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Street-Meat-A-Palooza
Posted: 12:11 pm, May 28th, 2009 in Midtown Eating
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41 Comments
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The SMAP occurred several months ago. Better fire up that time machine if you want to participate!
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Street Meat Palooza 2 will happen sometime in June (just like last year.) It's not open to the public, but I will do a post soliciting nominations (it won't be the exact same group of carts as last year) and there will be be some sort of contest to give away slots to participate.
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Contest?
Most posts to ML through June 1 gets first dibs (and so on)
Only fair to treat your top content providers right, eh?
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I think that means I win.
(No one said it had to be GOOD content.)
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Hey hey--- Does it include the comments I make in my head, but don't post? Cause then I'd win for sure! (Like now, in my head, i'm thinking "But DocChuck and Wayne, etc are probably thinking crazier stuff.. Ohh, and Mamacita rarely (if ever) uses the F-Word but I bet she wants to...) So, thats like a SECOND post.
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Alright, slots to participate in the 2nd. I can't wait til that contest is out. I wanna help choose a street meat winner. :P
Most posts? So I should start posting every evening, morning and afternoon non-stop...blow up the forums and the blog comments...maybe lil too extreme.
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I was just kidding, I shouldn't be eligible for a spot anyway, I can't go because I don't work in midtown .
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My under the radar cart last year made it to #3 (I think??)
I may have to do some searching for another hidden gem! -
I propose the exclusion of King Tut(50th & 6th, but only if they are the halal cart that shooed away Happy Well) and don't even waste money on Rafiqi's. Both didn't even finish Top 5 last year anyway. Only #10 and #12. Haha.
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Zach,
We might need to wait until the heat from your NYT article settles down. The Biryani Cart line was insane yesterday. You've ruined my Wednesday Chicken Tikka fix.
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I went to Halal Guys at 53rd and 6th yesterday around 12:45pm... the wait to order was 15+ minutes! I've never seen that before. Zach, clearly people read that NYT article... or it's the influx of summer interns in midtown... or both...
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Hey Zach, we're in the flip side of June. What's the story?
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The NYT thing set me back a week or two. Plus I'd like to find an indoor place to do it. Anybody got any ideas?
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With ML's new popularity, better consider the Javitz
I'll volunteer to drive the courtesy shuttle
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Do you guys have public atriums up there? Downtown we've got a couple of atriums that are open to the public - like 180 Maiden Lane's that occasionally has a classic pianist playing music, and it's basically their lobby but has tables/chairs scattered around for people to enjoy sitting. It's a little weird the first time you go to another office building's lobby to sit and eat lunch, but the glass enclosure with lots of light filtering through plants, it's actually kind of nice. I wonder if there's a list somewhere of all the public atriums in Manhattan.
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Good idea Yvo. There are indoor public spaces in Midtown. Can't beat Free AC.
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Here are two ideas for indoor public spaces in the heart of Midtown:
The Altria (aka Philip Morris) Atrium on the SW corner of 42nd and Park Ave. It is not a huge space but there are quite a number of tables for eating.
Grand Central Terminal Food Court is probably the biggest public open space to eat. If you got there early, you'd have no problems sliding a few tables together for a a small group.
There is also the Crystal Pavillion Food Court, Citigroup Center, and the IBM Atrium.
Here is a website that lists all the registered public spaces in NYC. I designates which ones are indoors (or at least covered spaces).
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I hope the participants contest comes out soon. A lotta peeps will likely swarm at the chance to judge street meats.
Damn the rain and gloomy weather today.
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Not sure exactly what this is since I'm a new member, but it sounds awesome to me...
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Zach, the panel should be choosen at your discretion and not be a contest. We need true Street Meat vets here.
We also need to wait for the weather to get nicer and to keep the location a secret or else we'll have half of midtown there.
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Besides Zach, who are the Street Meat vets on ML? Just wondering. Possibly bloggers on the ML Blogroll? The vets def. can't be retired vets. Street food changes year-to-year so the judges had to be keeping their palates up-to-date. I really hope a couple of spots do end up being contest-based so MLers can join the occasion, perhaps 2-3, especially if the panel is 20 deep.
