New York Street Food

When I was in L.A. last week, I got friendly with the guy in front of me on line at the Border Grill truck.  We enjoyed talking about food and food trucks, and he asked for recommendations for when he was coming to New York in a few months.  It turned out he was in L.A on business too.

If you recall, he got the ceviche cone that looked really interesting, and I asked him to let me know how it was.  When he sent me a short writeup of the ceviche cone (which he loved!), his writing was colorful and fun.  I asked if he would like to write a guest post for NYSF, and he was into it.

Border Grill ceviche cone

This NYSF Guest Post is from Benjy, a young guy from Detroit who I met in L.A. during lunch last week.  In his own words: “I’ve always had a love for food, and I’m passionate about trying different types of cuisines, experimenting with regional and seasonal ingredients, and trying anything that any local says I “have to have” while I’m in their city.

Whenever I travel to NYC or LA, I’m inevitably told I must hunt down certain food trucks.  I love the food truck movement – I love that it keeps me guessing, and that it is constantly evolving.  Who knew they could prepare so many dishes so well from the back of a truck?  For so long, the only truck I chased was the ice cream truck that circled my neighborhood when I was just a chubby little sugar addict looking for a fix.  It’s nice to see that as my tastes have matured and grown more sophisticated, so have the food trucks.”

Benjy and his colleague went back to the same spot the next day and had lunch at the Canter’s Deli Truck.  Even though I had a reuben at the Canter’s Deli truck on my trip to L.A. in January, Benjy had a different meal, and his writeup is fun to read.  Click through to check out Benjy’s take on a delicious tuna melt from the Canter’s Deli Truck. (more…)

As I was heading to the airport, I was thinking about what food to get for the trip.  American Airlines only has food for purchase at this point, and if I have to buy food, it won’t be airline food.

I had to leave for the airport before most of the trucks were open, but I was thinking about the wonderful Reuben sandwich I had a few nights ago from the Canter’s Deli truck.  The truck might not be open yet, but Canter’s Deli is open 24 hours – and coming from Universal City, it was on my way to LAX.

So I stopped by Canter’s Deli on the way to the airport to pick up food for the plane.  Looking at the menu, I didn’t think a Reuben was a good idea because of the smell of sauerkraut, so I went for the classic pastrami on rye with mustard ($11.75).

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(left to right) Crepe'n Around, Canter's Deli, Lomo Arigato, Mandoline Grill

I definitely wanted to check out the Canter’s Deli Truck on this trip, and I saw they were going to be in the parking lot of The Other Door bar in North Hollywood with 3 other trucks.  Unfortunately, my strategy of trying samplers and small items wouldn’t work tonight because Canter’s specializes in big deli sandwiches – and they don’t serve halves.

I’ve been coming to L.A. for many years but hadn’t been to Canter’s Deli on Fairfax Ave in quite some time.   The Canter’s Deli Truck was the perfect alignment for this trip – deli food and food trucks.

One time around 10 years ago I was in L.A. on business and got food poisoning from a pretty high-end restaurant.  When I was starting to feel a little better the next day and wanted some food, I went to Canter’s Deli for their matzoh ball soup.  It was delicious, and really helped me get back on my feet.

Since Canter’s specializes in big sandwiches, I went for the biggest one – a Reuben ($10.50).  It comes with a pickle and either cole slaw or potato salad.

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I usually go out to L.A once or twice a year, but haven’t been there in a while.  Since I’m usually there from 1-2 weeks at a time, I often get deli when I’m thinking about coming home.  New York is the epicenter of deli goodness, but depending upon where I’m staying in L.A., I’ve enjoyed Canter’s Deli numerous times, as well as Factor’s on West Pico and Jerry’s for a 2nd string fallback.

Now, one of the original founders’ great-great granddaughters is starting the Canter’s Deli truck.  Bonnie Bloomgarden worked at Canter’s on-and-off over the years while growing up, but moved to New York when she was 17.

Inspired by friends of hers who launched the Endless Summer taco truck in Brooklyn, Bloomgarden initially hoped to bring a Canter’s truck here, but soon realized that she couldn’t source meat and other key items that would taste the same as the food at Canter’s. When she returned to Los Angeles in November 2009, her idea of a Canter’s truck followed.

The truck soft-opens this week with a limited menu that will expand over the next few weeks to include seven sandwiches (pastrami, corned beef, turkey, egg salad, tuna salad, grilled cheese and a Reuben), a couple sides (cole slaw and potato salad), green salad and matzoh ball soup. Also on the menu: pickles, Dr. Brown’s sodas and desserts like rugelach, mini-Danishes, black-and-white cookies and cheesecake.

The sandwiches, made with the same meat and house-made bread as the ones at the sit-down restaurant, will cost $5 – $10 and, in keeping with their reduced price, will be approximately 25% smaller than the gut-busting originals. “They’re still ridiculously large,” Bloomgarden says.  You can follow them on Twitter @canterstruck [LA Weekly]