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Forsyth @ Division - Heaven "on the Stick"
Location: Forsyth Street at Division, NW corner
Hours: Lunch, other?
Days: ?
Dishes: Skewers - Lamb, Beef, Chicken; Corn on the Cob
Prices: $1
The first moment I know I'm onto something great is when the smell of wood-smoke hits my nose. I've already bought lunch and I walk past the pushcart, located just north of the Manhattan Bridge overrpass on the north-west corner of Forsyth and Division streets. But the smell calls me back -- this pushcart is special, and I've got to at least find out what's going on.
The smell, I discover, is coming from the only cooking apparatus on the cart, a long, narrow trench filled with glowing embers, with a chimney at one end, stacked with natural charcoal. Layed across this trench are skewers of chicken, roasting, temptingly glazed with their own natural juices. At the far end of the trench, corn wrapped in tinfoil is set over the cooler coals. The menu is simple: "chicken on the stick, lamb on the stick, beef on the stick," all $1. I don't know about the price on the corn, but I would guess it's the same.
I decide on the beef.
"Ha shass?" the vendor asks, his silver-rimmed front teeth shining as he bobs towards me. "Hot sauce?"
"Yes."
But he doesn't put hot sauce on the meat. Instead, he sprinkles crushed red pepper and cumin up and down the skewer as he expertly twirls it over the coals. Before handing it to me, he whips out a small pair of scissors and clips off the point of the stick.
The red pepper and cumin are the only flavor which adorn the glistening cubes of beef. It's just this -- the fresh flavor of the meat, the perfect juice inside and the sweet fats brought to the surface by the intense heat of the coals. Simple. Simple and perfect.
I'm in awe.
Posted by Sam on March 2, 2006 10:45 PM
Comments
It's good to see this cart get the recognition it deserves. Since the banh mi place moved over to Grand St, this cart is the spot to charge up for a nice ride on the Chinatown buses that leave from here. I recommend the chicken over the beef, though both are delicious.
Posted by: citizen-viewer ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.kapshow.com/pushcartnyc/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 6, 2006 06:49 PM
Have you tried the lamb? I just got back from China a few months ago, where I found out a lot more about skewer cooking -- it comes primarily from the Uigur ethnic style, which is Central Asian and usally done with lamb. So I'm guessing this might be his specialty. I'll try both the lamb and the chicken next time I go back!
Posted by: Sam at March 7, 2006 11:47 PM
I believe that there is a Uigher cart in Flushing somewhere, along with a couple of Uigher (or Uygher) restaurants. Cafe Kashkar in Brighton Beach serves great skewered lamb (it's Uigher but serves a mainly Russian clientele), and the one restuarant in Flushing does everything from skewered lamb fat to lamb eyeballs in brown sauce.
Posted by: lambretta76 at March 15, 2006 04:22 PM
Nice info, lambretta! I'd love to find that cart in Flushing. Where did you hear about it? Any more info?
Posted by: Sam at March 16, 2006 01:51 AM
There used to be a cart on Main St. about a block north of where the Octopus Man used to ply his wares. However, a recent inquiry on Chowhound turned up this response:
"Flushing has them almost on every corner, all called either 'Xinjiang' or 'Mongolian' - all run by Chinese, just capitalizing on the lure of exotic Northern territories. I think any meat they basically call either Xinjiang or Mongolian..."
I would look along Main Street and directly off of it on the side streets. (The Octopus Man was near the large Korean church there.)
Posted by: lambretta76 at March 21, 2006 04:55 PM
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