Okadaman (credit: NYSF)
We usually focus on the huge variety and quality of street food lunches, but if you want to start your day right, there are great breakfasts available too.
We tried 3 different breakfasts last week featuring 3 totally different cuisines: Jamaican, Japanese and Mexican…and they were all within 10 blocks of each other in midtown.
Arturo Macedo and the Eggs Travaganza cart on the NE corner of 52nd St & Park Ave was a finalist for the 2011 Vendy Cup. I’ve gotten friendly with Arturo and his sister over the past couple of years, and have enjoyed several lunches from here. One of my favorites was the Mexican Wrap, an egg sandwich stuffed with chorizo, potatoes and cheese.
One dish I haven’t tried yet is the Mexican Grilled Cheese ($5.50), which I saw Arturo tweet about this morning, and I got a hankering to try. The power of twitter rears its head again, with Today’s Lunch being the Mexican Grilled Cheese.
Rafael Soler reacts to winning the 2011 Vendy Cup
As we mentioned yesterday, Solber Pupusas won the 2011 Vendy Cup on Saturday, in their second bite at the apple. Rafael was also a Vendy Cup Finalist in 2008 under the name Soler Dominican.
Check out the amazing plate of food below: a pupusa (middle left), sweet plantains (top) and a tamale (lower right) covered by homemade pickled onions, jalapenos and cabbage, topped with their special sauce and crema. The pupusa had your choice of chicken or pork yesterday, and their regular menu has even more choices of fillings. You have to cut down the options to serve this many people, but that didn’t seem to hinder Solber Pupusas.
There were plenty of other tasty and interesting dishes in the Vendy Cup category, including the People’s Choice Winner, Souvlaki GR. Click through for details of what the other finalists served.
Yesterday I stopped by the Eggstravaganza cart on Park Ave & 52nd St to congratulate Arturo on his Vendy Award nomination. I remember how happy he was last year when his friend Rosa from El Rey del Sabor was nominated for a Vendy Award, and I know how much this meant to him.
Since I have been to two Vendy Awards events in 2009 and 2010, Arturo asked me a few questions about how certain things worked, and asked my advice on a couple of things. It felt a little stange giving a Vendy Award Finalist advice, but I guess at this point, I have more Vendy experience than he does.
At Eggstravaganza, Arturo started out making great breakfasts before expanding into lunches. Yesterday I had a Mexican Wrap ($5), which is in the same family as a breakfast burrito.
The Vendy Awards have announced this year’s finalists for the Vendy Cup, which takes place this Saturday on Governor’s Island.
In a break from past years, this year’s main category will have 7 vendors vying for the Vendy Cup. In past years, no more than 5 vendors competed for the Vendy Cup.
Click image for map 
