Midtown Lunch

What does 3 years of hardcore Midtown Lunch’ing do to a psyche?  For one thing it alleviates all food fears. I will pretty much eat anything at this point.  (Except for a sandwich from Walgreens… but that has nothing to do with fear.)  I feel kind of proud thinking back on some of the ways I’ve sacrificed my body in the name of of this site. Eating at Tad’s Steaks after being dared by a reader gave me a sense of personal accomplishment, although no dare was necessary to get me to try that street ceviche from the Ecuadorian lady on 46th Street (although some called me insane for that one.)  I admited to being incredibly frightened of the Kashmir Buffet.  but surprisingly less scared of the jury duty tripe lunch from that Chinatown cart (in fact it was a revelation.)  But all those seem like child’s play compared to this…  a liver sandwich- from a Midtown Halal cart.

Remember that cart with the liver sandwich I posted about back in February (on 55th & Madison)? Well, I finally tried it on Tuesday… and amazingly, survived to tell the story.

The liver from the Charcoal Grill Cart starts off as a whole steak (it’s beef liver), and gets cooked on their grill.  It had been marinating in something, although I’m not sure what. Thankfully they cook it to order (liver is not something you want to cook, and then reheat when it gets ordered), and there is no mistaking the smell as it sizzles away. It takes about 5 minutes, so be prepared for a little bit of a wait.  Once the steak is cooked, they slice it into chunks and pop it into an Italian sub roll.  They offered lettuce and tomatoes, but I asked for grilled onions, white sauce and hot sauce (had to be done.)

I enjoyed myself… but you’ve got to really love liver to be down with this sandwich.  It’s funky (obviously), and even the white sauce and hot sauce don’t fully cover up the taste (although, if you’re a true fan- why would you want to cover up the taste, right?)  I guess I might prefer the fried chicken livers from Piece of Chicken, dipped in maple syrup (everything tastes better breaded and dunked in syrup) but if you love liver and love Halal food- this is an excellent melding of the two.  And it’s a pretty big sandwich, with a lot of meat, for $5. If you can finish the whole thing, you are a true people’s champion.

Charcoal Grill, NW Corner of 55th &  Madison