Editor’s Note: Without a doubt, New York City owns the Stateside street food scene. So how could we limit ourselves to just one NYC $10 A Day challenge? Naturally, we couldn’t. While our last NYC challenger explored the city’s oldies but goodies, our newest challenger and friend, James Boo of The Eaten Path, went down a different road; he even crossed rivers to get to the outer boroughs! Check out his “Only In New York” adventure below. Which street food vendors would you hit up if you only had $10 today? Let me know at amy@vendr.tv.

When VendrTV asked me take the $10 street food challenge, I balked at the idea of spending inside those lines. When it comes to food, a few bucks are often saved at the expense of serious quality. While I love both cheap eats and street food, a day consisting only of meals that fall into both categories isn’t something I would wish on any eater. Still, after digging deeper and venturing outside of Manhattan’s confines, I experienced some of the city’s best affordable local foods and the neighborhoods which sustain them.

I kicked off my $10 day with one of New York’s best tamales, the Tamal Oaxaqueño from Tamales Ebenezer. Sold out of steel pots just one block from the first 6 Train stop in the Bronx – by a street vendor named Neo, no less – the burrito-sized beauts put dry, crumbly, and sparsely-stuffed tamales to shame. The masa, cut with just the right amount of lard, is so creamy and fluffy that it must be eaten with a spoon. The chile verde filling is rich and meaty, with a relentlessly bold kick that is not for the weak.

Since getting to the Bronx by 8 a.m. for a breakfast tamale is rarely an option, I buy these wonders by the backpack, throw them in the freezer at home, and steam one whenever I’m in need of a quick meal. With the addition of eggs and some locally grown asparagus that you can pick up from, say, Union Square Greenmarket (farmers are street vendors too!), it’s easy to start the day with a beautiful breakfast plate of home-cooked goodness. All this fresh produce might put you a bit over the $10 limit, but for the sake of supporting greenmarkets and fresh produce, I bent the rules.

I was hoping I could work Kwik Meal’s restaurant-grade lamb into the challenge, but its $8 price tag eliminated the gourmet choice of street meat from my agenda. Instead, I went with the obvious backup: $3 chicken and lamb over rice from Halal Guys at 53rd and 6th.

After eating my way around Manhattan’s food cart scene, I still consider Halal Guys‘ lamb indispensable. It’s so unassumingly similar to all the other unsightly hunks of gyro meat on the spit, yet somehow transformed into a coarsely chopped, beautifully browned, and purely flavored bounty of satisfaction on the grill. Splash with mildly tangy white sauce and splash-of-blindness-waiting-to-happen red sauce, and you’ve got a classic bite of lunch in Midtown.

It helps that just one of their mixed plates is hefty enough to feed two. I split this one with a friend to stay on budget.

As dinnertime approached, I made my way to Jackson Heights, which I understand to be New York’s greatest destination for amazing foods from across the world. Roosevelt Avenue alone is stacked with Latin-leaning trucks and carts, giving eaters-on-foot plenty of options for authentic, affordable antojitos.

I ended up at Tia Julia, a popular truck known for its cemita, which is essentially a torta made with sesame seed egg roll and stuffed with extra punches of queso blanco and papalo. Their cemita’s $7 price tag made it an order for another day, so I went with a torta de milanesa.

The $6 I handed through Tia Julia’s window kicked me just past the $10 limit, but I’d heard too much about this milanesa to opt for something else. I encourage those of you seeking to recreate the challenge in better fiduciary faith to walk down Roosevelt, where less vaunted Mexican sandwiches will run between $4 to $6.

As for my torta? I’ll bet that Tia Julia’s cemita has this sandwich beat. But, for the price, this is one brilliant hand-held meal. Two layers of pounded, breaded, and fried chicken (or beef), thick slices of queso blanco and avocado, a heap of rajas and a hearty pinch of cilantro squeezed between two halves of a bean-laced torta bun made for a hearty, satisfying finale to my thrifty tour of New York’s street eats. I may have failed this challenge on the ledger, but at the end of the day, spending an extra buck or two was worth the extra mile of flavor.

Tamales Ebenezer
138th St. and Alexander Ave., Bronx, NYC

Halal Guys
53rd St. and 6th Ave., Manhattan, NYC

La Tia Julia Antojitos Truck
91st and Roosevelt Ave.
Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC

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  $10 A DAY

  The Original NYC Street Food
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