NYC Food Truck Lunch: Bibimbap With Shrimp From Galbi Q
Perry, the founder of New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City street food.
The Rockefeller Center area is a hotbed of street food activity, with foods of many nations available from 50th-52nd St just west of 6th Ave. Most of them are lined up on 50th St, but a Korean cart called Galbi Q is on 52nd St, and it's usually joined by a food truck that changes each day.
Naturally, Galbi Q has galbi (short rib), but they also have bulgogi (ribeye), shrimp, chicken, kimchi fried rice and bibimbap on the menu. We decided to order bibimbap for $8, and added shrimp to the dish for an extra $2.
Right after we ordered, they put 7 raw shrimp on grill and squirted on teriyaki sauce. A lot of street food vendors pre-cook shrimp, which makes it rubbery or mealy when served. Fresh shrimp grilled from scratch makes all the difference, and with 7 small to medium-sized shrimp for $2, it's a good deal.
Bibimbap is an assortment of vegetables, in this case bean sprouts, carrots, watercress, baby oyster mushrooms and romaine lettuce, but the piece de resistance is the sunnyside egg on top. We love eggs on top of dishes!
Served on the side were white rice, sesame oil and chili paste.
We moved the veggies and shrimp to one side of the dish, put in the white rice, added all the sesame oil and some of the chili paste, and put the veggies and shrimp back onto the rice. After breaking the yolk and spreading it around, we dug in.
Between the shrimp and veggies, this was a light and refreshing lunch. The shrimp were juicy and had a nice teriyaki flavor. The veggies were cool and fresh, and even better with some egg yolk on them. Touches of sesame oil and chili paste made them even more flavorful.
After finishing the tasty shrimp and veggies, the rice was coated with their juices, and also mixed with the sesame oil and chili paste. Now that's how you make white rice delicious!
This was one of the healthier street food lunches around, and is also vegetarian if you don't add in a meat. Unlike other street food lunches, with bibimbap, you won't end up at your desk in a food coma in the middle of the afternoon.
Galbi Q doesn't have a social media presence, but they don't need to. You can find them every weekday for lunch a few yards in from the SW corner of 52nd St and 6th Ave.
Next time, we're going to try their namesake dish, galbi, grilled marinated short rib over rice.
