Highlights From Our 5th Birthday Party

Crowd shot

On Saturday we gathered together at City Winery with a couple hundred of our closest friends to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Midtown Lunch (yes, we too are surprised this thing has been around for 5 years!)   A great time was had by all thanks to the amazing food (provided graciously by Kwik Meal, The Biryani Cart, Cer Te, Ma Peche, Food Gallery 32, El Rey del Sabor, Tri Tip Grill, Wafels & Dinges, Miss Softee & the Rolling Cones, Kelvin Slush, and Momofuku Milk Bar) and the endless drinks courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery and GuS’s soda.

Check out the highlights, after the jump…


Bian Dang Exterior
Bian Dang Pork Chop over rice
Bian Dang’s colorful truck was there, serving up their tasty, meaty Taiwanese style pork chops with pork gravy and pickled veggies over rice with a smile. It was contributor Donny T’s favorite of the day.

Food Gallery 32
Food Gallery 32 kim bap

They were parked next to their Food Gallery 32 co-horts, Boon Sik Zip, who served up delicious made to order kimbap featuring your choice of beef, tuna and veggie flavors. So good!

Eddie's Pizza Cart
Eddie's Pizza

Eddie’s Pizza showed off their brand new cart (the very first of its kind!), serving up a light and shatteringly crisp tomato and basil bar pie.

Ma Peche
Ma Peche Pork Belly Banh Mi

Má Pêche Chef, Tien Ho, and his crew brought their A-game, serving a special banh mi that was conceptualized just for this event. This sandwich featured a ridiculously juicy and rich slab of pork belly, paired with crunchy pickled daikon beef,
crab mayo and green papaya, in a good crusty roll. Mamacita was a fan, saying “their pork reminded me the strong richness and fattiness that I would expect from an old school carnitas store in East LA. A heavy squirt of shiracha sauce just put a happy ending to the whole mouthful. I should mention the serving size demanded a two hander, my boyfriend had to hold my beer while I took this thing down.”  And Chris H appreciated how juicy and messy it was. “I want stuff falling out of it and juice to be running down my wrists when I take a bite – this sandwich did just that, and it was awesome!”

Tri Tip Crew
Tri Tip Baby Buck

Based on hear-say from the crowd, the Tri-Tip Grill crew earned themselves some new customers, as people buzzed about the lusciously meaty Baby Buck sliders.  Thinly sliced, super tender roast beef dipped in debris and topped with bbq sauce and horseradish… it was perfection on a potato roll.

Certe Crew
Certe Lobster Sausage

Our friends over at Cer Te, not to be bested by Má Pêche, also came up with a new menu item for this event. Their contribution was a hearty house made lobster sausage in a snappy natural casing. They paired this ‘haute dog’, with a truffled fingerling potato salad, sprinkled with lobster infused salt. This dish ended up as contributor Brian Hoffman’s favorite dish, as he raved,

“It was so unusual and the flavors worked really well together. The truffle creamed potatoes on the side and a garnish of an inventive and out of control lobster salty put the dish over the edge for me. I don’t see this on their regular menu, but if they ever do add it, I know where I’ll be spending the majority of my summer lunches.”

El Rey Del Sabor Crew
El Rey Del Sabor Spicy Pork Taco

El Rey Del Sabor showed up with their signature tacos, which were available with pork, beef, or chicken. The folks that opted for spicy were treated to an exhilarating but tongue searing level of spice. Luckily there was plenty of suds by Brooklyn Brewery and GuS soda available to put out the fire.

Kwik Meal Cart
Kwik Meal Cart Kati Roll

Muhammed Rahman and the Kwik Meal Cart team stuck with the stuff that made them famous… handing out samples of their pita stuffed with their signature chunks of whole, juicy lamb. A Midtown Lunch classic!

Biryani Cart
Biryani Cart Chicken Biryani
Biryani Cart Kati Roll

Meru and the Biryani Cart offered samples of another iconic aMidtown lunch, chicken biryani and kati rolls.

Kelvin Slush
Kelvin Slush Ginger Slush

The crummy weather didn’t stop people from gulping down cup after cup of refreshing ginger and Arnold Palmer slushes from Kelvin Natural Slush. (And we may or may not have spotted Zach behind the prize table adding something from a flask into his…)

Wafles and Dinges
Wafles and Dinges

For dessert, attendees were treated to the always scrumptious Wafels and Dinges liegewafels, which were topped with a swipe of nutty spekuloos and a swirl of whipped cream.