Weather shouldn't be a serious issue if the venue ends up being indoors and much shorter lines to buy the food if weather is crappy like today. Definitely would be easier if it's a secret hideout. However, if the location is out in the open and people have their iphones/crackberries handy, it's only a matter of time when the crowd shows up to spectate. Just one Tweet away. Haha.
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lol freaking crazy Zach stalkers... has he appeared on Gawker yet? Easiest.prey.ever!!! Easily identified by his adorable baby... awww
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stalkerpalooza!!!!!
wait a minute...
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Another note, too many vendors actually read this site. If we disclose who is on the list and what day we're doing it they could step up their game big-time just for that day. Zach, you actually have that much pull knowadays. Crazy.
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I don't know how it went down last year but Zach nor his kid should visit any of the vendors that day. Yes, a sad day for the baby when he can't visit his fav. street meat joints. But other people should gather the platters to the location so the vendors won't know what's going on. There could be a post to openly suggest newer places for this Street-Meat-A-Palooza 2. Only Zach should ultimately have the final list, actual date and to delegate the street-meat purchasing in Midtown. Maybe somebody knows where there's a well-ventilated bomb shelter to avoid any audience or paparazzi gathering. ;P
As a part of the street-meats judging, might I suggest blindfolds? Just by looking at some of the plates kinda puts a lil bias my taste-buds. If I'm eating the food and want to be impartial to all plates, I don't need to look at it. I would say just taste each bite til you have a winner(or look at the wonderful specimen after you take the initial bite). :P
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Considering how Zach eats cart food all over midtown and walks all over midtown, I'm guessing that he knows what the basic indoor options are (e.g. Citigroup and Sony come to mind, but nothing centrally located). Maybe he's hoping someone will be able to pony up an office conference room or something.
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this sounds very intersting...
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Alright, SMP2 is going to happen soon! Woo Hoo!
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Zach, I love the website in general, but SMAP is really your gift to the world.
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A suggestion about running SMAP2:
IF we can get all the entries into uniform bowels and mixed up, it would make it more difficult for people to recognize favorite just from the shape of the container that they are served in. I think when you know where some street meat comes from it introduces alittle bias. I know it requires alot of work and extra supplies. But I am sure there would be some volunteers (I volunteer!) that would be happy to prepare all the samples.Also if all the samples can be pre-served in small dixie cup sizes it would reduce cross-spice contamination, and make it much easier for people to sample and rate.
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street meat coma...can't function properly
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productivity levels around midtown are drastically down this afternoon thanks to zach
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Downtown jealousy heating up...
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I am glad this is only once a year. I dont know how the girls can put away 15 samples!
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Two words: Meat Sweat
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I thought it would be cool to meet some of the ML'ers. I didn't realize how much effort would be involved in doing SMaP.
I met Wayne, and I hit on FressaGirl twice (once with my plate, once with my elbow).
I saw that Jason Lam was there (the hair gave it away), and I assume that was Blondie (or is it brownie?) taking pictures.
SMAP wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, and I didn't enjoy the food as much as I thought I would. Tasting 15 different dishes and trying to figure out what's good or bad about it is tougher than I thought. Then I had to rush back to work.
I totally forgot to find Mamacita to try to suck up to her to be invited for a bar review. Now *that's* more my speed :)
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lol, how many judges were there? Sounds like Zach did a hell of a job organizing... DSMAP could take a few cues from him I bet!
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Ask him for the instructions he sent out.
There were 30 judges for 30 orders of food. 2 from each vendor, 1 Chicken/Lamb/Rice/Whitesauce, and 1 more with hot sauce.
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No Spoilers!!
Vdubjb, I do think I met you? or Dougie? Some people can and left really fast!
When is this going down? Who will the entries be and should we expand the entries to make this a sort of mid-town Vendy awards?