New York Street Food

Souvlaki GR wins Vendy for Rookie of the Year

As we mentioned in our post about the Vendy Award winners, Souvlaki GR won the Rookie of the Year category.  Not a big surprise, as they had the longest lines of all the Rookie vendor nominees.  We’ve been talking about Souvlaki GR since before they hit the street at the end of August.  Thanks for backing up our hot air with your delicious food!

Souvlaki GR before the masses descended

The Rookie of the Year category was a very diverse field.  In addition to Souvlaki GR, there was Mexicue, Cinnamon Snail, 99% Vegetarian Food and A-Pou’s Taste.

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The final Vendy Award nominees were announced today – for Rookie of the Year.  Last year was the first time there was a Rookie of the Year category, and the winner – Schnitzel & Things – has moved up to the main Vendy Award category this year.

This year’s Rookie of the Year nominees are (in alphabetical order):

A-Pou's Taste

A-Pou’s Taste: We have not yet had the opportunity to try the Taiwanese pot sticker dumplings of Wen Pin, who named the truck after his grandmother.  Here’s a quote from the Vendy Award website: “My life is better because of these pot stickers. Even during this hot summer, I looked forward to eating here several times a week and inhaled a plate of 10 with joy. The vendors are incredibly nice. This is an excellent addition to the street food world in NYC.”.  They are in the East Village (Astor Pl & Lafayette St) and Financial District (Broadway & Liberty St) from 11:00AM ~ 10:00PM and their twitter address is @Apouspotsticker.

Cinnamon Snail

Cinnamon Snail: Adam Sobel started his organic, vegan food truck last year, and it usually operates in Hoboken and Red Bank, NJ, although he did make it into the city for the NYC Food Film Festival and Parked.

Adam’s donuts and pastries are amazing, and his savory dishes disprove the notion that vegan food has to be bland.  Adam loves using those chili peppers, and creates intricate and complex dishes using a whole host of organic and vegan ingredients that you would never know were. twitter@veganLunchTruck and website www.cinnamonsnail.com

Mexicue

Mexicue:A combination of Mexican and barbecue - what’s not to love? David Schillace and Thomas Kelly serve up short rib tacos, smoked chicken sliders, chorizo tacos and pulled pork sliders.

However, if you want to know just how good they are, we’re huge carnivores, and our favorite dish from Mexicue is their bbq beet tacos. twitter @Mexicue and website www.MexicueNY.com

Souvlaki GR

Souvlaki GR: Our interest was piqued ever since we ran across a tweet that said “Souvlaki truck passed it’s inspection today…so proud, we are.  Gettin’ ready, folks! Guess i better crack open my “twitter for dummies”!”  We’ve been in touch with Abby, Pavlos, Kosta and their gang since before they hit the streets, and found out that we live in the same neighborhood too!

Once Souvlaki GR was out on the street, we’ve enjoyed some great, authentic chicken souvlaki, pork souvlaki, and beefteki.  Don’t forget to order the Greek fries with crumbled feta, thyme and oregano. twitter @ souvlakitruck and website www.souvlakigr.com

99% Vegetarian Food

99% Vegetarian Food: We were lucky enough to try 99% Vegetarian in midtown back in March, before they decided to move downtown for good.  Brothers Michael and Sergio Susano are now permanently stationed in the Financial District.  For everyone who asks what the other 1% is, the answer is chicken!

We enjoyed a sampler plate of their vegetarian chili, curried tofu scramble (which looked and tasted just like scrambled eggs), and our favorite – the mashed sweet potatoes.  Yum!

Congratulations to all the Vendy Rookie of the Year Finalists.  We look forward to seeing (and tasting) you at the Vendy Awards on Sept 25th.

UPDATE – The 99% Vegetarian Food cart has moved downtown to the corner of Broadway and Liberty St.

I wanted to try something different for lunch today, so I stopped at the 99% Vegetarian Food cart on the north side of West 52nd St, just west of 6th Ave (between 6th & 7th Ave).  I’m a notorious carnivore, but have walked by this cart a few times and it smelled and looked real good.  They have been in business for around 4 months, and they told me things were going well.  Although there’s no line in the picture, there was a steady stream of people stopping by for lunch today.

They have veggie “burgers” and veggie “chicken” grilling in the cart, but I’m not a vegetarian, so I couldn’t quite bring myself to order fake meat.  Inside the cart, they also have a lunch “buffet” for $6, which gives you a choice of any 4 items from a choice of around 10 items.  The buffet looked and smelled really good, and it became Today’s Lunch.  I selected the brown rice, vegetarian chili, scrambled curried tofu and mashed sweet potatoes.  He asked if I wanted hot sauce, and I said to put some on the chili and scrambled tofu.  Of the items I didn’t choose, there was a pasta and sauce of the day, and a couple of other things I can’t recall.

First up was the chili, which I put over the rice before eating.  It was tomato based, full of beans, and had a bunch of herbs and spices.  It was pretty good with the hot sauce, which picked up the flavor a bit.

Next up was the scrambled curried tofu, which doesn’t sound that good, but it was very similar to scrambled eggs in look, taste and texture.  It was very enjoyable, but it was already a bit spicy from the curry powder, so next time I won’t get hot sauce on it.  This dish was the biggest surprise.  I generally like tofu, and this looked like scrambled eggs, but I wasn’t expecting it to taste like scrambled eggs.  Good job guys.

Last up was the mashed sweet potato.  I’ve always loved sweet potato.  It’s one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving.  But I must say, this was one of the best mashed sweet potatoes I’ve had.  It was smooth and chunky at the same time, and somewhat sweet, but not in a sugary way.  Definitely my favorite dish of the meal.

Today’s Lunch was a strong 9 out of 10, and would probably score higher among vegetarians.  When I get tired of street meat, 99% Vegetarian Food will ably take its place.  Next time I’ll have to ask about the other 1%.