After visits to the Bay Area last year, Zach came back first with five and then another three lunches that Midtown really needs to have. I was out there for most of last week and found even more delicious lunch goodness that I would love to see Midtown borrow from the left coast.

First thing we need is an amazing food court like they have at the Westfield Mall, San Francisco Centre. With more than 20 eateries in ML range, there’s Chinese, pasta, Korean Barbecue, Tri-tips, fish shacks and more to wade through. It’s enough to explore for weeks. See what I had and some of the other points on my wishlist after the jump.

At San Francisco Centre, I had Jody Maroni’s, a sausage shop that hasn’t been in Midtown since that one branch in the old 42nd Street food court closed years ago. I skipped over the kielbasa and Italian sausages that looked good, but I felt like I could get elsewhere. Instead had a smoked chicken special. I usually expect pork to make the best sausage, but this was surprisingly good.  Westfield Mall, San Francisco Centre, Dining Concourse. 845 Market Street.

The second thing we need are the hand held pot pies sold at The Cravery just across the street from the Westfield in SOMA. They sell flaky pockets filled with different flavors of beef or chicken, including traditional, cracked pepper spiced and barbecue. I never managed to get the Tuck Shop meatpies that used to be in the Cyber Cafe on 49th Street, but these are a little saucier than most Australian-style pies. The Cravery, 829 Mission Street. 415.882.7300

Lastly, what we absolutely need is more Filipino food. There’s not nearly enough of it in New York and with Bayan Cafe gone, none in Midtown. Kusina ni Tess was right across the street from my hotel, just on the border of Union Square and the Tenderloin. I didn’t have lunch there, but I had a great breakfast of garlic fried rice, a fried egg and two small, sweet longaniza sausages. The rice wasn’t particularly fried, but deeply garlicky. I could have used another egg, just to have more runny yolk to soak into it all. Kusina ni Tess, 237 Ellis Street. 415.351.1169

As a bonus, I have to add another taco topping that is nearly impossible to find in Midtown. Last year, Zach wanted more lengua. Even now, El Rey del Sabor is about the only place I know in Midtown that serves that. But, I don’t know any place that’s got cabeza tacos like I had at Taqueria Cancun. Meat from the beef head is a mixture of textures… some of it is soft and tender, like lengua, while other parts are thicker and meatier.  Yes please. Taqueria Cancun, 1003 Market Street. 415.864.6773

Related:
3 More Lunches Midtown Needs from SF: A Roli Roti Porchetta Truck, Meat Cones, & Tongue Tacos
5 Things Midtown Needs From San Francisco

We’ll start with the thing I was most excited to discover: a freakin porchetta/rotisserie chicken truck!  Holy mackerel.  Parked at a Street Food Fair thrown by Foodbuzz (as part of their First Annual Blogger Festival),  the Roli Roti Truck has been around in San Francisco for almost ten years, serving up rotisserie chickens and porchetta sandwiches made from sustainably farmed meats that are roasted on spits right on the side of the truck.  This thing was a pure feat of engineering genius, and we need one in Midtown… like… yesterday.  It can fit a couple of hundred rotisserie chickens, but the real star (for me) was their porchetta, which gets sliced hot and sold in sandwiches (crispy skin and all!).

Check one of these bad boys out, after the jump…

The meat is rolled up with a mixture of spices and wrapped with a layer of pork fat before getting roasted crispy on the spits. Lemon juice gets squeezed over the porchetta during the whole process,  which gives it this great tang- and after the meat gets sliced it’s topped with greens and carmelized onions that have been cooked on the flat top just below the roasting meats (you might say the secret ingredient is dripping pork fat.)  You get roasted potatoes on the side, which are also cooked below the meats and seasoned by the drippings.  Needless to say, it was freakin’ unbelievable- and even though you can go down to the EV and get something similar at Porchetta, there’s is something about seeing the meat roasting on the side of the truck that takes this sandwich to the next level.

