USA Today picks up on the trend of upscale food trucks. No mention of any local favorites, unfortunately.
Nominate your favorite mobile eats for TV’s “The Great Food Truck Race”
Six Connecticut food trucks have been nominated for Season 2 of Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race,” with Tyler Florence. Nom-nom-nominations are still open.
MSN ranks New Haven’s Cupcake Truck among the best
The Elm City’s mobile entry into recent cupcake obsession has attracted national attention.
Regrets, I’ve had a few
I knew from the outset that it would be a royal pain to blog about the street food scene in the wintertime. Street food is pretty sparse on days like today, when even Jimmy the hot dog vendor didn’t drag his cart through the snow to his regular spot in front of my building. However, I did have I had a few ideas that I’d hoped would see me through the colder months. Unfortunately, I think I’ve lost my best shot at one of them.
With the exception perhaps of the Bloomingdale’s storefront display and the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, there’s nothing that evokes New York City during the holidays than the smell of roasting chestnuts. The merest strain of the Velvet Fog singing his holiday classic over the Walgreen’s PA system triggers a powerful olfactory memory that immediately puts me on that bullet Metro-North train to Grand Central.
The sad truth is, I’ve never actually eaten a roasted chestnut. I wouldn’t know how to crack it open and I wouldn’t know what to expect inside. So I figured that some time during the holidays, I’d find an opportunity to shoot down to The City (as we call it up here) and sample some. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t get around to it before Christmas, and it looks like I won’t get down there before the New Year, either.
So I guess it’ll have to wait until next year. In the mean time, I invite you, dear reader, to share your wintertime memories of soul-warming New York City street foods.
Happy holidays to all!
Hog wild
Before getting started, I want to give a shout-out to FCG’s first tipster, Casey, who recommends a visit to the Caseus Cheese Truck and the Cupcake Truck. I’ll get to the Cheese Truck eventually, but it struck me as a bit too obvious a place to visit this early in the blogging endeavor. (How many other food carts in New Haven have been featured in the New York Times?) I need to build some street cred, first, and that means not going after the low-hanging fruit. As for the Cupcake Truck … Maybe when I’m in the mood for cupcakes, but don’t hold your breath. Nothing against cupcakes, but when I get that rumble in the tumble, I tend to go for the cheesy and savory over the sticky and sweet.
Anyway, I took a quick swing by New Haven’s Union Station in search of a soul food cart I spotted there there the other day. Of course, it was nowhere in sight. But as I made the illegal u-turn to head home (right in front of the police department, natch), I had a flash. A couple of weeks ago, I’d been up in Wallingford, scouting for holiday gifts. Hadn’t there been some sort of barbecue cart set up there?
Why, yes! Yes there had!
You don’t see a lot of barbecue up in these parts, never mind smell it when you’re locking up your car in a random suburban parking lot. But there’s no mistaking the odor of hickory smoke and sizzling porkflesh.
Big Country’s Hickory Pit BBQ is just the kind of joint you see — and smell — by the roadside all over the southlands. (The best barbecue I ever had was in Brandon, Fla., but that’s another story.) Anyhow, it’s basically a trailer carrying a shack, a pit and a stack of hardwood for the fire. It was opened last summer by a pair of Meriden police officers, Michael Coviello and Bud Gibbs, who had detected a distinct lack of quality barbecue in the region. Located in the lot outside Chef’s Equipment Emporium — a local foodie’s paradise if ever there was one — it seems destined to attract people who want the authentic experience.
The menu features ribs, chicken, brisket and pulled pork, with a short list of sides: smoked mac and cheese, beans, coleslaw, potato salad and, of course, corn bread. Platters, which come with corn bread and one side order, range from $4.99 for six BBQ buffalo wings to $22.99 for a full rack. There are also sandwiches: pulled pork for $5.49; the “Pig Mac” (pulled pork topped with mac and cheese) for $5.99, beef brisket for $6.49 and the “Moo Mac” (a bovine version of the “Pic Mac”).
