Midtown Lunch

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Pola and Brian who took part in the Tribeca Cheap Eats Chowdown, in which they each were given $50 and tasked with finding healthy, cheap and filling lunches for five days. You can see the results of that challenge here, and find out what they normally eat below.

Names: Pola Avrasin and  Brian Singh

Occupations: Analyst (Pola) and business analyst (Brian) at Luminary Labs

Where you work: Franklin St. btw. Hudson and Greenwich

Ages: 21 (Pola), 24 (Brian)

Favorite Kinds of Food: Pola – Having been born in Russia I love pelmeni, harcho soup and pickled watermelon (Google them!). I also love all things raw  – carpaccio, tartare, sashimi, ceviche, salads, etc.

Brian – Chinese (almost everything), Japanese (sushi, ramen), Moroccan (falafel, kebab, tagines), Mediterranean (stuffed grape leaves, lamb) and meat in general – it’s a guilty pleasure

Least Favorite Foods: Pola – Anything that includes peanut butter, is heavily fried or “burn your mouth” spicy; Brian – Greasy or bland foods.

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Pola – Locanda Verde for a special occasion or celebrity sighting. For everyday- Yorganic, Columbine, aka, Clementine on W. Broadway (nr. White), Peace and Love Cafe on Greenwich (at N. Moore) and Baba Ghanouge on Church (btw. Chambers & Reade) (Pola)

Brian – Tamarind’s lunch special for special occasions, Pecan Fine Foods on Franklin (at W. Broadway) a satisfying sandwich & soup combo , Clementine (formerly, Columbine) for something off the beaten path (Brian).

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Some people have their favorite food truck based on a certain item they sell, but one of mine is because I am almost guaranteed to have a good conversation while waiting for my food. I’m referring to the All American Diner I & II Truck that’s perpetually parked at Whitehall and Water streets serving up hero sandwiches and plates of meatloaf and roast beef. I’d been there once before and had a massive and delicious roast pork sandwich on garlic bread. The other day I was for some reason craving a parm sandwich and remembered that this truck served a couple of different varieties.

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Mmm…pork chop. Courtesy of Ultraclay.

• Yep, Wall St. Burger Shoppe is officially closed. [Crain’s]
• A dumpling crawl requires eating a lot of pork and chives.  [Feisty Foodie]
• Tribeca Treats is selling brownie ice cream sandwiches that I want right now. [Tribeca Citizen]
• Want to find a good pork chop over rice in Chinatown? There’s an app for that. [Ultraclay]
• The shrimp sandwich at Bread has a lot going for it. [Lunch Studio]

It’s always a gamble when you head to any street cart with one item in mind, keeping your fingers crossed they will have it when you get there. I headed to HM Halal on Greenwich (nr. Beach) in Tribeca with the intention of trying the salmon over rice after a rave from lunch’er Mike. And I didn’t really have a back up plan should they not have that one item, so of course when I got there and was told they had already sold out I did the next best thing which was ordering a chicken and lamb combo over rice ($5.50). After all, it had been a while since I’d had the cheap lunch of kings. Read more »