Midtown Lunch

• Not only is Five Guys a greasy, filthy, soggy mess but Blarney Stone is better [Midtown Eating]
• 3 days left at work, 3 must-eat east side lunches needed [Midtown Eating]
• Tomorrow you can get 8 pieces of chicken at Popeye’s for $6 [Midtown Eating]
• This brings a new meaning to the words ‘egg roll,’ and not in a good way [Miscellaneous]
• Hyo Dong Gak meetup this Friday for jajangmyun! [Midtown Connections]

Speaking of Street Meat Palooza 3… last night’s episode of No Reservations was a follow up to his ultra popular food porn show from last year. He had cameos from famous chefs, and showed off a lot of expensive food… but the best part of the show for us was seeing our hero down a gyro pita alone on the street from the Halal Cart on the SW corner of 53rd and 6th (the one that pretends to be the famous cart that parks in the same spot at night.) The segment was titled “I Like It Dirty”, and Bourdain waxes poetic about street meat like only he can, likening waiting on the long line to waiting outside a methodone clinic “only more rewarding ultimately.” There’s no doubt that the lamb on pita tasted good, but we can’t help but wonder if he knows the whole story behind the cart he chose!

Check out the 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 Francois, a Montreal native who worships Calvin Trillin.

Name: Francois

Age: 37

Occupation: History Professor

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Normally I live and work in Montreal, but I’m on sabbatical this year and, due to what was no doubt a clerical error, was granted a fellowship at the famed Dorothy and Lewis Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, at the spectacular main branch of the New York Public Library, where I get to hobnob with the great and good of New York’s literary scene and cavort with famed academics as I enjoy what I’m frequently told is the best year of my life.

Favorite Kind of Food: Of course it depends on my mood, but my favorite eating experiences are usually hole-in-the wall-type food, intensely local, with big flavors: spicy, smoky, peppery, you name it. It might help explain my taste to say that Calvin Trillin is my hero.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Generic faux fancy food, the sort of dreck that is corporatized to the lowest common denominator, mostly found in shopping malls in wealthy suburbs, that combines high prices with branded imaging and is marked by a stunning absence of taste.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: I’m in love with Margon (on 46th btw. 6+7th), and especially the staff there. (I couldn’t have been happier to see a cameo of it in a recent late night 30 Rock marathon viewing extravaganza I competed in against… myself, which I’m glad to say I won in record time.) The Grand Central Oyster Bar is a fantastic place for that Mad Men 1950s feel, and for the miraculous fact that it is not overrun with tourists. Szechuan Gourmet (on 39th btw. 5+6th) is great, of course. My two favorite food carts so far are the Kwik Meal and Biryani carts; it kills me that Montreal outlawed street food due to the pressure of restaurants and convenience stores. All of these are within five minutes of the library; I admit my geographic scope is limited by my inherent laziness. Finally, although it’s out of range, I have to give a shout out to Nam Pang, just south of Union Square, which serves the most amazing Cambodian sandwiches hands down superior to anything I ate in Cambodia.

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Ah El Mar: that great big blue that brings us such delicacies as the spicy tuna roll, salmon sashimi and shrimp tempura. Can there be a better piscatorial lunch then a plate of the finest of the sea? Freshly hooked, gutted, sliced and then served raw begging to take a little dunk into a shallow pool of salty soy sauce and nasal watering wasabi. I think not!

ML has always had an ideal vision of what an affordable sushi lunch should cost: 3 rolls for under $10. Any sushi lover out there knows that’s a tough one. Getting 2 rolls tends to be doable in most cheap Japanese eateries, especially if you include those refrigerated cases at delis and markets. However, ML is not about imitation crab and massed produced bento boxes. 2 rolls are for suckahs! Eaters like us need the magic number 3 to satisfy our gastronomic needs. For a while Aoki filled that craving, but their fishy trinity has increased to $11 and they are dead to us hardcore lunchers. Enter Hiroshi (on 3rd Ave btw. 38+39th) and things start to look up for us sushi loving lunchers on the eastside.

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That right… it’s time.

For the past two years a select group of Midtown Lunch’ers have been chosen to converge on a single location to eat an ungodly amount of street meat, from 15 different carts in Midtown, and crown a winner.  Two years ago, the Famous Halal Guys (on 53rd and 6th) took home the top prize, but last year they were unseeded by the Kwik Meal cart (on 45th & 6th).  Both have been retired from competition, and this year 15 new carts will vie for the chance to be crowned the winner of Street Meat Palooza 3!

Just like previous years, Street Meat Palooza will not be open to the public. It is an invite only, blind tasting of 15 different plates of street meat.  But there is a way for you to win a coveted slot at the “judges” table.

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Remember the dessert nachos that the Treats Truck served during the “This is Why Your Fat” scavenger hunt through Midtown back in October? Well, it looks like it caught the eye of the Food Network!  Tomorrow the Food Network will be hanging out with the Treats Truck all day long, and they want their fans to come out and be a part of the show (or not, if you just want treats.)  Kim will be serving two of her famous specials (Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes & Dessert Nachos) plus a news special: Kitchen Sink Crispy Squares, as well as all their regular treats. Plus, when you get one of the featured specials, she’ll throw in an extra cookie on the house!  The truck will be at their regular Tuesday spot (38th & 5th Ave), but will begin dishing out the sweets a little later from 2 or 2:30 and stay open until 5 or 5:30.