Midtown Lunch

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 I’m excited to welcome Amy from the site Amy Blogs Chow.  Not only does she have a great website, with funny videos of her making “Stupidly Simple Snacks”, but she was also one of the attendees of my Crash Course in Food Blogging at Whole Foods (in her defense, though, those two things are completely unrelated.)

Name: Amy

Age: 25

Occupation: Freelance Writer for Zagat and offManhattan.com. I take photos of food and blog about it on my own site, Amy Blogs Chow. Plus, I make s’mores on YouTube.

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Close enough to the UN to be cordoned off from the building every time someone with a black limo and national flag pulls up.

Favorite Kind of Food: Corned beef sandwiches, sushi, medium rare cheeseburgers, cookies, cakes. Thai and Italian cuisine. Barbecue. I’m also quite happy about the fried chicken trend.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Licorice.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Any of the rice balls and croquettes at Oms/B finished off with coffee and a chocolate chip cookie from Macchiato Espresso Bar (on 44th btw. Lex+3rd). When I worked on the west side, I would go to Kashkaval (on 9th Ave. btw. 55+56th) for the goat cheese and caramelized onion panini, which I would drown in balsamic vinegar before eating. I love the pad thai from Wondee Siam (on 9th Ave. btw. 52+53rd) too.

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As much as I can’t stand the generic Midtown delis (you know the spot… sandwiches + build your own salads + Snapple) I still find myself drawn into them every once in awhile. Sometimes it’ll be for Korean food, or mandoo (also Korean food), or a bulgogi sandwich (hmmm… I suppose that’s Korean food as well.) Ok, so usually it’s for Korean food. But I’ve also partaken in Mongolian BBQ, a terrible hamburger, and the Rolly Wrap (R.I.P.)  In other words, if a deli is doing something interesting, I won’t hesitate to dive right in.

Such is the case with Fresco on the Go (the takeout arm of the fancier Fresco by Scotto restaurant next door.)

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Our good friend John Paul (aka “Papa Perrone”) checked in the other day with an update on his truck (which has only been showing up sporadically on 55th btw. Mad+Park for the past few months.) Apparently they’ve been having problem after problem with the truck (including oven issues), but it’s all fixed. The truck is now back Tuesday through Friday on 55th btw. Mad+Park, and they just started a brand new Tuesday & Thursday special: Italian Sausage with peppers and onions on garlic bread. It will alternate with their eggplant parm special,  which is available on Wednesday & Friday. (He will be gone the week of Thanksgiving though, so if you’ve missed the Big Papa- you might want to get out there this week.)

Related:
Papa Perrone Completely Redeems Themselves With New Sandwich Challenge Entry
Papa Perrone Will Put Any Hero You Want on Garlic Bread

Last week Serious Eats New York announced that they would be launching a city-wide search for the best chocolate chip cookie area by area, and today they declared Pret a Manger & Max Brenner the finalists who will represent Midtown. There’s a lot to question about this competition (quite a few missing contestants… and I don’t see how Union Square even qualifies as “Midtown’ish”), but one thing is certain… their post makes me really want to try the cookie at Petroissian (on 58th and 7th.)

Related:
Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in Midtown

Photo courtesy of Serious Eats: New York

This just in from Lunch’er “Rich”: “The Schnitzel Truck is on fire. No idea what happened, but there’s smoke pouring out the back and the guy is giving people their money back, and on the phone with someone, maybe the Fire Dept?” And now Lunch’er “Chris” has checked in to say fire trucks have arrived, and lunch has been cancelled for the day.  Hopefully everybody is ok…

UDPATE from @Schnitzeltruck: “Had little mishap.. Everyone on the truck is fine. Sorry to customers that had to leave. We’ll be back on road stronger than ever very soon!”