Dan: Hey, I’m Dan Delaney and I travel the world tasting the best street food around. Today, we have a really exciting story for you, a tale about confusion, mistaken identities, great community and best of fantastic halal food. We’re in Midtown Manhattan and this is the VendrTV.
At 53rd and 6th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan is perhaps you see the most popular street food. A simple chicken and lamb prepared by team of 10 cooks and three carts. They call themselves the Halal guys. Their signature product is made from some salad, perfectly—rice, marinated grilled chicken, tender lamb and some pita bread, all topped with their signature white sauce. But it's not a sauce and smiles for these guys, there’s so many—brewing and to better understand it, I met with food writer Zach Brooks. Zach is the owner and chief blogger at Midtown Lunch which is in New York City blog about food.
Zach: Street meat is a huge part of Midtown Lunch and this one right here happens to be one of if not the best street meat cart in Midtown. But its more famous older brother if you will is actually part across the street.
Dan: Yeah.
Zach: Late at night, but there is a little bit of controversy because on the other side there is a cart during the day who is not the same cart, but if you go up and ask them they are like, “Oh! Is this the famous cart on 53rd and 6th with a line?” Those guys across the street will be like, “Oh yeah this is it, this is the famous cart.”
Dan: We’re doing a show on street food and we heard that this place is like legendary. Is that the deal?
Zach: And they’ve even gone so far as to where like yellow sweaters.
Dan: Yeah.
Zach: So, you can see like this cart right here is the yellow bag and the guy who runs it has a yellow sweater on.
Dan: Right.
Zach: So, those guys over there started wearing yellow sweaters and you’ll see at like 12:30 like there is so many people who don’t realize that the cart over there during the day is not the famous cart.
Caroline: I’m Caroline. I’m from New York City. My favorite food used to be bacon but then I thought I was—but now I think I’m on a churisso’s thing so now definitely my favorite food is churisso.
Dan: Before the Halal guys can even heat up the grill, a line have formed. So, I hit the street to figure out what—was about. How long have you been coming here really?
Male: Like seven years now.
Male: Well, like five years now.
Female: I do like, I don’t know I’m going all the while.
Dan: Once every week?
Male: Once every weekend.
Male: We leave the—six days a week we come in here to buy this fluky food.
Dan: Really?
Male: That’s serious.
Dan: Why?
Male: Because it’s good!
Male: Because it’s addicting, it’s like drugs.
Dan: How long have you been coming?
Male: Oh God! I have my year anniversary; oh it’s like two years now.
Dan: Even anniversary, do you celebrate?
Male: I celebrated on the year anniversary.
Dan: Do you like chicken rice?
Male: Yeah, I like the chicken rice.
Dan: It’s a good celebration, yeah.
Female: And my—
Dan: Manhattan College.
Female: College yeah, late at nights, they always make trips down here. They were like, “I’m going to 53rd and 6th.” And like the city. They’re like, “Yeah, it’s that good.”
Female: This is my first time here ever than I’ve been here.
Dan: She is a Halal virgin.
Female: I am.
Dan: I feel like you’re not supposed to say that.
Female: Very good.
Dan: Very good?
Male: How was it?
Male: It’s amazing! I get lamb. I just get street lamb—
Dan: Why do you come here of all the carts?
Male: Best one.
Dan: What makes it the best?
Male: It was this, I don’t know
Male: Because of the white sauce—
Dan: Yeah.
Male: The white sauce is like—I think is like the best thing. Like best white sauce I ever had.
Male: I’m putting a lot of white sauce.
Male: Just white sauce, the hot sauce is too much for me.
Dan: Too much for you?
Male: Definitely.
Dan: Definitely.
Female: Everything, a lot of hot sauce.
Dan: A lot of hot sauce.
Female: Yes.
Dan: A lot of sauce, you know she can handle a lot of hot sauce.
Female: Hot sauce and white sauce?
Dan: Hot sauce and white sauce. How much it may cost?
Female: White sauce is the best.
Dan: Well, as you can see, this is one cart that has a lot of punch.Its customers love it and they don’t wait a long time to get their chicken and lamb. If you’d like to learn more about this cart or any of the carts that we cover, visit online at Vendr.TV. I’m Dan Delaney and I encourage you to eat at street.
Want to take your love for street food to the next level? Join us at one of our VendrTV Eatups. More information at meetup.com/vendrtv.
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