Mooncake Foods’ Smoked White Fish Salad Hero Is An Interfaith Marriage Made In Heaven
Mooncake Foods has been a great Midtown Lunch option for two years, now, and has become my go-to order spot when my days get so busy that I can’t leave my desk. I can confidently order just about anything on the menu and never feel bored or ho-hum about my lunch. The pork sandwich is a winner, and the spicy tofu bahn mi is a vegetarian treat, but what about a bahn mi-like smoked white fish salad hero?
Yep, you read that right. This $8 sandwich includes a very generous amount of smoked white fish salad (like the kind you put on a bagel) with red onion slices on french bread with Vietnamese toppings like cilantro, pickled daikon and carrots, and jalapeno.
This is a surprisingly great interfaith marriage of ingredients that I would never in a million years have thought to put together. The white fish salad and the lightly pickled Vietnamese veggies don’t clash the way I thought they might, and French bread is a sturdy vessel to hold it all together. But like with any good white fish salad, one good bite on one end of the sandwich will send white fish squeezing out the back and onto your plate (make sure you have a plate!). Not to worry, just scoop it up with a fork for dessert.
I also recently ordered in the craw fish and shitake mushroom wonton soup ($7.50) with noodles (+$1), which is exactly what you should order if you’re feeling under the weather at work. As you can see in the photo, greens layered the bottom of the container, then the thin egg noodles (which were not in the least bit soggy by the time they got to me), then six large, flavorful dumplings and broth.
Although the soup could have used a dash of salt, the rest was very homey and comforting. The dumplings held together quite well in transit. Again, it’s the kind of soup you want on your side in these flu-ridden times we’re living in.
I tacked on an order of Vietnamese summer rolls ($5.50), purely to be eligible for delivery ($10 minimum). If you end up needing to do the same, skip the summer rolls and try something else. Filled mostly with lettuce, a hint of cilantro, a couple of rice noodles and overcooked shrimp, these were way too salady for me. Pass.
The summer rolls were the first item I’ve ever ordered from Mooncake Foods that I would not recommend, but everything else is spot-on. Never boring, and sometimes even surprising, I will happily continue to eat my way through the menu.
Mooncake Foods, 359 West 54th St (between 8th & 9th)
Posted by Rachel Goldner at 11:30 am, January 22nd, 2013 under Mooncake Foods.
12 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
12 Comments
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A Goldner did the review. I give it a pass.
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“Jew-y,” as in tastes like Jews? This is extremely poor writing at best and highly offensive at worst.
Now excuse me while I go back to enjoying my Catholic-y, Italian-y chicken parmesan hero.
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I’ll settle for an Irish-y Guinness
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Like the Shamrock Shake has never gotten any shit…jeez.
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If ML didn’t have bad writing, then what would they have?
Zach come back to NY. The weather is great!
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Rachel is as “Jewy” as they come. I’m pretty sure it’s ok.
Glad I didn’t write this post… I probably would have joked about the old Jewish guys being into Asian girls stereotype for about half of the post.
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As a half-Jew, I’d let it slide, but only because she is a Jew as well. And I’d hope to not-see another poor choice of language again. She could have easily said the white fish had the quality of some of the best jewish delis around. That would like saying the mozz cheese competes with the best italian delis etc.
PS – I almosy always order tuna with pickles on it. So the whitefish with pickled veg is along the same palate. The tang helps balance the pungent fishy taste and provides some crunch to the pastey texture. I’m also known for adding bacon.
So a bahn-mi whitefish hero sounds pretty awesome.
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Zach – The writer being Jewish doesn’t really solve the problem of a poor choice of words. I didn’t claim she was anti-semitic. Just said I didn’t like her choice of words. Words matter. Especially whe writing them….
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I’ll take whitefish over Super Jewwy Gefilte fish banh-mi. They needs a fried fish sandwich on the menu!!
Those summer salad rolls look sad. Especially with them split open for you.
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wha? there’s complaints about the word “Jew-y”? let’s let the commentators start legislating themselves before we start jumping all over definitely inoffensive language from the writer.
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All this kvetching about jews is giving jews a bad name
Not a big fan of your “Jewy” description.