Midtown Lunch

Every Tuesday we step aside and let a real life Midtown eater give their pics for the best places to grab lunch in Midtown.  In honor of this past weekend’s Oyster Festivals, we present Sara- the oyster fanatic.

Name: Sara

Age: 25

Occupation: Agent

Where in Midtown do you Work?: The Harry Fox Agency, 44th St. & 3rd Ave.

Favorite Kind of Food: New England-style seafood. Chowdah, lobster rolls, steamers, and anything else you can picture a grizzled old fisherman pulling from the sea. I love those guys.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: That phrase means nothing to me. I will try almost anything. I thought I didn’t like meatloaf, but then I had some at a friend’s house recently and it turns out that I just don’t like bad meatloaf.

Favorite Place to Eat Lunch in Midtown:The Grand Central Oyster Bar. Once every 4 months or so, I will take myself there as a special treat, and eat 1/2 dozen Wellfleet oysters and 1/2 dozen kumamotos or whatever else looks good, and as many free biscuits as they will give me. Can’t afford it more often than that, but I wish I could eat oysters there every day.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: The Amish Market on 45th and 2nd. The salad bar has a good variety of foods (often including expensive ingredients that would cost more separately) and the hot bar is pretty decent as well. Good soups, excellent sandwiches, but avoid the sushi.

Place you discovered on MidtownLunch.com: Cafe Zaiya. A friend of mine had been searching for Mont Blanc pastries like the ones she had in Italy for a long time but had never found them in New York. I saw them at Cafe Zaiya and told her about it. Apparently she had been eating lunch there every day for months but had never bothered to look in the pastry case. She loved them!

If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why?  Tomales Bay, CA. That’s where the Hog Island Oyster Company is, and that is where I would like to spend the rest of my life: oyster heaven. In New York, I’d love to work within walking distance of Chinatown and all the great food that comes out of that neighborhood. I can’t imagine getting away health-wise with spending $1 for lunch at Tasty Dumpling every day, but it sure is nice to dream about.

Thanks for the profile Sara.  I like my oysters big… and for those- there’s only one place to go.  A picture of one of my favorite Oyster places, plus how to be next week’s Midtown Lunch Profile, after the jump…

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A friend of mine suggested that in honor of Yom Kippur, Midtown Lunch should go dark today.  I thought that was a great idea…  mainly because I’m lazy, and I figured it would get me out of posting something.  But then I thought, that’s kind of hypocritical.  Even though I’m Jewish, I don’t go to temple, and I’m certainly not fasting.

For those who don’t know, Yom Kippur is considered the most holy day of the year, in which Jews fast and go to temple to atone for the sins of the previous year.  There are two reasons I’m not fasting on Yom Kippur.  The first is pretty obvious.  Fat man’s gotta eat.  I don’t know if I could make it the whole day without eating.  I’m usually starving by 11am… counting down the minutes to the “acceptable” lunch time of 12pm.  (Those who go to lunch before Noon- I applaud you!  You are true trendsetters.)

But the real reason I don’t celebrate is because my family is in Miami… and religion for me is really just about family.  (Family, and the meals before and after Yom Kippur when you stuff your face- before and after you fast).  It’s sort of funny that Yom Kippur is bookended by the very thing that I need to atone for the most.  Gluttony.  Well, gluttony and my love of pork and shellfish.

So in honor of that, I’d like to apologize for my favorite Midtown Lunches that clearly go against the laws of Judaism.  I couldn’t live without them, and I need to atone…

The list of Midtown Lunch pork and shrimp worth going to hell for… after the jump.

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