New York Street Food

(credit: NYSF)

Last weekend I went out for some street food, and ended up in Union Square.  One vendor that caught my eye was a new food cart called Morocho.  They were parked on the sidewalk on Union Square West between 14-15 St, and the sign said Peruvian Fusion.

I spoke with the chef, Miguel Samanez, who told me this was their first month on the street.  Miguel was born in Brazil to Brazilian and Peruvian parents, but actually grew up in the Midwest from age 9.  Someone must have taught this guy how to cook Peruvian food though, because it was delicious.

As I usually do at a new place, I asked for the chef’s recommendation.  He suggested Aji de Gallina, a chicken, egg and potato dish that cost $7.  The menu looked really interesting and I wanted to try a 2nd item, so he then suggested a lomo saltado taco, which cost $5.

Aji de Gallina (credit: NYSF)

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One of the more interesting new food trucks to come out last fall was Palenque.  They took off a couple of months during the winter, and returned to the NYC streets last week.

Palenque serves homemade Colombian food, with the main dish being arepas – but these might not the arepas you expect.   I’m familiar with Venezuelan-style arepas, which are in the sandwich family.  Colombian-style arepas are more like pizzas – open-faced with toppings (protein, cheese, arugula, sauces).

Palenque’s menu has 4 different types of arepa bases and 9 different types of toppings, including several vegan options.  I ordered beef arepas on the traditional corn base, which cost $8.

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After having a First Look at the Palenque truck last week for dinner, we stopped by for lunch in midtown to get a good look in daylight.  Now you can see just how nice the truck is.

We enjoyed dinner from Palenque, but there were still some dishes we didn’t get to try last week.

For Today’s Lunch, I had beef arepas ($8) and a cheese empanada ($3), while my friend had cheese arepas ($5).

beef arepas

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When I was walking home through the Village last night, there was a group of about 10 NYU students around a new food truck on Washington Square South that I had never seen before called Palenque.  The sign on the side of the truck said Home Made Colombian Food, with paintings of macaws.

The woman at the window named “nena” told me they have been around for about a month, and they have been trying different areas for lunch and dinner to see what works best.

The menu was mainly arepas, but there were 4 different types of arepa bases, and about 8 different types of toppings.  I had to bring home dinner for 3, so we all got to try a few different things, including dessert.

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A couple of months ago, we saw an item in the NY Times Tasting Table newsletter about a new little storefront near Penn Station called Shachi’s that serves authentic Venezuelan arepas and empanadas.   We tried Shachi’s back in July, enjoyed it, and added them to our Honorary Street Food category (storefronts with little or no seating serving food considered street food in their home country).

For Today’s Lunch, we went back for a return visit to Shachi’s at 319 West 35th St (btw 8th & 9th Ave) and chose the reina pepiada arepa ($7) and the carne mechada empanada ($2.25).  The reina pepiada arepa has shredded chicken potato salad and avocado. They also offer takeout combos of 1 arepa, 1 empanada and a soda for $9, which is a good deal.

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