we still have some loose ends to tie

Ernie and his Mom!

up. Here is a picture of the truck as it stands today. It is being built by our friend Ernie at Shanghai Stainless.

More on the truck later. Due to

recent developments in NYC vending laws, we will be on the move ALOT, the best way to find us will be twitter.. @redhooklobster   or @lobstertruckny, we may only be in one spot for an hour at a time. SPREAD THE WORD.

meat dumpling soup

Wen, from the Writing Is My Therapy blog, went back to her roots as a Fujianese girl and checked out Rong Xin at 88 East Broadway in (New York’s) Chinatown.

Although Rong Xin is not actually a street vendor, they cook Fujianese street food, and Wen’s descriptions are very evocative.

According to Wen, the Fujian style of cooking is focused on braising, sauteeing and poaching, but it’s not overly seasoned like some styles of Chinese cooking.  Fujianese food is usually light but flavorful, and the key is to present the delicate flavors of the ingredients.  Due to the proximity to the coast, there is access to the best and freshest seafood.

Let Wen tell you about her and her sister’s visit to Rong Xin.

Fujianese fried foods

“My sister and I went to Rong Xin because she was craving for some traditional Fujianese street foods and we headed to East Broadway, aka. Fujianese street.  Rong Xin is in the basement and you would hardly notice it if you weren’t looking.  the place has no decor but it has a homey appeal to it.

-fried dough (the long piece), taro cake (triangular, on the bottom) and oyster pancake (round, to the slight right): the fried dough was soft and tender, pretty good.  taro cake is good, but it would be even better if there were more taro in it.  oyster pancake was a little doughy that i liked.  i’m a purist when it comes to oyster pancakes (no oysters and only scallions), i don’t like it when they put lots of filling in it (in this case, veggies and pork).  nothing wrong with the fillings, it’s just not my thing.  when i was little, my mom used to buy the plain kind to go with our congee, perhaps that’s the reason why it remains my favorite.

-meat dumpling is a traditional Fujianese food made with ground pork and wrapped in a special wrapper.  the wrapper is made of pork and flour.  it has a crunchy texture when cooked.  the meat dumplings are steamed, then can be made into a soup by boiling it in water, seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar and garnished with scallions.  my mom make these around Lunar New Year and i love these so much that i can eat them everyday.  when i went back to the dorms, my mom even packed some for the road.  any way, Rong Xin’s version is good and the portion was HUGE (there were at least a dozen of these dumplings) for the price, $3.50!  however, i think my mom makes the best meat dumplings.  gosh i miss her cooking!”

Fujianese rice soup

“-i don’t quite know how to describe this one (above).  it’s basically a soup with fresh veggies, meats and seafood cooked in a wok, then a rice batter is poured down the side of the wok, once the batter turns into a crepe-like texture, it’s then scraped into the wok to cook with the rest of the soup.  at my house, my mom make these and serve it with freshly-fried peanuts as a topping.  my sister has been craving for these for awhile, she ordered it and paid extra to add clams (a classic ingredient) to them.  the portion is big and filling and they added about ten clams per bowl (what a steal for a bowl that costs only four bucks!).  my sister liked it a good deal that she ordered a second bowl.  for a girl who couldn’t finish a bowl of rice, she sure liked the soup (though i did share the second bowl with her)…

the food was not fancy or frilly, the whole check came to less than 14 bucks but we left Rong Xin really satisfied.  it was my sister’s lunar birthday but all she wanted was rice soup.  it didn’t matter to her that it wasn’t a big, fancy dinner because she got her wish.  my sister puts it the best, “it’s not about the cost of food, it’s about the nostalgic, homey and emotional feeling that you get from eating it.”

Thank you Wen for an interesting and descriptive post about Fujianese street food.

Diana at Bian Dang counter (coming out from behind the sign)

Last time I went to the NYC Cravings truck, Diana told me the truck was closing for the winter because they were opening a restaurant within a food court in Koreatown.  She also said the new place was called Bian Dang (Mandarin for “lunch box”) and the truck’s name would also be changed to Bian Dang next spring when it returns.  She didn’t really want to be in the picture above, but I coaxed her out from behind the sign.

I walked into the shiny, new “International Food Emporium” called Food Gallery 32 at 11 West 32nd St (bet 5th & 6th Ave), went towards the back to Bian Dang and said hi to Diana.  I asked her how it was going, and she said things seem to be picking up as more people hear about Food Gallery 32, but she was also looking forward to getting back out on the street in the spring.  The energy of the New York streets can certainly be addictive!

