Midtown Lunch

You can soon get this taco from an immobile VW bus, possibly from a hippie. Courtesy of NY Mag

• There’s a taco truck opening next week that will be permanently parked in a garage. Sadly that garage is not in the FiDi. [NY Mag]
• A dumpling shop fought the man (OK, a church) after being evicted, and is now reopened. Heartwarming! [Eater NY]
• Torrisi Italian Specialties is making the Feast of San Gennaro less crappy with its Italian/Chinese food booth. [NY Times]
• The sandwiches at Katz’s are still all that, despite what you may have heard. [Bionic Bites]
• Chinatown’s Mei Li Wah makes a ridiculously cheap pork bun that’s neither fatty or syrupy. [Fork In The Road]

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 »

Wow, I never expected to see so many carts and trucks I’ve eaten at nominated for Vendy Awards! The Rookie of the Year Finalists were announced yesterday, and both A-Pou’s Taste and its Taiwanese potstickers and the 99% Vegetarian Food carts were nominated. Hopefully they gave each other a hug or high-five when they found out, since their carts are a stone’s throw from each other on Liberty St. at  Broadway. One of the other nominees was the Cinnamon Snail, which I had a delicious vegan doughnut (really!) from at the Push Cart Market. With Mexicue and the Souvlaki Truck rounding out the list this category may be a tough one.

Can we get a collective “Noooooo!” with the confirmation that Tokyo Kitchen (aka Tokyo Lunch) is indeed shuttered? That was the thought that went through my head when I was snapping pictures of the place on John St. (btw. B’way & Nassau) with the gate down. It was brought to my attention in the forums, and looks like it’s not a renovation, as it’s marked as closed on Yelp. The two shops next to it are also empty, so I don’t know if it has anything to do with the construction of the Fulton St. Transit Center or if that’s just a really bad place to have a business. I will miss the Japanese curry most of all, and the fact that it seemed like a place you might actually come across in Tokyo.

There is a row of restaurants on Church St. that tend to be frequented by cab drivers, and you can add New Shezan (btw. Duane & Reade) to that list. This Pakistani/Bangladeshi steam table place seems to be popular with all sorts of people, judging by the crowd there for a late lunch. Like all of the others (Bangal Curry, Taste of Tandoor) and Pakistan Tea House, which is directly across the street, this one is no frills. They apparently have regulars, as I witnessed the girl who had dished up my food head out the door with a bag, which she handed through the passenger window of a cab. Hey, sometimes you want McDonald’s and sometimes you want goat. Read more »

Normally when people go to Chinatown it’s for, well, Chinese food or maybe a little Vietnamese or Thai. While I’m sure there are a handful of Korean restaraunts lodged in that part of the city, I wasn’t really aware of them, except for Jup She (formerly Li Hua). It’s a tiny place on Grand St. (at Baxter) with no real sign so you have to watch out for it. The reason I trekked all the way up to Chinatown for Korean food is that there really isn’t much to choose from in the Financial District unless you want Soma By Nature, Bon Chon or Cafe Hanover. Plus, I’m all about a Korean lunch box for less than $10, which I feel is a rarity (especially judging by the crappy-looking box Chris tried at Cafe Hanover for more than $10). Take a gander at what was in Jup She’s arsenal after the jump. Read more »