New York Street Food

Every year the Vendy Award nominees have videos recorded so we can meet the vendors up close and personal.  This year’s videos were produced by Food Curated and are shown below for your enjoyment.  Just make sure you’ve eaten first!

1. King of Falafel & Shawarma

2. Bistro Truck

3. El Rey del Sabor

4. Patacon Pisao

5. Schnitzel & Things

I’m having a pretty crappy day today, so I wanted some comfort food for lunch.  That means Today’s Lunch is a chicken burrito ($7) from the El Rey Del Sabor cart on the north side of 43rd St just east of 6th Ave.  They also have carts at 60th St & 3rd Ave and 49th St & Park Ave with the same food.

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I happened to be walking by the El Rey Del Sabor cart on the NE corner of 43rd St & 6th Ave when I noticed their special for the day – 3 chalupas for $7.  Had to give it a shot.  I’ve really enjoyed previous lunches from El Rey Del Sabor – a chorizo burrito and enchiladas.  They also have 2 other carts in midtown – 47th & Park Ave and 60th & 3rd Ave.

The sign said beef, pork or chicken with spicy sauce, cheese and sour cream, with rice and beans on the side.  You could get any combination of the three, so I got one of each.  Today’s Lunch are three chalupas: one beef, one pork and one chicken, with rice and beans.

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I’ve been wanting to get back to the El Rey Del Sabor cart ever since I tried one of their chorizo burritos earlier this year.  They have excellent freshly made Mexican food, and a wide variety of dishes to choose from.  I never know what to get because of all the choices: tacos, burritos, tortas, enchiladas, pastelillos, quesadillas and more.  They have 3 carts in midtown, 3rd Ave and 49th St, 3rd Ave and 60th St, and this one on the north side of 43rd St, just east of 6th Ave.

One way to try different things is to order enchiladas ($8), which come with 3 enchiladas, and you can get different fillings and sauces.  I told the woman in the cart that I wanted some variety, so she gave me one chicken, one beef and one spicy pork enchilada.  She also put red sauce over half and green sauce over the other half, then added crema and some crumbled manchego cheese on top.  There were also rice and beans topped with red onion slices on the side.  Wow, this looked and smelled great!

And it was as good as it looked.  The enchiladas were simply rolled up corn tortillas with chunks of meat inside, placed in the tray, and topped as described above.  I watched them make each enchilada from scratch right in front of me.  Fresh, hot and tasty.  The meat fillings were nice chunks of meat, not shredded, and the spicy pork had a nice hot rub on it.

The red and green sauces were both spicy.  It’s hard to say which was spicier, but the green sauce was a little lighter and cleaner tasting.  That may be because I’m not big on tomato-based sauces.  They also have a mole sauce available, which she said was sweeter, but since I let the chef choose for me, the mole will have to wait until next time.

chicken, beef, spicy pork (l to r)

The rice and beans were nice, and clean tasting too.  The beans were not fried or refried.  They were just cooked, put over rice and topped with sliced red onions.  It was tasty, but I hope the tic tacs work as expected.

Today’s Lunch was a strong 9 out of 10.  If there’s a better Mexican cart in midtown, please let me know, because I haven’t found it.

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Today’s Lunch is a chorizo burrito from El Rey Del Sabor (The King Of Flavor) on the NW corner of West 49th St, just west of Broadway. (UPDATE: This cart has moved to 49th St & Park Ave.)  They have 2 other food carts in the city, one at 43rd St and 6th Ave and one at 60th St and 3rd Ave.  I was told the same food is served at every cart, which is a wonderful thing, because this was an excellent burrito.

I watched as they assembled it on top of the tortilla on the grill.  Healthy portions of rice, chorizo and lettuce, topped with some red onion and cilantro, and generous doses of  sour cream, pico de gallo and (at my request) hot sauce.  Mmm good!  These guys know how to do hot sauce (and burritos).

It was as good to eat as it looked when they were putting it together.  Eating some burritos is like traveling through the grocery store.  First you bite the lettuce, then the sour cream, then the rice, then the meat.  This burrito was not like that.  It all blended together very nicely.  And while it was a LARGE burrito, I wasn’t stuffed afterwards.  Full yes, but not stuffed.

Everything on their menu looked so good, I’m not sure what to try next.  It might be a couple of tacos, a torta, or a quesadilla, but I’m leaning towards the enchiladas, since you get 3 of them.  This way I can try 3 different fillings.

All-in-all, Today’s Lunch was very good.  The burrito was $7, about average for a large, filling lunch in midtown, and I tipped the guys $1.  For the vegetarians out there, several of their dishes can be made without meat, and they charge $1 less for the vegie versions.

Wow, that was good!