On Saturday we gathered together at City Winery with a couple hundred of our closest friends to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Midtown Lunch (yes, we too are surprised this thing has been around for 5 years!)   A great time was had by all thanks to the amazing food (provided graciously by Kwik Meal, The Biryani Cart, Cer Te, Ma Peche, Food Gallery 32, El Rey del Sabor, Tri Tip Grill, Wafels & Dinges, Miss Softee & the Rolling Cones, Kelvin Slush, and Momofuku Milk Bar) and the endless drinks courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery and GuS’s soda.

Check out the highlights, after the jump…

Bian Dang’s colorful truck was there, serving up their tasty, meaty Taiwanese style pork chops with pork gravy and pickled veggies over rice with a smile. It was contributor Donny T’s favorite of the day.

They were parked next to their Food Gallery 32 co-horts, Boon Sik Zip, who served up delicious made to order kimbap featuring your choice of beef, tuna and veggie flavors. So good!

Eddie’s Pizza showed off their brand new cart (the very first of its kind!), serving up a light and shatteringly crisp tomato and basil bar pie.

Má Pêche Chef, Tien Ho, and his crew brought their A-game, serving a special banh mi that was conceptualized just for this event. This sandwich featured a ridiculously juicy and rich slab of pork belly, paired with crunchy pickled daikon beef,
crab mayo and green papaya, in a good crusty roll. Mamacita was a fan, saying “their pork reminded me the strong richness and fattiness that I would expect from an old school carnitas store in East LA. A heavy squirt of shiracha sauce just put a happy ending to the whole mouthful. I should mention the serving size demanded a two hander, my boyfriend had to hold my beer while I took this thing down.”  And Chris H appreciated how juicy and messy it was. ”I want stuff falling out of it and juice to be running down my wrists when I take a bite – this sandwich did just that, and it was awesome!”

Based on hear-say from the crowd, the Tri-Tip Grill crew earned themselves some new customers, as people buzzed about the lusciously meaty Baby Buck sliders.  Thinly sliced, super tender roast beef dipped in debris and topped with bbq sauce and horseradish… it was perfection on a potato roll.

Our friends over at Cer Te, not to be bested by Má Pêche, also came up with a new menu item for this event. Their contribution was a hearty house made lobster sausage in a snappy natural casing. They paired this ‘haute dog’, with a truffled fingerling potato salad, sprinkled with lobster infused salt. This dish ended up as contributor Brian Hoffman’s favorite dish, as he raved,

“It was so unusual and the flavors worked really well together. The truffle creamed potatoes on the side and a garnish of an inventive and out of control lobster salty put the dish over the edge for me. I don’t see this on their regular menu, but if they ever do add it, I know where I’ll be spending the majority of my summer lunches.”

El Rey Del Sabor showed up with their signature tacos, which were available with pork, beef, or chicken. The folks that opted for spicy were treated to an exhilarating but tongue searing level of spice. Luckily there was plenty of suds by Brooklyn Brewery and GuS soda available to put out the fire.

Muhammed Rahman and the Kwik Meal Cart team stuck with the stuff that made them famous… handing out samples of their pita stuffed with their signature chunks of whole, juicy lamb. A Midtown Lunch classic!

Meru and the Biryani Cart offered samples of another iconic aMidtown lunch, chicken biryani and kati rolls.

The crummy weather didn’t stop people from gulping down cup after cup of refreshing ginger and Arnold Palmer slushes from Kelvin Natural Slush. (And we may or may not have spotted Zach behind the prize table adding something from a flask into his…)

For dessert, attendees were treated to the always scrumptious Wafels and Dinges liegewafels, which were topped with a swipe of nutty spekuloos and a swirl of whipped cream.

And Chrissie (aka Miss Softee), ringleader of The Rolling Cones, was there to hand out her innovative ice cream creations, including the infamous Potato Chip Choco Dip cone and the Watchamacallit cone.

But the “genius of the day” award goes to Blondie, who sandwiched Miss Softee’s soft serve between two cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar!

Although food was the focus of the event, it was also a chance for friends and family of Midtown Lunch to meet, eat, drink, and be happy. And there was probably no one happier in attendance, than little Harry the unofficial Midtown Lunch mascot, who was able to escape the stroller and stretch his legs.

In addition to all the great food and drinks, thanks to all the vendors who donated prizes! Including, Sweetery NYC, Bon Chon, Goodburger, Mooncake Foods, Beacon, BeerParc, Schnitzel & Things, Eddie’s Pizza Truck, Bistro Truck, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Yushi, The Counter, Glaze Teriyaki, Taim Mobile, Kimchi Taco Truck, Mai Cuisine, Macaron Cafe, ‘wichcraft, Hertz Connect, Seamless Web, Not For Tourist Guides, and Bouchon Bakery. You didn’t have to be present to win, so we’ll be sending out the rest of the prizes this week!

And finally a big thank you to everybody who came out to the party to support Midtown Lunch and the Street Vendor Project. You guys made this birthday one we’ll always remember!

