Highlights of the Highline

RESTAURANT: The High Line (Multiple food kiosks)

LOCATION: 13th-17th Street, 10th Ave. New York, NY 10011

What a beautiful, sunny day for the first Saturday in June!  Walking the High Line on this historic rail line turned public, urban, zen-garden retreat is just one of the many great ways to spend a NYC summer day.  Benches are all around to soak in the elevated water views of the Hudson River, gorgeous blue skies, city streets and the park's green landscape.  The High Line currently runs from Gansevoort Street to 30th Street, but the heart (or maybe stomach) of this spot is between 13th and 17th Street.  Food vendors are readily preparing delicious, tasty and refreshing snacks.  The hubs and I spanned a few of the kiosks.  Our afternoon eats came from The Taco Truck and Delaney Barbeque's Smokeline, with refreshments and dessert from Brooklyn Soda Works and La Newyorkina. 

From The Taco Truck, we ordered the Barbacoa Torta (a Mexican sandwich), the pork (al pastor) tacos and the braised beef (barbacoa de costilla) tacos. (Note: 2 tacos come with each taco order, perfect for swapping & sharing.)  I was most anticipating the tacos, with its cheesy spicy salsa goodness.  The juice from all the ingredients appeared to meld together and soak the soft taco so much, that they serve each taco with an additional layer of soft tortilla.  Disappointingly though, the tacos were all flash and no sizzle.  Even with all the onions, cilantro, salsas and cheese, there seemed to be a lack of flavor and depth.  Not one of the better tacos to be had.  Surprisingly though, the unassuming torta was a bigger hit for me.  When we first sat down to eat, I wasn't excited about how the torta looked & thought to myself maybe we ordered too much food and that was unnecessary to get.  So glad we did end up getting it though!  The barbacoa torta was consistently warm and "Mmm" delicious, something I couldn't taste in the barbacoa taco.  The bread soaks and drips with the beef's juiciness while the chipotle salsa gives a nice kick.  This Torta-Barbacoa de Costilla contends as my favorite Highline snack. 

The chopped beef brisket from Delaney's BBQ Smokeline also by far trumped the tacos.  Not a very photogenic dish, but all that matters is that the meat was moist, tender and succulent.  My fork kept digging back in the box for more.  I love onions but I don't like pickled onion, so I left this alone.  We got 2 sides of potato salad.  The potato salad is nothing to sing about but the cool potatoes did give a nice contrast of texture and temperature from the warm torta and comforting brisket.  As for the topping, we had a lime mayo on the side.  This was buttery goodness to smear on the brisket, not that the brisket needs any toppings to make it good.

After walking off the food, we quenched our thirst at Brooklyn Soda Works.  Hubs got the blueberry lemon and I got the apple & ginger soda.  I don't like real ginger flavors, but I love apple... so I thought it'd give it a shot anyways.  He doesn't generally like blueberry but likes lemon, so it definitely was a mish mosh of our likes/dislikes in each drink.  We ended up liking one another's drinks, so we swapped & I finished off the blueberry lemon.   Each of these soda flavors were good-quality and plays to different tastes.  While the blueberry lemon has a slightly thicker fruity tart taste, the apple & ginger is light and refreshing.  If you love ginger, definitely go for this flavor.  Although I'm not a ginger fan, the apple countered the flavor enough for me to enjoy sips of this drink.

After walking up and down the High Line between Gansevoort and 17th Street, we re-hydrated with ice pops from La Newyorkina.  Curious about the blackberry-mango flavor, I was wondering how these 2 flavors were going to taste meshed together.  It turned out to be 2 separate flavors on 1 popsicle stick, instead of a blend of the two.  The top half of the pop was blackberry, while the bottom was the mango.  I don't have a single complaint about this pop; it was the perfect icy refreshment to cool off with from the summer sun.  No pics of this treat though, I was too busy with the blackberry mango in one hand & the blueberry soda in the other :)

Bottom Line: Get the torta from The Taco Truck and the chopped beef brisket from Delaney's BBQ Smokeline.  

Happy Noshing, Jeanne