Manhattan Drone: We All Scream For Street Meat!

I can’t move right now. I feel as though I’m weighed down by something. I feel like someone dropped a weight on my stomach. I don’t even want to think of getting out of my chair. I’m tempted to flop right out of my seat and fall asleep on the floor underneath my desk.

If you’ve had this feeling before, it’s probably because you eat too much. And if you know the food coma as well as I do, then you probably have a favorite food that brings it on. You might know to avoid that food for the most part and only eat it sparingly. (Key example: Chipotle. Do you really want to know how many calories are in that burrito?)

Today, I decided that today was a street meat day.

There are more than enough street food options in Midtown on weekdays. You could feast on pretty much everything: pizza, Mexican, falafel, crepes, Jamaican, smoothies, Korean, and the classic street hot dog. Most of it is pretty inferior to what you might get in other places. But there are some standouts, most of which are regularly highlighted on one of my most frequent Internet reads: Zach Brooks’ Midtown Lunch blog.

First, there’s The Jamaican Dutchy cart, which is stationed at the corner of 51st and 7th - dangerously close to my office. This cart has some of the most authentic and exotic ingredients available in street cart food. Oxtail? They’ve got it. Curry Goat? You bet. Jerk Chicken? Of course. One of the ladies in my office calls to make sure they’ve got the Curry Goat before she goes down to get it. She also happens to be a native Jamaican, so that speaks volumes about how close this is to the real thing.

Considering New York’s obsession with pizza, you’d think that pizza out of a truck wouldn’t sound particularly appetizing. But Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck, on 47th between Madison and Park, seems to get it right. A thin-crust Sicilian slice is less than three bucks, and the sweet and savory tomato sauce can’t be beat. I’m a bigger fan of the Chicken Parm, which is baked in a roll, so you’re guaranteed every bite will be doughy, meaty, and saucy. And you don’t have to worry about it falling apart, which could be particularly disasterous when you’re sitting at your desk at work.

The winner, though, has to be the 53rd & 6th Halal Cart. It’s an overnight operation that can prove to have a daunting line, even as late as 2am. This is the real deal. It’s so good that people kill for it (as good as it is, patience is a virtue). The cart is only open from 8pm to 6am, but it managed to be my lunch choice today. How? Well, accept no imitations: the cart that occupies the same southwest corner of 53rd and 6th during the day is not the same. But directly across 6th Avenue, on the southeast corner, is run by the same people. Same food, same prices, same bright yellow halal cart bags. And it doesn’t have the massive nighttime line, either.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to curl up in a ball under my desk and get rid of my food coma.

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