New York Street Food

I heard the Kwik Meal cart on the SW corner of 45th St & 6th Ave had real lamb, not the fake gyro meat, so I wanted to check it out.

And the reports were correct.  When I got back to the office, Today’s Lunch was a great looking and wonderfully smelling dish of real lamb over basmati rice with a small salad on the side.  I wish this website had smell-o-vision, so you could smell it too.

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I was in the mood for some seafood for lunch, and had heard good things about the salmon filet at the original Kwik Meal cart on the SW corner of West 46th St and 6th Ave.  Kwik Meal was a Vendy Award finalist in 2008 and the People’s Choice winner in 2007, and I previously had the lamb pita sandwich there, which was pretty good, so I was optimistic for Today’s Lunch.

The regular lunch menu does not have salmon filet, but there’s another sign on the front of the cart offering either salmon or tilapia fillet over rice for $8.50.

When I ordered the salmon, they took a container out of the refrigerator, took out a raw, slightly marinated salmon fillet and cooked it from scratch in a saute pan on the grill.  It took about 7-8 minutes to cook, and they regularly turned the fillet so it cooked evenly on all sides, not just the top and bottom.  They even asked me if I wanted it rare, medium or well done.  I said medium.

When I got back to the office, there was a large, thick salmon fillet with green chili sauce over rice and vegetables.  There was also a salad with dressing on the side.  It smelled wonderful, and I dug right in.

The salmon fillet was a very thick piece and perfectly done.  It flaked just right, and was excellent.  The green chili sauce was hot, but clean tasting.  The sauce was a nice complement to the salmon, spicy but not heavy at all.  There were a lot of bites of salmon in this fillet, and ended up being a pretty big lunch.

The basmati rice was nice and fragrant with a bunch of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots, green pepper and onions. Mixed with the salmon juices, it was very tasty.    The salad was mainly lettuce and a few red onions, but the dressing was a ranch-type dressing, creamy with a bunch of herbs. Much better than the “white sauce” salad dressings at many carts.

Today’s Lunch was one of the best lunches I’ve had yet.  The salmon fillet was large, perfectly cooked and amazing with the green chili sauce on top and basmati rice underneath.  This was definitely a cut above most street food, and I have to give it a rare 10 out of 10.

Today’s Lunch is the lamb pita sandwich from the Kwik Meal cart on 45th St just west of 6th Ave.  Kwik Meal was a Vendy Award finalist in 2008 and the People’s Choice winner in 2007.

The lamb was cubed, tender and spiced with coriander and some other spices.  Very nice.  The sauce was a yogurt sauce like tzaziki (gyro) sauce.  There was also a small amount of lettuce, tomato and red onion on the sandwich.  The pita was good, too.  I asked for hot sauce, but they obviously didn’t hear me, because there was none on the sandwich.  It would have been great with some hot sauce.

When eaten together, it was pretty much like a top-notch gyro.  What made it better than other gyros was the lamb, which was actual cubed lamb, not the sliced, processed gyro meat you usually get.  It was nicely spiced and there was a lot of it.

The lamb gyro cost $6.50, which is around what most gyros cost, but this one was significantly better in quality.  I can definitely recommend Today’s Lunch.

The west corner of 45th St and 6th Ave had around five food carts that looked pretty good, so I’ll have to spend more time around there.  In addition to Kwik Meal, there was Kwik Pasta (same owners), which served pasta dishes like shrimp over angel hair pasta.  There were also Sarah’s and Fahima, which were both halal food stands.  I haven’t tried them yet, so I can’t vouch for them, but if anyone has tried them, please leave a comment below.

UPDATE: Fahima’s is owned by the brother of Kwik Meal founder Muhammed Rahman, and he tries to park it right next to Kwik Meal.  Talk about taking sibling rivalry to the next level.

I found an interesting episode of Vendr.TV from last summer that featured Daniel Delaney with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV.

The duo paired wines with different types of street food, and were joined by Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch at their first stop, the Kwik Meal cart.  Gary threw a fast ball, pairing the platter with a 2008 Premiado Torrontes.

Then it was off to meet up with Jerome Chang of the Dessert Truck.  There they sampled his award winning chocolate bread pudding and the warm chocolate molten cake.  Quick on his feet, Gary whipped out a 2006 Tohu Pinot Noir, which paired perfectly with the sweets.

Fun and interesting viewing below.