Midtown Lunch

Now here’s a sandwich from a drug store I’ll try!  According to Eater, the Duane Reade in Grand Central Penn Station is now serving pre packaged sandwiches from Zabar’s in a fancy little kiosk. No word on what kind of sandwiches are available, or how much they are, but I’m sure they are 1000 times better than the poor excuse for sandwiches being served at the Times Square Walgreens. Normally if I’m in GC I’ll probably end up making my own sandwich at Murray’s Salami, but I suppose I could try the Duane Reade/Zabar’s sandwich… if I was dared.

Photo courtesy of Eater

Just when you thought the whole banh mi craze couldn’t get any crazier, Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) has added banh mi to their menu.  Yes, my favorite fast food Chinese place, known for their Chinatown style meats, soups, and noodle dishes is now serving Vietnamese sandwiches.  W…T…F?  My gut instinct is to laugh this one off and- in what should be a surprise to no one- it’s not a completely “authentic” banh mi, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.

Check out what they’re serving, after the jump…

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You would think that all the stories of new food carts being intimidated out of their spots would curb the number of new mobile food vendors coming to Midtown, but nope.  The parade marches on.  The latest venture (which the owner claims has been in the works “for a while”) is Schnitzel & Things, a new truck that plans on launching in early July serving an Austrian style schnitzel and side dishes. They will be parking all over the city, but plan on splitting lunch between Midtown & Downtown (“with a focus on Midtown”.)  For those who aren’t familiar with schnitzel it’s a breaded cutlet, and Schnitzel & Things plans on serving versions made from chicken, pork and cod. The menu (which you can see here) also includes bratwurst, Austrian potato salad, sauerkraut, and various other salads and condiments.  The owner is from the Ukraine, but has lived in NYC most of his life.  The inspiration for the truck came from a year spent in Vienna where he was inspired to quit his banking job and come back to New York to cook.

If you can’t wait until early July, you can get Israeli schnitzel at Kosher Deluxe (on 46th btw. 5+6th) or Baguette Express (on 37th btw. 5+6th), and German Schnitzel at Hallo Berlin Express (on 9th btw. 50+51st.)  But for the Austrian version, you’ll have to wait for the truck- which you can follow (naturally) on Twitter.

After Wednesdays false alarm, I excitedly hit up the new location of Szechuan Gourmet (on 56th btw. B’way+8th) yesterday right at noon, only to find out they were still waiting for the city to give them the green light to open (it came about an hour later.) But they were willing to do take out orders- so I did what had to be done: double cooked pork belly with chili leeks, to go, with white rice and hot and sour soup. The version served at the flagship, two starred NYT, restaurant (on 39th btw. 5+6th) is quite possibly my favorite Chinese food dish in the city. But the question remained, would the version at this new location stand up.

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Those who have been reading Midtown Lunch for awhile may recall the Cartwatch of January ’07.  A croque monsieur truck popped up, and just as quickly disappeared a few days later, before ML got a chance to sample their wares.  Since then, I have dreamed of the day when we would be able to buy a French ham and cheese sandwich from a truck- and earlier this week, my dream finally came true.

The Le Gamin truck, which has been parking all over NYC since late last year, finally gave Midtown a chance to try their menu of French sandwiches, crepes, quiche, and (of course) frites.  They set up shop on 47th btw. Lex+3rd on Tuesday and Wednesday, and not even the rain could keep me away from date with destiny!

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Even if Kogi BBQ does end up opening a truck in Midtown, as promised on Monday, they won’t be the first cart serving Korean tacos here.  That  distinction will probably go to a brand new “Korean BBQ” cart that popped up this week on 50th btw. 6+7th, in the same exact spot that used to belong to the Happy Well Being House Cart.  More like the Bulgogi Cart on 49th than the Happy Well Being House Cart (which had fried fish, and grilled chicken), this new Korean BBQ cart has bulgogi and “shortribs” (or their boneless version of kalbi.)  But what caught my eye was at the bottom of the menu: bulgogi hot dogs, and Korean tacos. Hello!

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I’m not exactly sure how much “new Midtown truck!” news you can handle… but clearly this week we’re pushing the limits.  Got a few reports from Lunchers about this new crepe truck (known as “Tripie”?) parked in Columbus Circle. Lunch’er Mike tracked them down on Facebook and Lunch’er “Jonathan” was kind enough to send along the photo on the left via twitter. $4.95 for a crepe is kind of cheap by Midtown standards. Has anybody tried this cart yet, or know anything about it?  I’m curious how it stacks up against Madeleine the Crepe Lady (on 49th btw. B’way+8th) or the Le Gamin Truck (which parked in Midtown for the first time yesterday, and will be back in the same spot today.)

Following in the footsteps of Time Out New York’s Feed Blog…  Thrillist, Citysearch’s The Feedbag, and New York Magazine have all filed reports about this new La Cense Burger Truck coming to Midtown sometime in the next week later in the month.  With all this PR, I’m starting to wonder if this truck is about bringing tasty burgers to Midtown Lunchers or about raising brand awareness for La Cense’s Montana bred beef (after all, NYC is the biggest food media city in the country.) We’ll wait to see if they park outside of Conde Nast before issuing judgment.

A few other important tidbits of important info I didn’t mention in the first post… the burgers will be made entirely from grass fed beef, and will be served topped with carmelized onions on a sesame seed bun for $7. And if you were wondering exactly what Adam Perry Lang’s (from Daisy May’s BBQ) role in all of this is, he created the burger recipe and the method of preperation.  It definitely could be good…

After what happened yesterday we should probably get used to all these new trucks popping up in Midtown.  Today it’s the Le Gamin Truck, which has been parking everywhere *but* Midtown for the past month and a half. From Lunch’er Jason: “Walking to work today I spotted a truck I’ve never seen before. I believe it was ‘Le Gamin’. They listed sandwiches and other savory items for sale with a physical address somewhere on MacDougal. They were parked at the NE corner of 47th/Lex.” Merguez sandwiches, croque monsieurs, and frites?  I’ll take it! Not sure if they’ll last at this spot, or what their long term plan is, but you can follow them on… you guessed it… twitter.

Photo and menu info courtesy of Serious Eats: New York.

As much as I love the Chennai roll at the Biryani Cart, when it comes to spicy, red onion topped kati roll goodness nothing beats the original Kati Roll (on 39th btw. 5+6th).  And now they’ve added a new option to their menu: whole wheat roti.  Starting two weeks ago, Kati Roll started offering this wrapper alternative to their fresh fried paratha.  The new bread option is very thin, is whole wheat and is roasted- as opposed to the paratha which is slightly thicker, made from white flour, and pan fried.

The fresh fried bread is one of my favorite parts of the kati roll, but I’m always down with a little bit of change- so I headed to 39th Street on Thursday to check out the new option.

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