Archive for April 2009

Downtown Lunch: Mooncake Foods

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) I’ve heard mixed things about Mooncake Foods, which also has a just out of boundaries Midtown location (on 30th btw. 7+8th).  Some people swear by their typical-diner-food-with-an-Asian-twist, but I’ve always been slightly skeptical that it was overpriced and would just leave me wanting some straight up Asian food. Here’s Daniel’s take on the Downtown location.

Mooncake Foods

Mooncake Foods has inventive, tasty food at a reasonable price. I checked out the downtown location of this small restaurant this week with a friend and was impressed with my Anise & Beer Braised Beef Shins plate, served with soft tortillas. A huge pile of tender beef is slapped onto a bed of greens and it comes with a cup of jus.

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Downtown Lunch: You Can Always Count on Jiannetto's Pizza Truck

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) You can never count on new carts, so when Daniel’s original destination went missing, he fell back on an old Midtown (and Downtown) Lunch standby.

I went down to check out the new pizza truck (supposedly parked on Pine near Broadway) but I’m starting to believe it’s a fantasy, because for the second week in a row there was no pizza truck to be found. I called John John’s actual location in Staten Island and they said they were having some issues with the truck so they haven’t really been there this week, but might be there Friday (meaning today). Good luck with that.

pizza 2s

I wanted pizza and I wanted a grandma slice NOW so I had to go check out the old standby Jiannetto’s (on Front and Wall.) Their Midtown trucks are already well known, and I figured it would be a good way to get my fix. Also I thought it would be fun if I turned the tables on my favorite stalker Yvo, who had recently checked out the same pizza.

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Downtown Lunch: A New Hand Pulled Noodle Shop Pops Up on Doyers

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) This week, he brings his dad along- who ends up ordering a soup with tripe, beef tendon, and oxtails… which leads to the obvious question: Daniel, were you adopted?

hand pulled 5s

Up until about a year ago I had never been to a hand pulled noodle joint. But since then I’ve discovered these are great lunch/dinner spots where you walk away like a smiling Buddha for under $10. The newest addition of HPNs to hit C-town is called “Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles” and has landed on what could possibly be my favorite block in NYC- Doyers street. This tiny elbow of a block contains a bunch of great restaurants, including Doyers Vietnamese and Excellent Pork Chop House. There’s also a barber shop, a post office, and a fancy pants bar named Apothoteke. Oh… and of course, the hand pulled noodles.

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Happy Well Being House is Related to Downtown Korean BBQ Cart

familycarts

The chef from the Downtown Korean BBQ cart that Daniel wrote about on Friday commented yesterday morning to let us know that the Happy Well Being House cart (on 50th and 6th) is run by his mom! He was also none too happy with Daniel’s write up (or ordering methods) and it’s kind of hard to disagree with his logic:

I don’t feel good with this. We have 2 different kind of rice One is fried vege rice(yellow) which has carrots and peas the other one is just plain white steamed rice. And for salad we have Italian dressing, some people put white sauce on their salad. It’s optional :( You did not ask for anything and you messed up everything, remember? You ordered fried fish box and when the food was ready, you changed your mind. When its buzy, that makes chefs get mad you know :.(

But wait, there’s more…

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Downtown Lunch: Korean BBQ Cart

Midtown workers shouldn’t have all the fun, so to even the score, I’ve brought on Daniel Krieger as an official Downtown Lunch Correspondent to write up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (ensuring good food porn), but more importantly he is a lover of cheap, unique and delicious eats (or as I like to call it- Midtown Lunch’ish food.) The appearance of the Happy Well Being House Cart spawned a lot of “what’s with Korean carts and fried fish?” questions this week. Of course there is also Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart that is popular for their fried fish sandwiches, but also serves bulgogi. Well, it seems as if Downtown has got a Korean/Fried Fish cart of their own.

Downtown Lunch: Korean BBQ Cart

When Ruth Reichl twittered about the Korean BBQ cart on the corner of Charlton and Varick last week, Zach emailed me immediately with a call to action. You all know how I feel about street carts- but clearly I had to do it. For Zach. For my Midtown Lunch cred. But most of all… for Ruth!

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Downtown Lunch Daniel Has a Stalker

Hazard of the job I guess… our Downtown Lunch columnist Daniel Krieger appears to have a blog-stalker.  The Feisty Foodie (who contributed the very first Downtown Lunch) has spent the past six months following Daniel around, first to vietnamese on Baxter, then there was Capri Caffe, and Sam’s Falafel.  More recently she might have been spotted in the shadows at Burger Burger, Leo’s Bagels, and the new Banh Mi Cart (which she discovered has raised their prices.  Bastards!)  Just an FYI Yvo, Daniel has a girlfriend (and I’ve met you both, and she could probably beat your ass. And mine for that matter.  And Daniels.)  Wanted to put that out there before any feelings (or faces) get hurt unnecessarily.