Midtown Lunch

According to her profile on the Village Voice blog this morning, Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet Magazine, works in Times Square and loves to eat lunch at Minar (46th btw. 6+7th) and the Chicken & Rice Cart on 43rd & 6th.  “I get white rice, the curried chicken with vegetables and extra red sauce, no white sauce.”  I don’t even understand what the words “no white sauce” mean, but you certainly get extra points for your choice of cart, and the guts to pile on the heat. I should take you to the Jamaican Dutchy.  Are you free tomorrow for lunch?  [Fork in the Road]

It’s freakin’ hot as shit outside (can I say that?)  That means Japanese Ramen places are rolling out the cold noodles.  I’m pretty sure Menchanko Tei (55th btw. 5+6th & 45th btw. Lex+3rd) always has Hiyashi Chuka on their menu, but Men Kui Tei (56th btw. 5+6th) and Sapporo (49th btw. 6+7th) only serve it in the summer time.  And I think it’s pretty safe to say… it’s summertime.  (I called to confirm… all three restaurants are serving it.

But the most exciting news is after the jump… Read more »

If you missed the one on the left this weekend, get the one on the right today in Midtown

It was a porktastic weekend for everybody who braved the heat and hit up the Big Apple BBQ Block Party this weekend.  I stopped by for a bit on Sunday and enjoyed my personal favorite: Ed Mitchell’s whole hog sandwich.  A creation just as amazing as it sounds, he literally takes a whole pig out of the smoker, and chops it down into sandwich form (you may say the secret ingredient is the crispy bits of skin.)  If you missed it, and now you’re craving some ‘cue (there are alot of meat photos from Madison Sq. Park floating around flickr today) there really is only one for lunch today in Midtown:  the Daisy May’s BBQ cart on 50th btw. 6+7th. 

I though everybody knew about this pretty famous cart, but you’d be surprised.  They used to have a couple more carts on the east side, and one downtown- but it looks like those are gone for good, leaving 50th as your only option.  (Actually the last time a Daisy May’s cart was on the east side was for the filming of that new Adam Sandler “Zohan” movie.  Anybody see the cart in the movie?)

Seeing as how you probably won’t want to eat outside today (“Feels Like” 102° + 43% humidity = a very sweaty Zach), the cart does a real good job of packaging up everything to take back to your desk.  If you do eat outside,  you might want to snag one of their awesome sweet teas.  At $4, it’s a little pricey, but you get to keep the mason jar.

After posting about the mediocre gyro at Gyro II, I complained that I couldn’t find a decent Greek version of the gyro sandwich in Midtown (my nit picky distinction between a “Greek” gyro, and what you get at street meat carts is in the original post). As always, the commenting faithful had some good suggestions, and while most of them were out of bounds (that’s where all the good stuff is), there were a few places I vowed to check out. Seeing as how I am already a big fan of the Famous Chicken Place on 3rd Ave. btw. 38+39th, I figured I’d start there.

Read more »

Sorry for the spam, but as long as people want to give you guys free stuff, I will keep posting about it.  Tomorrow (Friday) is National Doughnut Day, and in honor of this most exciting occasion (I’m sorry but I freakin’ love doughnuts more than anything) the Krispy Kreme in Penn Station will be giving away free doughnuts all day long.  They’re open from 6am to 10pm.  [NYMag] 

(Photo courtesy of Roboppy)

*Sigh*  Is it over?  Have I finally given in to the pressures of everyday lunch’ing in Midtown?  When Crisp first hung up their sign on 3rd Ave., I figured there was no way in hell I was going to find something redeeming about a place that calls itself Crisp.  From their saying on the wall (“Fast fresh food that syncs your taste with your conscience“) you automatically knew it was going to expensive, and worse case scenario- it would be expensive salads.  (I think between Just Salads, Chop’t and every single crappy generic deli in Midtown, we’re all set on the salads.)

When they finally opened, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that “crisp” actually referred to falafels, and the place was more like a midtownified pita pocket and hummus bowl kind of place.  Not terrible, but certainly nothing to jump for joy about.  With so many great (and mostly cheap) falafel places to choose from in this area, why do we need a place where the cheapest falafel sandwich is $6.75- thanks but no thanks. 

But then something happened.  I tried it.  And I have to say, despite my brain urging me to show hate and disapproval- there is one sandwich at Crisp that I think I can fully get behind.  Read more »

Cookie fans on 45th & 6th will have to wait until tomorrow to get their Treats Truck fix.  Due to a private event in the afternoon, the Treats Truck will be parking at a location to be announced from Noon to 2pm (check the website for details), before returning to their typical Wednesday spot (45th & 6th) on Thursday from Noon to 4pm.

For those who feel like the Treats Truck doesn’t come to your office nearly enough, you’ll be happy to hear that Time Out New York reported earlier in the week that a second Treats Truck is close to being unleashed on the city, and treats maker Kim has assured me that the second truck will be spending some time in Midtown.  As soon as that truck is out and about, we’ll let you know, or you can check for updates on their website, http://www.treatstruck.com/

Upsetting news from Midtown East… it appears as if the Department of Health paid a visit to Milant (on 39th btw. Lex+3rd) Friday afternoon, and shut them down. The “review” hasn’t been posted to the DOH website yet (their last one in March looks pretty stellar, aside from the fact that the DOH got their name wrong), but I talked to somebody at Milant who claimed it was a freezer temperature issue, which they immediately fixed on Friday afternoon. Now they’re just waiting for the inspector to return to give them the green light, which they hope will happen in time to open for lunch tomorrow (Wednesday).

I can’t help but wonder if this is related to the Food Trends DOH’ing that happened a month ago.  The post for that received a bunch of anti-Milant, pro-Food Trends comments that all came from the same IP address.  It certainly wouldn’t be unheard of for a competing deli full of internet shillers to call the Department of Health on a clearly superior next door neighbor.

But the real shocking news in this whole thing, comes after the jump… Read more »