You can find the Roli Roti truck on Saturday mornings at the Ferry Building Farmers Market in Downtown San Francisco, where they serve up the chicken and pork sandwiches until 2pm (but they usually run out of the pork by 12:30pm, which is why by 10:30am there was already a long line.)  The owner Thomas, who is originally from Switzerland where his father is a master butcher, custom built the truck for over $100,000 and has always been reluctant to franchise fearing that it would hurt the quality of the food.  As much as I would love to see one of these in NYC, I can totally respect that.

While by far the most exciting thing I ate over the weekend was that sandwich, there were two other things worth mentioning real quick.  While at the Ferry Building I had a chance to swing by Boccalone, the fairly new pig-centric meat market by Chris Cosentino (chef of the amazing restaurant Incanto).  I immediately snatched up a package of head cheese and a brown sugar & fennel salami, but the impulse purchase (for me and everybody else who walks into this place) was their “meat cone”.  Yeah, you heard me right.  Meat, served in cone form.

Sure it’s gimmicky, but if you’re like me this is far more appealing than ice cream!  And their house made charcuterie is pretty delicious.  Murray’s Salami might want to take a page out of the Boccalone playbook…

Finally, I was hoping to hit up La Tonayense Taco Truck in the Mission- but rain forced us indoors to La Corneta, where I tried one of their tongue tacos (which came highly recommended by my friend Carolina, who makes jam around the corner from the taqueria.)

Giant chunks of tender, perfectly stewed tongue, in a red tomato based sauce topped with black beans and spicy pico de gallo.  Amazing.  (I heard El Rey del Sabor is serving tongue tacos, but I can’t imagine they’re as good as these.  Might have to put that to the test this week… )

Roli Roti, Check website for location
Boccalone, Ferry Building Marketplace Shop 21, San Francisco, 415-433-6500
La Corneta, 2731 Mission Street, San Francisco, 415-643-7001

Special thanks go out to the Foodbuzz festival for the Roli Roti introduction…

I was in the Bay Area over the weekend, and was able to partake in five things that Midtown Lunch desperately needs! #1 is the most obvious… and has been mentioned a million times before: In N Out Burger!  Because everything is sourced fresh from the west coast, it’s unlikely that this will happen anytime soon- but there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to get the other four things!

#2. A burrito that is 2/3 the size of a 3 month old baby.

Oh, and it should be able to stand up on its own.  None of this fork and knife bullshit.  This carnitas burrito came from (what I thought was) a nothing place in Mountain View, California (but apparently is well known), called Taqueria Los Charros. And it was 1000 times better than anything I’ve ever had in New York City.

#3. Enormous tacos.  Sure we have Tehuitzingo (on 10th Ave. btw. 47+48th) and the El Rey Del Sabor Cart (on 60th and 3rd) has finally brought some delicious Mexican food to Midtown… but these were on a-whole-nother level.  The carnitas (on the right) was awesome, but the cabeza (on the left) was ridiculous.  And I’ve never seen tacos with this much meat in them.  Delicious salsa verde on every table sealed the deal. (From La Taqueria in the Mission… thanks to the Foodbuzz crew for the recommendation!)

#4. Good Vietnamese Food. We finally got an out of control Banh Mi place (even though it is out of bounds), and you can now get generic deli versions of bun and pho from Boi Sandwich on 3rd Ave. (btw. 44+45th)  But this city has a real problem with decent Vietnamese food.  Once again, I went to some hole in the wall place in Mountain View, that isn’t even considered that good- and had a better bun (with pork and spring rolls) than anything you get in NYC.  Is this stuff really that hard to make!?!

