New York Street Food

Yes, this guy looks like he's having a heart attack (but he's not)

Back in January, we told you about a storefront at 182 Bleecker St with a Currywurst Bros sign, who were bringing the most popular street food in Germany to New York.  This sounded like an excellent candidate for our Honorary Street Food category, so we kept checking on their progress.  (Also, one of our best friends lives on the same block).

Currywurst Bros finally opened 2 weeks ago, and we had an opportunity to get there over the weekend.  After perusing the wurst menu and the extensive curry menu, it looks like we’re going to be there on a regular basis…as long as the food is good.

They also have a nice outdoor patio in the back with plenty of room, so it will be a good place to sit outdoors and enjoy some currywurst, 6 different types of bratwurst, 3 types of potato salad (including wasabi) and more.

outdoor patio

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We heard some of the best news in a while recently.  Eater reports that Num Pang, one of our favorite all-time places in NYC, and a stalwart of our Honorary Street Food category, will be opening a 2nd storefront around Grand Central.

The space is on East 41st Street right next to sports bar Public House, and is only two blocks from Grand Central.

We’ve consistently said that Num Pang has one of the best under $10 lunches in the city.  If you work in east midtown, now you can find out for yourself.

Peppercorn catfish here we come!

The news that Mexicue is opening a restaurant this summer was a reminder that I hadn’t yet been to the Schnitzel & Things restaurant at 723 Third Ave, between 45th & 46th St.  It’s still relatively new, having only opened about a month ago.

As I’ve said in numerous interviews, reading about and then trying the Schnitzel & Things truck in the summer of 2009 is what got me interested in street food in the first place.  It’s fair to say at this point that S&T changed my life, or at least laid out a new path that I am still happily traveling down.

It was great news about S&T opening a restaurant, even though it’s nowhere near my office for lunch.  But I gladly headed over to the new S&T restaurant for Today’s Lunch.

Everything on the truck is available here, and there are some new items as well on the main and salad/dessert menus.

Now you can get most of the schnitzels cut up into a salad with your choice of toppings.  They also have a new grilled ginger chicken dish, and some new side dishes, like sweet potato fries, which I usually love.

They also sell desserts from their fellow Vendy Award winners, the Treats Truck, and just this week have started importing Robicelli’s cupcakes from Brooklyn.

Today’s Lunch is one of the new menu items, eggplant schnitzel ($9.95 for a platter with 2 side dishes or $8.50 for a sandwich).

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I live in the Village, and walking down Macdougal St last week, I saw a new storefront called Thelewala at #112 that caught my eye because of the neon sign in the window that said “Indian Cart Food”.  I love Indian food and cart food, so we went in to investigate.  Luckily, it was dinner time.

Thelewala is a good candidate for our Honorary Street Food category, which are storefronts with few or no seats serving what is considered to be street food in their country.  There were only a few stools at counters, but the interior was pretty cool, with spices and grains lining the walls, and interesting lights hanging from the ceiling.

They specialize in Nizami Rolls, which are Kolkata (Calcutta)-style rolls that are similar to kati rolls.  They also have bhel pori, which we made last year at the Indian street food cooking class that we attended, as well as a bunch of other interesting dishes.  Everything on the menu looked so good, it was tough deciding what to order.

I needed dinner for 3, and decided on a thelewala chicken roll, chapli roll, ghugni, tawa chicken fry, and bhel pori.  This provided a nice rounded assortment.

By the way, Thelewala means “street food vendor”, which is what we here at New York Street Food know and love.

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Since the weather was pretty bad, and I had a lot of work to do, I walked over to Burrito Box at 885A Ninth Ave (57-58 St).  Burrito Box ix in our Honorary Street Food category, which are storefronts with few or no tables that serve what is generally considered to be street food.

Last time I was there, I wanted a taco salad in one of those big shells, but mis-ordered and ended up with a tostada salad.  It was a decent lunch, but this time I made sure to order properly.

Today’s Lunch is a grilled chicken taco salad ($9.15 incl tax) from Burrito Box.

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