Midtown Lunch

It’s that time of year when everything smells like hot garbage and cold lunches start to sound good. Yesterday was a scorcher and at first I was thinking a sandwich sounded good for lunch. But then I remembered that a new location of Xi’an Famous Foods had opened on Bayard St. (btw. Mott & Elizabeth) and that they had a few cold noodle dishes. This immediately sounded like a way better idea than a sandwich so I made my way to the J train for the first time in a long time and headed up to Chinatown.

Read more »

It is definitely hearty, carb-filled food weather but I have grown tired of the options down in the Financial District. Sure, there’s the Hot Soup Cart when something warm sounds good, but I’ve found that hit or miss, and I can only eat the pho at Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches so many times before that too becomes boring. This is when I look for an excuse to head to Chinatown and I found that with a Serious Eats post on the food at Bo Ky on Bayard (btw. Mulberry & Mott). The shrimp rolls looked like something that needed to be consumed (by me), and I am always OK with noodle soup in its many glorious forms. Read more »

I know it’s strange to head up to Chinatown or Little Italy to eat at newish Bluebird Sky instead of eating at one of the million cheap Asian or Italian places there. But this cafe on Baxter (btw. Canal & Hester) came highly recommended by lunch’er Mark and also lured me in with its promise of a muffuletta listed on the menu. And since it’s right by the Canal St. subway stop I decided it was time to if their sandwiches were up to the task of being my lunch.  Read more »

As you guys may know by now I like dumplings. Any kind of dumplings. And when you give me 5 of them for $1, and throw in a sesame pancake on the side I couldn’t ask for a better carb-explosion of a lunch. I hadn’t been to Prosperity Dumpling on Eldridge St. (btw. Hester & Canal) in a while because it’s not exactly close to where I work. It’s well-known among those who love cheap, delicious Chinatown treats, but shunned by those who would rather walk up the street a couple of blocks to the larger (and more expensive) Vanessa’s Dumpling House. I actually discovered Prosperity after going to Vanessa’s one day and seeing how packed it was. Read more »

If you’ve ever gotten off the subway at Canal and Centre streets, you’ve probably noticed the giant yellow awning proclaiming the five combination for $4.50 deal at Lunch Box Buffet. I know I have! Until now I’ve never tried it because, really, there are so many options in the area for cheap food that I was waiting for a day when I had an intense craving for crappy Chinese and happened to be in the area. Well, those events happened recently and I headed inside to a magical world where you didn’t have to pay by the pound to sample multiple items. Read more »

With the weather turning cold and rainy I’ve had soup on my mind, as I’m a lover of pretty much anything that involves broth. Actually, I can only think of one soup I’ve ever eaten that I really didn’t like.  Specifically, I was looking for a good noodle soup and that’s a hard proposition in the FiDi so I headed up to Chinatown’s Xe Lua on Mulberry (between Canal & Baxter). Daniel had done a mini-tour of Vietnamese places back in the day and several people suggested the pho at Xe Lua in the comments of that post. Was it worth the trip or should I have just eaten some generic deli udon? Find out after the jump. Read more »

The finalists for the Dessert Vendy Awards came out the other day, and among the hipster trucks and carts was a non-flashy one from Chinatown. That would be Yao’s Long Tzi Tang (Dragon Beard Candy), which has its spot on Canal St. (btw. Mott & Mulberry). I was clued into this cart recently by Food In Mouth, which is great because I rarely walk that far down on Canal in search of lunch and never would have known it was there otherwise. Click through to see the sugary magic. Read more »