Photo by Kayoko from Umamimart

The plywood has come down at Crisp, the- not as generic as I expected it to be- sandwich/salad place, on 3rd Ave. & 43rd, and they are open for business.  Far from being another Chop’t or Just Salads, the all vegetarian menu (which can be seen on their now live website) consists of salads (of course), pita pocket sandwiches, hummus bowls, and a nice selection of homemade teas.  It’s typical Midtown prices, with everything on the menu ranging from $6 to $10.75, but a few things on their website stand out enough for me to want to check it out:

• Their pita breads are baked from scratch every few hours on premises
• Their fresh made teas sound really good (with flavors like lychee, ginger/peach, & apple mango)
• Some of the ingredients they use in the sandwiches I could be down with… like mango curry, eggplant, goat cheese, and pomegranate dressing
• I won’t eat salads, but a hummus bowl with mango curry or roasted eggplant sounds pretty damn good
• Everything they serve is organic, when possible, and always delivered fresh daily.  Plus they change their oil every 24 hours, and they only use eco-friendly, recycled materials

Is there potential for anger and disappointment?  Of course, but I can’t help but get excited when new places open in Midtown, and this one looks alot more promising than we initially gave it credit for.  Full +/- coming soon… and for you early adopters who can’t wait to check it out, please post your thoughts in the comments.

Crisp, 684 3rd Ave. (btw. 43+44th), 212-661-0000

Official Website: http://www.eatatcrisp.com/

Photo by Dave Cook from Eating in Translation

The Pranzo Pizza Truck, which popped up on 55th btw. Park+Lex last October, and then disappeared, has been found (sort of) by Eating in Translation!  This sign was spotted yesterday in Jackson Heights.  Lesson learned:  if you copy a concept from a really popular vendor (in this case the much loved Jiannetto’s Pizza Truck), you may want to park your truck a little more than 6 blocks away from the original.  Carribean Spice Cart (on 46th St btw. 6+7th)… you’ve been warned.

Related:
Midtown Links (Pizza Truck is M.I.A. & the Treats Truck is Sick Edition)
The Pranzo Pizza Truck Attempts to Replace Jiannetto’s as Best Grandma Slice

I have a secret relationship with General Tso’s Chicken. Maybe secret isn’t the best word for it. Love/Hate? Nah… that doesn’t really do it either. Hate is not a word I would ever use to describe my feelings toward any kind of Chinese food (even the most Americanized dishes.) So maybe it’s an affair. I know it’s bad for me. I know it’s an American invention. I know much better food can be had in Flushing or Manhattan’s Chinatown, or on Sunday mornings in a Dim Sum house (my other Chinese food addiction). But there is a special place in my heart for the General. (Tso or Gau, it doesn’t really make a difference to me.)

My addiction started in college, when General Tso’s Chicken from Golden Light in Somerville, MA (go Jumbos!) became my go to second dinner. If you never went to college, second dinner is the meal you eat around one in the morning, a full 6-7 hours after eating “dinner” in the dining hall, thereby making it a totally acceptable 4th meal of the day (3rd for those of us who didn’t wake up until Noon.) That is where it started. It ended about halfway through my sophomore year, when I had to go to the hospital one day with horrible stomach pains that would not go away. My friends joked that maybe eating General Tso’s chicken every single night at 1am for over a month isn’t such a good idea. Ok… so maybe they weren’t “joking”, although in the General’s defense, it only allegedly put me in the hospital. It was never proven. It’s not like when I was admitted, the Doctor looked at my chart and said, “This is clearly a case of eating cheap Chinese food every night for an entire month!” So we don’t really know for a fact that it was the Chinese food. We can only speculate. And quite frankly, it could have been anything giving me those horrible stomach pains, which thankfully ended up going away on their own.

