Midtown Lunch

Eater reports that David Chang (king of the Momofuku empire) will be getting into a food cart for one day, as part of some contest sponsored by NYCNewYork.com.  It doesn’t look like it will be open to the public… you have to answer a bunch of questions to win a “golden ticket” that entitles you to lunch from the cart.  The contest website is closed right now, but will reopen this morning at 11a.m. EST.  They haven’t announced where the cart will be parked yet, but all I have to say is this shit better be happening in Midtown.

Related:
The Perfect Space For the Next Momofuku is in Midtown

Back in Feburary of last year I jokingly complained that Midtown Lunch wasn’t on Goodburger’s “Wall of Quotes.” Admittedly I didn’t give them much to work with… until their (now discontinued) breakfast burger with the fried egg and hash brown toppings came out. Well, it took them over a year but apparently they may have gotten the message. This was posted in the comments on Friday by somebody who called themselves Mr. Goodburger:

Sorry it took so long but the wall quotes are part of our pre-opening operations. Since Mr. Midtown Lunch has been more than good to us, we will honor you soon on our wall of fame. Thanks for the loyalty!

Awesome. Now bring back the freakin’ breakfast burger!!!! That thing was amazing. Mr. Goodburger… meet Mr. Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge.

Related:
Midtown Breakfast: Greatest Breakfast Sandwich of All Time
Goodburger Discontinues Breakfast; Egg Topped Burger Lovers Cry
Original Goodburger Write Up

After settling on my “chicken scampi” lunch the other day from the Magdy’s Cheesesteak cart (on Park and 46th), I stumbled across this random sign on what seemed like an otherwise standard street meat cart.  I was super curious, but already full- and vowed to return in my obligatory roll as Midtown guinea pig.  Luckily Lunch’er “Alan” beat me to the punch, and sent along this mini-review:

This Cart on 53rd & Park has been here for a month or two has recently added burritos to their menu. The cart appears to be run by a Mexican couple. For $3 the decent sized burrito included chicken or ground beef, rice, tomato, onions, cheese, hot sauce and sour cream. It was a pretty good burrito considering the options in the immidiate area. Really a great price for what it is, a nice change from your typical halal cart.

The photo of his burrito is after the jump…

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Lunch’er Wayne was kind enough to send along this photo of the new location of Crisp which is coming soon to 40th Street btw. 6+B’way. While it looks like they may have a ways to go, the owner is saying they plan on opening up as soon as Passover ends (April 16 or 17th.) Don’t let the whole Jewish holiday thing fool you though, the original Crisp location (on 3rd Ave. btw. 43+44th) will be open all through Passover (unlike the Kosher falafel places, which will all be closed starting on Wednesday or Thursday of this week.)

Related:
Crisp: Abomination… Or One of the Best Falafel in the City
The Taj Has Been Temporarily Discontinued

Lunch’er Larry, who tipped us off to the Thai-Nam/Chef’s Secret change over (on 45th btw. Lex+3rd), has forwarded a copy of the menu along with this message: “Stopped for a further inspection of the Secret on my way to Hop Won… So it was a new, separate menu wrapped around the old Thai-Nam menu. Attached is a scan of the Chef’s Secret menu. Special Roll #J41 sounds interesting, if not disturbing.”

Well call me intrigued… the menu, plus a close-up of the “disturbing” #J41 is after the jump.

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So, everybody has been telling me how much they love the photos of my kid with different Midtown Lunches. So I decided to start taking more… like this one of Harry holding my falafel sandwich from Moshe’s new truck. (I swear on my life the unfortunate falafel/pickle placement was completely unintentional.)

• Darbar Grill on 55th has free appetizers every night from 5 to 8pm [Eater]
• Check out the new April flavors of Itzy Bitzy macarons, which are sold at Tafu on 51st & Lex [SENY]
• During Passover, Toloache will be serving a special Mexican matzo ball soup and tacos de brisket made with matzo tortillas [Zagat Buzz]
• Tips for attacking the by the lb. buffet at Alpine Gourmet.  Tip #1 Should be “Don’t eat at Alpine Gourmet” [BLD Project]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. This week Mamacita decides to check out Hooters, in an attempt to make up for the past few weeks of posting photos of male bartenders. Enjoy!

We all know about Hooters for their babalicious waitresses in tight short shorts and skimpy tank tops, but I’ve heard many say, in that typical “I read playboy for the articles” kind of way, that Hooters crispy hot wings are where it’s at- and might even be the best in town! I figured I had to try it for myself, after all if I could handle lunch at a strip club this should be a walk in the park right? So off I went to find out if these wings where really as good as everyone says, thus validating it as a bona fide Midtown Lunch happy hour.

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So it’s my birthday today, but I am forgoing my annual “go to a by the pound chinese buffet and eat with reckless abandon” birthday meal to have a fancy pants lunch with the wife (and baby).  I suppose once a year it’s ok to spend a little more than $10 on lunch… especially if it’s at Anthos.  (Awwww yeah lamb burger!) I feel a little bad being here with the baby in the stroller, but he’s being pretty well behaved.  Too bad the lady next to us doesn’t think so. I apologized, and felt really bad until I watched her scrape the beautifully seared crispy brown crust off top of her fish, and only eat the inside.  There should be a freakin’ law.  You know what lady… eating lunch next to my kid’s stroller didn’t ruin your lunch, you ruined your lunch!

Ah… whatever. Your birthday is just once a year! What are you gonna do…

Related:
My Lamb Burger Plea to Michael Psilakis