Recently I’ve been stuffed after lunch, and want to try eating a little more healthfully on occasion (not every day, but on occasion). With that in mind, Today’s Lunch is the grilled fish over rice ($5) from the Little Morocco cart on the NE corner of West 39th St and 7th Ave.
Based on the name, I was looking for something Moroccan such as merguez sausage or tajines, but they had a fairly standard street food menu. They did have a few extras like fish, shrimp or kofta kebab over rice that a lot of carts don’t have, which was why I stopped there.
When I ordered the fish, he took an individual, uncooked filet wrapped in tin foil from a cooler and put it on the grill. He then sprinkled some seasonings on it, which appeared to be paprika and pepper, and when it was cooked through a few minutes later, put it over rice with some cooked onions. He then added some lettuce and tomato on the side, but I asked him to remove the tomato.
Since this was supposed to be a healthier meal, I asked for hot sauce on the fish and white sauce on the side of the salad. Most of these white sauces are mayo-based and not so great from a health point of view, but I at least wanted to taste it to see if it stood out from the pack. (It didn’t).
The fish was pretty good, although I’m sure it wasn’t a fresh caught filet. It was likely a frozen filet earlier in the day, but it was still a filet, not chopped or processed pieces of fish. (I realize freezing is a process, but you know what I mean.)
The basmati rice had a nice flavor to it, but it was a little dry. Not enough to ruin it, but it could have stood a bit less cooking time. Good rice, but not great.
The salad and white sauce were unexceptional, but the hot sauce was one of the hottest I’ve had yet from a cart. One thing they did bring from Morocco was the harissa, and this stuff was hot!
On a scale of 1 to 10, the grilled fish over rice from Little Morocco get a 7. Today’s Lunch won’t win any awards, but for $5, it was a decent lunch, and certainly healthier than all the street meat I’ve been having lately. The fish, onions, rice and hot sauce make for a pretty good mouthful, and I won’t be paying the price the rest of the afternoon from being overstuffed (although no promises about paying later for the hot sauce).
