New York Street Food

We first heard about the Desi Truck in the summer of 2010, and have enjoyed several lunches from there including kati rolls, curry chicken and chicken tikka masala.  For this visit, we wanted to try something new – and wouldn’t you know it, they had a new dish called puri bhaji.

For puri bhaji, you start with puffed-up Indian bread (mine was shaped like a flying saucer), then you tear the bread in half and fill it with chopped potatoes that come in a light, mildly spicy curry sauce.  Viola!

Two pieces of bread and potatoes are $4 and 4 pieces of bread and (presumably more) potatoes are $6.  The bread was a little oily, but this was still a very enjoyable, vegetarian dish that was fairly light.

On the other hand, haleem is a thick, slow-cooked Indian stew with meat, wheat, barley and lentils – not light at all.  It is garnished with ginger, coriander, lemon juice and fried onions. This version had shredded chicken as the meat.

The owner Al asked if I wanted it spicy, and when I said yes, he tossed in a handful of fresh, fragrant chopped chili peppers.  That really kicked the heat quotient into high gear.

If you don’t want it spicy, that’s fine too.  There’s a huge amount of flavor in the haleem without the chili peppers.  It’s quite an aromatic dish from all the Indian spices, so expect your co-workers to ask what that great smell is.

The haleem had a moderate amount of spiciness without the chili peppers, and with the wheat and lentils, it was a hearty stew for a cold winter day.

A large haleem from the Desi Food Truck is $6 and I got the small size for $4.  Between the puri bhaji and the haleem, this was a delicious, filling Indian lunch for $8.

You can find the Desi Truck on twitter here or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed.  Their general schedule is 49th or 50th St between 6th & 7th Ave several days a week for lunch, and they have recently started going to Amsterdam & 81st on weekends.  They are also around NYU sometimes for dinner.

It’s tough out there on the streets of NYC!  Not only do you have to worry about the police ticketing or chasing you away, but there’s often friction with other street vendors.

As you can see in the photo above, a hot dog vendor parked his cart right in front of Comme Ci Comme Ca’s menu, just to the right of the serving window.  I guess he thought the truck was infringing on his turf.  It’s certainly not a picnic out there.

As for lunch, do you love meat?  Are you a hard-core carnivore?  Have we got a lunch for you!  Even if you’re a vegetarian, keep reading, because the Comme Ci, Comme Ça truck will satisfy you too.

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There’s a relatively new Thai street food cart on West 50th St between 6th & 7th Ave called Tuk Tuk Boy.  A tuk tuk is a 3 wheeled vehicle popular in Southeast Asia.

Tuk Tuk Boy has a Thai menu including pad thai, chicken basil, Thai bbq and red & green curries. You can see their full menu with prices here.  For the 1st time at a Thai place, I usually get pad thai, which was $8 for the shrimp version (chicken was $7).

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There are currently 3 grilled cheese trucks in New York, and they are pretty different from each other.  Today we’re going to talk about the Morris Grilled Cheese truck.

The Morris Grilled Cheese is named after the great-grandfather of the owner, who was a Russian immigrant that drove a produce and meat truck.  The Morris Grilled Cheese truck was reportedly an old NYPD paddy wagon, with bars for handcuffing suspects still intact when they bought the truck!

I was in the mood for Italian food, and Morris had a sandwich with ricotta meatballs, provolone and homemade marinara sauce on focaccia bread for $8.

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The temperature was cold again, so I decided to hit up Luke’s Lobster for some clam chowder.  Since that wasn’t going to be enough for me for lunch, I also got a shrimp roll, which I’ve never tried from Luke’s.  I’ve had their lobster roll and crab roll before, which were both excellent, but not the shrimp roll yet.  That was about to change.

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