Yesterday, I bought these beautiful asparagus at the Greenmarket. Having been out of town last weekend, I was hoping to get my hands on some of these green beauties this Saturday. The time to buy these in season and locally is always too short. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on quite a few, as you can see from the below photo:
Oh, I had had such grand plans for what I was going to make with these, I had thought about pulling together the Asparagus with Morels and Tarragon dish that I had really enjoyed last year. Then, I had an idea to try a recipe for Roast Chicken in Morel Sauce, as seen on The F Word (one of my all-time favorite food/cooking programmes). Even the video made it seem easy. I had the asparagus, I found bone-in chicken breasts, and I also closed my eyes and paid for the dried morels, which were not inexpensive.
Then, on my way to church this morning, I was making my way towards Park Avenue when something out of place caught my eye. This was not in a see-something/say-something way, but rather in a ‘hmm…you don’t generally see that in this neighborhood’ vein. It was the Rickshaw Dumping Truck! After that, all I could think about was whether or not they’d still be there on my way back home. Any idea of preparing vegetables for lunch had gone by the wayside.
I know that some of you are thinking, “Gross, I would NEVER eat something that came off of a food truck!” I know this because I am related to you, and you’ve already very clearly made your point to that effect. To that I say, “Good, more dumplings for me, then.” I’m not a rabid food-from-truck eater, especially when the topic of the hotdog cart is mentioned, and I mostly avoid the ones that hang out around 6th avenue in Midtown during the lunchtime hour. The caveat to that is that I do frequent the select few that I know are actually very good.
Rickshaw is one of those for me. How can you not love the Chicken and Thai Basil dumplings that are served here? (They also have the standard pork version and a vegetarian edamame one as well as sometimes having a special ‘guest dumpling flavor.’) It comes with the Peanut Sauce. Ordered with a side salad (or sesame noodle salad in this case), it was $9.00 total.
Given that I’m now without a subsidized company cafeteria for my noon repast, that seems pretty o.k. to me for lunch. The steamed dumplings stuffed with ground chicken, carrots, glass noodles, and peppery basil wrapped in soft dough, dunked into the slightly spicy sauce make a filling and eye-rollingly good break in the middle of the day. No wonder I’ve followed that truck to its various locations around the city.
Buon appetito!
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