This past Saturday was a perfect spring day:  sunny, my kind of optimal temperature, not too hot with a nice breeze, and full of POLLEN.  The allergies are striking me hard this year and the medicine did not help.  I didn’t let my dripping nose, incessant sneezing stop me from taking my bike out for the first ride of the year.  I am not the bright tights, hunched over, speeding through central park or through the very hilly the Hudson Valley kind of bicyclist.  I am more of the leisurely, meander through the city, looking for new city bike lanes, with a helmet that looks to be too small for my head, kind of a bicylist.

Now that you have the proper image of me, allergy stricken and on a bike in Manhattan, lets get to the objective of this post.  While meandering this past Saturday, I stumbled upon an unexpected truck nestled in Chinatown.  It was an unpainted truck, without any fancy logo plastered.  The truck had a fold out picnic section, attached to the truck and seated maximum of 8 guests.  The American flag was up and country rock was heard.  Parking our bikes and walking up closer, we find it was  Jen N Outlaw’s Fish Fry Truck.  The simple menu and the long lines screamed out, must stop for lunch!

The Simple Menu

Perhaps we were hungry but probably more so intrigued by the Louisiana in Chinatown that compelled us to order almost everything on the menu:

The Catfish Po Boy was a good heaping size.  The catfish was fried perfectly but I didn’t wholeheartedly love the bread.  I am not sure what kind of bread a tradition po-boy calls for, but I thought this sourdough like bun was too tough for the delicately crispy fried fish.  Plus, it was kind of hard to take a full bite!  Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich.

Catfish Po Boy

The Crawfish was a popular choice and we had to wait patiently for the next boil…

Mr. Paul Outlaw pouring steaming crawfish right out of the pot

I don’t think I ever had crawfish simply boiled and ready for picking, so I was very excited to try them.  Personally, I thought it was a lot of work for very little meat, but I guess it was fun picking and gnawing at them little suckers. My eating buddy who has had more experience with these tiny lobsters said they were one of the largest ones he ever had!  There was a generous amount of cayenne on the crawfish so those who can’t take the heat, be warned.

Crawfish or Crayfish or Crawdads or Mini Lobsters

And for sides, some fried pickles!

Hot from the fryer

We washed down our meal with some of their sweet teas.

This was my highlight for this past Saturday and I am so happy that allergies did not deter me.  Have some of your own crawfish, look for them on Twitter!