Midtown Lunch

GOOD FRIDAY

Fried Chicken from Popeyes (40th btw. 7+8th)
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by joshbousel

BETTER FRIDAY

Fried Chicken & Waffle from Ressie May’s (8th ave. btw. 39+40th)
Posted to the Midtown Lunch Flickr Photo Group by yehwan

MIDTOWN LINKS

• A few lucky people get Wagyu beef sliders from Bouchon Bakery [Serious Eats]
• English is Italian becomes Wild Salmon [NY Times]
• Gigantic Karoke Lounge opens in Times Square [Spotlight Live]
• If your company paid for you to eat at the Four Seasons, then you probably already know this… [NY Times]
• Another blog catches on to the mediocre Bulgogi Cart outside my building [Plate of the Day]

I take for granted sometimes that everyone knows about every kind of food I write about.  I spend 17 posts writing about a strange bulgogi cart outside my building, but I feel like some people still don’t actually know what the hell bulgogi is.  The same could probably be said about Bi Bim Bap.  Maybe it’s just Korean stuff.  Despite being a short walk away from Koreatown, it seems as if people are still not versed in the delicious ways of Korean dining.  Well, if you’ve never eaten Bi Bim Bap, here is a quick primer. 

Bi Bim Bap is basically a deconstructed Korean rice dish.  You get white rice, a number of vegetables (usually carrots, cooked spinach, bean sprouts and others) and sometimes a little bit of meat.  The dish is then topped off with a fried egg, which you are supposed to break over the whole thing.  It all gets mixed together with this sweet and spicy red sauce to make a rice dish/meal.  It’s delicious, and in the past few months, it seems to popping up at delis everywhere in Midtown.   I’ve had a decent pre-packaged version at Cafe Duke, a mediocre version at Pro Bagel, (and a terrible version at the Bulgogi Cart outside my building).

I’ve always been content with the Cafe Duke version, despite the fact that it was pre-packaged- but after discovering Ambrosia, I think Duke has been unseeded.  While Korean food is a unique option for Midtown Lunch’ing, Ambrosia is not.  It’s just another one of those generic delis that serve everthing under the sun- complete with sandwiches, salads, pizza and the requisite by the lb. buffet.  Although I’m sure some have partaken in the Mexican Fiesta station, I suggest ignoring it all and heading back to the Korean Food window in the back of the store.

What could possibly be the best cheap to go Bi Bim Bap in Midtown (outside of Koreantown), and the +/- after the jump… Read more »

 

No rain is keeping me from the grand opening of Mandler’s on 8th ave. btw 38+39th. On Monday they got the thumbs up from ConEd and the DOH, so today at Noon the first sausage was served. (I had to settle for the second one, a bockworst with onions and mushrooms- but I did get the first order of Zucchini fries! And yes, I am insane.)

It is as promised. Every kind of sausage you can imagine, 8 different dipping sauces to choose from, zucchini fries and corn fritters! Check out the menu at http://www.mandlers.com – a gameplan is definitely required…

Most people like to go to fancy lunches for their birthday. Me? I wanted buffet by the lb. so I loaded up at Cafe Duke (51st btw. 6+7th) with no guilt about the price (it ended up being $9.79 before tax). Fake shrimp, noodles, 5 dumplings. Screw the rules– today’s my birthday!

Every Tuesday I turn the site over to a Midtown Lunch’er for their recommendations of places to eat Lunch in Midtown. Today it’s Eli, a stooge who loves Italian, but hates Italian American…

Name: Eli

Age: 27

Occupation: Bond Company Stooge

Where in Midtown do you Work?: 51st & 6th

Favorite Kind of Food: Sandwiches, raw fish, raw beef, dumplings, french fries, hot sauce, cheese, anything Italian.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Italian-American, Indian, and anything that was prepared by someone who is over-ambitious and under-conscientious.

