Midtown Lunch

If you’ve ever taken the J,M,Z (soon to be just the J) line to the Canal St. stop, I’m sure you’ve either seen or smelled the food from the two carts sitting on Centre St. between Walker & Canal. I’d always wondered where the strong scent of fried chicken was coming from as I came up out of the subway as there were no obvious restaurants or Popeye’s within sight. I was actually on my way to review another place when I figured out the source of the smell and decided to instead check these two dueling carts out for a super-cheap lunch. Find out if I won or lost this gamble after the jump. Read more »

Some days when I’m deciding on what to eat for lunch it comes down to one variable: spice. You see, I’m a spice fiend and am always trying to find new and different vehicles for making myself sweat during lunch, without exercising. That is part of the reason I ended up at Malaysian chainlet Nyonya’s location on Grand St. (btw. Mulberry & Mott streets). I had tried to eat there once before but was greeted with a long wait, and was reminded of it again by a mention on Lunch With Front Studio. All it took was a 10 minute subway ride up to Canal St. and I had a delicious $6.50 lunch special on the table in front of me. Read more »

I became something of a Chinatown dumpling addict after I discovered the price to deliciousness ratio after moving to the city a couple of years ago from the midwest. Sadly, the Financial District has little- to-no decent dumpling options so I decided to take the subway a couple of stops up to Vanessa’s Dumpling House on Eldridge St.

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Yesterday, Midtown Lunch reported that a lunch’er organized banh mi competition had taken place that definitively placed us, Downtown, at the head of the Manhattan banh mi pack. We effectively swept the podium, taking first, second, and third place! Ok, so technically first place was given to Baoguette in Gramercy, but we totally have one of those too (at 9 Maiden Lane), so I count it in our favor. Taking second and third are our very own Chinatown legends Banh Mi Saigon (138 Mott St.) and Paris Bakery (213 Grand St.), respectively. Daniel Krieger did something a little similar to this back in the day, but not quite on the same level, so we certainly applaud the Banh Mi Seven (sound like political dissidents in Vietnam) for taking the initiative, pulling off this amazing competition, and being kind enough to share the results. Thank you!

In his profile a couple weeks ago, Lunch’er Corey asked the community where he could find “a nice big bowl of rice cakes.” Monstermooch suggested Shanghai Cafe, so on the gorgeous Good Friday we had last week, I set out to follow up on the tip.

I’m happy to report that while Shanghai Cafe’s rice cakes come on a plate and not in a bowl, they’re definitely nice and it’s certainly a big plate. The soup dumplings are terrific as well, so I’d urge Corey and the rest of you to head down there yourselves as soon as you get the chance. Ogle the goodness that awaits you after the jump.

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I don’t get out to Flushing nearly as much as I want to these days. Or pretty much ever. It’s just so far. The only time I really get out there is if a friend has an extra Mets ticket and is looking for someone to go with ’em, which, quite frankly, also doesn’t happen often enough. But getting on topic, with all that great Chinese food I hear about out there, when one of those Flushing legends finally landed in Manhattan, I had to go. There was no if’s, and’s, or but’s. I had to go.

Xi’an Famous Foods, located on Forsyth (careful, the address is tricky), is that place. I had heard so much hype about it, particularly the noodles, I had to get up there and see what it was all about. And as you can probably predict, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.
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Remember when I told you there would be a surprise the first time we ventured into Chinatown since the launch? Well, here it is.  We’ve realized that there is a problem that afflicts tens of thousands of New Yorkers every year.  “Where do I eat while on jury duty?”  This segment of Midtown Lunch hopes to address that question exactly.  Good for Uptowners, Midtowners, and Downtowners alike, Jury Duty Lunch explores the area around Foley Square looking for what Midtown Lunch is all about: cheap, greasy, delicious food.  Just click on the Jury Duty Lunch category to see where we’ve been.

During my childhood, I had a strong affinity for dumplings, gyoza, potstickers, whatever you wanna call ’em.  It was one of my absolute favorite things to eat and always a treat when Mom would get that giant plastic bag we’d gotten at the grocery store and fried up a couple plates worth.  My disappointment always clocked in when I realized the meal wouldn’t consist solely of dumplings.  I dreamed of the day when I would be a grown up who could fry his own damn dumplings and consume nothing but.  Well, that day has come.  (To be perfectly frank, it’s not the first time in my adult life that day has come, but let’s set that aside for the time being.)  I took a little trip to Chinatown to see just how many fried dumplings and pork buns I could get for my 5 bucks at Fried Dumpling on Mosco Street.
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