Carnegie John hard at work over the summer

Long-time NYSF readers know how much I love Carnegie John’s food, who I believe serves the best chicken over rice in midtown.  Newer readers, pay close attention.

Carnegie John’s cart is on West 56th St, just east of 7th Ave (right behind Carnegie Hall), where it has been for over the past 10 years.  Before that, John learned the business at the knee of Tony Dragonas, who was a Vendy Award finalist in 2005, the very first year they were held.

There are a few things that set Carnegie John apart from the chicken over rice at most other street vendors. See what they are after the jump.

Today’s Lunch is chicken over rice ($6.50) from Carnegie John’s.

First – John uses only whole white-meat chicken breasts, which are rubbed with his own blend of spices.  Using chicken breasts ensures there is no funky stuff like fat or gristle in the meat.

Second – There is a charcoal grill at the cart, in addition to the standard flat top grill. This gives John’s chicken that extra edge of charcoal grilled flavor.

Third -  John’s white sauce is real tzaziki sauce made with yogurt and cucumber.  It’s much thicker and tastes much better than the mayo-based white sauces served at most of the halal carts.  It’s healthier too.

Even the rice and salad is good.  John’s yellow rice has a soft, buttery taste, although it could have been cooked a little less.

The salad was lettuce, tomato and radicchio with a light Italian-type dressing that was nice and refreshing at the end of the meal.

The only downside is John’s hot sauce isn’t that hot.

All-in-all though, in my opinion, Carnegie John serves the best chicken over rice in midtown.  Let me know if you agree. If not, who else’s chicken over rice do you love?

BTW, Carnegie John also serves a kick-ass burger.

Carnegie John at work

I was very busy today, so I stayed close to my office for lunch.

You hear a lot about all the gourmet food trucks around town, but one of my favorite “old school” street vendors is Carnegie John.  He has been serving delicious New York street food for the past 10 years right behind Carnegie Hall, on 56th St just east of 7th Ave.  If you stop by around lunchtime, there are usually a dozen or so people getting lunch, and John always keeps everyone’s order straight.

IMHO, Carnegie John serves the best chicken over rice around, and it’s only $6, but I’ve never had his steak over rice platter.  Today’s Lunch is the steak platter ($7) from Carnegie John.

Those of you who are familiar with Carnegie John know that one thing setting him apart from other street vendors is his white tzaziki sauce.  The white sauce from most street vendors is mayo-based, but John’s is yogurt-based, making it much thicker and richer.

The other thing John does differently is to charcoal grill the meat before finishing it on the flat-top grill.  This gives his meat an extra dimension that flat-top grills alone will not provide.

The steak John uses is an actual steak, not thin, chopped beef like you get from most carts.  The steak had a nice charcoal-grilled taste, but there was a little too much fat that had to be removed before eating.  The steak went great with the tzaziki sauce and hot sauce once it was cleaned up a little.

The yellow rice is good, especially once the sauces and juices from the meat start to permeate it. The last few bites of rice are the best.

John’s salad is real too, not just a little lettuce. There were large pieces of tomato, cucumber and lettuce with an Italian dressing on it that finished the meal well.

Today’s Lunch of a steak platter from Carnegie John’s was pretty good, but it was a little fattier than I would have liked.  I still have to recommend the chicken platter as the go-to dish from Carnegie John’s, although he makes a pretty mean hamburger too.

I didn’t have much time for lunch, with a 2 o’clock call for which I had to prepare.  When lunch is time-sensitive, one of my go-to places is Carnegie John’s cart on 56th St just east of 7th Ave (behind Carnegie Hall).  While there are usually a bunch of people ordering and waiting for lunch, it’s the closest good street food cart near my office.

Today’s Lunch is a cheese steak with bbq sauce ($6.25) from Carnegie John’s cart.

As I’ve said before, one of the things that sets Carnegie John’s apart from most other carts is his charcoal grill.  He moves things between the charcoal grill and the griddle, which gives the meat a flame-broiled taste that carts with just a griddle cannot duplicate.  You can see a bag of charcoal next to the cart above, from which he constantly replenished the grill.  That’s my steak flame-broiling in the picture below.

The other thing that makes Carnegie John’s cheese steak so good is the steak itself.  He uses rib-eye steaks that are cooked right in front of your eyes.  These steaks are much better than the thin, chopped up meat used by lots of the other carts that make cheese steaks.  You could tell this was a decent cut of beef, and there was plenty of it.

Once the steak is cooked, he puts on 2 slices of American cheese, grilled onions and peppers, and your choice of sauce.  Today he used red peppers instead of green, which were sweeter.  I’m not sure what type of onions he used, but they were definitely sweet too.

The bun was nice and soft, and the bbq sauce was light and on the sweeter side.  Lunch got a little messy from the bbq sauce, but this was still a very enjoyable meal.

Today’s Lunch was an old standby that still delivers.  Carnegie John’s chicken over rice is one of the better ones around, and his cheese steak is excellent too.  You can’t really go wrong with anything here, which is why there were half a dozen people waiting for lunch on a winter day, with more walking up behind me.

