Midtown Lunch

As you’ve probably figured out by now I’m a fat and cheap bastard. The perfect “Midtown Lunch” has to be under $10, and it should be fast, tasty (of course), and oftentimes it’s dirty (I’m looking at you Chu’s Chinese Kitchen.) Buffets are always good; being waited on, not so much (who wants to tip?!) But I do appreciate a good deal, especially when its a normally expensive restaurant offering something for under $10.

So when I heard (via Blackboard Eats) that Ciudad does an under $10 “quick lunch” special, I was all over it.

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I discriminate against no Chinese food.  I can’t help it… from chicken’s feet and tripe in the SGV to orange chicken at Panda Express, there is a place in my heart for all of it.  Thinly sliced Sichuan beef tendon in chili oil?  Yes please.  Crappy all you can eat Chinese buffet? Now you’re talking!  (Oh, and did I mention my love of Panda Express orange chicken?) So when our inaugural profiled lunchers recommended Chu’s Chinese Kitchen (111 W 9th St, Downtown) as one of their goto lunch spots, I was immediately intrigued.

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I distinctly remember my very first New York burrito. It was at a cheap dive called La Paloma in Hell’s Kitchen, and after a few years of living in L.A. (preceded by 9 years of eating at the very worthy Anna’s Taqueria in Boston) I pretty much thought it was terrible. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I never had a great burrito in New York. That is a “real” burrito, which to me means a giant tightly wrapped nugget in tin foil, eaten with your hands, and usually stuffed with delicious carnitas. (That’s how I do it.) Some people call it “mission style”. Or “dry” (because it doesn’t have sauce poured over the top.) I just call it a burrito.

But as time went on (I spent 5 years in New York) I could feel myself gradually becoming more accepting of New York’s burrito offerings. And by the end of my time there, I even called certain burritos “decent”- even though they probably weren’t half as good as that original burrito from La Paloma (which I claimed to hate.) Now that I’m back in L.A. I’m guessing the same thing is going to happen with pizza. Because as everybody knows, the pizza here is as bad as the Mexican food in NYC. I don’t doubt that there are decent slices to be had in Los Angeles, and of course there is now Mozza and Antica and even Bottega Louie. But those aren’t Midtown Lunches. Where do us cheap bastards go for a decent pizza lunch!?

Pitfire Pizza? Seriously?!

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I’ve only been in L.A. a few weeks, so I never got a chance to try the now infamous Starry Kitchen.  But it sounds right up my alley!  An underground, take out, Asian food dinner spot being run by a couple out of their North Hollywood apartment? Amazing.  Sadly (but not surprisingly) it was closed down by the Department of Health after a 9 month run, but has resurfaced as a legal lunch’ing option Downtown in the “watercourt” at California Plaza (on Grand btw. 3+4th.)

Unlike the apartment “supper club”, which only served one dish a night, the new lunch spot offers a slightly larger menu of options.  Admittedly, the “Asian Fusion” menu will make some purists cringe- and eating at a generic looking lunch place in a Downtown food court is not exactly as exciting as eating out of somebody’s illegally run apartment restaurant.  But if you work near the watercourt, and the thought of choosing between Mixt Greens or Salads 2000 one…more…time  makes you want throw up in your own mouth, you should be super excited about the arrival of Starry Kitchen.

This week’s menu, and a look at the food is after the jump…

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Midtown Lunch: LA has been up and running for 2 weeks now, and not a single post about street food? Embarrassing… so on Friday I set to rectify the situation by heading to the new Downtown food truck food court on S Alameda and Traction run by the SoCal MFVA. I was excited to try India Jones, which had been recommended by Lunch’er Damara during my last week of lunching in NYC. I’m a huge fan of the kati roll (an Indian burrito/soft taco of sorts popular on the streets of Kolkata), and was worried that moving to L.A. would end my affair with the Indian street snack I had come to know and love.

Is there anything this city doesn’t have!?

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Longtime readers of this site are all too familiar with my quirky rules for determining what places qualify as bonafide “Midtown Lunches”.  (All you can eat buffet = good.  The *best* salad and turkey sandwiches = meh.)  But the one that looms largest is price.  There are actually multiple reasons for this rule.  #1.  I’m a cheap bastard and of the opinion that it is our god given right to a delicious and filling lunch, for under $10.  But it’s also a matter of self preservation as well.  I’m already overwhelmed with the number of must try under $10 lunches in Los Angeles.  Open the site up to every $12 lunch menu, avocado topped, boar’s head serving, salad/sandwich spot in L.A. and my head would probably explode. Plus I’m not interested in those kind of lunches.

But I’ll tell you what I am interested in.  An oyster po’boy with french fries from the Lazy Ox Canteen!  Profiled Lunch’ers “Shawna & Sonja” recommended the place, KevinEats was impressed,  “The Guru” found some things to like about it, and the L.A. Times just gave them 3 stars (and called their burger the best in town.)  How could I not?

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And by the time we left, the lines were out both doors

Being a recent L.A. transplant, and a lover of street food, I was pretty excited for this past weekends L.A. Street Food Fest downtown… me and everybody else in the city! The event, which was organized by Profiled L.A. Lunchers Shawna & Sonja, was the perfect way for somebody like me to try out L.A.’s amazing (and enormous) street food scene all in one shot. Sadly by 11am (the time the doors were supposed to open) the line was already stretching around the corner, down the street, and through the main parking lot, which was full by 11:15am. Looks like V.I.P was the way to go!

Not wanting to wait on the 2 hour line (!?!) just to get in, we headed to an unsurprisingly packed Philippe’s (on N. Alameda & 10th) where it seemed like everybody waiting on line had given up on the street food festival… and no, we didn’t see any roaches!  (As for my L.A. street food craving, I guess I’ll have to pick the trucks off one by one.  Any suggestions for where I should start?)