NYC Food Truck Lunch: Spicy Pork Torta From Orale Tacos

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

There's a new Mexican food cart on 46th St just west of 6th Ave, right next to Biryani Cart. Word is they are affiliated with the award-winning Biryani Cart, but we're not sure. What we are sure about is that Orale Tacos was quite busy that day, and lunch turned out to be a high quality sandwich at a good price.

One of our rules is when a food vendor (truck, cart or restaurant) has the name of a dish in their name, you should try that dish first. In this case it was tacos, but we just weren't in the mood for tacos. We were thinking of a steak burrito, then switched at the last minute to a spicy pork torta (sandwich). Wouldn't you know, 3 of the next 5 people to order while we waited for lunch ordered steak burritos. Guess we'll have to try a steak burrito next time.

Not that we were disappointed with the spicy pork torta. This was a huge sandwich with lots of fillings for $7, a veritable bargain in midtown. Here's the rest of the menu.

They start with a Portuguese roll, which is similar to a kaiser roll, but larger and oval, not round. It's firm enough to hold all the fillings without getting mushy, but is still soft.

Inside the roll was plenty of spicy pork, jalapeños, lettuce, tomato, mayo, avocado and Mexican string cheese.

The spicy pork did not disappoint. It had a roasted flavor, had been cooked in a light tomato-based sauce, and was spicy as advertised. They offered us hot sauce on the side, but it really wasn't needed. If you're not into spicy food, it's easy to get beef, chicken or non-spicy pork on the torta instead.

By the end of lunch, we were quite satisfied. The spicy pork torta from Orale Tacos was filling, tasty with a nice zing, and also a good value.

Orale is a Mexican expression used as an affirmation that something is strongly agreed with or impressive (like saying "word" or "hell yeah"). We couldn't agree more.

Orale Tacos is not on social media, but they don't need to be. They are on 46th St just west of 6th Ave every weekday for lunch. If you're in the area, give them a try. If for some reason some of the people you're with don't want Mexican food, Biryani Cart, one of the best Indian food vendors around, is literally 10 feet away.