The craziest thing a Sushi Chef can do with a banana, Midtown Links, and the end of the week wrap-up

There are very few things I won’t eat.  In fact, I’ll pretty much eat anything that a culture deems worthy of eating.  And to prove it, I present to you this story involving a very strange dish at a Midtown Deli.  I was walking by the Bagelfeller Cafe on 48th btw. 5th & 6th on Wednesday.  For those of you who have never heard of this particular place, it is a standard Midtown “Deli” with a salad bar, sandwiches, Burrito/Taco bar, sushi station and, as you can imagine, a bagel bar.  (I’m also pretty sure it’s owned by Asians… but that doesn’t mean they can’t have good bagels!)

I’ve gotten a few recommendations from people suggesting I check out this place, so I decided to pop in and see what they had.  Nothing really caught my fancy- until I noticed something very strange in the Sushi fridge.  A weird looking, nut covered sushi log/roll that was labeled “Banana Roll” $4.95.  I immediately asked the Sushi chef what is was.  His reply… “It’s a banana roll.”  My reply to that… “Oh… is it stuffed with banana tempura?”  Because in my fat guy mind, a slice of banana would have to be breaded and deep fried to belong in a sushi roll (that’s just my logic).

“Nope.  It’s just regular banana on the inside”, he said.  “Then we lay slices of banana over the top, and cover the whole thing with sliced almonds, and a wasabi mayonnaise.”

Hold the freakin’ phone.  Wasabi mayo?  You’ve gotta be kidding me.  The thing looked as disgusting as could be… but knowing that the goop covering the whole thing was made from mayo made it that much grosser. 

Naturally I had to try it.  Photos (plus Midtown Links and the end of the week wrap up) after the jump…

 

 

Surprisingly banana and wasabi is not a terrible combination.  In fact the sweetness of the banana matched really well with the horseradish heat of the wasabi.  And, the goop didn’t really taste like Mayo.  In fact, I could imagine some very fancy new style Japanese place doing some sort of banana/wasabi combo dish.

But alas, I was not at some fancy Japanese place.  I was at Bagelfeller’s and the thing looked disgusting, and didn’t really taste much better.  I only ate half (that’s a big deal for me), and took the rest back to work where I attempted to get a single person to try a bite (my mission failed). 

Which brings me to my new Midtown Lunch challenge.  Got something you’ve seen in Midtown that you’re afraid to try?  Email me or post a comment about the place.  I’ll go, eat the thing, and write about it here on midtownlunch.com  Give me your best shot… it can’t be any worse than banana roll/nut log with wasabi mayo.

MIDTOWN LINKS

So it’s been an exciting week here at MidtownLunch.com.  Besides discovering that I am willing to go to disgusting depths to entertain you (see Banana Nut Log story above), I also changed the look of the site this week- and it’s now at www.midtownlunch.com  I really can’t take any of the credit though… my brother Jake did it all (he’s really into this website stuff).  I told him if the site made any money, he would get half of it- so please click on our advertisers… for his sake.  He needs the money.  Hope you like the new design… feel free to email me or post your comments below. 

Also, I’ve created a Midtown Lunch Flickr Group. My hope is that maybe some of you guys will take pictures of your lunches and post them to the group… then, I can post them on the blog (with you being fully credited of course!)  Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/groups/midtownlunch/ 

Next week, I’ll write about how you can get Sullivan St. Bakery Pizza without going all the way to 10th Avenue.  See you next week, and have a nice weekend!

8 Comments

  • The new site looks great! Congrats!

    Golden Krust on Third Ave. and 43rd has on its breakfast menu a liver and bananas dish. Don’t know if they serve it at lunch, and yes, it’s bananas again, but it sounds pretty disgusting to me!

  • Wow, I had no idea such a — how should I put this? – delicacy could be found at Bagefeller. I like their Mexican food. Try the black bean burrito with a whole wheat tortilla — very nice.

  • Midtown Lunch IS important! I read it every day here in Dallas, so I can “eat” lunch back home–you are an important link to transplanted NYers. The new site looks great!

  • Yakitori Tory’s – Tuna liver paste cream cheese, Chicken sashimi and a skewer of grilled chicken necks. Yum!

  • Dude… I would eat that in a second. I love Yakitori Totto (although when we went, we got there too late- and they were already out of the weird stuff)… I really want to try Yakitori Tory. Unfortunately it’s not open for lunch…

  • Midtown Lunch is highly important! I now read it every morning, though I’m in the 30s and too lazy to walk up to any of the carts you’ve recommended. Love the new look and domain name!

  • Hey, is your brother for hire? I’ve been toying with the idea of moving off blogger altogether…. but haven’t made any firm decisions yet. Does he have any other work online I can peruse, too? Thanks :)

    BTW, I walked by Bagelfeller last week (during my weekend Midtown trip, haha)- I must have been right outside your office because I passed by a bunch of these places you mention all the time! I thought the name was cute. And… you linked a post on a site I frequent that despite visiting every day, I didn’t see that new post! Weird!

  • PS A banana tempura roll with wasabi mayo sounds like a better hit else the overall taste sounds really mushy and gross.

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