Midtown Lunch

Restaurants have all sorts of creative ways to cover up the big yellow sticker that lets people know their establishment has been closed by the DOH. But using Twitter to preemptively alert your customers that you will be “closing for the holidays” is a new one. Yesterday, we thought that maybe Mantao Chinese Sandwiches (which announced they will be closed through the weekend) got their Thanksgiving dates mixed up. Nope!  According to Lunch’er “ceh” they were closed by the DOH. Mantao has since deleted the tweet, but you can still see it on the ML Twitter Tracker. So much for the “Chinese Thanksgiving” theory…

This morning a Mantao employee answered the phone and said that their boiler is broken and they are waiting for the landlord to fix it.  According to her it could happen this morning, in which case they’d be open for lunch today (although I’d call ahead.)

This Saturday morning, Good Morning America will announce results of their “Best Food Cart Challenge” and (*spoiler alert*) the Street Sweets Truck is one of the four nominees (and the only one from New York City.)  Lord knows how they picked the nominees, and it’s a waste of time to even debate whether or not this competition will really end up finding “The Best Food Cart in America”, but I think we can all agree that we want the home team to win right? (And who could be against the Street Sweets’ macarellas?)

So, if you’re in Midtown on Saturday morning (and lord knows I wouldn’t wish that on anybody), you can cheer on the truck in person at the GMA studios from 6:30am to 9am.  They’re going to have a whole outdoor set up with picnic tables and all four nominees on 44th Street and Broadway.  Want to support Street Sweets without having to be in Times Square on a Saturday morning?  You’ll be able to start voting online for your favorite cart as soon as the show is over, and the winner will get to come back on Sunday morning.  Good luck Street Sweets!

From the Food Carts Portland twitter account:

Hear hear brotherman.

Related:
Best Food Cart City: Portland or New York?

After my out–of-control delicious tongue taco experience in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I was ready to get back on the lengua train here in Midtown.  Easiest place for that? The El Rey del Sabor cart.  If you haven’t been yet (there are now three of them in Midtown), what the hell are you waiting for? There’s one on 60th and 3rd Ave., 49th and 3rd, and 43rd and 6th.  I decided to hit up the one on 49th, because it gets the least amount of love! (And yet the highfalutin, more expensive Pampano Taqueria across the street, is a mob scene. Figures.)

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I’ve always liked the tasty (but admittedly inconsistent) steam table lunch options at Bayan Cafe, Midtown’s only Filipino restaurant (on 45th btw. 2+3rd).  But if Chubby Chinese Girl is to be believed, you’ll want to avoid their version of sizig, a traditional Filipino dish of sizzling, chopped up pig parts (which appears to be heavy on the ears at Bayan Cafe.)  A few things are for sure, the B.C. steam table is best if you get there early, they don’t always have the best dishes (which could be related to the first thing), and there are far better options in Queens. Sadly, we don’t work in Queens!

Related:
Bayan Cafe… Filipino Food Worth Breaking the Rules For
Lunch’er Report: Is Bayan Cafe Still Good?

It brings me great pleasure to pass along the news that the Trini Paki Boys chicken and rice cart finally passed its inspection this week, and is back on the SE corner of 43rd St. and 6th Ave.  Every two years carts have to renew their permits, and there was a hold up on their renewal this go around- forcing them to use a loaner cart for the past two weeks.  To celebrate they’ve decided to start selling their biriyani every single day from now on.  The only thing that will change from day to day is the meat… today- it’s goat!

Related:
The Hidden Delicious Mysteries of the Trini-Paki Boys Cart