The Atlantic Magazine takes on Egyptian street food

I have never heard of this uniquely Egyptian fast food, kushari, the pasta-rice-garbanzo-lentil with tomato and crispy onion dish. Now I have to figure out a way to make this. As Maggie Schmitt noted about it for The Atlantic Magazine's website, this street food is now becoming posher, as more sit-down restaurants are popping up to sell the stuff:

Instead of disappearing before the onslaught of hamburgers and fried chicken, local street foods are updating their image and presentation, and competing with international fast food on its own terms, targeting a middle class with increasingly urbane tastes. While in the older neighborhoods kushari is still ladled out from wooden street carts and in tiny hole-in-the-wall eateries, in the swankier parts of town you can get your fix at a gleaming new kushari restaurant franchise with formica banquette seating and waiters in uniforms with baseball caps.

Hopefully it'll show the McFalafel who's boss. There are also glorious photos of kushari and some places that serve it with the article. I just ate and it's making me hungry again.

Street food for the soul

Yahoo News lists suggestions for safe street-food eating by chef and foodie travel writer Tom Kime . Some of his suggestions? They might seem obvious, but somehow I am a dunce at putting them into practice. So I must remember them. The most instructive for me?

Follow crowds "A line of people is always a good indicator that the food is tasty and fresh-- it never sits idle for long. If a vendor on a busy street has no customers, there's probably a reason."

Ask the locals "The best recommendations I got were from taxi drivers, policemen, shop owners, and office workers. Locals are discerning: They only eat what they like and what doesn't make them sick."

This would've helped me on my last trip to NYC, when I stopped at a mediocre kosher food stand with absolutely nobody standing around it. Mind you, I figured it out when I passed the halal falafel stand with five people huddled around it in the June heat.

Impromptu Road Trip to New York: 1 of 2

I took a very impromptu trip back to NYC yesterday, once I found out that Company, that excellent musical I saw last month, is closing this Sunday. It’s a shame, really, but it’s for the best. You don’t want the show to get stale.

Just some quick notes on what I did and where I ate (everything else stays in New York). Photos to follow. NB: I got many of these recommendations from another Frommer’s book, Pauline Frommer’s New York City Guide.

Street Food – from hot dogs to halal

After the train station I decided to save some money and just eat food along the way to the hotel – the Gershwin on 27th Street, between 5th and Madison (next to the ubiquitous Museum of Sex). At this funky hotel I had booked a bed in a 10-bed hostel room for just $41! (Even better, they upgraded me to a 6-bunk room for the same price). Thought I’d hate it, but I didn’t.
My first stop: the ever famous Sabrett’s. Someone told me a while ago that this is New York’s finest hot dog. I may have been confused. This was the most flavorless hot dog I have ever eaten, and I have eaten many hot dogs in my life. I don’t know if it’s because all the flavor was boiled out of it. I have had better luck with an Esskay frank boiled for 5 – 10 minutes. But the thing was inedible. Maybe if I see one grilled or fried, I’ll try it. But not boiled.

I had even worse luck with a knish that was encased in a rock-solid outer shell. Kind of like that chicken I had at Higgin’s in OC. But I fared quite well, however, at one of many halal food stands further along. I got a falafel sandwich on pita. It was messy, and the falafel was not crisp. But it was very tasty. Maybe that’s where all the flavor from the hot dog went – but wait, then it wouldn’t be halal, would it?

Meskerem

Next I hit the specialty sales by the Empire State Building. Bought a nice shirt to use that night at Prato’s. Then it was a quick jaunt back to the hotel to dress, and off I went for dinner.
Meskerem is not related to DC’s Ethiopian-American institution. This was where I ate before I hit Company. For $15.95, I got a small lentil sambusa (like a samosa, but of Somali/Ethiopian origin) with this great sauce - berbere sauce perhaps? – and a plate of lega tibs, or lamb chunks in mild Ethiopian spices, and a Diet Coke. Beer is on the menu, but don’t bother because they don’t have any – it’s BYOB!

After Meskerem I hit Barrage, a festive little gay bar on the way back to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, for a pint of, um, something. It wasn’t memorable. Even more memorable than that was the Heineken I had at another gay bar, the New York Eagle, after the show. Very few people there on a Tuesday night.