Midtown Lunch

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.) You can never count on new carts, so when Daniel’s original destination went missing, he fell back on an old Midtown (and Downtown) Lunch standby.

I went down to check out the new pizza truck (supposedly parked on Pine near Broadway) but I’m starting to believe it’s a fantasy, because for the second week in a row there was no pizza truck to be found. I called John John’s actual location in Staten Island and they said they were having some issues with the truck so they haven’t really been there this week, but might be there Friday (meaning today). Good luck with that.

I wanted pizza and I wanted a grandma slice NOW so I had to go check out the old standby Jiannetto’s (on Front and Wall.) Their Midtown trucks are already well known, and I figured it would be a good way to get my fix. Also I thought it would be fun if I turned the tables on my favorite stalker Yvo, who had recently checked out the same pizza.

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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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The chef from the Downtown Korean BBQ cart that Daniel wrote about on Friday commented yesterday morning to let us know that the Happy Well Being House cart (on 50th and 6th) is run by his mom! He was also none too happy with Daniel’s write up (or ordering methods) and it’s kind of hard to disagree with his logic:

I don’t feel good with this. We have 2 different kind of rice One is fried vege rice(yellow) which has carrots and peas the other one is just plain white steamed rice. And for salad we have Italian dressing, some people put white sauce on their salad. It’s optional :( You did not ask for anything and you messed up everything, remember? You ordered fried fish box and when the food was ready, you changed your mind. When its buzy, that makes chefs get mad you know :.(

But wait, there’s more…

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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.) The appearance of the Happy Well Being House Cart spawned a lot of “what’s with Korean carts and fried fish?” questions this week. Of course there is also Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart that is popular for their fried fish sandwiches, but also serves bulgogi. Well, it seems as if Downtown has got a Korean/Fried Fish cart of their own.

When Ruth Reichl twittered about the Korean BBQ cart on the corner of Charlton and Varick last week, Zach emailed me immediately with a call to action. You all know how I feel about street carts- but clearly I had to do it. For Zach. For my Midtown Lunch cred. But most of all… for Ruth!

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Hazard of the job I guess… our Downtown Lunch columnist Daniel Krieger appears to have a blog-stalker.  The Feisty Foodie (who contributed the very first Downtown Lunch) has spent the past six months following Daniel around, first to vietnamese on Baxter, then there was Capri Caffe, and Sam’s Falafel.  More recently she might have been spotted in the shadows at Burger Burger, Leo’s Bagels, and the new Banh Mi Cart (which she discovered has raised their prices.  Bastards!)  Just an FYI Yvo, Daniel has a girlfriend (and I’ve met you both, and she could probably beat your ass. And mine for that matter.  And Daniels.)  Wanted to put that out there before any feelings (or faces) get hurt unnecessarily.

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. This week, I gave Daniel permission to eat a $15 lunch because… well… I love lobster rolls. And aside from the one at the Red Hook in Fairway, it is pretty impossible to find a lobster roll for under $10. And, factoring in that for your $15 you also get a soup, cole slaw, chips, and water… well, it makes this one a no brainer.

Yesterday I went to check out the new pizza truck downtown, eager with anticipation to try the grandma slice, but was shocked and dismayed to find the truck missing from its reported location in front of 2 Broadway. I even stopped two hungry looking brokers and asked them if they knew of this cart? “We actually just came out looking for it but it’s not where it was the past few days” they said. “Damn,” I said.

Dejected and still hungry, I sulked around the area, hoping to turn a corner and see an orange-oil-stained-sidewalk in front of this alleged pizza truck. Instead I saw the next best thing, a grown man standing in a red lobster suit hawking lobster rolls.

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I was hoping WNYC was in Midtown, but no such luck… the cart is on Charlton & Varick two blocks below Houston. Sorry, but this is much more exciting to me than that new pizza truck from last week (what can I say, I’m a sucker for the Asian food.) Has anybody tried this cart yet? If it has a line, I’m guessing it’s better than the Midtown Korean cart on 49th btw. 6+7th. Our Downtown Lunch correspondent Daniel has got his work cut out for him! (Speaking of Daniel, his actual review for this week is coming up in just a few…)