Midtown Lunch

Clearly I don’t really know that much about coffee, considering I’m addicted to Tim Hortons iced cappuccino, but I do know this… when I went to Chicago last year, I went to Intelligentsia and it was really good.  So I’m guessing coffee fanatics in the area will be excited to hear that the newly opened Culture Espresso Bar (in the old Starwich location on 6th Ave. and 38th Street) is now open, and they are using Intelligentsia coffee.  They also have a nice selection of baked goods from various NYC bakeries like Sullivan St. Bakery & Ceci Cela (although if the Treats Truck is parked on 38th & 5th, like they are today, I’d hit that up instead.)  Now if we could only get some Stumptown up in here…  (did that just make it sound like I know what I’m talking about?)

Culture Espresso Bar, 72 West 38th Street (btw. 5+6th)

When I posted about the newest addition to the 2 Bros. Pizza menu a few weeks back, I mistakenly thought they’d catch some flack from their neighbors to the north, Piece of Chicken (on 45th btw. 8+9th.) Well it looks like they’re getting it from the south instead. Lunch’er Janine (from Life With Food and Drink) sent in this report earlier today:

“There are currently guys in atomic wings sandwich boards prowling/picketing outside of both 2 bros pizza and sandwich planet…trying to poach customers, I assume. I sense a war coming on…”

Picketing? Were they calling for a boycott, or just promoting their new lunch special? Sadly, by the time I got there the Atomic Wings marketing machine had shut down for the day.

Related:
2 Bros Pizza Finally Adds $1 Fried Chicken

Paying for Indian food by the pound always seemed like a losing proposition to me, so I wasn’t exactly surprised to see the gates down on Kashmir Express Friday (on 8th Ave. btw. 39+40th.) They were closed temporarily by the DOH last year, and last week’s closing could be temporary as well- but to me this looks a little more permanent. Thankfully the all you can eat Kashmir Buffet (in the basement of “The Cave” next door) is still open. I’m a fan of the food… just not paying what it weighs.

Related:
Adventure Lunchers Should Flock to Kashmir Buffet
Kashmir Offers Up More Creative DOH Cover Ups

I like the sweet stuff just as much as the next guy, but desserts are not exactly my area of expertise. I tried the chocolate chip cookie from the Street Sweets Truck, and thought it was fine, but for a comprehensive look at their offerings I decided to turn to Kathy YL Chan, our resident coffee, sweets, and Hawaiian food expert here on Midtown Lunch (she’s also the blogger behind A Passion for Food.) She “sacrificed” herself by trying a good number of the Street Sweets Truck offerings, and filed this Top 5.

First the Treats Truck, then Dessert Truck, Wafels & Dinges, and now the Street Sweets Truck (followed by the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck). It would be easily to shake one’s head at the severe overflow of baked good and dessert oriented trucks in the city, but as far as I’m concerned (from a consumer perspective) the more, the merrier.

Unlike the other aforementioned trucks, Street Sweets Truck sets itself apart by being tied to a stone and mortar bakery in Brooklyn, One Girl Cookies. One Girl Cookies bakes a good number (but not all) of the products sold at the SS truck, including a selection of One Girl Cookies and some goods exclusively made for for SST.

I sampled my way around a good portion of their products, and while nothing is “the best of its kind”, as a whole SST is a notch above Treats Truck, the most comparable of moving dessert vehicles in town. Below, the top five to note for your next SST visit.

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I don’t usually eat lunch in Midtown on the weekends (why would you!?!), but occasionally it will happen.  Like on Saturday when I found myself in Koreatown buying ingredients to make homemade kimchi.  I stopped in to pick up a little lunch at Woorijip (on 32nd btw. B’way+5th) and noticed something I had never seen before: korean blood sausage (or soondae.)  Nice.  It was in the refrigerated section in the back, so it wasn’t as good as it would have been had it been warm (I don’t like microwaving things) but the flavor was still good.  Made with cellophane noodles, the blood flavor was actually pretty mild (overwhelmed a bit by the intense garlic flavor.)  I’m guessing there are much better versions of this to be had on 32nd street, but all in all it was a fun treat, and not nearly as offal tasting as you would expect.

Related:
Woorijip Gets a Makeover, Still the Best Cheap Korean on 32nd

Following in the footsteps of HB Burger, who extended their $10 Midtown Lunch special through this week, the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is offering their own early bird lunch special via twitter: “7/20/09 thru 7/23/09 11:00AM -11:45AM.For $10 bucks you get a burger or cheeseburger, fries & a soda. Ask for ‘Twitter PKG’ when you order.” You know, because it isn’t bad enough that there’s a long line every day in there starting at noon… they want the lines to start at 11am! Follow the Burger Joint for yourself on twitter, or on the Midtown Lunch Twitter Tracker>>

Photos Courtesy of OC Mexican Food Blog

It looks like the battle between Baja Fresh and LA’s Kogi BBQ truck is just starting to heat up.  A quick recap for those who haven’t been following it closely… at the end of last month the OC Mexican food blog first reported that Baja Fresh had added “Kogi Tacos” to one of their locations in Irvine, CA, a seemingly blatant rip off of the LA Korean taco truck with the same name.  Readers were outraged, although some commenters on various blogs pointed out that “kogi” is just the Korean term for “meat”, so it’s probably legal.  On Thursday, NRN confirmed that Baja Fresh was in fact going ahead with their Kogi named line of Korean tacos, although the owners of the NYC Baja Fresh said it wasn’t going to be coming to New York.  (And in a double whammy, neither is the Kogi BBQ Truck we were promised a few months ago!)  Well, the Wall Street Journal blog is the latest to chime in, shining some added light on the legality of the name, and whether or not Baja Fresh can use it:

[Baja Fresh] chose to call the dish “kogi” because that is a transliteration of the Korean word for meat. Although it says now a Korean-language expert is investigating whether “gogi” might be a more accurate spelling and if Baja should use that instead.

“It speaks to our non-desire to rip off the Kogi name,” Mr. Rink says. Research and development staff from the chain did sample the tacos at the Kogi truck, but didn’t copy the recipe, Mr. Rink says. It created its own Korean taco using steak and chicken.”

So it seems like the word “kogi” is not really the commonly used phonetic spelling of “meat” that we thought it was.  Which begs the question… doesn’t the Kogi BBQ Truck have a trademark!?!

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