Food Gallery 32 has 3 floors with over a dozen (mostly) Asian food vendors.  I’m not going to review the various establishments serving there because that’s not what New York Street Food is about.  But when a street vendor crosses over into a “brick-and-mortar” establishment, we’re going to do our best to check it out.

Since I had Bian Dang’s fried chicken and pork chops only a month ago, I decided to make a meal out of several appetizers.  Today’s Lunch is wonton soup ($4), pork dumplings ($3) and zongzi ($4) from the new Bian Dang counter in Food Gallery 32.  (In case you’re wondering, the fried chicken and pork chops are prepared the same delicious way as on the truck.)

One note: Food Gallery 32 has a centralized ordering system for every restaurant, so you order up front, then go to the appropriate restaurant to pick up your order.

The first thing I tried was the pork dumplings .  They had a nice appearance with crimped edges, and the dough was good – not too hard or soft.  I was a little surprised there was no dipping sauce included, but the ground pork filling seemed to have a soy sauce taste to it.  Some pork fillings can be a little bland, but these were pretty tasty, with a light sweetness.  Some pieces of chive were mixed into the meat .  I was happy with the dumplings, which were 4 for $3.

Wonton soup was a new item they hadn’t sold on the truck.  It contained a lot of greens and even more wontons.  The wontons were significantly smaller than the dumplings, but there were at least a half dozen of them.  The tops of the wonton wrappers were extremely soft, almost gelatinous in texture, and some of them fell apart.  The wontons were ok, but they fell apart too easily.

The broth in the wonton soup had a fairly strong taste from the greens.  This was fine for me, who likes a lot of greens in my wonton soup, but if you’re not a big fan of greens (or the taste of greens in broth), this wonton soup is not for you.

I’ve had Bian Dang’s zongzi before, which they describe 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 was 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.

All in all, this was a pretty good lunch, although two of these items would have been enough for me, and I have a pretty big appetite. Both the zongzi and wonton soup were plenty filling.  Either of those with dumplings would have been a perfectly good lunch.

The food at Bian Dang is the same food served on the NYC Cravings truck, which got them a Vendy Award nomination in 2009 in the Rookie of the Year category.  It’s good to see that the quality of the NYC Cravings truck has been maintained, and we wish Bian Dang well with this new venture.

Now you don’t have to wait until the spring to get your Taiwanese fried chicken and pork chops!

When NYC Cravings tweeted they were closing the truck for the winter after this week, I wanted to get another fix of their Taiwanese fried chicken to hold me until next spring.  I first had NYC Cravings at the 2009 Vendy Awards, where they were nominated in the Rookie of the Year category.  They didn’t win (Schnitzel & Things did), but I really liked their food, and have enjoyed it several times since then.

I got to the truck pretty late and they were just about to close up, so when I ordered the chicken, they asked if I wanted some pork chops too.  Talk about an getting an offer you can’t refuse!

Today’s Lunch is Taiwanese fried chicken ($7) and some pork chops too.

While waiting for my food, I struck up a conversation with Diana and she said they were only closing the truck for the winter because they were opening a restaurant.  I seem to remember hearing about this last spring.  She said they were opening a place within a Korean food court at 11 West 32nd St (between 5th & 6th Ave) – and they were expecting to open in about 2 weeks.  Great!  Now I don’t have to wait until next spring for my NYC Cravings.

When I got back to the office and opened lunch – wow – this was a lot of meat!  I immediately dug into the chicken, and the golden skin was slightly crisp and delicious.  The chicken was a leg/thigh combo, and the thigh was thick, tender and juicy (above) with a nice flavor.

Unfortunately, the leg portion of the chicken was seriously undercooked (above), and I couldn’t really eat it.  However, the thigh was already a good amount of meat – and I still hadn’t touched the pork chops and rice yet!

But when I did, every bite of the pork chops was wonderful.  They had the unmistakable taste of 5-spice powder, which was a great way to season the pork chops.  And they were all tender and tasty.

There was so much meat, I didn’t even get to the greens and rice until halfway through the pork chops – but when I did, it was really good.  The white rice was sticky, and there were some greens (pickled cabbage) and pork sauce served over the rice.  The pickled cabbage was a little tangy, which provided a nice counterpoint the sweetness of the 5-spice powder in the pork chops.

Today’s Lunch gets an 8 out of 10.  With the exception of the leg portion of the chicken, every other aspect of the lunch was very good.  I’ve had NYC Cravings several times and never had anything like the chicken leg happen before, so I have to chalk it up to a fluke.

I certainly want to try the NYC Cravings restaurant when it opens in a couple of weeks.  Best of luck to Thomas and Diana on this new venture.