Gangnam Style Cart is AWOL Already: Gangnam Style? More like GONEgnam Style. The cart recently reported by Luncher Tom and documented by our own Brian Hoffman was nowhere to be found yesterday either at 32nd or 35th and Madison. Is this a harbinger of Gangnam Style itself falling out of memetic favor? Anyone seen the cart? Keep your eyes peeled - we'll give it a proper review once it shows!
Posted at 10:33 am, November 20th, 2012 | 4 Comments
Recently, to celebrate the holidays, Nuchas launched a Thanksgiving-themed empanada special that features the best of Thanksgiving leftovers … but before the holiday has even begun. As a super-fan of the Thanksgiving meal, I made sure to check out what sounded like a little pocket of heaven from the kiosk in Times Square.
Read more »
Posted by Rachel Goldner at 9:00 am, November 20th, 2012 under Nuchas.
In what we can only hope to be a gross misinterpretation of a Talking Heads song on part of their building neighbors, Cafe Zaiya’s location on 41st has been closed due to a fire in their building. No ETA to repair or restore yet, but if I’m not mistaken (please, please, please let me be mistaken) there’s now no place in Manhattan to get green tea soft serve ice cream. Could this be some karmic retribution on behalf of the Oms/b faithful, whose onigiri fortress was taken over recently by the expanding Cafe Zaiyaverse?
Posted by MJP at 3:00 pm, November 19th, 2012 under Cafe Zaiya.
Just in case you can’t wait until Thursday for turkey, cranberry, and stuffing, Certé has got you covered. In our latest holiday video, we document the Getting Thanks, Certé’s special November sandwich which includes turkey meatloaf, cranberry ketchup, and a green bean casserole. And since this is Thanksgiving, I thought it was only appropriate to bring my family along. Check out the Thanksgiving food porn and the traditional frustrations, headaches, and guilt after the jump…
I’ve always been fascinated by the science of taste. Back in my elementary school days, I learned the “taste map” on the tongue consisted of sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. But apparently this wasn’t the full or accurate story. In college, I first heard the taste map was bullshit, and they had introduced the new the flavor “umami“. “What the hell is umami??” I wondered. It was described as the savory but not quite salty flavor of meat.
It took me a long time to wrap my head around that. Almost all meat I’ve eaten is embedded with salt, making the separation of favors nearly impossible in my mind. But last week, sadly craving Yagura (RIP), I decided to stop by Sunrise Mart (41st Street btw. 5th + Madison) since I like their bento boxes. Instead, I tried something there that was almost pure umami. This was the $6.50 ($7.02 with tax) tonjiru soup special. As soon as I put it in my mouth, I was mesmerized by the umaminess of it. I finally fully understood what umami tastes like without a salt mask.
Posted by jenjfen at 10:00 am, November 19th, 2012 under Sunrise Mart.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 3:00 pm, November 16th, 2012 under Midtown Links.
If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.
Whilst reading Grub Street earlier this week, I happened upon the name of a bar I hadn’t heard before. They covered an article about a hurricane benefit at The Three Monkeys (54th btw. Broadway and 8th), and although I wasn’t able to make it to the benefit, I thought I’d check it out since it hadn’t been featured in the Midtown Lunch happy hour column yet. It turns out The Three Monkeys (hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, get it?) was once on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side. Yelp reviews for the newer Midtown location date back to early 2011, so it’s fairly new to Midtown.
I was hopeful as I approached. The bar has a decent deal on beer — the all day happy hour is $4 Yuengling and Lionhead drafts (16 oz) and there are also $6 wells.
Posted by jenjfen at 1:30 pm, November 16th, 2012 under Midtown Happy Hour.
In 2010, Vic’s Bagel Bar was heralded as the Cold Stone Creamery of bagels with its sweet and savory mix-ins, and declared better than Ess A Bagel. But less than three years later, a Midtown Luncher reported that Vic’s appeared to be closed. When we went to check out the scene… the windows had indeed been covered by black trash bags. A delivery truck worker on the scene said he noticed the shop had been closed for at least a week. We were unable to reach the restaurant via phone, and their twitter feed showed little activity for the past few weeks. This is just more bad news for the Midtown bagel scene, coming so soon after the closing of Times Square Hot Bagels. If anyone knows the inside scoop about Vic’s Bagel Bar, please let us know!
Posted by jenjfen at 11:30 am, November 16th, 2012 under Vic's Bagel Bar.
Every Friday we go south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.
Several months ago, I was excited to see an Ethiopian restaurant setting up shop in our neighborhood. While I know a few people who just can’t get behind Ethiopian food, I have had great experiences the few times I have tried it, and I am all for new cuisines in the area.
Posted by Sarah Zilinski at 9:45 am, November 16th, 2012 under Flatiron Lunch.
Photo by Eater
The saga around Pete Wells’ takedown of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar continues to be entertaining, huh? In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a recap of the goings-on since the paper hit stands on Wednesday. Guy was subsequently honored on late night TV when David Letterman dedicated his top ten list to “Discontinued Guy Fieri Menu Items.” Then, on Thursday, Guy Fieri defended his restaurant on Today, going so far as to accuse Wells of having an agenda. “I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I’ve read reviews —- there’s good and there’s bad in the restaurant business, but that to me went so overboard, it really seemed like there was another agenda.”
Later in the day, it came out via The Braiser that The New York Times‘ ad sales department had hosted an event for clients at the restaurant the previous night. As in Wednesday. The same day the review hit the paper. Oops. But my favorite piece of coverage around this whole mishegas? Behold: Eater’s “The Worst Lines of Guy Fieri’s NYT Review, With Cats”. Genius.
Posted by Rachel Goldner at 8:30 am, November 16th, 2012 under Guy's American Kitchen and Bar.
