Adam's Halal - Mobile Fried Chicken (Old Slip and Water)

Mobile Fried Chicken. Isn't that the name of a band?

Halal fried chicken and fries in a patriotic box! Oh no, sadly these fries are cold, mealy and mushy. I saw some fresh ones being dipped in the fryer as I left, so maybe there are some good fries to be had and I just didn't have them. I had two pieces of chicken - the white piece was dry and stringy but the dark piece was pretty moist and tasty. At least there's a good amount of salt and pepper in the coating - the flavor of the skin is not half bad. I would recommend trying mobile fried chicken disco only if you can snag something coming right out of the fryer.

The Treats Truck!

Yay, the Treats Truck has arrived downtown! We could definitely use some treats down here. I've sampled some tasty goodies from the Treats Truck in Brooklyn so I'm happy to see it. I went for the oatmeal raisin cookie, my favorite old standby, and was not disappointed. It's small but thick, crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle, chock full of raisins, and tastes of rich butter, vanilla and brown sugar. I also took a sample of a pecan butterscotch bar and am in love with it. I'm definitely ordering that next time - it's so gooey and creamy, simultaneously salty and sweet. Wow.

Today was the Treats Truck's first visit to the financial district. She was parked between Pearl and Water on a tiny street called Coenties Slip, but she said she's scouting out different days and locations. She hopes to add the Wall Street area to her regular schedule, depending on business. I hope she does well enough to add us to her route!

Alan's Falafel (Water St. and Old Slip)

Another branch of Alan's - the first one was at cart central over on Broadway. I'm not sure how closely related they are but the signage is the same. The falafel sandwich at $3 is a huge lunch bargain. It's piled high with falafel, sauteed eggplant, hummus, babaghanoush, white sauce and red sauce. As a result, it's impossible to bite - I had to dig out the fillings with my fork. The falafel is really herbaceous, very green in color. It's a little dry, but the herbs give it a nice, sharp flavor. The falafel balls are crispy just like the other Alan's. This sandwich makes for a yummy quick cheap lunch...when you don't have time to make the trek west to Sam's Falafel on Broadway.

No name cart (Water and Hanover)

This cart has no sign but lots of food photographs in a strange 70s-looking palette. There's a sign proclaiming "Basmati Rice!" So, I'm hopeful that at least the rice will be better than average. I order the "curry chicken" thinking that maybe it will be different from the usual - most halal vendors just list "chicken" on their menus. Unfortunately the chicken and rice turns out to be the same dish available everywhere, and it doesn't have a lot of flavor - the chicken is kind of bland and fatty, and the basmati rice has only the palest hint of basmati aroma. The hot sauce is different though, very vinegary - the one nice surprise from the no-name cart.

Adel's Best Halal (Front Street at Maiden Lane)

I like the extra vegetables mixed in here, and the bonus piece of falafel (which was great). The chicken was minced, much smaller pieces than usual, and was of pretty high quality. The downside is that the chicken wasn't very spicy and didn't taste like it had been marinated very long. The hot sauce added some flavor, though. While not worth a detour, I would try Adel's again if it were closer to my office. Based on the bonus tasty falafel ball thrown in with my chicken, I would try the falafel sandwich next time.

(I think I freaked them out a little when I took a picture of the cart, sorry guys! There was all sorts of police activity, plainclothes guys with earpieces lurking around, and military helicopters flying and hovering about today. The President of the United States of Amurka, here for the UN general assembly, uses the heliport one block away from here. I think we saw Marine 1 and 2, with two scary-looking military chopper escorts, taking off while we ate our lunch.)

Jiannetto's Pizza Truck (Front and Wall)

The pizza crust was surprisingly crisp and tasty, but there was too much of the watery tomato sauce. The topping was just a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a few basil leaves, which didn't add much flavor but was a nice change from the gooey cheap mozzarella piled on at most slice counters in the city. We also got the Sicilian rice ball, expecting an order of three little balls like the ones at most Italian pork stores or delis (or like Bar Stuzzichini's rice balls, which are amazing, even though the restaurant looks like Mozzarelli's in the Green Hills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee...but I digress). This rice ball was huge, the size of my head, filled with meat, rice and frozen peas (they weren't frozen still, but there was a taste of freezer burn), topped with tons of tomato sauce and loads of cheese. Kind of bland but not terrible, but still a mediocre lunch.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

I tried the tomato tarte tatin recipe that was in the NY Times a week or so ago, and managed to produce a kind of tasty failure.
It called for frozen puff pastry - my first reaction was to try to make it myself, but then I read the puff pastry recipes from Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and Patricia Wells and reconsidered. Besides, my forays into baking usually end in disaster. I have made a tarte tatin before, and even though the pastry I make is more rustic, not real puff pastry, I usually make a mess with it and it crumbles and breaks and burns. SO, I found a good frozen puff pastry at the grocery store (from Dufour Pastry Kitchens). The flavors of the tarte were fantastic - the sweet carmelized onions, the tangy yellow and red cherry tomatoes, the olives and thyme - but the pastry ended up a soggy mess. I guess grape tomatoes would have released less liquid than cherries, or better yet I could have roasted the tomatoes first. (Although I never would have tried the recipe then because the oven would have been on forever and the apartment would have been 500 degrees.) It made me long for the addition of anchovies, though I guess then it would be just a pissaladiere with tomatoes...which actually sounds pretty great to me. Maybe next time.

(The pastry was good - I know only because Alex took the scraps from the tarte and made yummy little crescent rolls with them.)