The halal cart
The most significant New York street food development of the last few decades is the proliferation of halal carts — aluminum-sided food carts serving chicken or lamb over rice with white sauce (a creamy, slightly spiced yogurt-based sauce) and hot sauce, for approximately $7–9. The combination is simple, filling, fast, and genuinely delicious. The "Halal Guys" on 53rd and Sixth Avenue in Midtown are the most famous (and most queued) example; the same food is available from hundreds of carts throughout the city with shorter lines and similar or better quality.
Hot dogs
The New York street hot dog — boiled, served in a steamed bun with mustard and sauerkraut or onion sauce — is an institution, available from the yellow umbrella carts concentrated in tourist areas and Midtown. It is not a gourmet food. It is cheap, fast, available anywhere, and part of the city's DNA. Worth eating once; Sabrett's with brown mustard is the standard.
Pretzels
The large soft pretzels sold from street carts throughout the city are a New York staple — cheap, often very fresh if you pick a busy cart, and improved by yellow mustard. Not the same as European soft pretzels; denser and saltier.
Food trucks
Beyond the traditional carts, New York has a large and rotating food truck scene covering cuisines from Korean barbecue to Venezuelan arepas to gourmet grilled cheese. The Vendy Awards (a street food competition held annually in New York) tracks the best; the winners are consistently good.
Elotes and Latin street food
In neighborhoods with large Mexican and Latin American populations — parts of Brooklyn, Jackson Heights in Queens, the South Bronx — street vendors sell elotes (grilled corn on the cob with mayo, cotija cheese, and chile), tamales, churros, and other foods often absent from mainstream food media coverage of New York but genuinely excellent and extremely cheap.
Roasted nuts and chestnuts
The roasted chestnut carts in winter (October through March) and the sugared roasted nuts carts year-round are among the more evocative sensory experiences of being in New York — the smell, particularly of chestnuts in cold air near Central Park, is something people remember long after the visit.