Biryani Cart... I kind of miss you

Finally done with finals, so I guess it's about time I came back to posting about food (my suitemates were starting to give me crap for the lack of updates). Anyway, I'll keep this one short and sweet. The whole reason I started blogging was because I found myself placed into the heart of Manhattan, land of countless food carts, while being played to essentially play on the internet (okay, that part's not really true... I was hired to be a web developer). As it would so happen, I wanted to keep a log of the stuff I ate, I mean, a lot of it is so unique that it's something I'd want to remember later on... as stupid as that sounds. So myinnerfatty came to be. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. One of the first suggestions I was given by my coworkers was a street cart on 46th and Ave. of Americas... Biryani Cart. As someone who was barely familiar with street meat, and only know of it in the form of the 53rd and 7th chicken and rice cart, I just kind of thought to myself that this could never live up to those same lofty expectations as the other cart.

I was incredibly wrong. While both are chicken mixed with rice and sauce, the 2 are drastically different. The chicken tikka masala is drenched with a deceptively spicy orange and red sauce, layered over yellow basmati rice, and sprinkled with lettuce (so you can convince yourself that you're eating healthily). The chicken is well seasoned to an appropriate degree, is succulent and juicy (although you will occasionally run into a bone here and there), and just oily enough to leave a thin film of satisfaction on your lips after each bite. The sauce is the winner here, moderately viscous, the orange tint is ever so inviting. If you just looked at the platter, you'd be convinced that it can't be that spicy, but it is deceptively so. Of course, this isn't to the point where you're in pain when you're eating, but the tang is there, and definitely complements the heavy dose of spices. The rice is more or less... meh, but as good as the chicken is, the rice doesn't have to stand out. For $6, you could do much worse. Actually, let me put that in perspective... I normally tend towards Asian food, but I will go out of my way to visit Biryani cart. Plus Meru is super nice.