Midtown Lunch

I reported recently on the brotherly rivalry that is pitting cart against cart, Fahima against Kwik Meal, and now Muhammed’s pasta against Muhammed’s pasta. Yes, to confuse matters even more they both have the same first name. Someone dig up Richard Dawson because ladies and gentleman what we have here is a Family Feud!

I can only assume that the Fahima stir-fried noodles are a direct counterpoint to the Kwik Meal Pasta cart that debuted last year. Mohammed Mahbub Rahman, the owner of the Fahima cart, has the same streak of entrepreneurship as his brother. He has impressively taken on serving biriyani along with his lamb and chicken and made a good impression with this street eater. Now it was time to try these noodles and see if they are substantive, unique and, as is our M.O. here on ML, worthy of your hard earned dollars.

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Photo Courtesy of Eating in Translation

Dave Cook from Eating in Translation noticed this new spot going up a few weeks ago (on 38th btw. 5+6th). And according to Lunch’er “Leandro” they are now open and offering 50% off everything this whole week. The menu Dave photographed is a fairly generic Midtown deli menu (Salad, Deli, Tex Mex, Udon, Teriyaki) but for half off it might be worth a looksee! Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments…

Mustang Cafe, 22 W. 38th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-354-5522

I know this isn’t really Midtown Lunch’ish (fat man no like vegetables!), but for those of you who are interested in cooking and farmers markets and the such I thought you might be interested in this.  A new CSA is launching in Midtown East this spring, and the pick up time is perfect for anybody who works in Midtown and likes to cook.  CSA (for those of you who have never heard of it) stands for community supported agriculture and it’s essentially a chance for you to support sustainable farming by purchasing a share in a farm.

You give the farm money up front, before the growing season, and then every week during the harvest you get a portion of all the crops they grow.  It costs about $20 a week, and it is always a gamble (the more or less that grows, the more or less you get), but based on last year’s bounty this seems like a really good farm.  The delivery/pick up- which will happen every Tuesday from 5-8pm on 47th btw. 2+3rd- starts on the first week  of June, but you have to join by the end of April.  For more info go to http://turtlebaycsa.wordpress.com/

Photo courtesy of Eating in Translation

• Skip the chewy squid at Hing Won [Eating in Translation]
• The Oyster Bar lunch counter is a great place to people watch [Fork in the Road]
• The salmon and brown rice salad at Pret is delicious! (Even typing it makes us laugh) [Ramen & Friends]
• MomoMidtown could open this month!? [Eater]
• La Maison du Chocolat is divine [Tasty Eating]
• You can get a black label’ish burger at Nougatine in Jean Georges [Serious Eats]
• Don’t eat at Le Cirque with Joan Rivers [Eater]

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.

I’ve been pushing Zach to let me do an out of bounds happy hour at one of my favorite bars, Live Bait, for months now. Yeah, I know it’s all the way over on 23rd Street, but the N,R trains are practically next door and some things like great food deals and a lively, fun atmosphere are worth going out of your way for. Its reputation as an excellent neighborhood bar has recently infected the forums and LB has started to come up as a possible commenter happy hour location. With this as my leverage I asked again this week if I could do a review and finally broke the poor man down (women have a way of doing that.) With the green light to go forth and imbibe I grabbed my date and headed over to take advantage of their sweet down-south happy hour.

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The signs have gone up for the new Five Guys (on 48th btw. 5+6th) that we told you about back in December. It will be their biggest location in NYC to date, and will hopefully open in June. (Just in time for a gigantic Five Guys vs. Bill’s Bar & Burger face off!) There are also plans for two more Five Guys Midtown Lunch locations this year. One on 34th and 8th (next to the movie theater) which will open in June/July and one for our Downtown lunchers on Fulton Street (nr. Dutch St.) with a July/August opening date.

Related:
I Still Think Five Guys is Awesome, But I’ll Try Not to Compare it to In N Out Burger

I just fell for the $6.50 xiao long bao (aka pork steamed soup dumplings) at Joe’s Shanghai (on 56th btw. 5+6th) so it was kind of an exciting coincidence to see that our ML: Philly correspondent Jamie made a fun, quick video on how to eat the juicy suckers without burning your mouth. Jamie’s bite-slurp-eat method is the standard way to attack xiao long bao, but I like to think there are no rules. My half bite mess is after the jump…

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