• Curry Hill is out of bounds, but this $10 all you can eat kebab deal sounds pretty sweet [Grub Street]
• Cucina & Co. in Rock Center now has whoopie pies [Blondie and Brownie]
• Downtown Lunch fave closed for operating without a permit [Grub Street]
• Speaking of Downtown, Yvo revisits the Fried Chicken Cart she first wrote about on ML [Feisty Foodie]
• I get “Grilled” by A Hamburger Today [AHT]

• Don’t bother with Busan (on 53rd btw. 2+3rd).  Just go to Koreatown. [Mindy's Recipe for Disaster]
• The Bon Appetit Supper Club is opening early this year [Life Vicarious]
• Angelo Sosa, from Xie Xie, tells Sietsema that his sandwiches aren’t trendy (?) [Fork in the Road]
• Maui Tacos gives you amazing salsa to put on that terrible burrito [BLD Project]
• The Soho based Lunch Studio come to Midtown for some Fresco by Scotto action [Lunch Studio]
• Whole Foods Columbus Circle is a great place to take the parents after work [Amateur Gourmet]

• SMP 2 Winner Kwik Meal included in this look at the country’s best street food [Forbes Traveler]
• Tuesday there’s 2 for 1 beers at House of Brews [Eater]
• Joe The Art of Coffee has a mighty fine chocolate chip cookie [Blondie and Brownie]
• The Southwest Porch will now be serving food and drinks during lunchtime everyday [Grub Street]
• You will be seeing a lot more 7-11 locations very soon [Gothamist]
• James Boo decides he likes Kati Roll better than the Biriyani Cart [Eaten Path]
• Katsuhama’s lunch special is “not bad for $11, eh?” [A Passion For Food]
• A Restaurant Twitter Tracker! What a great idea… [Wined and Dined]
• Where do street vendors get their eclectic collection of cups? [City Room]

• They have a decent cold noodles dish at Woorijip [Blondie and Brownie]
• Dave Cook finds the shaved ice at Cafe Zaiya to be a little too coarse [Eating in Translation]
• Suggestions for solving the current street vendor problem facing NYC [Food in Mouth]
• Pump accuses Recharge of copying their menu [Pump Blog]
• If Aquavit is one of your Midtown splurges, you may want to eat there soon (for the last time?) [Feedbag]
• The clam chowder at Grand Central Oyster Bar is “transcendent” [Fork in the Road]

• You can get some pretty tasty looking snacks off the bar menu at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse in GC [Serious Eats: New York]
• Another Crumbs is opening on Lexington and 44th [Blondie and Brownie]
• The post confirms two Baja Fresh factoids previously reported here: the off the menu dos manos burrito, and the new location on B’way and 40th [NYPost]
• Crisp has added some sort of new “pita roll” to their menu [Cooking With Casa]
• The Treats Truck has improved their conecakes [Blondie and Brownie]
• The actual cupcakes from the much publicized Cupcake Stop Truck are not as good as the bakery they ripped off [Always Hungry NY]

• Here’s confirmation of what we reported on Wednesday. Xie Xie will not open this weekend. [Eater]
• Joe The Art of Coffee is now serving blueberry doughnuts from Doughnut Plant [Blondie and Brownie]
• Woorijip is now selling a bulgogi and kimchee wrap! [Fressagirl]
• Quiznos is commenting on the VV blog, and Sietsema is pissed! [Fork in the Road]
• Make sure you’re actually on 53rd and 6th when ordering that late night lamb over rice! [Serious Eats]
• Mangia’s Pizza Campo is a satisfying and affordable lunch [Examiner]
• The Hawaiian BBQ at Osaka is good and cheap [BLD Project]
• Nothing to do with Midtown… but you should go to the Un-Fancy Food Show on Sunday.  It’s awesome. [Brooklyn Based]

• Pinkberry will be testing a new parfait at their Koreatown location [Eater]
• The best time to enjoy Schnipper’s Quality Kitchen is during Happy Hour [BLD Project]
• Not everybody found Kashmir Buffet to be as a sketchy as I did [Me So Hungry]
• There’s a good Cafe Metro in Brooklyn! (Oh wait, sorry.  It’s Metro Cafe.) [VV]
• The budae jjigae from Pocha 32 is enough to feed three or four people [Serious Eats New York]
• Sapporo gets upgraded to a “buy” [Blondie and Brownie]
• The only thing worse than getting your purse stolen, is when your purse is stolen with your Woorijip frequent eater card is inside [Fressagirl]
• Ever wondered what the inside of my fridge looks like?  [Umamimart]

• This weekend the city will start closing Broadway off to cars in Times Square [City Room]
• A new burger place is opening in New World Plaza, across from Blockheads [Life With Food and Drink]
• A possum draws a crowd (and police) outside a Midtown restaurant  [EV Grieve via Eater]
• Pork is back on the menu at Gyu Kaku… [Eater]
• … but the pig in front of Rudy’s is still scared of getting swine flu [Life With Food and Drink]
• NYMag is all about that Russian Vodka Bar Mamacita wrote about a few months ago [NYM]