Midtown Lunch

Ask and ye shall receive. Ever since we asked the Schnitzel & Things truck to create their own version of the KFC double down the Schnitzel Lab has been hard at work at a sandwich creation that uses veal chicken schnitzel instead of a bun.  Well, the testing has come to and end and today the truck will debut the Schnitzel Down! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the crime against nature that is the KFC double down, the schnitzel down is two piece of wiener chicken schnitzel sandwiched around cheese and bacon (no bun.)  They’ll only have limited quantities, and it’s definitely not going to be a regular item (and for good reason)… so if you’re excited by this, you might want head to the truck early today.  They’ll be parked on 46th btw. 5+6th.

Related:
When Can We Expect the “Schnitzel Down”?

The new Vendy Award website went live this afternoon, which means tickets are on sale and nominations are now open for the 2010 Vendy Awards. Governor’s Island is the place, September 25th is the date and if you buy your ticket before Wednesday at Midnight and you’ll be entered to win a pair of tickets to Taste of the Nation NYC (to benefit Share Our Strength.) But your ticket before May 31st you’ll be entered in a raffle to be this year’s “Citizen Judge”. Uh… what are you waiting for? Buy your ticket now (you know it’s going to sell out), and nominate your favorite (ahem) Midtown (ahem) vendor.

See our coverage from last year’s Vendys:
Diary of a 2009 Vendy Awards Judge

And that’s only half of it

That’s right… today was the big day. Almost 40 Midtown Lunch’ers converged at noon today in Bryant Park to rate 15 plates of street meat nominated by you. It was looking dicey this morning, but apparently Jeebus likes street meat, because the clouds parted long enough for the chicken and lamb over rice massacre taste test to go down. If you didn’t score an invite this year… there’s always next year! As for the results, they’ll be posted on the site after our accounting firm has a chance to validate all of the score cards.

Related:
Street Meat Palooza 2: Our New York City Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown Crowns A New Champion
Street-Meat-Palooza: A 13 Cart Chicken/Lamb Over Rice Showdown

Ecuadorian food options are few and far between in Midtown. The only places I’ve heard of are El Rincon de Sabor (on 47th btw. 5+6th) and the lady selling Ecuadorian food from a shopping cart that Zach wrote about a couple years ago. Neither are particularly accessible to me in the Midtown South area, so when Luncher “@stenro” tweeted the other day that El Guayaquileño, a new Ecuadorian food truck had popped up on 37th and 7th, I broke out into a jog to go check it out.

I was pretty excited because this was my first real opportunity to try out some Latin options more exotic than tacos and pernil. Interesting is definitely what this menu has to offer. See the food after the jump.

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A brand new cart has popped up on 49th btw. 6+7th, right next to the 3 year old Bulgogi & Kimchi Cart, and Lunch’er “Chris6Sigma” was kind enough to send in this full report…

One of my street meat favorites, the Bulgogi & Kimchi (B&K for short), has firmly established itself in the 6th ave corridor of vendors by serving tasty grilled Korean meats and tender japchae with unflinching cheerfulness. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lee are the very definition of a “Mom & Pop” biz, and they’ve expanded to the soup business by bringing on Mr. Lee’s younger brother to operate an adjoining cart at the NW corner of 49th & 6th.

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It’s kind of crazy to think about it, but Cer Te has been making ML special sandwiches for over a year now (that’s 15+ sandwiches). So I suppose we can forgive them for recycling a sandwich once in awhile. Soft shelled crab season just kicked into high gear, so for the month of May Cer Te is bring back the soft shelled crab sandwich that they sold back in June of last year. It’s also tough to complain because the sandwich is freakin’ delicious. (Provided they make it fresh!) The sandwich is $8.95 and will be available starting today.

Related:
If You Don’t Get An Amazing Soft Shelled Crab Sandwich I Want to Hear About It