Midtown Lunch

Our favorite pizza site, Slice, broke the news late yesterday that Midtown’s going to get a new pizza truck from Eddie’s in New Hyde Park. What we know: pizza will be made on the truck, pies only, special toppings including the beloved clam, Midtown three days a week, late May debut, and Ed Levine likes them. What we don’t know: how they will stack up to Jiannetto’s, Papa Perrone’s, or Vinny Vincenz. I promise to do some ‘research’ at the brick-and-mortar store and report back when we know more. Until then, check out their Twitter, the true sign that they mean mobile business.

According to their blog, the Frites N Meats truck might be coming to Midtown on Wednesday. The burger truck (which features grass fed beef, and crazy toppings) was originally only permitted to park Downtown (on Greenwich and Chambers) but they recently scored a citywide permit and are looking to spread their wings. None of us have tried it, but Chris had good things to say about it on the Downtown section of ML. (And it clearly will be better than La Cense!) They haven’t decided on an exact spot yet (and it might end up being in the Flatiron) but they’re open to suggestions. You can see where they end up by following them on Twitter.

Related:
Your First Look at the Frites N Meats Burger

I reported recently on the brotherly rivalry that is pitting cart against cart, Fahima against Kwik Meal, and now Muhammed’s pasta against Muhammed’s pasta. Yes, to confuse matters even more they both have the same first name. Someone dig up Richard Dawson because ladies and gentleman what we have here is a Family Feud!

I can only assume that the Fahima stir-fried noodles are a direct counterpoint to the Kwik Meal Pasta cart that debuted last year. Mohammed Mahbub Rahman, the owner of the Fahima cart, has the same streak of entrepreneurship as his brother. He has impressively taken on serving biriyani along with his lamb and chicken and made a good impression with this street eater. Now it was time to try these noodles and see if they are substantive, unique and, as is our M.O. here on ML, worthy of your hard earned dollars.

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Have you ever been kind of jealous of the winners of Zach’s various cart tours?  Even though I work in midtown and can hit the great midtown carts anytime I want, there’s something to be said about the fun of taking on a bunch of them at once.  To really do it right you need strength in numbers, so when I learned that a couple of my friends from Seattle, would be in town and free for lunch during the week, I started plotting potential food adventures.  Both of them regularly read Blondie & Brownie and they were jealous of the midtown cart/food truck scene.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that we should try to hit as many carts for as many different types of foods as possible and with that in mind, may a present Brownie’s Cart Canyon Tour: 10 carts/10 cuisines/$10 a person…

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Kwik Meal vs. Fahima, bumper against bumper, brother against brother, the side by side street cart family feud on the SW corner of 45th Street and 6th Avenue rages on! Yet in the black cloud of this Greek tragedy is there perhaps a silver lining? Out of this great turmoil might there be great rewards? With some new additions to Fahima’s menu, I certainly hoped so. Bear with me people; I’m inspired by Halal not Homer. Ehem, So then, here’s my first take.

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I’m always up for trying a street meat cart that comes recommended by a reader, so when Lunch’er “Matt” sent in that account of Kebab Express (on 55th and 6th) I knew eventually I would have to try it (at the very least, as part of Street Meat Palooza 3!) But once I saw the YouTube video, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. If these guys spent half as much time on their food as they did making that video (it’s 7 minutes and 20 seconds worth of photos) it couldn’t be bad, right!?

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Last week Lunch’er Bill tipped us off to the Munch Truck, a brand new street vendor parked on 56th & Park: “New Clean and very large looks like a catering truck but is open to the public complete with a satellite tv to watch while they are cooking… Husband and wife team… We can only wish them the best but you may want to check out and do a write up? I haven’t eaten there yet…”  All the standard Midtown cart food is accounted for (falafel, gyro, chicken over rice), but they’ve got a whole bunch of not so standard items as well.

Check out their menu after the jump…

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Alright back to the work at hand (aka finding lunch in Midtown).  Got this email from Lunch’er Matt about a street meat cart on 55th and 6th that he thinks everybody should check out (and you know I’m always up for new street meats!)

I’ve been meaning to share with you a newish street meat cart… but my co-worker who found it (and gushed about it) didn’t want me to. But I think we’d both like to insure its survival by having it appear on Midtown Lunch. It is called Kabab Express and it is located on the southeast corner of 55th and 6th, just in from the LOVE sign. I’ve only tried 3 things there so far, chicken and rice, lamb kabab over rice and the chicken kabab over rice. The standout is the chicken kabab which they marinate overnight in little bags for each skewer and come out tasting perfectly cooked and well seasoned with what I think is cumin and cinnamon. Because the kababs take some time as they are cooked to order, the cart has a phone number and a flyer that they give away so you can call ahead of time.

The flyer and more is after the jump…

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Got this message from Lunch’er “Michael” the other day: “A new cart opened on 53red and Park. Its an “international soup” and “halal” cart that offer 9 soups daily plus a special. 12oz = $4.50, 16oz = 5.50 32oz = 9.50. The guy running it was very nice and generous with the samples.” Turns out the cart is from a newish soup restaurant in College Point Queens called the Herb International Soup Factory. It’s got great reviews on Chow and Chowhound, and like Michael said they’re willing to give you a sample of any of the soups. I tried a taste of the pumpkin soup yesterday, which was really tasty and more of a savory squash soup than the sweet orange goop you’d expect. Super interesting, and a great change of pace from the red signed Hot Soup carts that have come to dominate the Midtown soup scene. It’s parked on the NW corner of 53rd & Park (where the Mexican burrito cart used to be.)

Remember last April when NBCNewYork put David Chang into a street cart downtown to promote their new website? Well, they’re at it again.  We’re hearing from a very good source that on Feburary 8th Daniel Boulud “and friends” will be hijacking a food truck to promote the launch of NBC’s new restaurant site. “It’ll be a bonafide truck, stopping at various unannounced locations through out the city.” And unlike the Chang thing, they are guaranteeing a Midtown stop. (My vote is for charcuterie sandwiches!)