I didn’t have much time for lunch today – and on days like these, I often go to Carnegie John’s cart.  It’s on West 56th St just east of 7th Ave, and he is one of the few excellent street food vendors in the immediate area around my office.

There’s always a bunch of people waiting for their food and today was no exception.  IMHO, John’s best dish is chicken over rice, but his steak sandwich and sausage & peppers are really good too.

I wanted to try something else, so Today’s Lunch is a cheeseburger from Carnegie John’s cart ($4.50).

The first thing I like about this burger is that after John cooks it (from scratch) on the griddle, he puts it on the charcoal grill, which adds some extra flavor.  He doesn’t just reheat a precooked burger.

The second thing I like is that he puts on 2 slices of cheese.  I hate when a vendor only puts 1 chintzy slice of cheese on a cheeseburger.

It’s kind of hard to tell from these pictures, but this was a very wide burger – about 6″ across.  It’s not a fat burger, but it is very wide.  You can’t see the cheese or lettuce because John puts them on the bottom, while he puts your chosen condiments on top.  I get only ketchup on burgers, but he also has bbq sauce, mustard, hot sauce and white sauce, as well as tomato, onions and peppers if you want.

Even with the average thickness of the burger, it was cooked to medium, with a tiny bit of pink in the middle.  Try getting that from a precooked burger.

Today’s Lunch is an 8 out of 10.  It doesn’t look like much to eat from the cross-section above, but with the width of the burger, it was plenty filling for lunch.  In addition, $4.50 is a good value for a large, freshly-grilled cheeseburger in midtown.  This may not be a “gourmet burger” like Frites ‘N’ Meats, but it’s a good, solid burger for 1/2 the price.

Whatever you get from Carnegie John’s, you can’t go wrong.  I haven’t had a bad lunch from there yet, but my favorite is his chicken over rice.

Carnegie John at work

I was looking through some of my past lunches and realized that I haven’t had chicken over rice from Carnegie John’s in over 6 months.  That’s a long time since having one of my favorite street food lunches.  Time to rectify the situation.

Today’s Lunch is chicken over rice ($6) from Carnegie John’s cart on West 56th St, just east of 7th Ave, (right behind Carnegie Hall).  Would it be as good as I remembered?

Carnegie John’s is always busy at lunch, even on rainy days, which today isn’t.  It’s a beautiful day, and there were a bunch of people who had already ordered and were waiting for their lunches – and several people got on line right behind me too.  I don’t know how he does it, but John usually has at least half a dozen orders going at once, and pretty much keeps everyone’s order straight – burgers, chicken over rice, sausage & peppers and more.

I ordered chicken over rice, which come with a side salad.  If you’re not familiar with Carnegie John, there are a few things that set him apart from most other street vendors.

John uses only whole white-meat chicken breasts, which are rubbed with his own blend of spices.  Using chicken breasts ensures there is no funky stuff like fat or gristle in the meat. He also has a charcoal grill in addition to the griddle, so the chicken has that charcoal grilled flavor.

His white sauce is real tzaziki sauce made with yogurt and cucumber.  It’s much thicker and better than the mayo-based white sauces used at most of the halal carts.  Healthier too.

Even the rice and salad is good.  He has yellow rice with a soft, buttery taste, although it could have been cooked a little less.  Still, it tasted pretty good.  The salad was lettuce, tomato and radicchio with a light Italian-type dressing that was nice and refreshing at the end of the meal.

Today’s Lunch gets a 9 out of 10 for all the reasons mentioned above.  The only downsides were the rice could have been cooked a little less, and his hot sauce isn’t that hot.  All-in-all though, Carnegie John has one of the best chicken over rice dishes out there.

]]> http://newyorkstreetfood.com/9677/todays-lunch-chicken-over-rice-from-carnegie-johns/feed/ 0 http://newyorkstreetfood.com/6496/todays-lunch-chicken-cheese-steak-from-carnegie-johns-cart/ http://newyorkstreetfood.com/6496/todays-lunch-chicken-cheese-steak-from-carnegie-johns-cart/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:55:48 +0000 admin http://newyorkstreetfood.com/?p=6496

After the long holiday weekend, I didn’t have a lot of time for lunch today.  While there aren’t a lot of great street food vendors near my office, one of my favorites, Carnegie John’s, is only 2 blocks away.  After learning the business from Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas, John has been on his own for the past 9 years.  His cart is located just inside the NE corner of 56th St & 7th Ave, right behind Carnegie Hall.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that Carnegie John only uses marinated chicken breasts, so the chicken is top-quality and cooked fresh while you wait.  He also transfers the chicken between a charcoal grill and the griddle, so it gets that great charcoal grilled flavor.

