Midtown Lunch

Midtown Lunch has always been a community effort, and I have no problem turning the site over to contributors.  Especially when it comes to desserts.  I love the sweets just as much as the next fat guy (or skinny girl), but if given the choice between dessert, or an extra entree- I’m going for the savory.  So when Danny from the blog Food in Mouth offered up a post about his “all dessert, under $10 lunch” I was like… uh… yeah! -Zach

Awhile back one of the Profiled Midtown Lunch’ers posed a question about Midtown desserts that got me thinking. “What if I just ate desserts for my $10 dollars? What can I get with that?” I know how this must look- guy forgoes street food, pizzas, or a hearty sandwich in place of… banana pudding. Might as well trade in my fantasy basketball team for the current issue of Vogue or spend my Saturday nights watching Sex and the City instead of catching up on Heroes and Chuck. I don’t really have a response, so I’ll get started on the actual eating…

First up was Magnolia’s Bakery on 49th and 6th Ave. You could probably spend ten dollars here without going anywhere else. Some of you might take exception to their cupcakes, which sometimes lack moistness. Instead, try the banana pudding which is on-par with most other cupcakeries in the city. It’s rich, lucious, and velvety. It’ll remind you of Ivanka Trump, and it’ll disappear just as fast as she did during that free food giveaway.

Moving on from the banana pudding, you can head down to ‘wichcraft in Rockefeller Center (there are other locations in Midtown). I’m not sure they always have this brioche cinnamon bun, but it’s quite delicious. Think of it as a softer version of Cinnabon (also in Rock Center), except it’s smaller. It might be half the size of a Cinnabon but it’s worth it. The brioche has a texture that’s more pleasing than your typical cinnamon roll, and it’s covered in frosting so you really can’t go wrong. For $2.71 (tax included), this snack doesn’t dent your pocket books too much.

With $2.79 left, I was going to call it at day. There was already too much sugar running through my system at that point. But with options totally wide open I couldn’t resist one more. You could go super fancy and get a tiny macaron at La Maison Du Chocolat. Or you can do it ghetto fabulous style and get yourself a frosty from Wendy’s and a Krispy Kreme donut. I got my KK donut on from an Au Bon Pain. It was a cream filled donut with chocolate frosting. Like most KK donuts, this yeasty creation was light on the inside. The frosting wasn’t that chocolaty but I didn’t care since this was the third dessert of the meal. I had to skip the frosty because it was getting about time to get back to work, but it certainly fits within the budget.

The takeaway from all of this is that you can, in fact, have four sweet items for your lunch. I’m not sure if you would want to do this every day, or even every week for that matter. But it’s doable, and that’s what’s important. This trip was limited to the Rockefeller Center area, but you could actually do this around food cart alley, or in the K-town area where you can add Red Mango/Pinkberry into the mix. The possible paths to early on-set diabetes are endless. Perhaps the most comforting idea to take away from this is that during the economic downturn, you can still count on desserts to be moderately priced and satisfying.

THE +

• Mmmm… sweet tooth
• I love dessert, so why not spend all my lunch money on dessert?
• Cupcakery is in my vocabulary and banana pudding rocks
• I practically live in the Rockefeller center as it is, so might as well, right?

The –

• Yo, where’s the real food?
• Didn’t your mother tell you to eat a balanced meal for lunch?
• As a future father, I have to be responsible and clogging my arteries with sugar AND fat is not good (looks at Zach)
• Sweets don’t do it for me

Photos and post by Danny from www.foodinmouth.com