Midtown Lunch

This looks like pasta, but it isn’t. Courtesy of Food In Mouth

• A new cart in Chinatown is doing some magical things with sugar that makes cotton candy look lame. [Food In Mouth]
• There is apparently a record store in Chinatown that also sells banh mi. This trumps the jewelry store that sidelines in Vietnamese sandwiches. [Ozersky TV]
• A creamery from NJ is opening a brick and mortar shop in Soho, so you can get some fancy sandwiches with fancy cheese, probably at fancy prices. [Grub St.]
• You might want to stay away from Pomodoro and their “soft and almost squishy” spaghetti. [Lunch with Front Studio]
• I don’t know if I could eat three of the same vegetarian sandwich in two days, but some people can. [Serious Eats NY]

I was wandering way down in the FiDi yesterday and spotted a truck called Cook House parked on Hanover at Water. A guy out front was handing out samples of (wait for it) vegan empanadas. Oh yeah, did I mention they serve “Latin Vegan food”?  Check out the menu after the jump. Read more »

Grocery store/lunch favorite for tons of downtown office works Zeytuna has had what they call a Mediterranean snack cart set up outside on John St. (at Nassau) for a little while now, and I have been meaning to try it. I didn’t so much want to eat there because it was new, but because they seemed to have a pretty random assortment of food. We’re talking something called a maffle, some sort of sandwich called a dove, crepes and “corn in the cup.” Oh, and samosas! After asking what corn in the cup was, I was told they don’t have it anymore and will be replacing it with ravioli. Random! Since the cart will probably only be there as long as the weather is nice, and I really wanted to know what the hell a maffle was, this finally became my lunch destination. Read more »

• Homemade Halal cart gets a shout out for best street meat. [Downtown Eating]
• Anybody have some hot tips for non-lame lunches in the World Financial Center? [Downtown Eating]
• Downtown happy hour is so on at Bon Chon. [Downtown Connections]
• Asian soups seem to be the ticket when you’re sick. [Downtown Eating]

Crisp is coming to 111 Fulton St. (at William) which is great news in that it’s not another Subway or salad place. It should be open in December, when it will join another yuppified (although cheaper) chain Chickpea which is opening next week on John St. (nr. William). Zach grudgingly gave Crisp his seal of approval and its known for its creative iterations of falafel sandwiches. The sandwiches are not cheap compared to what you can get from a cart, but I guess you’re paying for the fact that they have a chef thinking up creations like the Asia and The Taj. Now if only we could get a Maoz down here with its fixin’s bar, the trifecta would be complete.

If there is one thing you lunch’ers should know about me, it is that I love me some seafood. I can’t even think of one kind that I don’t like, and I feel like I don’t take advantage of eating it for lunch enough especially since many of the carts downtown serve some sort of fish or shrimp. Awhile back, Chris tried out the beef stew from what he called the $5 Lunch Truck (you may remember it as the one in which the commenters questioned whether it was Eritrean food or not), and a couple of people including Lunch’er Tom had said the fish ($5.50) from this place was really good. That endorsement and the price made it a done deal in my book. Did I find the fish of my dreams? Click through to find out. Read more »