Culinary delights of - New York City Streets : Biryani Cart

A small cart at the intersection on 6th avenue and 46th street which delivers traditional mouth watering biryani and amazing koti rolls.

Biryani Cart - 6th and 45th NYC

I was walking in Manhattan for the second day, I had already seen central park, times sq, grand central, NY central library, High line, Wall st, trinity church, at-least 30 different Starbucks and had eaten Chinese, Italian, French and American food. I was craving for some spicy Indian food. Like the previous day, I called Rohit "maga(dude) find me some good Indian food cart in Manhattan", "Go to Biryani cart" was his immediate response. I looked up the place and realized I was close by. I headed straight to 6th Av and 46th St. To my surprise there were no customers, so I went to the cashier/chef and asked whats popular, "biryani and spicy buradi.....", "awesome, one order of spicy buradi, and one order of biryani". As I was waiting for my food I looked up the yelp reviews, this place was not as popular as halal guys or Prosperity dumpling, biryani cart had ~300 reviews and 4 stars. However this place had multiple awards (Time out New York - 2010 critics pick, people's choice award 2009, Vendy award 2008 and multiple articles/shows in various magazines and cable shows). I must say, this place was impressive. This place is pretty cheap too $6 for a biryani or two koti rolls.

The biryani was good, super spicy I must add. Although there were very few chicken pieces in the biryani, the flavor of the rice was amazing. The spicy buradi was not from this world. I genuinely think these koti rolls were better than the ones we get in India(Bangalore). The combination of mint chutney, red sauce and white sauce was mind blowing.

Spicy Buradi

Chicken Biryani. 

All in all, the koti rolls were amazing and the biryani was amazing flavor wise and not so good quantity wise. one thing I can definitely say is that, this place is better than over-hyped halal guys.

Culinary delights of China town - New York City : Prosperity Dumpling

On a cold December evening, I was walking aimlessly in Manhattan thinking were to eat, I called Rohit who was working in New Jersey to suggest some popular place in Manhattan, he did a quick search and asked me to go to prosperity dumpling. I looked up the yelp review (~2300 review 4.5 stars) I was impressed. I went to 103rd street station caught a metro and went straight to china town. My phone was running out of juice, so I quickly called Rohit again and asked him for directions, Rohit was like " go to canal and eldridge...." beep beep and my phone died. Okay I now know the intersection, I asked an elderly gentleman across the corner - " how do I get to canal and eldridge? " "go straight and take a right on canal walk for two blocks and you get eldridge". I thanked the gentleman and followed his instructions and Prosperity was easy to find.

Prosperity dumpling (Image - yelper : Moises V)

A small hole in the wall place, completely mental and chaotic inside. The menu is quite large with close to 50 items. the menu included all sorts of soups, pancakes and different types of dumplings. I'm not a pork person, although I don't mind eating pork. I prefer chicken instead. so as soon as I entered  the place saw this person taking orders. The owner/chef/cashier is a no nonsense person - "hey you, what do you want??"  I was deciding what to get, still looking at the menu "one order of 26(steamed chicken dumpling) and one order of 27 (chicken soup dumpling)", "okay, 5 minutes" was his response. As I was waiting, few others were ordering. Looked like every one were taking #17(fired pork and chive dumpling). "My god  #17 should be super popular!" I went to cashier and said "one order of #17 please" and he gave me a box with 4 fried pork dumpling and said "26, 27 and 17  - 7.25 Dollar" I paid him the money and opened the box. oh man, the dumplings were huge in size, in flavor and full of meat, I couldn't believe you get 4 dumpling for 1$. I'm so glad I tried pork dumplings. picked the rest of the order and headed back home. Me and rohit OD'd on dumpling that night!

Fried Pork and Chive dumpling

Steamed chicken dumpling

Chicken soup dumpling

All in all, Prosperity dumpling lives up to the HYPE. A must try place in china town.