REWARD for info leading to Disappearing Korean Bulgogi Sandwich Cart!!! (Please help me…)
People, I need your help. And you know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Last Friday I received my favorite kind of email… a tip from a Midtown Lunch’er named Johanna:
“Noticed a new-looking Korean food cart on the south side of 49th west of 6th this morning on my way to work — thought you might want to know. They seem to offer traditional food (bulgogi) along with more regular-sounding sandwiches……odd.”
Sounded amazing. And four of my favorite words… “Korean”, “cart”, “bulgogi” and “odd”. Needless to say, I was pretty excited for lunch that day. When 1pm rolled around, I went outside, and the cart was nowhere to be found! I was sure that Johanna had gotten the street wrong, so I walked up to 50th and down to 48th looking for the cart… but it was useless. Same crappy soup carts and halal trucks that always line 49th.
When I got back to work, I emailed Tipster Johanna and confirmed the exact location of the cart (which was definitely not there at lunch time). I was very disheartened, and wondered why a reader would play such a dirty trick on me. It’s not right to lie about Korean food from a cart, and get me all worked up into a frenzy. But, later on that night my wife confirmed Johanna’s story. She too had seen the cart setting up that morning! And the story gets worse. My wife said it had a sign saying “Bulgogi Sandwich $1” and it even had pictures of these little pork bun looking things. Now I was in total shock. Not only did this magical disappearing cart have bulgogi, but it had it in sandwich form. Ridiculous. I have to find this cart.
Monday was a holiday, so Tuesday I went out to 49th St. (knowing the cart wouldn’t be there) and asked one of the halal guys if they had seen the cart. He confirmed the existence of the cart and said that it had set up on Friday only to leave a few hours later when there was no business. If you have seen this cart- or know of it’s whereabouts, please contact me immediately by posting a comment to this piece or emailing me at zach@midtownlunch.com I don’t think I have to stress how important this is to me. Odd Korean Cart shows up selling $1 “Bulgogi Sandwiches” (whatever the hell that is) in front of my office building only to disappear two hours later. It’s like the Kaiser Soze of lunch carts. This cart must be found.
Also, don’t confuse this missing cart with Kim’s Aunt Kitchen cart on 46th, which just started serving Bul Go Gi (but not in sandwich form). Pictures of that cart (and the bulgogi I settled for on Friday, after I couldn’t find the new korean cart) after the jump…
Posted by Zach at 9:07 am, January 18th, 2007 under 46th btw. 5+6th, Cart, Kim's Aunt Kitchen Cart, Korean.
There are some things that are such an awesome deal they supercede quality. In fact the occurance is so rare, that when you find the deal, you are so excited, you forget what the thing you’re eating even tastes like. The under $10 buffet. Steak & Eggs in Vegas. Taco Bell in the old days. And of course… 99 cent pizza. Pizza is everywhere in New York. Good pizza is everywhere in New York. But you never see a slice below $2. And in Midtown, the price is sometimes jacked up to a ridiculous $2.50 a slice. Nevermind wanting toppings or a drink. The pizza is good… but a lunch ends up costing you $7… for pizza. Enter 99¢ Fresh Pizza to save the day!
Ever since Wu Kong closed on 46th btw. 5th & 6th, I’ve been searching for a cheap sit down Sushi restaurant with a good lunch special close to the office. Sure, Wu Kong was one of those split Asian restaurants, half Japanese/half Chinese (always a bad sign), but the sushi was good, and for under $10 you got two rolls and a miso soup. Their Chinese food specials were good too, they gave you free peanuts while you waited for your meal, and once, awhile back, my wife and I were convinced we saw Lindsay Lohan eating there (that means it had to be good!) It wasn’t the best, but it was our place- and since it closed there has been a cheap lunch special sushi void in our lives.
