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NYC Food Truck Lunch: Vendy Plaza at La Marqueta

Perry, the founder of New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City street food.

This week's review is not the usual review of one food truck, but is instead about the latest street vendor marketplace, Vendy Plaza. No doubt you've heard of Smorgasburg, the hugely popular outdoor food market in Brooklyn. Vendy Plaza is along those lines, although much smaller. It's run by the same folks who have been putting together the wonderful Vendy Awards for the past 10 years.

Vendy Plaza is on 116th St & Park Ave in Manhattan, at La Marqueta, a marketplace in East Harlem. It's open every Sunday from noon-6pm through September 6th.

As you enter on 116th St under the Metro-North elevated tracks, there are 5 levels with a few steps or a ramp between each level. The first level had Walking Dog BBQ, selling bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin bites, which weren't ready yet when we arrived. A small stand also sold whole coconuts with coconut milk inside.

Beer Garden At Vendy Plaza
(credit: Perry R.)

The next level was the Beer Garden, with several choices of $5 craft beer and hard cider. We tried Harlem Brewery's Sugar Hill Golden Ale, which was delicious, as well as a 1911 Raspberry Hard Cider from upstate NY, that was also very good.

The next level had 4 vendors: Solber Pupusas, the Salvadoran 2011 Vendy Award winner, Lechonera La Pirana, the Puerto Rican food truck from the Bronx that was a 2014 Vendy Award finalist, Samosa Shack, selling Indian samosas and Your Panadas, who had a few types of empanadas.

Ice Cream Empanada From Your Panadas at Vendy Plaza
(credit: Perry R.)

When we were ready for dessert, we came back to this level and tried two of Your Panadas dessert empanadas. The first one, peanut butter apple crunch with caramel and chocolate sauces, was a bit heavy on the peanut butter and light on the apple crunch. But the ice cream empanada was awesome. Vanilla ice cream in a freshly-fried empanada with chocolate syrup and cinnamon sugar. Mmm good!

The next level had Mighty Edibles, who serve Jamaican food, Khao Man Gai, the Thai street food vendor who won the 2012 Vendy Award for Best Market Vendor, and Hot Bread Kitchen, who sold breads and cookies, and also has a permanent stand in the La Marqueta building on 115th St, at the south end of Vendy Plaza.

Hot Bread Kitchen is actually a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase economic security for foreign-born and low-income women and men by opening access to the billion dollar specialty food industry. They do this through their culinary workforce and business incubation programs, Project Launch and HBK Incubates. Not only are they doing great work, but we love their challah bread, bialys and sourdough bread.

Cod Fritters From Mighty Edibles at Vendy Plaza
(credit: Perry R.)

We enjoyed the cod fritters with pickled pepper slaw and mango passion sauce from Mighty Edibles, and the khao man gai (which we forgot to photograph) was our favorite dish of the day. Khao man gai is seasoned white-meat chicken served over jasmine rice, and topped with a garlicky ginger sauce. It also comes with cucumbers and cilantro, and a clear light soup for sipping between bites.

The last level had a DJ playing music who kept things upbeat and lively.

The best thing about Vendy Plaza at La Marqueta, besides the high quality of the food vendors, is they are going to rotate vendors each week. There will be different sellers each Sunday, which makes repeated trips to Vendy Plaza necessary, you know, for research purposes.

Vendy Plaza is easy to get to on 116th St and Park Ave. The 6 train to 116th St is only a block away, and the 2/3 express trains to 116th St are 3 blocks west, on Lenox Ave. Luckily, we live within walking distance, so Sunday lunches are going to be easy over the summer.

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