PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Keith”
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 Keith, an actuary (?) who loves Japanese food and hates Chipotle.
Name: Keith
Age: 29
Occupation: Actuary
Where in Midtown do you Work?: Right next to Bryant Park
Favorite Kind of Food: Japanese (really into good sushi, izakaya style, ramen…), good burgers under $10.
Least Favorite Kind of Food: Big chain wannabe Mexican fast food like Chipotle and Qdoba. I grew up in SoCal and the burrito/taco places that end in “-erto’s” serve tastier Mexican fare.
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Burger Joint (on 56th btw. 6+7th) if I can beat the lunch rush. Love the Katsu Curry single at Go Go Curry (on 38th btw. 7+8th). Yum Yum Bangkok I on 9th btw. 45+46th has a great lunch special if you are into Thai. Lastly, I’ve been to Ma Peche (on 56th btw. 5+6th) 3x since it opened. I like the Banh Mi (really good terrine) but it’s a bit on the small size.
“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? Zaiya (on 41st btw. Mad+5th). Went there 4 times in one week at one point haha.
Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? A few of the quality street carts (Biriyani, Korean cart, etc) mentioned in Midtown Lunch.
If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Irvine, California. In a 4 mile radius, you have access to In-N-Out, Islands, lots of pho, good Korean, great Mexican food, and 4 or 5 different Hawaiian joints(L&Ls). A few curry places too! You need a car, of course.
Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Why can’t the Mexican food in NYC be as good as the west coast, or even as good as Chicago’s?
Got a theory for Keith? Put it in the comments. And as always if you would like to be next week’s Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email me at zach@midtownlunch.com.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:45 am, December 1st, 2009 under PROFILE: Midtown Lunch'er.
26 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
26 Comments
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Irvine…meh. Did you go to the University of Chinese Immigrants (a/k/a U. of Civics and Integras)? I lived there a few years ago and still visit frequently. The food is good, but not THAT good.
There just aren’t that many Mexicans in NYC per capita, hence the lack of decent fare in Midtown. Your best bet is still the El Rey carts. As between the 60th st one and the 49th st one, I’ve had better experiences at 60th (but both are damn tasty). They still don’t hold a candle to this random Taqueria I used to go to on Katella and Glassell…*sigh*
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Irvine?! You forgot to mention Ranch 99 – the place I went to as a child with my grandparents more than I went to Vons.
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Neo wannabe. Different shades would work better. I suggest a black mate frame, Mr. Anderson.
Mexican style food is different in every region of the US. Chicago has it’s own taste. There’s Tex-Mex of course. There’s also great Mexican style in places like Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona (to name a few), which all have their own unique flavors. Plenty of good NY-Mex food here. Just no SoCal-Mex food here.
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Keith, I assume you’re the one and same as the profiled luncher… I was trying to be funny but I guess you think I failed… I have a very quirky sense of humor :)
Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_actuaries#Characters_who_might_be_actuariesFrom my memory of the movie (which I’ve seen many times), when he first explains what he does, he states that whenever an accident occurs, he goes in to determine if there were any factory defects/flaws (seatbelts not releasing because they melted, etc. that sort of thing) by looking at the wreckage. Then, if there is such a flaw, he goes and determines the cost of issuing a company wide recall versus the cost of NOT doing a recall and dealing with the aftermath if/when more people die from the defect (likelihood of then needing a recall vs doing it now etc etc etc.). I’m pretty sure that is one of the functions of certain actuaries… even if his title was actually Product Recall Specialist.
I don’t think it was brought up quite the same in the book, though.
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All good Yvo! I think the comments are hilarious. I love Fight Club too. Can’t believe its been 10 years since that movie came out. Still looks good today.
And Ed Norton/Brad Pitt wasn’t an actuary in fight club. He was a Product Recall Specialist.