We are happy to extend a hearty “Welcome Back” to Morocho, one of the best street food vendors in NYC.
New York Street Food was the first to review the Peruvian fusion cuisine of Morocho, 2 years ago, and they ended up as a Vendy Award Finalist in the Rookie of the Year category a few months later.
The chef and co-owner (with his brother), Miguel Samanez, took some time off to have a cart custom-built to his specifications. As often happens, it took longer than expected, but about 2 weeks ago, Miguel emailed us that Morocho would be back on Union Square West in a couple of days.
The new cart looks great, and the menu has been slightly revised. We asked Miguel what he recommended, and the response was an immediate “pork belly sandwich”, which cost $9/10.
We generally associate pork belly with Asian food, as we’ve seen it at other NYC street vendors such as Bian Dang and Moo Shu Grill.
What we didn’t know is that pork belly is served in Peruvian cuisine, and it’s often paired with sweet potatoes. See, you learn something new every day.
Miguel told us the pork belly was marinated overnight in dashi and soy sauce, as he put a nice piece on the grill.
On a rectangular roll that was similar to ciabatta, Miguel placed sweet potato crisps that were held together by a passion fruit glaze.
The grilled pork belly was placed atop the sweet potato crisps and topped with criolla, a combination of chopped red onions, herbs and lime juice.
We cannot tell you how delicious this sandwich was! You just have to try it for yourself.
The pork belly was fall-apart tender, and every ingredient played off the others – the sweetness of the passion fruit glaze and the tart lime juice, the sweet potato crisps, and of course, the marinated and grilled pork belly.
In our experience, pork belly was always too fatty for our taste, but the strip of fat along the side of the pork belly here was an integral part of the dish.
You can follow Morocho on twitter here or on our Mobile Munchies twitter feed. They park on Union Square West between 14th & 15th St for lunch and dinner. Their facebook is here.
If you want to try something besides the pork belly sandwich, we also highly recommend the Poor Man’s Burger. We reviewed it as part of NYSF’s Burger Week in the Summer of 2012, and it was off the hook!
