Midtown Lunch

Do you wonder what our new ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (They’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Pork belly taco from Cabrito, photo courtesy of ultraclay

After watching a goat get butchered at Cabrito, Ultraclay hung out and enjoyed some of their tacos. According to Brownie the veggie burger at Alias, in the Lower East Side, is better than their pulled pork. Amy hit up the new brick and mortar location of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. Finally, we hope Danny from Food in Mouth gets home soon! He was stuck in France because of the volcanic ash.

Last week, we were tipped off by Lunch’er Jennie that Bann, the pricey Korean restaurant on 50th St. btw. 8th+9th (in Worldwide Plaza) opened a casual takeout counter called “Bann Next Door” at the same address. (Bann just blocked off a corner of their existing space and packed in four tables.) One look at the menu and we knew we had to go back. $6.95 soy BBQ pork spare ribs or honey chili glazed Korean fried chicken? With empty stomachs and high expectations, we ordered one of every main item on the menu.

See the Korean feast – takeout style – after the jump.

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8 cent Pop Burgers are fine, but this is kind of more exciting if you ask us!  A week from today 8 Coupons will be having another one of their Ocho Loco events, and the participating restaurant is Indus Express (on 48th btw. 5+6th).  On April 28th, from 2-6pm you can get a plate of their formidable chaat for just 8 cents.  If you’ve never had chaat before, it’s Indian street food made from some kind of fried item (samosas, cracker looking things, and/or rice crispy looking things) tossed with onions, tomatoes sometimes potatoes, yogurt, and chutney.  It’s the perfect summertime snack/lunch and all you have to do to score it for 8 cents is text yourself the coupon from the 8coupons site. Freeloaders engage.  (Because, quite frankly at 8 cents it might as well be free, right?)

Related:
Midtown is the Chaat Corridor of New York City
Snapshots: For Those About to Chaat…

All the guys seemed pretty excited to read about the Ladies of Queen Frostine last year.  Well, this one is for the ladies! Yesterday Miss Softee (aka Profiled Lunch’er “Chrissy”) and I hit midtown for some lunching action, and for “dessert” she took me to visit one of the newest ice cream vendors to hit twitter, her pal “Billy Gunnz”.  He’s a midtown Mister Softee vendor, and has started to get quite the rep for flashing those guns (and pecs).

A shirtless shot of Mr. Gunnz (you know… for us ladies) is after the jump. Read more »

• Not only is Five Guys a greasy, filthy, soggy mess but Blarney Stone is better [Midtown Eating]
• 3 days left at work, 3 must-eat east side lunches needed [Midtown Eating]
• Tomorrow you can get 8 pieces of chicken at Popeye’s for $6 [Midtown Eating]
• This brings a new meaning to the words ‘egg roll,’ and not in a good way [Miscellaneous]
• Hyo Dong Gak meetup this Friday for jajangmyun! [Midtown Connections]

Speaking of Street Meat Palooza 3… last night’s episode of No Reservations was a follow up to his ultra popular food porn show from last year. He had cameos from famous chefs, and showed off a lot of expensive food… but the best part of the show for us was seeing our hero down a gyro pita alone on the street from the Halal Cart on the SW corner of 53rd and 6th (the one that pretends to be the famous cart that parks in the same spot at night.) The segment was titled “I Like It Dirty”, and Bourdain waxes poetic about street meat like only he can, likening waiting on the long line to waiting outside a methodone clinic “only more rewarding ultimately.” There’s no doubt that the lamb on pita tasted good, but we can’t help but wonder if he knows the whole story behind the cart he chose!

Check out the video after the jump…

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