Midtown Lunch

Not all street meat is created equal.  It may seem, to the uninitiated, that many chicken and lamb over rice vendors are serving the same food, but the real cart aficionados know the truth.  Sure there are the stand out carts that everyone has heard of, but even amongst the no-name carts there are some huge differences. Different rice, different quality of meat, different veggies or salad, bread, no bread, different sauces, and most importantly, different spices.  Many of the vendors are from different countries, and usually that’s reflected in the way the food tastes.  It’s not until you put 13 plates of it side by side that you realize no two are alike. And that was my dream; to bring together different street meats from all over Midtown to one central location and have a massive taste off (yes, I have weird dreams.)

Last week, in Bryant Park, that dream came true.  20 Midtown Lunch’ers converged, tasted and rated 13 different plates of chicken and lamb over rice, from 13 different carts in Midtown.  Each lunch’er was instructed to bring two large orders of chicken and lamb over rice from their favorite cart (one topped with white sauce, one with white sauce and hot sauce.) We got the famous, “the best”, and not so well known carts, put them side by side and let them duke it out in a blind taste test.  With separate ratings for chicken, lamb, rice, white sauce, hot sauce, value, and overall taste, we proved conclusively that sometimes the “hype” is warranted, and sometimes it’s not.  And as expected, with all of the judging done blind, a few unknown carts distinguished themselves with some surprisingly good scores. 

The results of the First Annual Street-Meat-Palooza, after the jump. Read more »

Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) re-opened for business on Friday after being shut down by the Department of Health for the second time in as many months.  You have to wonder how long this can keep going, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  for good Chinese food, I’ll deal with the dirty.

Unfortunately some sad news on the Midtown East sandwich front.  Just after finding out that Hing Won had re-opened, I got an email from a Lunch’er reporting that Milant has been closed for “renovations” until further notice.  No word on whether this is related to their DOH closing a few months ago, but either way this is a huge loss… not just on the sandwich front, but on the cold gazpacho front.  It’s been really freakin’ hot out lately.

Got any news to report?  Email it to zach@midtownlunch.com

Too bad they don’t serve this $3 sandwich regularly at ‘wichcraft.

• Brownie hits up ‘wichcraft at the Rock Center pop up food court [Blondie & Brownie]
• Public House will have an open bar tonight from 7 to 8 pm to apologize for planning steam pipe explosion drink specials [Gothamist]
• Starbucks will close 6 Manhattan locations by next year, and all of them are in Midtown [NYTimes]
• Cafe Spice, the Indian choice in the Grand Central Terminal food court, is not good [Gastronormous]
• Here’s a video of Top Chef’s Richard making popcorn popsicles [Urbanite]
• Dinner at Aoki is not as good as lunch at Aoki [Life With Food and Drink]

Another pizza truck has popped up just north of where Jiannetto’s has
set up their mini-pizza empire. It’s parked on 55th btw. Madison+Park
and the truck is called Papa Perrone’s. Not connected to the mediocre
Pranzo truck that used to be parked one ave. away, the owner does claim
a connection to the famous grandma style pizza trucks just south, but he
makes his own sauce, so I’m not exactly sure where the connection is.

I didn’t actually try the pizza today… I’m going to wait until Monday
when he’ll be serving his artichoke pie (a special only available on
certain days.) I did however taste the arancini, which were smaller
than Jiannetto’s but pretty tasty. He said they were his grandmother’s
recipe. Matzoh ball soup is fine, but I think I may have preferred this
guy’s grandma. (Just kidding Grandma, I love you.)

Finally some big time, super duper exciting news for Midtown Lunch’ers on the East side (yes, I just typed the words super duper.)  Cafe Zaiya (41st btw. Mad+5th), winner of Best Japanese Take Out in the Midtown Lunch Readers Poll, has opened “Cafe Zest by Zaiya” in the space formerly occupied by the 47th St. Japanese Convenience Store (on 47th St. btw.  Lex+3rd.)  A slightly upscale version of Cafe Zaiya, Cafe Zest sports an almost identical line up of goods, with a nicer (albeit much smaller) dining area in the back.  Sandwiches, bento boxes, rice balls, and a full dessert bar towards the back- plus they’re selling pre-packaged goods from Nonoca, a new restaurant concept opening in August (but more on that in a bit.)

Since the convenience store closed in January, I’ve been closely monitoring the progress, wondering what would end up in the space (and worrying it would suck.)  Now that Cafe Zest has opened, I can pretty much say that we couldn’t have done any better than this.  And I have even told you the best news.  That, plus your first look inside the new Cafe Zest, after the jump…   Read more »

Seeing as I am addicted to all Asian food, I was pretty excited a year ago when Yushi Bento Bar opened up on 47th St. btw. Park and Lex. Maybe that explains why I was so disappointed to find pretty bland, overpriced bentos, in a setting where salad and low calories seemed more important than taste. I called it “style over substance”, meaning that clearly they were more concerned with making beautiful food than filling you up. There is no question the bentos are made with quality ingredients, and they have a wide array of sauces to spruce up whatever you order- but with so many other great Japanese bento places in Midtown, this expensive bento bar just didn’t seem to make the Midtown Lunch cut.

That is until last week. It’s been a year since I’ve been inside Yushi, and I decided to just pop in and see what was going on. And that’s when I noticed this: “Peking Duck Roll.” Oh yeah? Delicious roasted duck, in sushi form? Expensive or not, how could I not try it? Read more »