NYC Food Truck Lunch: BBQ Chicken From Veronica's Kitchen

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

This week we took a trip downtown this week to check out street vendors in the Financial District. On Water St. just north of Wall St is one of NYC's oldest street vendors, Veronica's Kitchen. To give you an idea of how long they've been around, Veronica's Kitchen was a Vendy Cup Finalist back in 2007, before food trucks were even popular.

Even in February there was a line at Veronica's Kitchen, but it moved at a decent pace, taking no more than 10 minutes.

The big menu on the front of the cart lists lots of items, but they don't have every item every day. You're better off reading the handwritten Daily Specials menu in the window to see what they have that day. The cuisine is mainly Caribbean, with jerk, oxtail, curries, roti and other foods from the region.

We decided to order bbq chicken, which costs $9 for a large portion and $7 for a small portion. You know us, we went for the large!

In the container were 3 pieces of chicken, a leg, a thigh and wing. Two side dishes are also included with a large order.

The bbq sauce here was thick and somewhat sweet, just how we like it. We're not big fans of vinegary bbq sauces. We also asked for homemade hot sauce on the side. It really brought the heat, so use the hot sauce judiciously.

The chicken itself was juicy and tender, with the meat nearly falling off the bone. With 3 pieces of chicken, we were not hungry again until dinner.

One side dish was rice and peas. It was very tasty, with spices such as allspice, cloves and cinnamon giving the dish a nice flavor.

The second side dish was steamed veggies, with carrots, cabbage and broccoli. Unfortunately, the veggies were steamed within an inch of their life. We prefer our veggies to be a little less cooked and to have a little firmness, but that was the only negative thing about lunch.

If you're in the eastern part of the Financial District and want Caribbean food, definitely give Veronica's Kitchen a try. The food is fresh, the quality is high, the service is friendly, and lunch will be reasonably priced.

Veronica's Kitchen doesn't have a social media presence, but they don't need to judging from the line in the middle of winter. You can find them weekdays for lunch on Water St just north of Wall St.