New York Street Food

Some people think the end game for a food truck is to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant or store and put the ol’ truck up on cinder blocks, metaphorically speaking.  While some food trucks, such as the Dessert Truck, did this, it’s becoming much more common for a food truck vendor to open a physical location and keep the wheels on the truck turning.  The list keeps getting longer every day.

Calexico Carne Asada cart

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I walked by the NYC Cravings truck yesterday on 53rd St between Park and Lex, and the line was 25 people long.  Today, they were in my neighborhood, on Hudson between Houston and King Streets, so I got there at 11:30, and only 1 other person was there that early.

They have expanded their menu since the last time I was there, on one of those cold, windy winter days in January.  Last time I had the Taiwanese fried chicken and zongzi, both of which were excellent.  Today’s Lunch was the Taiwanese style fried pork chop over rice with pork sauce and pork shumai.

It was tough to decide because they also had their famous chicken wings, tea eggs, fried tianbula (fish cake) and steamed pork dumplings.  I definitely have to try the tea egg next time.

There were 3 large pork chops with a mild glaze, fried and served over rice with pork sauce and a few green veggies.  This was a lot of meat, and it was very good.  There was very little fat on the chops, and each bite was wonderful.  I know $7 is not cheap for lunch, but it was a good value with the huge portion.

The pork shumai was really good, too.  The wrapper was very light, and the meat filling was nicely done.  I can’t decipher exactly what went into it, but suffice it to say the shumai were some of the better dumplings I’ve had, certainly one of the best from a truck.   There were 4 shumai for $3, which was also a good value (outside of Chinatown).

Today’s Lunch was a 9.5 out of 10.  I highly recommend NYC Cravings (as do many other people), but be sure to get there early, because the line gets nuts by 12:30 or so, and they often run out of food by 1:30-2:00.

Today’s Lunch is the fried chicken platter and zongzi from the NYC Cravings truck. (Note: Since I’m actually on the road today, this was a lunch I had recently at the NYC Cravings truck.)

I got there around 1pm.  The line was about 12 people long. When it was my turn, there were no more pork chops, and there was a 5 minute wait for the fried chicken.  I ordered fried chicken and zongzi, which they also call Chinese tamales.  It was glutinous rice filled with pork, Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, peanuts, beans, greens and oats(?) wrapped in a bamboo leaf.  It was very good and filling for $4.

The fried chicken had somewhat crispy skin and moist, tender, tasty meat.  There were two pieces of leg/thigh combos with some chopped greens over rice.  It was slightly salty for my taste, but well worth the wait.  Next time I’ll get there earlier for the pork chops.  I had the pork chops at the Vendy Awards in Sept. and they were delicious.

NYC Cravings zongzi

NYC Cravings - open zongzi

Last week we extolled the virtues of stuffed lotus leaves, also known as joong (Cantonese), zongzi (Mandarin) and Chinese tamales, as sold by an elderly woman at the corner of Mott and Hester streets in Chinatown.

Today I tried the zongzi at the NYC Cravings truck and was quite a happy camper.  Inside the wrapped leaf was glutinous rice, and inside the rice was Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, beans, greens, ground pork and what looked like oats.  At $4, it’s not as good a deal as can be had in Chinatown for $1.50, but it was well within reasonable prices for midtown (and nothing is ever as cheap as Chinatown).

I’ll post about NYC Cravings after I try a few more of their dishes.  Today I also had their delicious fried chicken, but I want to also try their pork chop and dumplings before giving a full review.

Unfortunately, not every Vendy Award Finalist can win their category, but every finalist had great food.  Here’s a look at the great street food that did not win in their category, but we were all winners for having eaten their food.

Vendy Cup Finalists (excluding the winner)

The Rickshaw Dumpling Truck had great dumplings (duh!), but their plate had some nice cold noodles, too.

The King of Falafel and Shawarma, Fares Zeidaies, had a fervent following, and their matching outfits were quite colorful.  Their egg-shaped falafel was awesome, too.

I tried the jerk chicken at The Jamaican Dutchy cart, and it was very well done.  Hot, but not brutally so.  O’Neill Reid, the proprietor, takes his cooking very seriously (as they all do), and it shows in the end.  I didn’t get a picture of the jerk chicken, but below is the yummy squash bread.

Dessert Category Finalists (excluding the winner)

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck had a perpetually long line all day.  Their menu was very creative.  The choice of toppings was staggering and unusual for ice cream: olive oil and sea salt, ground wasabi peas, toasted curried coconut, trix cereal, mixed berries and saba, banana-Scharffen Berger cocoa puree, cayenne pepper and dulce de leche with crushed Nilla wafers.  Crazy stuff!

Cupcake Stop had exceptional variety, as well.  Some of their flavors were Oreo crunch, candy apply, tiramisu and a few others of the same quality.

Rookie of the Year Finalists (excluding the winner)

This was the first time the Vendy Awards had a Rookie of the Year category, and it had some of my personal favorite types of food, schnitzel (who won-see my post on the winners) and BBQ.

Picknick Smoked was one of my favorites.  The pulled pork was nice and smoky, and not too drenched in sauce.  They also put cole slaw on the sandwich, which I like.  Their Arnold Palmers (half iced tea and half lemonade) were some of the best thirst quenchers of the day.

nyccravings was a nice nosh, with pork and vegetable dumplings, taiwanese pork chops and crispy fried chicken.  I really liked their sweet beijing sauce, too.

I can’t wait until next year.