New York Street Food

Sarah DiGregorio, one of our favorite food writers, highlights a gem in Chinatown.  As she describes it, “Styrofoam dishes of these jiggly snacks.   The treats seem to be steamed glutinous rice cakes, similar to Vietnamese banh beo. Each bowl contains a handful of the sticky white discs, topped with dried shrimp and scallions, a bit like Jell-o salad for adults. They go for just $1 and make a satisfying lunch, especially squirted with a bit of Sriracha.”

So you can enjoy them too, the vendor in question is on the south side of Grand Street between the Bowery and Elizabeth – and she has zongzi too. [Village Voice]

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.