Favorite Place to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Dan Dan Noodle at Hing Won on 48th btwn 5+6th; Hakata Ramen at Menchanko-Tei on 55th St; Chicken and spicy rice from King Tut cart on 6th and 50th; Burger and a bag of fries at the Burger Joint.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often: Used to be Citarella To Go. What a reliable place that was. Now I guess it’s Chipotle (guilty pleasure). Here’s the thing about Chipotle: if you choose to spend your $9.83 for lunch there, are you sending a message to the McDonalds Corporation that there’s a strong consumer base that demands naturally raised, antibiotic-free foods?  Or are you just perpetuating the McDonald’s status quo of destroying rain forests, farming and slaughtering animals inhumanely, and making poor people fat?

Place you discovered thanks to MidtownLunch: The roast pork at Cafe Cello. I think I have an actual piece of crispy pork skin lodged in my aorta, but it was worth it.

Dream job location for lunch purposes only, and why?: Parma, Italy. The fish market in Tokyo. Anywhere lunch is called “siesta”, includes a nap, and everyone goes home for three hours.

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers?: Does anyone know of a Mongolian grill around here?  There used to be a place that was similar to Cafe Duke, in that it had everything, hot and cold salad bars, etc…I think it was even on the same block that Duke is now on…. they had a serve-yourself bar, with thinly sliced raw pork, beef, chicken, lamb, or shrimp, lots of vegetables, different kinds of noodles & rice.  Then you went over and chose all these different sauces, chopped garlic, ginger, different kinds of pepper sauces, fermented black beans, etc etc.  You gave them to the dude at the grill and he had these two gigantic chopstick-like things that he used to stir-fry your food. That place closed down a few years ago, and I haven’t found anything similar since. Any ideas?

Where to start.  I’m pretty sure the only message you send when eating at Chipotle is that you are willing to settle for crappy burritos!  I do however agree with you about the Burger Joint.  In fact, I ate there yesterday.  Burger Joint porn, my Chipotle Challenge, and your chance to recommend a Mongolian BBQ place to Eli, after the jump… Read more »

For practicing Jews, tonight at sundown is the start of Passover- the holiday that celebrates the time when the Jews escaped from slavery, and left Egypt so quickly that they didn’t allow for their bread to rise.   Little did they know, thousands of years later, tons of their relatives would have to commemorate this time by throwing away perfectly good bread, and eating crappy crackers for a week and half.

The part of the tradition I don’t understand is this…  The story doesn’t say the Jews were in such a rush they didn’t put yeast in their bread.  The way I understood it, they were in such a rush that they grabbed the already made bread, not allowing it time to rise.  So why can’t we eat bread with yeast in it, that just doesn’t rise that much.  Like delicious flat breads???  It’s because of this that I don’t celebrate Passover.  That, and I am a terrible Jew.  Sure I made a brisket for tonight, and my family is coming over to read the story, find some hidden Matzah, and drink a ton of wine… but after that I fully plan on eating bread the rest of the week.  I also wouldn’t want to disappoint the readers of Midtown Lunch with a week and a half of breadless posts.  That wouldn’t be right.  Yeah, that’s it.  I’m doing it for the blog…

But- in honor of the tradition, I’d like to present the Midtown Lunch guide to the best bread in Midtown.  For good Jews, use it to choose your final lunch before Passover.  It’s going to be the last bread you enjoy for awhile, so you might as well make it count.  For me, I figure if I am going to anger God, I might as well be eating good bread while I do it.

Kati Roll (46th btw. 5+6th).  They fry the paratha fresh on a giant skillet/frying pan right in front of your eyes.  Delicious!!!

The flat bread at Cosi (Multiple Locations).  I think this should be ok for Passover, since the bread doesn’t really rise that much!  But it’s not.  So even though they have salads, I would recommend that good Jews stay away from this place entirely during Passover.  The free bread bowl may be too much temptation for a good Jew to handle.

More bread porn, plus a list of Passover closings– after the jump… Read more »