Midtown Lunch

That will be $6.25, please. Courtesy of Serious Eats.

• This coconut cake costs more than many of my lunches. [Serious Eats NY]
• A new convenience store is selling fancy coffee and pastries. Take that 7-11! [Grub St.]
• Maker of delicious soup dumplings, Shanghai Cafe, is being sued for labor violations [Fork In The Road]
• In other dumpling news, North Dumpling is awesome. [Food In Mouth]
• A meatball sub from Alleva makes Little Italy seem less lame. [Lunch with Front Studio]

When profiled lunch’er Chirag mentioned one of his favorite lunches downtown was the veguette banh mi at Baoguette, I was both intrigued and skeptical. To me soy protein masquerading as a meat product (in this case kung pao chicken) is kind of like the McRib: trying to be something it’s not. I know not everyone eats meat and as it’s one of the only vegetarian banh mi options in the Financial District (other than Nicky’s Vietnamese tofu version). Clearly someone had to try this sandwich for research purposes. Read more »

One of the Financial District’s sources of greasy Chinese food, Win Won on Liberty Place, was closed when I walked by yesterday. As you can see, the cause of the shutter was the Department of Health. There are a couple of sad things about this: First, they just got a fancy new sign, and also, because I have been keeping an eye on whether they posted their DOH letter grade. Guess I got my answer!

While buying non-food related items in the Duane Reade at Fulton & Pearl I couldn’t resist seeing what they had in the prepared food section. Nestled next to some hummus and granola parfaits (and the infamous sushi), I spotted this veggie japchae. I was not willing to part with $5 to confirm that this is terrible, but apparently some other people were because there were only two containers of it  left. I can handle a drugstore selling crappy packaged sandwiches and yogurt, but where will they draw the line?

I know everyone complains that we don’t have a lot of food variety down in the Financial District, and that’s partly true. There is a source of decent Korean food (no, not the best you’ve ever had) at Soma By Nature on William St. (btw. Fulton & John). Chris had checked out the kimchi stew here as a cure for what ailed him and wasn’t too impressed. I went a different route and tried some of the rice-based dishes that may not have transported me to Korea, but did make me a happy lunch’er. Read more »