johnnyhongkong says…

Who would have thought that Pershing Square in New York would offer the best coffee and lunch in the city?

We had good lunches to be sure – two of which were with Conrad Connecticut, who lawyers in the neighborhood – but they were expected, from tried and true places. What was unexpected was what we found from the two carts on E. 40th street between Park and Madison.

If you’re anywhere in the area, we highly suggest getting your morning coffee from the cart on the northwest corner of E. 40th and Park. The coffee there tastes like you imagine coffee should taste, like all the other stuff you’ve been drinking is just black water. It’s properly roasted; not burned like a lot major coffee purveyors. And unlike most of the deli coffee guys in the city, the guy there understands that “a touch of cream” means a touch of cream. Plus, he remembers you after two visits and he’s got a mini Mr. Potato Head to keep that napkin on top of your coffee cup from flying away.

Then for lunch, you absolutely must go to the Rafiqi stand on the south side of E. 40 (just west of Park). The guys there set up at around 10 or 10:30, just when the coffee guy packs up his wares, and the smell of chicken on the grill and lamb shawarma is truly intoxicating. It’s what I imagine smelling walking down an alley of street food stands in India or Pakistan.

The food? In a word, remarkable. When Mary Milan and I finally stopped and ordered a sandwich and a rice plate, we kicked ourselves for not having done it sooner because, at that point, we were running out of lunches in New York.

We highly recommend the combination lamb and chicken sandwich with onions and red and white sauce (just white if you have a palatte sensitive to heat). The lamb is either spiced with the perfect combination of cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, chiles, cayenne, cloves, salt and cracked black pepper, or it’s simply crack. The chicken is cooked perfectly. It’s flavorful, tender and moist. And the combination of the two with the sauces and rolled up in a warm pita is transcendent. Every dining experience I’ve had since then has me wishing I were standing on E. 40th eating one of those sandwiches.

And that’s the thing about great street food. It’s unexpected. It’s about doing one thing and doing it brilliantly, not a bunch of things a little better than mediocre. It’s about turning something with humble beginnings into something perfect.

The experience was transformative but it also gave me some cognitive dissonance. I’m not a big fan of the mobile dining experience because eating on the go encourages the go-go-go attitudes of modern living when eating should be a time when you can sit, relax, savor a meal with a spot of vino, and enjoy your company.

On the plane ride back, I came up with a solution: Mary Milan and I should open a restaurant that serves only the best street food and comfort food from all parts of the globe. The menu would change monthly and we would go out and find the great grandmothers and grandfathers and their families who have spent years perfecting recipes for Taiwanese Roasted Beef Noodles, Vietnamese Pho, Pad Thai, New York Style Pizza, Dim Sum, Frites, Kebabs, Tacos, Pollo alla Brasa, etc.

Our first and second draft picks to consult us would be Rafiqi (who according to this site, is made up of “five brothers; five carts; one mission: to serve up some of the best meat and rice platters NYC has ever seen. According to the New York Times, New York Metro and NY Newsday [and Johnny Hong Kong and Mary Milan] they’ve accomplished their mission!”) and the family who runs the Catalina’s catering truck in Los Angeles. These folks who understand street food.