NY Street Food #2: DiSO's Italian Sandwich Society, Halal Carts, and Mister Softee

In a continuation of the last few posts here on Watch Me Eat about foods consumed while in New York, this post is all about various street foods from my most recent trip to the area. My street food adventure began on Governor's Island. Here, I had lunch from a food truck called DiSo's Italian Sandwich Society. As the name implies, they served various types of Italian style sandwiches.

I had a sandwich called Jimmy Two Times. This consisted of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, sauteed eggplant, sweet roasted peppers, and herbed ricotta spread. The sandwich was served on a bread with a very nice, chewy crust.

The generous amount of prosciutto on the sandwich was sliced very thinly, but the amount of eggplant on the sandwich wasn't nearly as generous. Even worse, I found lots of thin strips of aluminum foil which had somehow made its way into the sandwich with the eggplant. I had unfortunately bought the last sandwich of the day from DiSO's and they closed after making my sandwich, so I couldn't go back to complain. I peeled most of the foil out for this next picture. Could have been a good sandwich. Too bad it was ruined by aluminum foil...

Up next on my street food adventure was Kimo's Halal Food. This Halal cart was parked on a corner across from Bryant Park. I saw somewhere on this cart that Kimo's was serving Egyptian food. I honestly didn't notice a difference in the menu that made this cart any more Egyptian than any other similar cart in the city.

I ordered the Lamb Platter. Like most Halal carts, this consisted of a mountain of rice topped with gyro meat. Iceberg lettuce was served on the side as a salad. The entire thing was smothered in both white sauce and hot sauce. This was very tasty. I do enjoy eating large amounts of Middle Eastern food covered in delicious sauces.

After exploring Central Park, I decided to stop for food and visited another Halal cart. This cart was set up on the edge of the park at Bolivar Plaza. I didn't see a name associated with this cart.

 

Here, I ordered a falafel platter. Pretty same setup as the Lamb from Kimo's, but nowhere as good. The falafel was served in crumbs and tasted burnt. The rice was it bit hard as well. I don't know if I got the bottom of the barrel, or if this cart was just bad. Don't get food from here.

For my last bit of street food from this visit to New York, I had some Mister Softee from a truck parked outside the 190th Street Subway Station.

I had a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate. It tasted exactly how a dipped Mister Softee cone should!

Oviedo Food Truck Bazaar

Food truck events have begun to spread out of Orlando. Last night was the first time food trucks have congregated in Seminole County. The Oviedo Food Truck Bazaar happened in the Oviedo Marketplace Mall parking lot and consisted of fifteen trucks. Food pictures of what was eaten will come soon, but enjoy this Food Truck Bazaar video until then...

Orlando Food Truck Bazaar #1: The Taco Company/Lady

The first Orlando Food Truck Bazaar happened on March 29, 2011 in a church parking lot on Orange Ave. The event was organized by TheDailyCity.com and even though the Bazaar was promoted everywhere, I don't think anyone was expecting the humongous crowds that showed up. I decided to stop by the event on my way home and didn't think the parked cars that went on for a few blocks could possibly be for a parking lot filled with food trucks. They were. I parked and entered the mass of thousands of people consuming street food...

Because of the huge crowds, I decided I would make my food choice based on whatever line seemed shortest. After a quick walk around, The Taco Company (also listed as The Taco Lady and The Taco Truck) won my business.

It took me about twenty minutes to place my order. With the amount of people still lined up for the other trucks, I figured I was doing pretty good. I decided to get a torta with carne enchilada (seasoned pork). Turned out the only meats left were steak or chicken, so I went with a chicken torta instead.

Once I placed the order, it was time to wait for the food. I must put the emphasis on wait because my twenty minutes to order was dwarfed by the next hour and a half that I stood there waiting to get my torta. In that time, all of the other trucks had either sold out of food or shut down for the evening. I did receive my food eventually and the nice people inside The Taco Company truck threw in some tacos and a soda to apologize for the wait. By that point though, I was completely over standing in line for my food and just wanted to get home...

Once back home, it was time to eat the food! I started with the chicken torta. The large roll was filled with plenty of shredded chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and cheese. Unfortunately, the avocado that was also supposed to be on the sandwich was nowhere to be found.

I actually preferred the tacos over the torta. Being that these are from a taco truck, I guess it's only appropriate. They gave me one chicken and one steak taco, each on a warm corn tortilla, garnished with onions and cilantro. A handful of radish and lemon slices completed the plate.

My food was good, but there is no way it was worth the wait. If you want to try The Taco Company, I would suggest finding them in Ocoee when they aren't swamped with thousands of people. I have a feeling the tacos would probably be served up pretty quickly in another situation.

The Food Truck Bazaar was definitely a success with the amount of people that showed up. I waited way longer for my food than I was anticipating and didn't get to try as much as I would have liked, but this is the first event of it's kind in Orlando. After the success of the Food Truck Bazaar, food truck events seem to be becoming a weekly thing in town. With food trucks out all the time and more events like this, such as last Wednesday's Food Truck Pod at Firestone Live, it only means Orlando's street food scene will get better from here...

Osceola County Fair Food 2010

I visited the Osceola County Fair in Kissimmee, FL. They had all the good stuff that a fair should have such as a huge selection of farm animals, circus acts, and plenty of rather scary rides. But this blog is not about any of that stuff, it's all about the food. While I didn't see any of the famous fair foods like doughnut burgers or deep fried butter, the Osceola County Fair still had a pretty good selection of food served from trailers. The following are random photos of some of the various food vendors at the fair:





I tried the Ribbon Fries from this cart. Fresh potato chips like this are normally pretty tasty, but the potatoes near the bottom of this plate were somewhat soggy.


I also got some roasted corn from this stand (Little Richard's?). How can you go wrong with an ear of corn roasted on a grill, dipped in butter, and then served by grumpy carnies?

Central Florida Fair Food 2009

The 2010 Central Florida Fair starts at the end of February, so I thought now would be a good time to finally post some food pictures from last year's 2009 Central Florida Fair. Fair/Carnival food is an interesting concept. Countless mobile food stalls that are constantly traveling around the country all assemble in one place for a week or two. While most people would be hesitant to eat food from the back of a truck in another situation, people have no problem eating like this when in the context of a fair. These food vendors can sometimes have good food, while other times the food is horrible. Some sell traditional fair food such as corn dogs and funnel cakes, while some stands sell more international foods like Greek, Chinese, and Mexican. I even saw a vegan food vendor at the fair, but it didn't look like they were doing much business. It seems the real fun starts when you start deep frying stuff that shouldn't be fried, stuff like candy bars, soda, Twinkies, and butter. Follow the consumption of some of these foods with a ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl, and you're in for a fun time...





I got food from a stand selling Cajun food called Herbert's Grill. I ordered a plate of Jambalaya, which perhaps wasn't the wisest choice from the back of a trailer. I hate to say it, but this was some of the worst Jambalaya I've ever had. The globules of pork fat that coagulated in with the meat really were unappetizing. But then again, I suppose this should have been expected when ordering something at a fair that wasn't deep fried on a stick.


While I was getting my food from Herbert's Grill, someone I was with scored these freshly made potato chips for free from another stand when they were left in the fryer too long and came out extra crispy. Even being well done, these fresh chips were really tasty, much better than my Jambalaya. Stick to the fried food at the fair I suppose...

Of course, being that the Central Florida Fair is one of the good local fairs that actually does the animal stuff besides from carnival rides, you could always buy yourself some fresh lamb chops...