Needless to say, I cut back (slightly) on the General Tso’s after that. But I still love it, and although I eat only eat in sparingly now, the craving does come up every so often for those crispy chunks of chicken, covered in spicy, sweet, gooey sauce. So when I saw Lawrence (aka Superman, aka NYCFoodGuy) write that the best General Tso’s chicken in Midtown West is at China Gourmet on 8th Ave. btw. 52+53rd, I knew my mission was clear: use his post as an excuse to eat General Tso’s chicken. Read more »

Asking me to not eat lunch out for a day, is like asking a Doctor to stop saving lives.  (People depend on me in a way, right?)  It feels weird posting something to this site about skipping lunch, but it’s for a good cause, so I guess Midtown Lunch can skip a day of eating out.  Today is City Harvest’s “Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger” day, and they’re asking individuals to donate what they would normally spend on lunch, to help feed New York City’s hungry kids and their families.  With the amount of money you would spend on a Midtown Lunch ($10), they can help feed two children for a month.  And if you didn’t bring a bagged lunch, or can’t skip lunch entirely (I know I usually pass out if I’m not lunch’ing by 12:15), get two slices of $1 pizza, and give the other $8 to City Harvest. 

For more info, or to donate money, go to http://www.cityharvest.org/skiplunch/

[Via Gothamist]

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. Today it’s Jake, an actress (yes, you heard that correctly… Jake is a girl) and theater manager  by night/executive assistant by day, who is looking for the best french fries in Midtown.

Name: Jake (Yes it’s a guys name. No it’s not short for anything.)

Age: 31

Occupation: I’m an actor/theatre producer, but I make a living as executive assistant.

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 45th & 6th

Favorite Kind of Food: Anything spicy or with shellfish. And I always have to eat a hot lunch.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Yogurt. Even the smell of it is revolting to me.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Pam Real Thai (49th btw. 9+10th) for delivery, Pam Real Thai Encore (47th btw. 9+10th) for eat in. My friend Liz got me hooked on their chichen laarb and vegetarian pad thai. Pam’s versions are really light and delicious.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Kwik Meal Cart (SW Corner of 6th & 45th St.) I get veggies over rice, but their falafel and lamb are just as amazing. The chef gets profiled all the time – seriously, it’s way better than anything made in a “Kart” should be. I also get soup and a half sandwich at Pret a Manger once a week — their butternut squash soup is so good!

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Paris, near an old-school bistro with perfect open-faced Croque Monsieurs.

Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers?: Where can you get really good fries around here?

Well… that’s an easy one for me.  My favorite french fries in Midtown after the jump… Read more »

Haagen Dazs is introducing their new Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream with “Free Flavor Day”, which means, today from 4-8pm you can go into any participating location and get a free scoop of the new flavor.  But don’t go running out to your nearest Haagen Dazs just yet… you may remember from last year, when they did this same promotion, it is only ”participating” locations, so many of the Midtown franchises that sell Haagen Dazs will not have the new flavor, or be offering any sort of free Ice Cream.  Don’t be fooled by the “Find a Location Near You” link on the Haagen Dazs website.  Not all of those locations are participating.

We take our free stuff very seriously here at Midtown Lunch, and have tracked down confirmation one way or the other, from three of the Midtown Haagen Dazs locations.  The list is after the jump…  Read more »

Lunch from Oms/b, Posted to the M.L. Photo Pool by lazysundae

• It’s not cheap, and you have to wear a jacket, but the Delegate Dining Room at the UN is having a Malaysian all you can eat lunch buffet until May 23rd [Eating in Translation]
• Apparently the Alambre Burrito at Pampano Taqueria is where it’s at [A Passion for Food]
• Here’s a look at what the sit down lunch at Fig & Olive looks like [LWF&D]
• Lamb shanks are still the thing to get at Kanaat (aka Al Baraka) Turkish Buffet [Peter Cherches]
• I’m not the only one who likes the Mongolian BBQ at Food World [Grace is Full]

This sign popped up last month while Law & Order was filming inside Goodburger

A few weeks ago Serious Eats couldn’t help but post a clip from an episode of Law & Order: SVU where Robin Williams plays a deranged “locavore” (seriously) who used his “condition” as an alibi for why he couldn’t have committed a crime inside a fast food restaurant.  Even funnier was the fact that Zen Burger (on Lex btw. 45+46th) makes an appearance as “Happy Burger”, the generic fast food restaurant where the crime was committed.  Playing a crappy “ecoli” and “salmonella” filled fast food chain was quite the stretch for the all vegetarian Zen Burger, but the giveaway is the the orange and green stripes that line the walls.

Check out Zen Burger in its acting debut, after the jump… Read more »