New York Street Food

(credit: NYSF)

There’s a relatively new Thai street food cart on West 50th St just west of 6th Ave called Tuk Tuk Boy.  A tuk tuk is a 3 wheeled vehicle popular in Southeast Asia.  The cart first appeared late last year and didn’t have much of a crowd, but judging from my visit last week, they seem to be catching on.

Tuk Tuk Boy has a Thai menu including pad thai, chicken basil, Thai bbq and red & green curries. You can see their regular menu with prices here, but I often advise checking out the Daily Specials for several reasons.

With a Daily Special, you usually get something fresh with main ingredients that haven’t been in a refrigerator for a few days.  It’s also a way for vendors to show off a special dish of theirs.

The Daily Special during my visit was massaman curry, which I’ve enjoyed at Thai restaurants.  This one cost $8 and while I was waiting for it to be cooked, it became apparent this was a good decision.

(credit: NYSF)

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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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Jao Long Luk Chin Pla's fish balls are made with fresh halibut.

Thailand and Southeast Asia have a long history of street food being a big part of their culture.

We haven’t had the opportunity to travel there (yet), so for now, we have to live vicariously through others.

CNN Go recently traveled to Bangkok and came up with the 10 Best Street Foods in Bang Rak, a neighborhood in Bangkok.

Click here to take a trip to Bangkok and enjoy some great street food, via CNN Go.  It’s worth the trip.

Jok Prince's congee is among Bangkok's best.

tom yum soup

Last week we told you about the more unusual street food items in Beijing.  Today is about the delicious street food available in Thailand.

The site Figs and Gorgonzola  has some beautiful photos of street food vendors and customers in Thailand.  Street food is such a part of the culture, they even sell it on the waterways.

Click here to see some really nice, colorful photos of the Thai street food culture.

With a few new places to try at the Columbus Circle Holiday Market, my first choice was the Red Basil Thai Kitchen.  For one thing, it had the most activity, but the menu looked good too.

The menu had nine appetizers, three soups and a couple of hot teas (ginger and lemongrass).  There are several vegetarian options too.  You can see both sides of the menu here and here.

There were only two choices for lunch, but with some options on types of meat.  They have red curry with jasmine rice that you can get with shrimp ($8) or chicken or veggies ($7 each).

The guy in front of me ordered the other entree, grilled chicken breast over yellow rice with peanut sauce (above) and a Thai salad for $8.  This looked right up my alley, so I ordered it for Today’s Lunch.

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