Well, salvation has come in the New Year. As 
If Sushi or Sashimi is your thing, they have very nice, generously portioned sushi lunch specials for a pretty decent price. The Sushi lunch is $8.95, Sashimi Lunch is $9.95 and the Sushi/Sashimi combo lunch is $12.95. The table next to ours ordered these and they looked better than average. They also have various Udon Noodle soups ($6.50 apiece), Don Buri specials (sweet Japanese stews) and all the usual Teriyaki, Katsu, Tempura and Negimaki specials you would expect. Everything comes with miso soup and a salad (except the soups, which only come with a salad).
I have to say I don’t normally eat at or write about places like this (and I don’t plan on starting a trend). Dervish is a sit down restaurant, it’s over $10 and the decor is what you would describe as “nice”. It could qualify for a “business lunch” and it’s not even a buffet… which means it’s not really Midtown Lunch material. But, right before Christmas my boss said he wanted to take me and a co-worker out to a nice lunch as our holiday gift- so I figured I might as well bring the camera along for the hell of it.
Dervish is a Turkish restaurant on 47th between 6th & 7th with lunch and dinner specials that make it an obvious choice for tourists looking for something to eat before going to the Theater. The lunch special is $14.95, and for that price you get your choice of an appetizer and an entree… a pretty good deal if you’re looking for this type of sit down meal.
For our appetizers I think we selected pretty well. The 
I should probably have my head examined trying to eat lunch near Rockefeller Center in December… but I found out that Dean & Deluca has Sullivan St. Bakery Pizza- and had to check it out. The actual Sullivan St. Bakery is on 47th st. btw. 10th & 11th, right around the corner from where I live. (The name comes from the original storefront on Sullivan St. in the West Village). The current location on 47th is where they make all their bread… and delicious flat bread pizzas. Unfortunately, 10th ave. is a little far to walk for lunch- so when I found out they’ve got the pizza at Dean & Deluca I was pretty excited.
Unfortunately, the closest and best known Dean & Deluca is smack dab in the middle of Rock Center (in clear view of the Christmas Tree). Ah… the wonderful tree. You find me someone who works in Midtown, that doesn’t hate that tree… and I’ll prove to you that that person doesn’t work in Midtown. It’s almost like the tree has this magnetic force that only pulls at “I Love NY” sweatshirts, and really bad fanny packs. Lucky for me, I found a hidden Dean & Deluca, for those of you who work on the West Side of Midtown, far enough away from the tree to get your Sullivan St. bakery pizza fix in December.
It’s Chanukah everyone! And in honor of the Holiday, I decided on Friday to go out in search of some Latkes (or potato pancakes) for lunch. I had gotten a few emails from people over the past week asking me where they could find these delicious fried patties of potatoey goodness in Midtown- but I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t really know. The last time I had latkes in Midtown was a billion years ago at the Stage Deli, and I don’t really remember them being that good. But even if I had fond memories of those touristy, over-priced potato pancakes- I don’t think I’d be caught dead eating at the Stage Deli this time of year. The same goes for the Carnegie Deli. 
There are many reasons I choose to write about particular places in Midtown. First is obviously the food. If a place has great food (and is cheap), I’m going to write about it. Unfortunately, we work in Midtown- so if I limited myself to only places with great food, my blog would be about 7 entries long (see My Favorite links in the right hand column)… and even some of those are just great “for Midtown”. Barring great food, some places get written about because they are serving something out of the ordinary (
I got an 
It takes alot for me to eat at a Midtown Deli. There are so many of them, and they offer so little. They breed laziness in every Midtown worker- and if they weren’t right outside your office, you would never eat there. Just admit it. But, every once in awhile, one of these delis offers something extraordinary… something that sets it apart. 
Well, last week, I hit the motherload. Not only did I find a deli with something beyond the norm- they may have invented a new and unbelievably delicious food! The burrito, stuffed with fried plantains. That’s right. And the place to get it is the Bread Market Cafe (on 52nd btw. 5+6th). A generic make your own burrito bar, distinguished by one add-on ingredient. The sweet, fried plantain. It makes sense if you think about it… at 