Midtown Lunch

I don’t get out to Flushing nearly as much as I want to these days. Or pretty much ever. It’s just so far. The only time I really get out there is if a friend has an extra Mets ticket and is looking for someone to go with ’em, which, quite frankly, also doesn’t happen often enough. But getting on topic, with all that great Chinese food I hear about out there, when one of those Flushing legends finally landed in Manhattan, I had to go. There was no if’s, and’s, or but’s. I had to go.

Xi’an Famous Foods, located on Forsyth (careful, the address is tricky), is that place. I had heard so much hype about it, particularly the noodles, I had to get up there and see what it was all about. And as you can probably predict, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.
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No, no, you’re at the right place! This isn’t Midtown Lunch: Philadelphia, I promise, though after Jamie’s video about how to eat soup dumplings, it doesn’t look like such a bad place to be.  Which is why I’ve chased down a little corner of Philly and taken a closer look. Carl’s Steaks has been on the collective ML radar for awhile now, Zach having reviewed it back in the day up in Midtown, but for some reason the Downtown outpost has eluded us. But not anymore. Last week I went in, shook hands with Carl himself, and took a big, greasy bite out of Philly.

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Remember when I told you there would be a surprise the first time we ventured into Chinatown since the launch? Well, here it is.  We’ve realized that there is a problem that afflicts tens of thousands of New Yorkers every year.  “Where do I eat while on jury duty?”  This segment of Midtown Lunch hopes to address that question exactly.  Good for Uptowners, Midtowners, and Downtowners alike, Jury Duty Lunch explores the area around Foley Square looking for what Midtown Lunch is all about: cheap, greasy, delicious food.  Just click on the Jury Duty Lunch category to see where we’ve been.

During my childhood, I had a strong affinity for dumplings, gyoza, potstickers, whatever you wanna call ’em.  It was one of my absolute favorite things to eat and always a treat when Mom would get that giant plastic bag we’d gotten at the grocery store and fried up a couple plates worth.  My disappointment always clocked in when I realized the meal wouldn’t consist solely of dumplings.  I dreamed of the day when I would be a grown up who could fry his own damn dumplings and consume nothing but.  Well, that day has come.  (To be perfectly frank, it’s not the first time in my adult life that day has come, but let’s set that aside for the time being.)  I took a little trip to Chinatown to see just how many fried dumplings and pork buns I could get for my 5 bucks at Fried Dumpling on Mosco Street.
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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 (insuring 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 all know how much I love sandwiches stuffed with fried plantains. But check out this sandwich where the fried plantains are THE BREAD!

When I heard you could get a sandwich made using fried plantains as bread at Sazon, a downtown newcomer serving Puerto Rican food on Reade street, I had to check it out. I was hoping for the outdoor seating I had seen available my first time passing it but this week was told that’s only for dinner time hours now. *kicks ground*

The inside is a bit cheesy/clubby and not really what I’m looking for when having lunch, plus I realized that with sandwiches starting at $9, I’d break the $10 Midtown Lunch barrier (once you added tax+tip), but I just had to try this sandwich. In other words, my stomach won the battle over my wallet. I decided to sit at the bar with my dining companion and we ordered the Cubano ($9) and the Jibarito (the sandwich with the fried plaintains as bread). You can get it with grilled chicken inside for $10, but I decided to splurge ($11) for the bistec (steak) with onions, cheese, and avocado (although for some reason that last ingredient wasn’t written on the menu).

Check it out, after the jump.

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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. Every Friday he writes up some of the tasty stuff you can get in the lower half of Manhattan. He’s a great photographer (insuring 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.)

When Mix Grill on Church Street closed I didn’t really shed a tear. The food was ehh and I hadn’t been there since I checked it out for a downtown lunch writeup. So when I saw Baba Ghanouge moving in about a month ago, I was excited to see what they were going to be offering in the same storefront.

Huge spinning towers of meat, one lamb one chicken, stand close to the window, drawing in carnivores with their glistening red-coil-cooked meat.

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I’m a huge fan of the newish NYC Cravings truck, which serves Taiwanese style pork chops and fried chicken over rice and pork sauce with pickled cabbage two days a week in Midtown.  But not everybody agrees with me.  There are those who claim it’s not nearly as good as the places in Chinatown, to which I’ve always said: “well, we’re not in Chinatown!”  And even though most of us don’t have the time to trek down to Chinatown for Taiwanese pork chops,  it looks like Chinatown will actually bring pork chops to us!  Got this email from Lunch’er Teresa yesterday:

Just an FYI, my co-workers and I just had lunch delivered from Wah Mei Pork Chop Fast Food (on Hester btw. Baxter & Mulberry.) It was a success.  You just need to order at least 4 items, and do it by 11am, and apparently they will deliver ANYWHERE in Manhattan.  (My office is on 52nd and 7th).

Their “order”, with prices, is after the jump…

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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?

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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