Pulled pork and macaroni and cheese? Let’s see … porkflesh … cheese … pasta … bread — yeah, that covers all the major food groups, at least the ones I care about. Sign me up!
I dug in. Despite the bun, this was fork food … pig meat dripping with fat and cheese. The pork had been rendered to a state close to gelatinous, requiring virtually no chewing. The mac and cheese was smoky and slightly cheddary. You wonder why anyone would go through all the hassle of eating these two foods separately — biting from the sandwich, swallowing, putting it down, locating the fork, digging into the mac and cheese, swallowing, putting the fork down, picking up the sandwich again, and so on — when they were obviously meant to mingle in every bite.
This meal was a bit shy of perfection, however (perhaps owing partly to the fact that my sense of taste is still recovering after a cold). I tend to like my barbecued pork on the tangy side. This was sweet, but there was little tang. I also like a dash of heat. (I’d have liberally sprinkled my sandwich with red pepper flakes, had they been available.) Also, I tend to enjoy barbecued pork more if is a little more charred — those crusty, toasty bits add both taste and texture.
But it’s hard to complain when you’re in a food coma. Big Country is about as close to the real thing as you’re going to find this far north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Worth a return visit.
Prices: Platters $4.99-$22.99, sandwiches $5.49-$6.99
3-1/2 stars (out of five)
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Bengali Burritos
My hometown of New Haven, Conn. is home to three significant food cart ghettos. One, found in the Long Wharf area that lies betwixt I-95 and the Long Island Sound, focuses on Mexican and Latino foods. (Rest assured, FCG will be heading there shortly.) A second, outside Yale-New Haven Hospital, caters to the medical community. The third occupies a stretch of Prospect Street blocks from the heart of the Yale University campus, shamelessly exploiting the tastes of the academic community.
It was there, some time ago, amidst the injeras and sates and keftas and masalas, that I first saw the words “Bengali burrito” used in combination. I made a mental note to return for a visit.
Turns out this Moghul-Mexican miscegenation is actually what’s known elsewhere as a “kati roll” — “Bengali burrito” is just a convenient descriptor for those of us who haven’t spent time in Mumbai or Madras.
The all-knowing sages at Wikipedia inform me that this is a common street food in India, particularly Calcutta. Like all sandwiches everywhere, it was presumably invented when someone found himself with a hunk of meat and a piece of bread and no plate. In this case, the meat is kati, similar to a kebab, and the bread is paratha, a flaky fried flatbread well known to those who frequent Indian restaurants. While the paratha remains a mandatory component, the rules regarding the filling have loosened to the point where virtually any mixture of spicy meats and vegetables will do.
The sign said two rolls plus a beverage for $5. I ordered chicken and lamb. “Spicy,” the woman asked? “Oh yeah,” I shot back. She worked with assembly-line speed, barely giving me time to fire up the iPhone before the burritos were stuffed, rolled and tucked into a to-go bag.
I unrolled one and took a peek: Shredded chicken and spices topped with a red sauce and a sprinkling of lettuce. The paratha gave a pleasant crunch as I bit in. I’d been prepared for the inevitable mild disappointment owing to the yawning disparity between other people’s notion of “spicy” and mine. Sure enough, this could have used a good dousing with Sriracha. In fact, it could have used a bit more flavor in general; this was standard chicken in a masala that tasted to me like it might have come from a supermarket shelf. The next burrito was slightly superior, owing to the ground lamb, which contributed its lovely savory flavor.
The paratha, however, was out-of-this-world good, and I would have happily dispensed with the chicken and lamb and gorged myself on these instead. Overall impression: Not bad, but it didn’t inspire me to book the next flight to Calcutta.
Prices: 2 rolls plus one beverage, $5; three rolls, $6; one roll, $2.50
3 stars (out of 5)
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