#5. This crazy version of a cheap Chinese food buffet.  As a lover of cheap Chinese food of all kinds (I’m seriously addicted to the stuff) I was amazed by this buffet at one of the 99 Ranch Supermarkets.  I’ve had all you can eat cheap Chinese food.  I’ve had pay by the pound cheap Chinese food.  And of course, I’ve had the choose 2 items with rice or noodle Chinese food.  But this blew me away…  a $6.95, stuff all food you can into a Styrofoam container, cheap Chinese food buffet (in a grocery store!  Awesome.)  They did have two rules: only rice and noodles in half the container, and you have to be able to close the lid.  Done and done.  The check out person offered the guy in front of me extra fried calamari (free of charge) but didn’t do the same for me.  I guess he thought I had take enough:

So great.  And to top it off, they had a lot of more authentic Chinese foodstuffs, like salt and pepper shrimp, and pork chops.  Oh… and (!?!) around the corner from this buffet they had a separate dim sum buffet.  They should just rename this place “Zach’s Heaven”.  None of it is what you would call “great”, but I had so much fun the lack of quality didn’t really bother me.

Well, I guess as long as we’re talking cheap chinese food, I have to add a #6.

Panda Express!!!  (Eaten on I-5 from S.F. to L.A., where I am today.)  Their noodles and orange chicken are cheap Chinese food nirvana.

If we could just get a few of these things in Midtown, I would never have to go to the west coast again… well, except for the weather.  I hear it’s pretty crappy in NYC today. Sorry, I feel your pain. (If it makes you feel better, it’s raining in L.A. today.)

If there is one thing we are totally, 100% missing in Midtown, it’s some cheap Vietnamese food ($7 banh mi doesn‘t count).  A write up on that alone would be enough to make me jealous.  Tell me about some cheap Vietnamese food that is part of a *food court* in the Financial District of San Francisco, and you’ve got me looking for a new job in the Bay Area.

Downtown San Francisco is not much different than NYC when it comes to lunch.  Most people work the typical 9 to 5, so lunch options abound.  But just like in NYC, people seem all too content to settle for places that offer your run of the mill deli salads, sandwiches and soups.  I have one coworker whose favorite salad place costs her $10-12 everyday.  That is not the spirit of Midtown Lunch.  I read the site everyday and it has encouraged me to seek out the hidden lunch gems near my office. 

My all time favorite San Francisco lunch discovery is without a doubt “The International Food Center” or as I like to call it, “The Underground Food Ghetto”.  It’s pretty unassuming, with a slightly dirty looking green banner calling you downstairs from the sidewalk into an underground ethnic food heaven.  There is Japanese food/sushi, Burmese food, Filipino food, Mexican food, and the most popular: Pho Express, a place serving up French Vietnamese food.  It’s not the cleanest place, so it’s only for the lunch adventurous.  

Dirty Asian Food Court Porn, after the jump…

Since San Francisco is know for its overcast days, Pho Express is a great option serving up tons of different types of pho and soups.  On this particular day, I chose to order #16 which is the Chicken Won Ton Noodle Soup.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see what $6.25 gets you: a huge ceramic bowl brimming with large strips of chicken AND chicken won tons AND a generous portion of thin noodles all in a piping hot broth.

On top of that, they give you a side plate of traditional Vietnamese soup additions: bean sprouts, jalapenos and mint.  The strips of chicken had a slightly sweet charred/barbecued taste, while the won tons were just mushy enough.  The broth had a strong chicken flavor but didn‘t overwhelm the other ingredients. All in all, it was really filling, and the perfect soup for an overcast workday.  

My coworker was hungover that day and came along since he needed something greasy.  I recommended the Chinese counter which serves up some amazing sesame chicken.  He got the two item combo for $6.50 with the sesame chicken and beef broccoli.  He agreed that the sesame chicken was amazing and that the beef broccoli was above average. 

If walking into a place with a slightly dirty cafeteria vibe makes you think that you’re in for an amazing lunch, than you will love The International Food Center. There are tables everywhere and a few flat panel TVs that are always set to CNN for the business lunch crowd.  Like all great food courts, there is something for everyone here and most importantly it meets all of the criteria of what would be considered a “Midtown Lunch”. Under $10 (easily), exotic and everything comes in very generous portions.

Internatonal Food Center, 380 Bush St. (nr. Kearny), San Francisco

Nicole… you know us so well.  Work outside of Midtown and have a favorite lunch you want to share?  Email me at midtownlunch@hotmail.com