Midtown Lunch

If you’ve ever wondered what the breakfast porridge at the Jamaican Dutchy is like, here’s a look at their hominy corn porridge over on Serious Eats: New York. Only $4 for an “enormous” cup, “it was creamy and sweet, with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla, cradling large, squishy hunks of hominy. Tasty and hearty, it was the kind of morning meal that leaves you warmed from within and ready for the day.”

See all Jamaican Dutchy posts on Midtown Lunch

A new day, brings another sandwich entry in the Midtown Sandwich Challenge. Actually… another *two* sandwiches. That’s right. The Jamaican Dutchy cart (on 51st & 7th) has created two sandwiches, and one of them is the first vegetarian entry in the challenge. Although the spirit of the challenge is to create something outrageous and unhealthy, that shouldn’t disqualify the sandwich from being vegetarian. And I commend the Dutchy for coming up with a sandwich that allows people who don’t eat meat to take part in our fun sandwich taste off. It also helps that the vegetarian sandwich is freakin’ good.

Check them both out after the jump… 

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The Jamaican Dutchy Cart (on 51st and 7th) has hopped on the “recession special” bandwagon sweeping the city. They have reduced the price of their stewed chicken and curry chicken mini-meals from $6 to $5. “Mini-Meal” is kind of misnomer; they stuff rice, peas, veggies and plantains (plus the meat) into one of those smaller 6″ x 6″ styrofoam containers. It’s a good amount of food for a normal size human being, and for $5 a nice alternative to their $9 to $11 regular size, gut busting portions.

A few weeks ago, the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st and 7th) started posting videos to a new You Tube account.  As of now there are 10, and most of them are pretty huge time wasters (even more so than most of the stuff on You Tube).  For example a few are less than 15 seconds long, and just have random customers ordering stuff. There are also a few longer ones that are meant to be advertisements (I’m guessing?) But, my favorite by far is the one where O’Neill, the owner of the Dutchy, stands in front of the cart pretending to be a customer stuffing his face.  You can understand about 6 words total of what he says, a) because he’s laying on his Jamaican accent a little thicker than normal, and b) half the time his mouth is filled with rice and peas. 

Check out the hilarity after the jump…

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Miracles can happen people!  That which I said should come to pass, has come to pass.  I’m not claiming to be God, I’m just saying maybe God reads Midtown Lunch. Last Thursday, during his whirlwind tour of New York City, Jamaican Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt visited the Jamaican Dutchy Cart on 51st and 7th Ave.  He hung out for about 15 minutes, taking pictures and chatting with Dutchy employees and customers. It’s not entirely clear if my post last week had anything to do with the visit, but I don’t care either way- I’m just glad he went! Seeing the photo of such a famous athlete hanging out in front of one of our favorite Midtown Lunches just makes me smile. Of course my smile is nothing compared to the smile O’Neil, the owner of the Dutchy, has had on his face since Thursday. It’s hard to for us to understand how exciting this was for him… it would be like me getting to meet the fattest guy in the world.

If you want to see the signed photo yourself, I’m pretty sure it will be hanging permanently on the front of the cart.

Jamaican Olympic hero Usain Bolt will be making the Midtown talk show rounds this week, and if admiration is worth anything, he should totally visit the Jamaican Dutchy Cart (on 51st and 7th.)  Not only are there articles hanging on the side of the cart, but the Bob Marley videos that normally play on the flat screen tv have been replaced for the past month with a loop of Usain Bolt’s Olympic triumphs.  O’Neill, the owner of the Dutchy is hoping to meet the man by stalking one of this appearances- but I think Bolt should come to him! (Perhaps for a plate of jerk chicken and stewed peas?)  He’ll be on The Late Show w/ David Letterman on Wednesday (which films right around the corner from the Dutchy!), The Daily Show on Thursday (which is on 54th & 11th), and Regis and Kelly on Friday. 

How awesome would it be if one of the shows worked the Dutchy into their Usain Bolt appearance?  They do that kind of crap all the time on Letterman, right?  Anybody work for CBS (or Comedy Central or ABC) that could make this a reality? I’m sure if you made it happen, O’Neill would give you free jerk chicken for life! Plus, I want a photo of Usain Bolt standing in front of Midtown Lunch’s favorite Jamaican cart. It’s a no brainer people! Let’s make this happen…

A few weeks ago I wrote about how the new Carribean Spice cart (on 46th btw. 6+7th) was distinguishing themselves from the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st & 7th) by offering coco bread, the perfect vehicle for a Jamaican patty.  Well, it turns out the Jamaican Dutchy has coco bread as well… in fact they’ve always had it.  For $3.25 it’s still the perfect snack, and now that I know the Dutchy has it, roti is really the only reason to go to the Carribean Spice cart.

Oh… and speaking of the Jamaican Dutchy, they’ve got a new LED screen:

Exciting news for the people who wondered if anybody would ever upstage that hot dog cart on 53rd & 5th.

Jerk Chicken at the Jamaican Dutchy

Julia Moskin has a great Jamaican jerk feature in this mornings New York Times and guess who should pop up, but our good friends at the Jamaican Dutchy (on 51st & 7th Ave.)  She interviews owner Oneil Reid and calls his jerk chicken one of “the best truck lunches in the city.”  No argument here.

But the most interesting part to me is what the article had to say about jerk pork, and why Oneil doesn’t offer it at the Dutchy:

He said that he would like to make jerk pork sometimes, but that many of the other food vendors, and the taxi drivers who inch past his cart in Midtown traffic, are Muslim, and the pork smell bothers them.

That’s a bummer, although entirely commendable.

I hadn’t seen this one before… the recently shuttered Hing Won on 48th btw. 5+6th pulled their gate down just far enough to “coincidentally” obscure the bright yellow DOH sticker (you can see the top sticking out a little bit).  This guy wasn’t fooled though!  You can’t see it in this photo, but the hordes of confused slack jawed yokels hovering around, asking “are they closed?” to no one in particular totally reminded me of the scene on the very same street almost 2 years ago when Variety Cafe was DOH’d.  That post spawned the creation of the “Closed by the DOH” category, and these clairvoyant words:

“EDITOR NOTE: We have created a new “Closed for Health Reasons” Category, which given our content, and location will probably have to be used more often then any of us would like. Hing Won, you’ve been warned.”

Still no word on exaclty why they were DOH’d, but it’s not hard to imagine.  They were in the process of “cleaning” up the place, and said if the re-inspection in the morning goes well, they’ll be back open tomorrow.

Also closed (but not by the Department of Health, and seemingly for good) is Le Croissant Shop on 6th Ave. btw. 38+39th.  Popular for their croissants (naturally) and Mexican food (huh?), they will certainly be missed on Cinco de Mayo (and Bastille Day?).

It’s not all bad news though… Read more »