NYC Food Truck Lunch: Italian Feast From Li-Sal's Italian Kitchen

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In the winter, you really need food that "sticks to your ribs", and it doesn't get any "stickier" than Li-Sal's Italian Kitchen. We had this lunch on Wednesday, and are still kind of full from it two days later.

Li-Sal's Italian Kitchen is from Arthur Ave in the Bronx, a heavily Italian area known for its top-notch food stores and restaurants. Li-Sal is run by an Italian mother and son, who opened their cart last year on 50th St between 6th & 7th Ave.

The menu consists of mostly hot Italian heros and some pastas. Last year we tried an eggplant calzone, which was quite different from any other calzone we've ever had. This time we went for the Daily Special, which turned out to be more or less what we expected. Certainly more on the amount of food, and the quality of the lunch was good, too.

The Daily Special was sausage, peppers and onions over ziti, which came with soup and garlic rolls, all for $8.

We started with the soup, which was pastafagioli (pronounced pasta fa-zool). It's a thick tomato-based soup with white beans and a nice amount of grated parmesan cheese on top. It was the perfect soup for the middle of winter, hearty and filling (and tasty).

We ate the garlic rolls with the soup so they didn't get cold. There were 2 garlic rolls included, and after being warmed up, they were brushed with minced garlic and oil, then sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese right in front of us. The garlic rolls were soft and warm and highly recommended. Just make sure you have mints handy afterwards, because they don't skimp on the garlic.

The sausage, peppers and onions over ziti was generally good, but we have one complaint. They put tomato sauce on the dish without asking if we wanted it. When it comes to sausage, peppers and onions, whether on a hero or over pasta, we prefer it without tomato sauce. We love sausage, roasted peppers and onions, and want to fully taste all the ingredients. Luckily, the tomato sauce was good, even though we would have preferred to skip it if given the choice.

If you're in the Rockefeller Center area for lunch, we can recommend Li-Sal's Italian Kitchen for lunch. There's usually a row of several food carts on 50th St starting a little in from 6th Ave and heading west towards 7th Ave. Li-Sal's is usually the cart most towards 7th Ave.

The Daily Special at Li-Sal's Italian Kitchen was like going to your Italian mother or grandmother's for dinner. It consisted of several delicious courses, and you walked away stuffed. There are tasty desserts at Li-Sal (like the apple cinnamon dessert calzone), but we had enough trouble just finishing the 3-course lunch for $8!