Midtown Lunch

… when it’s leftover roast pork bo ssam from Superbowl.  Obviously I’m normally against bringing your lunch (if too many people started doing it, it would be the death of this site) but this isn’t your momma’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown paper bag.  Oh, and by the way… the little pile on the left is just crispy skin and (delicious, melt in your mouth) pork fat. The pile on the right is the leftover meat. That’s right, don’t let the lettuce fool you…  if anything is going to kill me, it’s going to be eating this for the third day in a row. Completely worth it, and better than Cafe Cello (on 46th btw. 5+6th) if I do say so myself (probably because I splurged and bought the meat at Marlow and Daughters in Brooklyn.)

Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week, it’s Matt a guy who has *shocker* never tried Thai food? I don’t even know what to make of that…

Name: Matt

Age: 27

Occupation: Television

Where in Midtown do you Work?: NBC

Favorite Kind of Food: I love Pizza, Italian, and Burgers but I try to eat healthy so I go to a lot of health food places now.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Thai. I’ve never actually had any. When I was in camp, one of the directors got food poisoning a few days before his wedding after eating Thai food. I remember telling everyone “who eats Thai food before their wedding? Isn’t that risky?” To this day I haven’t had it.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I love Jianetto’s pizza truck (on 47th btw. Park+Mad), I love the fancy sandwiches at Dishes, I like Chopt’s salads, Café Duke (on 51st btw. 6+7th) has good whole wheat pizza’s but they fill me up too much.

“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Variety Café (on 48th btw. 5+6th). They really have everything. The salad is a good deal with lots of toppings, they have whole wheat pasta, and they even have a wok in the back

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I got a lot of worried emails last week wondering where the Steak Truck has disappeared to (normally parked on 47th and Park.) Well, yesterday the truck returned after a short vacation, and it seems as if their prices have gotten cheaper (although they assured me they are the same as they’ve always been.) Well, the steak and cheese sub definitely has… going from $4.99 back in August, to $3.99 (there is a double meat version on the menu now for $5.99 which they obviously didn’t advertise back when I originally tried it.) Anyway, it’s good to have them back! (Thanks to Lunch’er Grace for the photo.)

The Kosher Oasis cart, however, is a different story…

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File this email I just received under ‘Surprising (but not that surprising)’: “Just walked by the 43rd and 8th Avenue Empanada Joe’s (I had given this place two chances, and disappointed twice) and it was closed, a sign directing people to go to their 6th Avenue location.”

I lived in L.A. for two years before moving to New York, and while I was there I loved the fact that every restaurant had a health inspection letter grade posted in the window.  This way you could see exactly how clean or dirty a restaurant was before eating in it.  Seeing an “A” was always reassuring, but a “B” would only keep me out of places I knew nothing about. For example, seeing the “B” didn’t discourage me from eating at Mario’s Peruvian or the Baja Fresh across from my office. Although when the Baja Fresh got upgraded to an “A” I suppose it made me feel a little better about things. (I think since I moved away Mario’s was upgraded as well.)  I don’t think I ever ate a restaurant with a “C”. (In fact I probably only saw one or two in all the time I lived out there.)

But now that it is being reported that New York City plans on adopting the same style of inspections, I’m a little apprehensive.  I don’t think I want to see a letter grade hung outside Hing Won or Ying Du.  I prefer to keep eating at my favorite dirty Midtown Lunch places in blissful ignorance. I guess if it gives restaurants the incentive to improve their cleanliness, that is a good thing- but clean doesn’t always equal better food.  Ying Du was forced to get rid of their old (and no doubt disgustingly dirty) meat roaster… and now some have complained that their roast pork doesn’t taste as good.  Thanks a lot Department of Health. I’ll take dirty and tasty food over antiseptic boring food any day.

Photo courtesy of Spare Change

Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen ran out of sloppy joe’s on Friday before I got a chance to partake, so I ended up walking around the corner to Go Go Curry (on 38th btw. 7+8th) to try their latest topping: fried fish. They use tilapia, so there wasn’t that fishy taste or smell that you’d get from say… Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart (which could be a good or a bad thing depending on your preference.) It’s was super crispy, and pretty tasty… but as you can see, for $2 you don’t get a lot of it. (And certainly not as much as the photo in the window would have you believe.)

Next time I think I’ll go back to the standard katsu curry plate… with the fish topping added on! At $9 it would be a little pricey, but completely worth it.

Last week I stopped by El Rey del Sabor, the awesome Mexcian cart on 60th St. and 3rd Ave., and discovered they are now selling chanpuitado.  Admittedly, I had no idea what that is (and a google search turns up nothing so I don’t know if it’s spelled right) but it’s basically Mexcian hot chocolate… and the perfect little drink for this weather (especially for $1.50).

They also told me that they plan on introducing a Midtown Lunch Special Sandwich as early as today.  The original idea was that it may be some sort of habanero filled Mexican cheese steak (like that stuff they served me a few months back, only in a roll instead of on a plate) but we won’t know for sure until they introduce it officially.  If anybody goes to check it out today, please report back in the comments.

Update: In the comments… “It’s Champurrado“