Midtown Lunch

Kati rolls seem to be everywhere around midtown. There’s the Kati Roll Company (on 39th btw. 5+6th), the Biryani Cart (on 46th and 6th), Indus Express (on 48th btw. 5+6th), Grill 44 (on 44th btw. Lex+3rd), and now Fahima’s Halal Cart– the street meat cart on 45th and 6th run by the brother of Kwik Meal’s Mohammed Rahman.  Their stir-fried noodles were unimpressive, but their biryani was a surprise hit and I even hinted that they could be equal to or even better then the Biryani cart’s well-established version. It’s no surprise that Fahima’s is also cashing in on the kati roll fever. As a steadfast devotee to Biryani’s kati rolls I wondered if Fahima could bring the game in a side-by-side taste test.

Check it out after the jump.

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Got word of two street vendor price hikes going down on 6th Ave.  First up is Kim’s Aunt Kitchen Cart on 46th and 6th.  Lunch’er Susan sends word that they raised their prices last week.  “The fish sandwich is now $4.”  Still pretty cheap by anybody’s standards, we can’t help but wonder if the oil spill had anything to do with this (although we’re guessing it doesn’t.) Also jumping on the price hike bandwagon is Kwik Meal, the already-kind-of-pricey cart on 45th and 6th.  According to this post in the forums, a sign went up last week saying that starting today they’d be raising their prices on chicken, lamb, shrimp, and fish due to “rising costs”.  Not sure what the actual increase will be, but I guess we’ll find out today.  Hopefully these are just two isolated incidents, and not the beginning of some big trend (like the giant price hike wave of 2008.)

Jajjangmyeon from the new Korean Noodle Cart. Photo by ExFlexitarian

• An interesting look at the lives of two Halal vendors [Egypt Today via Grub Street]
• Making friends in the ML forums gets your invited to BBQs! [Feisty Foodie]
• The price is right and the kimbap is tasty at E-Mo [Tasty Eating]
• The jajjangmyeon from the new Korean Noodle cart is just ok [Ramen & Friends]
• Adam Kuban is a big fan of Pret’s ham and cheese sandwich [SENY]
• If you see people holding up “Best Pizza in NYC” signs in front of Sbarro’s, don’t be alarmed [Amateur Gourmet]

We all know ML loves Rudy’s. A landmark pub since 1933 they also rank in the rare files of the few old dive bars that haven’t sold out and become a tourist trap and preppy tar pit of pretentiousness. The pig still has their cheap drinks, free food, and as of late has even added more hometown comfort with fried chicken and chili. While their $7 pitchers have surely facilitated many late night hook ups, it’s not the first place that springs to mind when I’m asked, “Where do I go to meet hot chicks?”

And yet this week Rachael Finch, Miss Australia and 4th in the Miss Universe pageant, was seen placing a wiener between her buns and having a few pints at our very own Rudy’s! That’s right, it’s the TMZ edition of Midtown Lunch happy hour! Want more? Check out this video of Rachael blowing the beejesus out of the worlds luckiest latex at the Condom Olympics (fast forward to 4:49 minutes for the big moment).

Sorry… no “official” happy hour this week due to other obligations. If the photo of Rachel wasn’t enough to make up for it, let me also clue you in to maybe the most eye popping happy hour since I hit Rick’s Cabaret!! The sneak peak is after the jump…

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From the outside, Eden Wok on 34th street looks just like any other generic Chinese food take-out place… save for one thing: a newspaper article in the window from The New York Times. There are number of old school Chinese places in Manhattan that have blessed by coverage from the paper of record- but this isn’t some 2 star review of a Chinese dinosaur (we’re looking at you Shun Lee.)  This article was about Eden Wok’s hot dog egg roll. Yeah, you read that right. Eden Wok is a Kosher Chinese food restaurant, and the star of their menu (according to the NYT circa 2005) is a “Chinese Hot Dog”. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was going to be, but I had to find out… you know… for the sake of science.

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Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Every week we’ll post about a lunch in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.

After seeing Danny’s pastrami sandwich last week, I found myself craving some classic Jewish deli fare. Now, I’ve been to 2nd Avenue Deli, which is closer to my office than the Flatiron District, but the prices stray far higher than the typical Midtown Lunch range, so I took advantage of a gorgeous day and walked down to Eisenberg’s.

It’s an old school counter joint that takes you back to old New York. Better, while it has a following, there aren’t nearly as many tourists as you’ll find at other old delis in town. Continuing to cater to lunchers instead of tourists may be why the prices at Eisenberg’s are still reasonable compared to so many of the others.

See the food you get for your money after the jump.

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