Kwik Meal is by no means your average, run of the mill, midtown street cart serving up halal meat and rice and the cart’s owner and chef, Mohammed Rahman is by no means your average cart chef. Rahman, a Bangladeshi immigrant cut his teeth as a chef at the once vaunted Rainbow Room and his skills behind the stove show.

First off the glistening, silver, box shaped cart is immaculately clean, Rahman dons a white chef’s jacket and is both unbelievably friendly and chatty. He’ll tell you the many reasons why his food is so good and it’ll become easier to understand why his meat and rice is so far and beyond some of his indistinguishable near by competitors. He’ll tell you that he doesn’t use gyro meat for his lamb dishes but instead actually marinades a leg of lamb in cumin, coriander, yogurt and green papaya. He’ll tell you that he uses jalapeno peppers to get such a unique and vibrant hot sauce and he’ll always tell you about the new dishes offered on the menu which now includes fresh salmon and shrimp.

If you’ve never had food from Kwik Meal before I recommend the lamb and rice or falafel which is influenced way more by Greek cuisine than Israeli. Rahman’s falafel substitutes tsatsiki sauce for tahini and replaces firm pita bread with a much more chewy and soft pocket.  On my last visit I ordered the above chicken with rice ($6.50) with tsatsiki sauce and hot sauce. This dish can usually be ordered at 99% of street carts for $6 or less but then you wouldn’t get hot, fluffy basmati rice, nostril clearing home made hot sauce, well seasoned and not greasy white meat chicken or fresh, creamy tastsiki. You’ll need a talented chef like Rahman to make a lunch like that. That extra $1 that lunch at Kwik Meal costs might be the best buck you ever spend in your life.

As a side note Rahman will be opening another cart in the near future and the rumor in the food blogging, cart stalking scene is that it might feature fresh pasta to order. I guess we’ll have to wait eagerly and see.

The Kwik Meal Cart – 45th Street (near Sixth Avenue) NY, 10036

Filed under: Cart Food | Tagged: Pita Bread, Chicken and Rice, coriander, Basmati Rice, Lamb, falafel, Kwik Meal, Midtown Street Cart, Mohammed Rahman, Bangladeshi Immigrant, Rainbow Room, cut tteth, chef's jacket, gyro meat, lamb leg, cumin, yogurt and green papaya, Jalapeno Peppers, Homemade Green Hot Sauce, salmon and shrimp, tahini, tasatsiki, Chicken With Rice, Rahman's New Italian Cart