You don't need to fly across the Pacific ocean to get a quick taste of Osaka's well-known Okonomiyaki-お好み焼き(cabbage pancake) or Takoyaki-たこ焼き(octopus balls).
Instead, head down to the East village for authentically prepared street food from this tiny take-out joint on 9th street, btw 2nd and 3rd ave. Made of shredded cabbage, ginger, flour, eggs and green onions, Okonomiyaki (a Kansai-based pancake) comes topped with kewpie mayo, brown-okonomiyaki sauce, aonori (green seaweed) and bonito flakes. Try it as Combo B and you'll get a side of Tako-yaki with it.
Takoyaki octopus balls are a well-known street food in the Osaka region. Made on a hot skillet with circular craters, the chef adds batter, ginger, green onions and octupus to the skillet and deftly turns and molds the batter into a ball using chopsticks or a tiny, pointy needle-like object. Once ready and brown on all sides, 6 balls get put into a tray, covered in okonomiyaki sauce and kewpie mayo and topped, once again with aonori and bonito flakes. The hot steam from the takoyaki literally makes the bonito flakes come to life as they slowly sway back and forth as though alive. Be careful not to burn yourself as these have come right off a hot skillet.
Also prepared at Otafuku is yaki-soba, a standard saute of soba noodles, seafood including shrimp and octopus, sometimes meat, cabbage and yakitori sauce. Topped with aonori and a side of ginger. For noodle-lovers, this simple dish fills the stomach and satisfies your craving. The yakitori was tasty and flavourful, but nothing special.
We'd come back for the okonomiyaki and takoyaki, but may leave the noodles to one of the many other options in the city.
Halal meat is available in NYC from street carts on every other corner in the city. Anywhere from $4-6 per platter, might this tasty dish give the Hot Dog and Pretzel carts a run for their money?
These delicious smelling carts can be found all over the city with various levels of quality and flavour from each one. It would seem that there's a monopoly on this local, middle eastern cuisine, but with each stand putting their own twist on this veritable favourite, it's hard to compare one from another. Some offer variations on the type of rice you get (basmati, spicy, white, mixed) while others have a different consistency to their "white sauce". I shudder to think what's actually in this non-refrigerated white sauce. Best to leave that in the lower levels of your unconscious and act on blind faith hoping that you won't get sick. Truthfully, I think the turnover on this food is so fast and frequent that no food has long to go bad. All carts will offer a choice of chicken or lamb on rice or a combination of both.
One of the best and most popular carts is at 53rd street and 6th avenue from 7pm-4am (http://53rdand6th.com). This is the first place we went in the city for Halal meat and have been back twice already in our first month and a half. We've also tried stands near Bryant park at Madison and 40th - 3 out of 5 - and around Broadway and 18th 3.5 out of 5. Be sure to ask for extra white sauce and beware the spicy sauce. The first time we had the spicy sauce, we put it all over and our mouths were on fire. Again, each stand has a different spicy level for their hot sauce. The stand at 53rd and 6th is killer (you've been warned). The safest approach if you have a low spice tolerance is to ask for sauce on the side and dip as necessary.
hmmm... I'm getting hungry.
Longing for a quick snack as we wandered up to Harlem from the Met, we stumbled upon Paty's Tacos, a Mexican food truck on the corner of East 86th street and Lexington Avenue.
Served on the street, like much of the best food in New York, this place wasn't dirt cheap, but reasonably priced tacos ($2.50) and Sopes ($4) were homemade, fresh, and authentic. The bistec (steak) sopes had a thick tortilla shell and was topped with chopped lettuce, onion, and salso verde. Two enchilada (spicy pork) tacos were a bit dry, but made better by hot sauce and salsa.
With so many mexican choices in the city, we'll be on the hunt for more goodies to eat.
You don't need to fly across the Pacific ocean to get a quick taste of Osaka's well-known Okonomiyaki-お好み焼き(cabbage pancake) or Takoyaki-たこ焼き(octopus balls).
