Midtown Lunch

With all the turf war controversy surrounding Mister Softee trucks, we’ve always imagined Softee President Jim Conway as some kind of soft serve puppet master, holed up in his Jersey lair ruling the summer streets of NYC with a iron fist.  Nope.  Saw him on Fox Business channel last week, and he looks like… well… the owner of a large (and extremely professional) ice cream company.  Miss Softee makes an appearance in the background, and Conway goes into some interesting business facts about Mister Softee- including the fact that the hours are long, and many of their franchises are owned by immigrants from South America, Eastern Europe and West Africa.

Check out the video after the jump…

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Speaking of Street Meat Palooza 3… last night’s episode of No Reservations was a follow up to his ultra popular food porn show from last year. He had cameos from famous chefs, and showed off a lot of expensive food… but the best part of the show for us was seeing our hero down a gyro pita alone on the street from the Halal Cart on the SW corner of 53rd and 6th (the one that pretends to be the famous cart that parks in the same spot at night.) The segment was titled “I Like It Dirty”, and Bourdain waxes poetic about street meat like only he can, likening waiting on the long line to waiting outside a methodone clinic “only more rewarding ultimately.” There’s no doubt that the lamb on pita tasted good, but we can’t help but wonder if he knows the whole story behind the cart he chose!

Check out the video after the jump…

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I’m sure hardcore Improv Everywhere fans have seen this already (because this “mission” happened almost five months ago) but I just saw it yesterday for the first time and felt the need to post it… not just because it takes place in the Trump Tower atrium (on 56th and 5th) but also because I too kind of love lunch.

Check out the video after the jump…

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*Sigh*  You’ve got to love the local news… Last night CBS2 filed this overdramatized report about the perils of eating street food. Apparently two guys in New Jersey were found guilty of running an illegal (and gross) commercial kitchen out of their house in New Jersey, so it clearly calls into question the cleanliness of all street vendors (it must be dirty… look at those black and white shots of the griddles!)  We’re not claiming all street vendors are clean, but it is a fact that the DOH gets far more complaints about people getting sick from restaurants than street vendors (a point glossed over in the piece.)  The report ends on a lighter note, pointing to “clean” vendors like the Dosa Man, Wafels & Dinges Truck and Street Sweets as the “good guys”, and also mentions that “with more licenses expected soon” (doubtful) and “more TV chef superstars expected to get into the business” there is no end in site.  Really?  Maybe those people should read this.

I just fell for the $6.50 xiao long bao (aka pork steamed soup dumplings) at Joe’s Shanghai (on 56th btw. 5+6th) so it was kind of an exciting coincidence to see that our ML: Philly correspondent Jamie made a fun, quick video on how to eat the juicy suckers without burning your mouth. Jamie’s bite-slurp-eat method is the standard way to attack xiao long bao, but I like to think there are no rules. My half bite mess is after the jump…

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Huzzah for horizontal integration! To promote the launch of their new food website, NBC brought on 4 famous chefs to take to the streets in food carts yesterday. So naturally the chefs appeared on the Today Show, and the NBC local news had first dibs on interviews for the nightly newscast. In addition to interviewing the chefs, they also talked to people on the street, and Lunch’er “Jill” (who sent us the first report about the fish and chips) made the cut! She’s the one in the in the serious winter cap talking about “lifting the bar”… a far more positive report than what she sent us… but in her defense it was before she ate. “I had no idea what I was saying. I was so hungry I was light headed.” Nice. Check out the video after the jump…

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Saw this video in the ML forums and just had to post it for everybody to see.  The Fat Boys… in Midtown… at an all you can eat buffet… for $3.99!  Amazing.  I saw Krush Groove years ago, and am a huge Disorderlies fan (how could you not be), but the Sbarro’s all you can eat scene takes on a whole new significance after lunch’ing in Midtown for 4 years.  It’s too bad Sbarro’s sucks now.  (Although $4 all you can eat is probably the one thing that would get me into that place…) Thanks to Lunch’er “Wellerfan” for sharing.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Last night the Wafels and Dinges Truck episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay aired, and for anybody who knows how tough it is to make the perfect Belgian waffle the result comes as no surprise. Our good friend Thomas straight up schooled Bobby Flay, who made a tasty topping but couldn’t quite master the texture of the perfect liege waffle. Unlike the bread pudding Throwdown with the Dessert Truck, or some of the other episodes I’ve seen where Bobby’s talent as a chef gave him an advantage, it was pretty obvious from the crowd comments who was going to win. Congrats Thomas on your big win! You can celebrate the victory today with a waffle on 46th btw. 5+6th (and saying “Bobby Flay” gets you a free dinge.)

And check out the video highlights from the episode, after the jump.

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Have you ever thought to yourself “Gee, I wish a Midtown street vendor would make a slideshow out of cart and food photos, set it to music (preferably a 7+ minute song) and post the whole thing to You Tube!”  If so, your prayers have been answered.  Kabab Express (on 55th & 6th), the cart that Lunch’er “Matt” clued us into last week has done exactly that.  And unlike the laughably bad  Jamaican Dutchy YouTube videos, which were mostly under a minute long, this one clocks in at a massive 7 minutes and 20 seconds.

If you can actually make it through the whole thing, you’ll be treated to a view of every angle of the cart, plus fresh veggies that are magically transformed into a pita sandwich (you might say the secret ingredient is the star wipe.) Also of note is the photo of lamb chops.  Does this cart serve lamb shanks!? (That actually would be awesome.)  At the very end they give you their phone number so you can save time by calling in your order… but that doesn’t happen until you’ve already wasted 7 minutes watching the damn video!

Check out the masterpiece after the jump…

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