Midtown Lunch

Every month Foodbuzz, the amazing company that allows me to do Midtown Lunch for a living, features 24 meals, by 24 food websites, all held in the same 24 hour period.  This month’s 24/24/24 goes down on Saturday October 24th, and they have graciously donated the money to pay for ten people to go on a street meat tour of Midtown Manhattan with yours truly.  That day I’ll lead a group through Midtown on a tasting of 5 of the best chicken and lamb over rice vendors that New York City has to offer (a mini Street Meat Palooza of sorts.)  You’ll not only get to try specially made sampler plates at each stop on the tour, but you’ll also get to hear the stories of how each cart came to be, and get to meet the vendors themselves.  It’s got something for everybody! (Out of towners and die hard Midtown Lunch’ers alike.)

To enter to win just post a comment below saying why you’re worthy of the prize.  5 winners will be drawn at random on Monday, October 19th, and each winner will be allowed to bring a friend.  The tour will take place at Noon on October 24th, and will last around an hour and a half (2 hours tops).  All the food and drinks are included, but you’ll have to make your way to Midtown yourselves!

The New York City Wine and Food Festival is less than two weeks away, and Thrillist wants to give one lucky Midtown Lunch’er tickets to their Bacon & Blues Event hosted by Tyler Florence.  It has nothing to do with Midtown, but whatever… when people offer to give you guys free sh*t, who am I to say no, right?  The event is happening on October 8th, from 7-10pm at the Standard Hotel and will feature bacon inspired snacks from famous chefs, live blues, and delicious drinks (obviously.)  The event is already sold out, so this is your only way in.  Register to win a pair of tickets here>>

If you are a disciple of wine peddler turned internet media superstar motivator (and all around entertaining guy) Gary Vaynerchuk, you will be incredibly excited to hear this news: Wine Library TV will be broadcasting live from the Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery (on Lexington and 47th) all next week at 5pm (August 24-28th.)  I’m guessing this is all to promote Gary’s new book “Crush It: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion”, which comes out October 13th.

For those of you who’ve never watched an episode of Wine Library TV online, or aren’t already a convert to Gary’s unique outlook on life, you might be saying “Why should I care about this nonsense?” Well, as a guy who got to quit his job a year ago to get paid to be a fat fuck- let’s just say his new book, and general attitude of motivating people to follow their passion and get paid for it, “speaks to me”. Plus the whole thing benefits Mashable’s “Summer of Social Good”, and he’s willing to give one of you the chance to hang with him, drink some free wine (and score some free food!)

One lucky Midtown Lunch’er will get to hang inside the Roger Smith Hotel Lab Gallery during one of the broadcasts with Gary, which includes free wine (natch.) And then, get treated to free dinner for two after the show at Lily’s, the restaurant inside the Roger Smith Hotel. (Not with Gary though, unless he wants to… who knows?  You might make an impression.) All you have to do to enter the contest is tell us in the comments the one thing you’d most want to quit your job to do. (I know you’ve all got something… we work in Midtown for god’s sake.)  One winner will be selected randomly, and will get to hang in the Roger Smith Lab one day next week with Gary for a live taping of Wine Library TV, and score a free dinner for two at Lily’s (check out the menu here.)

Basically if you’ve ever wanted to quit your job to do something you love, Gary’s the guy who can motivate you to do it. Don’t want to be on Wine Library TV?  Enter anyway. You can still win the free dinner- and I’m sure you’d be able to sell the spot with Gary on Craigslist or Ebay for a ton of cash to one of his super fans (he has legions of them.)

In honor of the Rock Center Farmers Market starting off this week, I’ve got 5 copies of David Kamp’s “The United States of Arugula” to give away.  It’s a great book about the history of cooking and eating in America, and the ongoing revolution that’s changing the way this country looks at food.  (It has also got a few pages on how Barry Benepe founded the Greenmarket program that brought Farmers Markets to New York City in the 70s.)  To win the book, post an early childhood (or later if you didn’t discover good food until after college) memory of food discovery as a comment below.

I remember the first time my dad took me to a sushi restaurant.  I was probably 9 or 10 years old (it was the mid 80s), and I still remember looking down at those circular rice things and thinking “This is the weirdest Chinese food I have ever eaten.”  It is meals like that which made me into the fatso you know today.

Now let’s hear your story.  Post it as a comment below.  I will contact the winners via email (so make sure to fill out the email field.  Don’t worry, your email address won’t show up on the site.)  If you don’t want to wait, the paperback version of the book comes out on Tuesday.  Click here to order it now.

For more on David Kamp click here

UPDATE: This contest has been closed.  Congrats to all the winners.  You have been contacted via email.