Rolling Cones
Rolling Cones

And Chrissie (aka Miss Softee), ringleader of The Rolling Cones, was there to hand out her innovative ice cream creations, including the infamous Potato Chip Choco Dip cone and the Watchamacallit cone.

MomoSoftee

But the “genius of the day” award goes to Blondie, who sandwiched Miss Softee’s soft serve between two cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar!

Contributor Stalking
Contributor Stalking 2
Harry

Although food was the focus of the event, it was also a chance for friends and family of Midtown Lunch to meet, eat, drink, and be happy. And there was probably no one happier in attendance, than little Harry the unofficial Midtown Lunch mascot, who was able to escape the stroller and stretch his legs.

In addition to all the great food and drinks, thanks to all the vendors who donated prizes! Including, Sweetery NYC, Bon Chon, Goodburger, Mooncake Foods, Beacon, BeerParc, Schnitzel & Things, Eddie’s Pizza Truck, Bistro Truck, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Yushi, The Counter, Glaze Teriyaki, Taim Mobile, Kimchi Taco Truck, Mai Cuisine, Macaron Cafe, ‘wichcraft, Hertz Connect, Seamless Web, Not For Tourist Guides, and Bouchon Bakery. You didn’t have to be present to win, so we’ll be sending out the rest of the prizes this week!

And finally a big thank you to everybody who came out to the party to support Midtown Lunch and the Street Vendor Project. You guys made this birthday one we’ll always remember!

19 Comments

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Congratulations on the big success! Although the sun wasn’t out, everyone had a big, smiling face in addition to dripping sauces and sugary lips after a day of indulgence in the need of a coma nap by the end. :)

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I can see why Kelvin Slush won last year’s vendy for sweets. I had 5 of those things. And yeah, a little distilled alcohol would go a long way with that…

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    That bahn mi was so juicy it dripped all over my Israel jersey. Certe’s lobster sausage and potatoes were my favorite bites of the day as well.

  • Yes, that banh mi was just a little less drippy than the slushies, and both were very good. A few more photos:

    http://www.eatingintranslation.com/2011/06/midtown-lunch-fifth-birthday-party.html

    Great party, Zach, and congratulations again!

    • I thought that was you!!! I didn’t get to say hi, because I thought it would be weird “Hey, we’ve met before…” – okay maybe not. I was just busy eating and gabbing :)

  • That looks awesome. Unfortunately I spend the day on a plane trying not to die of food poisoning from an ill-advised San Francisco Del Taco excursion. I just hope Goats conducted himself appropriately while impersonating me!

  • It really exceeded my wildest expectations… perfect amount of people, party vibe (instead of a standing on line waiting for food vibe) and amazing food and drinks.

    So many Midtown Lunch oldies but goodies. And then the new stuff was just icing cake. Ma Peche banh mi? Ridiculous. And it was my first taste of Tri Tip Grill (they opened after I moved.) Amazing. That horseradish sauce? Ooof.

    Seriously… thanks to everybody for coming out!

    • I finally got to meet Harry! I wanted to scoop him up and run off but I think at least 5 people would have tackled me before I made it to the gate. Hahaha. Congratulations again Zach!

    • I somehow ate 3 of those tri tip sliders along with trying every other dish there. So freaking good.

      I also appreciated Eddie’s pizza because it was a lot of flavor without weighing you down with too much filler. And finally, I thought the lamb Kati Rolls from Kwik Meal got even better than the last time I had them.

      I didn’t get a Momofuku Milk Bar cookie because apparently Blondie took two. :P

  • Had a great time! It was pleasure meeting the Midtown Lunch crew for the first time and I was completely stuffed by the end. Everything was delicious but my favorites were Ma Peche’s bahn mi and Eddie’s pizza. Thanks to Zach and the Midtown Lunch crew for putting together a really fun “birthday party”!

  • Great seeing everyone, the last time I saw Harry he was still in a stroller! Well timed since in a few weeks I’m leaving Battery Park and will be back in Midtown.

  • such a fun time! the tri tip slider, certe lobsterdog, ma peche banh mi, were the tits! It was great to shmooze it up with so many midtownlunchers! I liked that this was more social than other food events I’ve been to. Maybe thanks to all the Brooklyn Pale Ales?

  • I’m already planning a Momo Choco Taco, Part Dos!

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I had a great time! I ate so much I couldn’t really walk, so I went home and took a nap. The Tri-Tip sliders and Ma Peche sandwiches were amazing..

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