Midtown Lunch

Summer may not start until this weekend, but on Monday I rang in the season early by performing a New Yorker’s seasonal ritual: standing in line with a couple hundred people at a food festival. It’s something I tend to avoid no matter what time of year, but despite that I made my way to West Chelsea to the Zagat Food Truck Frenzy in order to get a taste of some of the food trucks that don’t often make it to Midtown South or Flatiron. What I found was a number of tasty tacos and a bunch of trucks I want to try out some more.

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Word came over the Twitter this week that the Steak Truck (on 47th + Park) was hitting the streets with a new look and a new menu. Ever since its performance in Street Meat Palooza 2 the Steak Truck has been on my radar, but despite being a block away from my office I haven’t really hit it up that often.  Then I saw that tweet promising porterhouse steak and waffle fries, and…well… that’s a horse of a different color. (And apparently that color is neon green.)

Check out the menu, and my two sandwiches, after the jump.

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Papa Perrone is still having truck problems, and won’t be out today… but the cold and rainy weather doesn’t seem to be effecting anybody else. Schnitzel is in the Flatiron and taking phone orders, Cupcake Stop is braving it on 50th, Frites’n’Meats is on 48th and will deliver (5 burger minimum), the Dutchy is on 51st, and Street Sweets is on 52nd. Also, the Steak Truck is back on 47th and Park and for today only you can get their biriyani for $3 a plate, 5 plates for $10.  Keep up to date on your favorite Midtown Lunches via the ML Twitter Tracker.

The twitter feed that belongs to the Steak Truck (on 47th and Park) has been on fire this week, giving customers the lowdown on their brand new biriyani offerings. They even sold out yesterday! Is it just us or is Biriyani everywhere these days? Biriyani Cart… Trini Paki Boys… Fahima Halal… and now this. Biriyani is the new black! Has anybody tried the Steak Truck version? Early adopters, let us know how it is in the comments.

Related:
Twittpocalypse: Steak Truck is Now On Twitter

Posting the news this morning that the Jamaican Dutchy cart was going on vacation for three weeks made me hungry for some curry goat with rice and peas.  So I walked over to 48th and Park to try out the 4 month old Jerk Pan cart, only to discover that it was gone!?  Anybody know what happened to them?  If you do, let us know in the comments.

Also missing was the Steak Truck, which apparently has decided to try out some new spots.  Today they were in the Bronx.  (In fairness to them, we were warned.)  This all comes on top of last week’s news that the Trini Paki Boys carts are going to be gone for a bit while they sort out their permit issues.

Anybody have any good news to share?

With all the fighting that goes on for spots in Midtown one would be inclined to believe that running a cart or truck in this part of NYC would be a fairly lucrative operation. Selling low cost, low priced food in one of the busiest sections of the busiest city in the country should be a slam dunk, right? Well apparently not, because the Steak Truck (which has one of the better spots in the city on Park Ave. and 47th) is considering packing it in, and moving to a different part of the city.

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At this point Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) is the only place left creating new sandwiches for the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge– although after reading this New York Times article about Pastrami Burgers, Lunch’er Adam had a great suggestion for the Steak Truck (on 47th and Park Ave.) in the forums yesterday:

“There’s the steaktruck… they have both burgers, and pastrami. I suggested to the steaktruck guy that he make a pastrami burger! If enough people ask for it, maybe he’ll add it to the menu (or perhaps he’ll just be nice enough to make one upon request.)”

I like it. A pastrami burger from a truck. Let’s make this happen…

Related:
Pastrami burger midtown or anywhere Manhattan?

For those of you in denial (our Happy Hour Correspondent Mamacita for one) here is proof that not only does the “white sauce” from your favorite street meat often contain mayo, but sometimes it’s just mayo: “I was just at the Steak Truck (on 47th and Park) and the guy in front of me ordered a combo over rice with white sauce and hot sauce. He got served his food with the typical squeeze from a white bottle and red bottle. But here’s the interesting part: when I then asked for ketchup and mayo on my burger, the Steak Truck guy pulled out the SAME white bottle he had used for the halal combo and spritzed my burger with it. Proof that white sauce = watered down mayo at a lot of truck and carts. -Will (aka Lunch’er WaitingForBajaFresh)”.  Once again I’m going to file this under things I wish I didn’t know.

Related:
“White Sauce” Has What In It?!?!

Twitter is not just for the hipster trucks anymore! Judging from their tweets it’s clear that the Steak Truck (on Park and 47th) hasn’t completely grasped what twitter is all about (“print this ad with code 7787 and get free soda can with any lunch purchase, but you must present this print .from twitter,s web site.”) but it’s a start. And anybody that uses twitter to give out free food stuff is alright with me.

Speaking of getting deals on Twitter, Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien is also using the social networking tool now (@burgerjointnyc) to let people know about specials. On Monday they did an early bird special, $10 for a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda between 11 and 11:45am. No word on when the next one will be.

Can’t bring yourself to sign up for twitter, but wouldn’t mind hearing about deals from the Steak Truck and Burger Joint? They’ve both been added to the Midtown Lunch Twitter Tracker>>