New York Street Food

I was near Grand Central for lunch and stopped at the Ambizza Cafe truck that was parked on Vanderbilt Ave by 46th St.  I have seen them once or twice before, but this was the first time I had a chance to stop.

Seeing the truck’s side, it was easy to decide what to get – their sign says “The Best Kofta Kabab in NYC”.  How can you pass up an opportunity like that?

Today’s Lunch is a kofta kabab platter ($7) from the Ambizza Cafe truck.  You can see there was a lot more than kofta kabab and rice on the platter – and they give you a free can of soda too.

(Does anyone else think this looks like Krusty the Clown with a mole?)

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After having street food for lunch every day for nearly the past two years, I’ve had most of the regular menu items from the better vendors.  That means when I see a special that looks appealing, I want to try it.

That was certainly the case when I saw the Bademjan Wrap ($6) from the Comme Ci Comme Ca truck, which I got for Today’s Lunch.

Chef Samir also gave me small containers of his 4 different sauces to try – spicy mint, Casablanca, spicy Andalusian and green olive (below, left to right).

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As I was heading to work this morning, I saw a food truck parked at Hudson & King that I had not seen before called Marrakech Chefs.

Even though Hudson & King has become food truck central these days, I live around there and take the 1 train from Houston St to Columbus Circle, which is a food truck wasteland.

The truck wasn’t open yet, so I knocked on the door and Elmehdi came out to speak with me.  He said they have been on the street for 7 weeks, but I haven’t run across them, probably because of where they park.

On Monday, they are on 24th bet Park & Madison; on Tues & Wed, they are at Hudson & King; on Thurs & Fri, they are at Wall & Water Sts.  No wonder I haven’t seen them at lunchtime.

The centerpiece of the menu is tagines (slow cooked meat) that can be ordered over basmati rice, couscous or on a sandwich with olives and lettuce. The tagines menu looks pretty similar to Bistro Truck and Comme Ci, Comme Ca, who are both from Morocco too.  They are two of the best trucks around, which is a pretty high bar to reach for.

Where Marrakech Chefs differentiates it’s menu is the burgers.  They have 4 different burgers topped with various ingredients such as fried egg, avocado, caramelized onions, cilantro lime dressing, portobello mushrooms and roasted red peppers.  You can check out the full menu below.  If it’s too small to read, click here for a larger view.

You can follow Marrakech Chefs at twitter here and we have added them to our Mobile Munchies twitter feed, which now follows over 70 different vendors.  We will try their food as soon as possible, but please let us know in the comments if you have tried Marrakech Chefs.

For my last lunch in L.A., I had a choice between two trucks with punny names – either Middle Eastern food from the Pita Pusher or sliders from the Patty Wagon.

I started the week with sliders from Baby’s Badass Burgers, and decided against a slider from Rosa’s Bella Cucina in favor of a regular sized sandwich.  What is this obsession in L.A. with sliders?  Is that how the people here stay fit?

Even though Patty Wagon looked really good and had a longer line, I needed a break from burgers.  I decided to get a chicken shawarma sandwich from the Pita Pusher – but changed my order at the last minute.

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It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Kwik Meal cart on the SW corner of 45th St & 6th Ave.  Kwik Meal won the People’s Choice Award at the 2007 Vendy Awards, and is one of the better street carts around.  The owner, Muhammad Rahman, was a sous chef at the Four Seasons, and knows his stuff.

Kwik Meal is also one of the only carts that serves real lamb.  Almost every street cart that serves “lamb” is using the processed gyro meat that comes on a spit and they slice off in thin strips.  Kwik Meal serves pieces of real lamb, which obviously costs more, but is worth it in our opinion.

Today’s Lunch is lamb over rice ($9) from Kwik Meal.

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