Lately I’ve been enjoying chicken cheese steaks, so that’s what I asked for.  I guess John doesn’t get too many requests for chicken cheese steaks because he gave me a slightly quizzical look and asked what I wanted on the sandwich.  I said chicken, onions and peppers with bbq sauce on it.  He makes many cheese steak sandwiches during the day, but this seemed like a new dish for him.

Well, John turned out a chicken cheese steak sandwich like he’s been making them for years.  In reality, he has – only this one had chicken instead of beef.  There were tons of peppers and onions, plenty of cheese, and that delicious grilled chicken that gets some time on the charcoal and some time on the griddle.

Today’s Lunch gets a 9 out of 10.  It started a little slow, but by the time I got to the middle of the sandwich, it was a wonderful, gooey mouthful.  The cheese had melted and mixed with the still crisp peppers, onions and grilled chicken.  He also toasts the bread, which is gives it a nice crunch.  And to top it off, the sandwich only cost $5.  Try getting a chicken cheese steak at a deli in midtown for $5.  Never gonna happen!

I didn’t have a lot of time for lunch today, and have to leave at a decent hour to attend the Malaysian Night Market tonight.  (Check back over the weekend for a full report on this event.)  The closest, and one of the best, street food vendors is Carnegie John on the NE corner of 56th St and 7th Ave, right behind Carnegie Hall.  In fact, there were guys loading-in equipment for a concert there for tonight and it was pretty busy.

Carnegie John was gone for a few weeks and nobody knew where he went or if something bad happened, but he recently came back to his usual spot.  John told me it took him 3 weeks to renew his vending license, as the city is a lot stricter now than they were in the past.  Once he got approved, it only took an hour, but it took 3 weeks (!) to get there.  With all the press and people writing about street food (like us), the city is being more careful.

I wanted to try something new from John today, so Today’s Lunch is a sausage and pepper and onion hero for $4.75.  John didn’t have any hero bread left so he asked if pita was ok.  It was fine.

One of the great things about Carnegie John’s is the charcoal grilling.  He has a regular flat grill (center rear) like the other carts, but he also has a small charcoal grill (right rear) that gives everything that summer barbecue flavor.  He even keeps a bag of charcoal next to the cart for refills throughout the day.  He transfers food between the charcoal and regular grill, which gives his food a slightly different taste than the other carts with only regular flat grills.

So the sausage was nicely grilled, and it had that nice Italian sausage flavor with fennel seeds, although it was a sweet, not hot sausage.  Maybe I should ask John to stock some hot sausage.  The other thing I like is the way he grill the onions and peppers.  Fairly large chunks of onion and pepper, not thin strips, and he doesn’t cook them until they’re mush.  The onions and peppers are grilled, but still have a crunch and sweetness to them.

Today’s Lunch gets a 9 out of 10.  It’s a better version of the standard New York sausage and pepper hero that’s sold at every street fair in the city, but this one was not greasy.  It was not a sandwich that will make you feel stuffed all day, but for $4.75, it was very tasty and inexpensive.  It was even good on a pita.

Fojol Bros of Merlindia

As I’ve written before, his chicken over rice platter is significantly better than most of the other food carts because he uses only whole chicken breasts, marinates them overnight, grills the breasts right in front of you, then slices it up.  Most of the times that I’ve tried the chopped up chicken on the halal carts, it went through me faster than I would have liked.  That’s not a problem at Carnegie John’s.

I wasn’t that hungry today, so Today’s Lunch was the chicken sandwich with white sauce, hot sauce and lettuce (no tomato for me).  You can also get grilled onions and peppers, but I only do that for steak because it overpowers the chicken.  The other thing Carnegie John does is lightly toast the bread on the grill.  Not only does it warm the bread, but it gets a little crunch, too.  His white sauce seems to be yogurt based, as opposed to some places where it’s mayo based (ugh!).  My biggest complaint is the hot sauce is not really hot.

Today’s Lunch was a 9 out of 10.  Excellent chicken and nice bread, but it loses a little for the hot sauce not being hot.  Other than that, it’s a great sandwich for $6.

When I’ve had lunch from Carnegie John’s cart in the past, I saw other people ordering steak platters or sandwiches and they looked pretty good.  You would think that steak from a street cart would be tough or fatty, but the thing that makes Carnegie John’s cart stand out from the pack is the quality of the meat, whether it’s whole chicken breast or rib-eye steak, both put on the grill right in front of your eyes, then sliced up for the sandwich or platter.

I ordered the rib-eye steak sandwich with everything except tomato, plus white sauce and hot sauce.  As long as you don’t’ expect steakhouse quality steaks, you should enjoy this sandwich.

As I said, he puts it on the grill and slices it right there.  No shredded steak here, although it did come with shredded lettuce, grilled onions and peppers, and the sauces.  Not one bite was tough or fatty.  The only disappointment was the hot sauce, which was not hot at all.  If Carnegie John could kick up his hot sauce a bit, this would be the perfect street steak sandwich, and at $5.50, it’s a good deal as well.  For the newbies, Carnegie John’s cart is right behind Carnegie Hall, on West 56th St, just east of 7th Ave.

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