Midtown Lunch

It looks like CNN’s Maggie Lake had my kind of lunch the other day, using twitter to bounce from streetcart to streetcart (starting at the CNN offices in Columbus Circle.) Reports about carts that twitter is nothing new, but it’s still cool to see the Treats Truck, Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, Le Gamin, and La Cense Burger Truck getting a little bit of love from the national cable media.

Check out the full video after the jump…

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Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Elizabeth, half of the team that runs The Skint- a great blog dedicated to the daily listing of free and cheap food, events, and other stuff around New York City.

Name: Elizabeth

Age: 36

Occupation: Hired pen/content jockey (and half of the team behind The Skint)

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Depends where assignments/meetings take me, so pretty much all over.

Favorite Kind of Food: Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Szechuan , Colombian, Mexican, seafood, cheese, ramen; anything pickled or smothered in garlic

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything from a steam table or buffet (with the exception of City Bakery)

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: Tantan-men at Sapporo (on 49th btw. 7th), wonton noodle soup (with duck) at Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th), fried fish at Happy Well Being Cart (R.I.P.), and I’ll cobble together a picnic when the greenmarket comes to Rockefeller Plaza.

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For those of you in denial (our Happy Hour Correspondent Mamacita for one) here is proof that not only does the “white sauce” from your favorite street meat often contain mayo, but sometimes it’s just mayo: “I was just at the Steak Truck (on 47th and Park) and the guy in front of me ordered a combo over rice with white sauce and hot sauce. He got served his food with the typical squeeze from a white bottle and red bottle. But here’s the interesting part: when I then asked for ketchup and mayo on my burger, the Steak Truck guy pulled out the SAME white bottle he had used for the halal combo and spritzed my burger with it. Proof that white sauce = watered down mayo at a lot of truck and carts. -Will (aka Lunch’er WaitingForBajaFresh)”.  Once again I’m going to file this under things I wish I didn’t know.

Related:
“White Sauce” Has What In It?!?!

Following in the footsteps of their newest offshoot HB Burger (who have been handing out free milkshake coupons for weeks on various corners near their restaurant) the actual Heartland Brewery wants to remind people that they have burgers and shakes of their own! They’ll be handing out coupons for a free burger, shake, or egg cream at the NYC & Co “Information Booth” (on 7th Ave. btw. 52+53rd) tomorrow, and Thursday (7/29-30) starting at 9am. It’s a “while supplies last” kind of thing on both days, so you might want to get there early.

Urgh. Disregard this entire post. The NYCGO intern who emailed about me about this giveaway got confused between HB Burger and Heartland Brewery (two different restaurants!) and the difference between a free burger, and a free egg cream. The coupons that will be handed out tomorrow and Thursday are for HB Burger, and are the same coupons they’ve been handing out on 43rd street for a month. (Free egg cream, homemade soda, or mini sundae w/ purchase. No burger.) It’s a tough economy, and I don’t want some poor schmuck of an intern to get in trouble or fired… so I’m going to try and contain my anger. Perhaps with some free ice cream…

Looks like there have been a lot of changes since XPL took 5th place in Street Meat Palooza 2. Not only did the owners of XPL sell their 3rd Ave. cart to the guy who mans it, but they took away the XPL cart that used to be parked on Broadway btw. 53+54th.  The same guy still operates on that block, but out of a different cart now.  Based on the comments, I don’t think anything has changed at the 3rd Ave. location, but the food from the Broadway cart didn’t look like XPL style food (even though the guy manning the Broadway cart hasn’t changed.) Anybody a big fan of the Broadway cart and know what’s up?  Let us know in the comments…

Related:
48th & 3rd XPL No Longer Affiliated With Park Ave. XPL?
Overheard at XPL: “What’s Falafel?”

If you thought the Midtown Lunch commenters could get nasty, check out this comment on Something Awful asking for the best drunk/hangover food:

“Chicken and lamb over rice from a halal cart. Squirt enough harissa over it to scare the evil right out of you (and burn your o-ring when you’ve got the beer shits the next morning). Preferably from the 53rd & 6th cart.“

Another commenter agreed, and added his own recomendation:

“I would take that cart behind the school and get it pregnant. Drunk, I almost always swing Mexican. If not Mexican, then Five Guys.”

Nice.