NY Food Truck Lunch: Pork Banh Mi From The Banh Mi Cart In FiDi
Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.
To get an idea of the diversity of street food available in New York, you need look no further than the Banh Mi Cart. Sure, you can easily get 5 different types of burgers on the street as we did during the recent Burger Week, but we are not aware of any other banh mi carts in Manhattan.
The Banh Mi Cart isn't new. They have been around for 6 years, currently serving on the corner of Hanover Square & Pearl St.
While they are fairly popular in New York, some people may not know what a banh mi is. To give you a quick primer, banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich served on a baguette with meat, pate, a bunch of veggies, and some sauces.
More: NYC's 9 Best Banh Mi Sandwiches
You'll want to visit the Banh Mi Cart, too - especially if you live or work in the Financial District. They have 10 different types of baguette sandwiches such as grilled chicken, steak, shrimp and even roasted eel. Prices are generally $6, with a couple at $7 and one for $8.
More: NYC's 12 Best Downtown Lunches
We went for the Special Baguette (#1), which is the classic pork & vegetables for $6.
Taking the baguette out of the bag, it was quite long, probably about 12 inches. The baguette was stuffed with thin pieces of roasted pork, a slice of lunch meat (in lieu of pate), carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, mayonnaise, sliced jalapenos and sriracha sauce.
More: Manhattan's 7 Best Sandwiches
This was quite a spicy sandwich, with lots of crunch from the fresh veggies. The carrots, cucumbers and cilantro were all very fresh.
The baguette had a nice amount of crunch on the outside, but was soft inside. The bread did give off a lot of crumbs, so make sure you're not at the computer when eating this sandwich, or you may need a new keyboard.
There were a few different sauces squirted onto the sandwich, giving the banh mi some sweetness, a vinegary edge, a little saltines from the lunch meat, and some heat from the sriracha (and jalapnenos, natch).
You can also get this sandwich mild, in which case they leave out the jalapenos and sriracha sauce.
This banh mi was tasty, fresh and filling. I'm certainly looking forward to trying some of their other banh mi's, probably shrimp, steak and chicken curry.
The Banh Mi Cart does not tweet or have a website, but they are on the corner of Hanover Square & Pearl St every weekday from 11am-4pm. They get busy during the lunch rush, so you might want to call in your order to 646-996-8990, then pick it up at the appointed time. It doesn't get any easier than that.
