PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Dara”
Every Tuesday we 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 Dara, an account coordinator who doesn’t mind eating soup in the summertime.
Name: Dara
Age: 27
Occupation: Account Coordinator at Federated Media Publishing, a digital media company, and owner/writer/eater of The Skinny Pig, just another food blog
Where in Midtown do you Work?: 27th btw Broadway and 6th. A stone’s throw from lots of different cuisines.
Favorite Kind of Food: Too hard to narrow down to just one, but I definitely have an affinity towards all things bad for me. I love a good cheeseburger, you know the kind, all juicy and oozing with cheese. I absolutely love wings too and will try them from almost any place that serves them – spicy, sweet, whatever – I can eat a bucket of them. Oh and I will eat practically anything with bacon involved. I could never be a vegetarian simply because I couldn’t handle the loss of bacon from my diet. I do love SOME healthy foods though and I’m big on Indian and Mediterranean flavors; chicken vindaloo makes me sweat but I love it. On the sweet end of the spectrum, chocolate and peanut butter is the best combination since Hall & Oates
Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cilantro (if that’s even considered a food?) I love Mexican food, so I have come to tolerate it but I seriously think it tastes like soap. Or cigarettes. Eating cigarettes and soap doesn’t appeal to me. I also hate raw celery. When it’s cooked I like the flavor, but when it’s raw, it tastes like nothing and gives off an awful stench. Stay away from my wings!
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: No. 7 Sub (on B’way btw. 27+28th): Zucchini Parm sub with jalapenos and bbq potato chips – sounds weird but it’s so delicious. The Broccoli sub with ricotta salata and pine nuts – trust me, if you’re a salt-lover and like broccoli you will love this. Curry Chicken Salad sub with raisins, ramps and basil – potent but so flavorful. Shake Shack: Shack Stack or single Shackburger with fries (what is ON those fries?!) and a black and white shake with peanut butter sauce. Foodparc (on 30th btw. 6+7th): Pork chop ramen noodles from Redfarm Stand, the 3b’s Special Burger and fries from 3B’s, McClure’s spicy pickles. Bon Chon Chicken (on 5th btw. 32+33rd): All of the chicken is crispy and mouthwatering, but the spicy chicken wings and drums are my favorite. When I’m trying to be healthy I go to Sunac Natural Foods (on 18th btw. 5+6th), it’s nothing special but it gets the job done. Salads, paninis, etc.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:45 am, June 7th, 2011 under PROFILE: Midtown Lunch'er.
Noticed a bunch of stuff being set up in Times Square during lunch? It’s because today is the annual Taste of Times Square festival, when restaurants from the area gather on Broadway between 42+47th to offer up a taste of their menus. It’s free to get in, and then you purchase “taste tickets” which get exchanged for food (most dishes cost $1-5). As much as we liked to joke about the food options in Times Square sucking, this event is usually a pretty fun time (if you choose wisely.) 
