MIDTOWN — An acclaimed Queens chef has exported his Southeast Asian fare to Manhattan.
Meru Sikder, 38, the chef behind the former Vooter Adda restaurant in Jamaica, opened a food cart by the same name on West 46th Street in Midtown last Monday.
He is serving up six Desi, or "Indian-style Chinese," dishes originally offered at the restaurant that feature flavorful twists on street-meat staples like chicken or lamb over rice.
The cart, located just a few feet from a Biryani cart Sikder also owns, had previously been named Sandwichland, but Sikder chose to give it an overhaul earlier this year. Each dish, made with fried rice or noodles and chicken, lamb or shrimp, costs $4 or $5 and also comes with salad.
"People get tired, you have to change things," he said. "I don't sell just any chicken over rice or lamb over rice. There's 10,000 vendors in New York City that all have the same stuff — this is different."
Sikder, who is from Bangladesh and worked as a chef for Hilton for eight years, attracted wide attention after opening his Biryani cart in 2006. He won Vendy Awards in 2008 and 2009, and was featured on The Travel Channel's "Andrew Zimmern's Street Food Adventures."
Vooter Adda's brick-and-mortar location in Queens closed earlier this year, but Sikder remains determined to open another restaurant — ideally in Midtown he said.
"It costs a lot of money," he said, "but one day."
The cart, whose opening was first reported by the food blog MidtownLunch.com, is located on West 46th Street between Sixth and Fifth avenues.
