Watch CBS News

NYC Food Truck Lunch: Passover Matzoh Melt Special From Gorilla Cheese NYC

Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks.

You don't see a lot of street food vendors catering to customers for Passover. First of all, many street cart vendors are Arabs. Even though they are in New York, we don't expect to see them serving matzoh sandwiches during Passover.

The Jewish vendors like Taim and Pocketful are closed for the duration of the holiday, but Gorilla Cheese came up with a different approach - matzoh melts!

More: 5 Fun Ways To Celebrate Passover In NYC

Walking up to the truck, there were handwritten signs for the weekly special, and a sign that any sandwich on the menu can be made into a matzoh melt.

Grilled Cheese From Gorilla Cheese NYC
(credit: New York Street Food)

We went for this week's special - Swiss and muenster cheese, caramelized onions, tomato, chipotle aioli and...wait for it...bacon!

Now we can be observant and subversive at the same time. Somewhere underground, our ancestors are rolling in their graves.

More: NYC's 7 Best Jewish Delis

When we ordered the weekly special as a matzoh melt, the guy taking our order did say "you know there's bacon in that, right?" And we smiled and said "yep".

Unlike the difference between bread and toast, grilled matzoh and regular matzoh are not that different. There is a slight grilled taste imparted, and the matzoh is a little more brittle, but it's that different.

People don't eat matzoh for the taste, they eat it because the bread dough didn't have time to rise when the Jews escaped from slavery in ancient Egypt. The real treat is what's inside the sandwich, not what's on the outside.

Each of the ingredients came through loud and clear, with the possible exception of Swiss cheese. Muenster is one of our favorite cheeses, so we didn't really mind the lack of Swiss cheese flavor.

Gorilla Cheese NYC
(credit: New York Street Food)

There was plenty of bacon, which is a great combo with chipotle aioli and cheese.

Special mention must be made of the caramelized onions. A lot of places grill their onions and call them caramelized. The onions in the sandwich were actually caramelized on the ends, if not all the way through.

Even though the Passover holiday is almost over, Gorilla Cheese did matzoh melts last year, and they expect to have them again next year.

You can follow Gorilla Cheese NYC on Twitter or our Mobile Munchies Twitter feed.  They have a special sandwich each week that's usually a good way to go.

If you want to see something fun on TV, the owner of Gorilla Cheese NYC will be on CBS This Morning on Monday (4/1) with James Cunningham, host of the Eat St. show on The Cooking Channel.

Eat St just came out with a book that has recipes from 126 different food trucks that have been on the show.  James Cunningham will be promoting the book on CBS This Morning, and James Klayman, owner of Gorilla Cheese, will be demonstrating his recipe in the book - triple cream brie melt. Wow, that sounds great!

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.