Midtown Lunch

There are days that some specific food sounds really good, and it becomes a mission to find exactly what I’m craving. The other day this happened and it was falafel that sounded good, but I also wanted to go for a little bit of a walk since it wasn’t raining outside for once. Baba Ghanouge popped into my head because I remembered a sign in their window for a $3.99 falafel sandwich. When I took a glance at the menu, though, something else caught my eye: The man-ushi sandwich section. How had I missed this before?

The man-ushi sandwiches are basically a large flatbread covered in oil and then the spice blend za’atar, which is then topped with your choice of feta for the vegetarian version, turkey and mozzarella, or spicy chicken and rolled up like a burrito (or, shudder, a wrap). The turkey one sounded like some weird hybrid I wasn’t ready to try, but I could get behind the marinated chicken breast version ($5.99) which also contained spicy garlic sauce, onions, tomato, lettuce, pickle and pickled beet.

This thing was massive! The flatbread was the size of a small pizza and filled with several large chunks of heavily seasoned chicken and no shortage of vegetables. The spicy garlic sauce looked like hummus, but left a taste in my mouth that no amount of gum could kill. Do not eat this before a meeting. All of their pita sandwiches are put into a press for a couple of minutes which in this case I didn’t mind because it crisped the bread up.

Service is a little bit harried if you go during prime lunch time, but between this and the previously covered chicken beiruti sandwich featuring a certain fried carb, I think it’s worth it.

Baba Ghanouge, 165 Church St. (btw. Chambers & Reade), (212) 571-2020 or (212) 571-2077, www.babaghanouge.com