Midtown Lunch

As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Hawk, from Drawing for Food. I absolutely love his hot dog drawings, sooo cute! I am seriously considering a print for my bedroom. Hawk’s loves include durian popsicles (really?) but he dislikes artichokes (boo!).

Name: Hawk

Age: 32

Occupation: Illustrator

Where in Philly do you Work?: Center City West / Graduate Hospital

Favorite Kind of Food: Sandwiches of all kinds. Hoagies, cheesesteaks (whiz), roast pork, braised tripe with longhots from 9th street, tortas, cubans, puerto rican pressed sandwiches filled with shredded pork. Jewish Deli sandwiches, po boys. Real BBQ and southern food, fried chicken. Pretty much anything pickled, smoked or cured. Indonesian, Vietnamese, Szechuan tongue & tripe salad. Durian popsicles. Meatballs. Tomato Pie. Frisee salad, anything with an egg on top. Creamed chipped beef on toast. Biscuits & Gravy.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: artichokes, muenster cheese, cupcakes

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Savoy (now Mexico On The Square) tacos; Little Pete’s Reuben, Hot sausage w / pepper hash from 25th & Passyunk truck, Cheesesteak from Philips (24th & Passyunk), Hoagie from Cosmi’s, Fried Green tomato and bacon hoagie at Chickie’s, Pretzel Dog from Reading Terminal. RTM in general is just a great place for lunch in Philly, at one point I ate there 2 or 3 times a week. Everybody loves Dinic’s and I have to agree, roast pork, pulled pork, they are all terrific. There’s another Dinic’s in the Navy Yard, great breakfast sandwiches and amazing chicken cutlet. Anything from LaRosa Pizza on Broad & Snyder. Fish cake combo at Moe’s Hot Dogs on Washington or Gus’s cart on 5th & South. Anything from Village Whiskey, or pretty much any Garces restaurant. Fried Oysters with Chicken Salad at Sansom Oyster House is out of this world. Also Su Xing House near 15th & Sansom, awesome vegetarian Chinese, for maybe 5 or 6 dollars you get the whole 9 yards, soup, egg roll, rice, tea, and a giant entree. Their Chinese cabbage (kale or something very close to it) with chilis is terrific.

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It was the thought of a pork lunch special that brought me to Chung King Garden. The extensive menu is trimmed down for lunch time, but even their lunch special menu has tons of options, all for $6 or $7 dollars.  Chung King Garden is one of the bigger restaurants in Chinatown and the service is fast, so you will likely be able to get seated and get served quickly. Expect Szechuan fare, though the last few pages of the menu are devoted to “American Chinese food”. If you are reading this site, you are probably somebody who knows to stay away from that section.

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Photo Courtesy of Foodzings

• The Chowhounders discuss Philly banh mi [Chow]
• The tuna bi-bim-bob at Tampopo is “raw perfection” [Foodzings]
• A slideshow of the top Philly salads, don’t worry, some come with bacon [Phillymag via Foobooz]
• Why the South Philly dog won the most votes at Citizens Bank Park [Serious Eats]
• …which you can get as a combo with beer at Bridget Foy’s [Meal Ticket]
• April is National Grilled Cheese Month, you say? A roundup to celebrate [Restaurant Club]

This week for Pizza Thursday we have a smack down on Pine Street, Paolo’s vs. Pine St Pizza. 2 local pizzerias a a few blocks away from each other, both with $2 slices and very different styles. Paolo’s (above) has more of a pleasing atmosphere than Pine St (below) but whose slice will prevail?

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I had heard great things from friends about Taco Riendo, a colorful Mexican restaurant in Olde Kensington. The menu includes the usual Mexican favorites: tacos, sopes, tortas, burritos, etc.   I ordered several items from the menu. The ingredients seemed really authentic and I was ready to dive in to some cilantro covered meat to see if the food lived up to the hype. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

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