NYC Food Truck Lunch: Caramelized Pork Rice Bowl From Coney Shack

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

Friday is our favorite work day of the week. You can guess the obvious reason (weekend!), but there's another reason, too. The Coney Shack truck parks around the corner from our office every Friday. They were winners of the 2015 Vendy Award for Rookie of the Year, and are one of our top choices for lunch on Friday.

The first thing we recommend is getting to the truck early. We usually get there around 1pm, and there are often several items sold out by then. This time, the short rib and calamari were no longer available, and we ended up getting the last rice bowl. If you get to the truck by 12:30, everything should still be available.

We ordered the caramelized garlic pork rice bowl for $10. You can also get beef, chicken or mushroom in a rice bowl, as well as tacos, burritos, quesadillas and even hot dogs with crazy toppings.

The pork is marinated in Vietnamese thit ko sauce. It's not too strong of a flavor, which both sweetens and tenderizes the meat. You could see a little caramelization on the pork, but we would have liked a bit more.

One of the perks of getting the last available rice bowl is we got the crispy rice from the bottom of the pot. It's always enjoyable eating the crispy rice from the bottom of the pot.

Lunch is served with pickled daikon and cucumbers, sliced jalapeños, cilantro and pico de gallo, all on the side. Each of the veggies were crisp and fresh, with the pickled daikon and cucumbers especially scrumptious.

Everything was topped with a spicy mayo sauce and toasted sesame seeds. In addition to being tasty, lunch was visually appealing, too. The spicy mayo wasn't really spicy, but if you want to add some heat, sriracha sauce is readily available at the window with small containers that can be filled up to go.

You can find the Coney Shack truck on Twitter here and on Facebook here. If you're actually in Coney Island, you can visit the Coney Shack at 2875 West 8th St, 1/2 block from the NY Aquarium. We know it's not likely in the middle of winter, but keep them in mind when the weather starts warming up. You'll be glad you did.