Archive for 'Jury Duty Lunch'

Eating Japanese Curry At Maid Cafe NY Was Only A Little Bit Weird

I wasn’t sure what to expect when walking into Maid Cafe NY on Centre St. (at Walker) in Chinatown. Would I be accosted by ladies dressed as maids? Would the food be terrible? Neither of these turned out to be entirely true, although the cafe is probably better used as the source of Japanese sweets than a solid lunch.  Read more »

Surprisingly Good Jerk Chicken Is One Secret Within Corte Cafe

There are many delis and other eateries that I’ve walked by many times but never bothered to step inside. That’s usually OK, but sometimes you find a gem that you would never tell existed from the outside. Corte Cafe at the corner of Lafayette and Duane streets is such a place, advertising only “international foods” on its awning. A step inside shows the usual salads and sandwiches, but you can also get fried chicken, a torta or a variety of Caribbean food. It was the latter that piqued my interest since the area around City Hall is lacking in the food of the islands.

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Dim Sum Go Go: A Jury Duty Lunch For When You’re Feeling Flush

A while ago one of my friends persuaded me to eat at Dim Sum Go Go on E. Broadway (at Chatham Sq.), and it wasn’t bad. No, you don’t get the charm of the carts going by, but if you’re looking for a somewhat quick dim sum lunch near City Hall and the government buildings and courthouses it’s a good option. While there I noticed they had a 10-piece dim sum platter on the lunch menu for precisely $10 and decided to go back and see if it was worth bypassing the cheaper options in Chinatown.

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Bargain Pressed Sandwiches & Curly Fries At Snac’Meal Kiosk

This winter hasn’t really been a nasty one, and so it is that at the beginning of March when it’s 60 degrees out, I think nothing of heading to an outdoor kiosk for lunch. Snac’Meal is next to Centre Melts on the northeast side of the 1 Centre St. building and has a hodgepodge of a menu for both breakfast and lunch that includes sandwiches, soup, falafel, shish kebab, pita pizza and curly fries. It was the “Spanish torta” sandwich that caught my attention, partly for the lunchtime price of $3.95 ($3.50 before 11 a.m.) and the fact that you could pair it with curly fries for an extra $1.50.

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Did Centre Melts Make Me A Grilled Cheese Convert?

Here’s a confession: I’m not a huge fan of grilled cheese. That was why I was kind of perplexed when I heard there was more than one truck devoted to this sandwich hitting the streets of New York City, and after eating at the first one to launch, I was even more confused. Why would people pay nearly $10 for two slices of bread with some cheese in it? Couldn’t I make this at home with little effort? Centre Melts, one of the new kiosks around 1 Centre St., opened a while back and I was curious if it was going to be any better than the mobile competition. To the analysis! Read more »

Chinatown’s Bo Ky Focuses on Noodles, But They Serve Another Standout

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 »

Jury Duty Lunch Options Just Got A Little Better With Open Air Cafe

If you’re like me, you don’t really go to the area of Centre St. near City Hall unless you’re on jury duty, get arrested (I would imagine) or you work there and/or are defending someone in a court of law. The other option is that you are a tourist or just really like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. One day after getting off the subway at the City Hall station, I noticed a couple of food kiosks had popped up in a weird triangular area at the base of the bridge. They were Choza Taqueria and The Pantry, and they make up half of the Open Air Cafe. Two other kiosks for Lucky Buns (not this kind, sadly, but burgers) and an Italian pizza and pasta kiosk called  Sauced are on the opposite side of the massive 1 Centre St. building. I had originally ventured over to check out Choza’s tacos only to find the place closed. So I walked over to the neighboring Pantry to see what they had on offer.

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