Midtown Lunch

Manhattan home to at least two food trucks serving Lebanese food. The first was Toum with its exceptional and gigantic sandwiches and potent garlic whip and the second is Bread & Olives that was spotted at Hanover Sq. (btw. Pearl & Water) on Monday and I’m told they also park there on Wednesdays. It looks like the truck parked in Midtown last year, but this is the first I’ve heard or seen of them parking downtown.

The menu features platters or sandwiches with proteins like falafel, lamb cubes, kafta or two kinds of chicken along with breakfast pies and sides. It was early and there was no line so I was sold, and ordered myself a sandwich.

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It’s been hard to track down the You Got Smoked truck since it was spotted in the Financial District back in December. They aren’t great about posting their location on Twitter and I refuse to wander the neighborhood on the off chance I’ll find a certain truck. Long story short: I happened upon them at Water and Wall streets on Friday and as it turned out, I was in need of lunch. While I was not wowed by my lunch, there were some high points. Read more »

The Old Traditional Polish Cuisine truck started trolling the streets of the city a while ago and has been consistently parking at the World Financial Center north food truck lot on Wednesdays. I finally caught up with them, now that it’s not humid or warm enough to make eating a plate of Polish classics sound as appealing as standing on the subway platform at rush hour. The good news is that no matter what you order you’re not likely to go away hungry.

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I can’t really think of many places where you can get a juice smoothie with a side of chicken nuggets and fries (that’s not McDonald’s). Sammi’s Nutrition House truck fills that void, allowing you to add nutrients to your body with fruit juice, and then get your recommended daily allowance of sodium with a plate of street meat. I noticed that since the truck first appeared in the Financial District they had added some other specialties to the menu including chicken tikka and biryani and was curious what they were serving up.

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I spotted a new-to-me truck on Pearl at Broad yesterday and went to investigate. It was the Moo Shu Grill truck which apparently used to be the Fishing Shrimp truck, and it debuted in Midtown months ago.

The moo shu “tacos” got a good review back in August over on ML. They also have rice bowls and a couple of other items (the handwritten menu was sort of hard to read). You can find the location on Twitter, and I’ll be on the lookout for them to stop downtown again so I can catch them when I didn’t just eat lunch.

When Diso’s Sandwich Society truck debuted downtown in June and then decamped to Midtown before I got a chance to try their food, I was disappointed but assumed they would come back to the Financial District. I was mostly wrong (they have come back a couple of times although not regularly), but on Wednesday I noticed on Twitter that they would be at Varick & Charlton. This was finally my chance to stuff my face with an Italian sandwich from a truck!

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The Financial District has many carts and trucks to choose from and it’s not uncommon to hit up one of them each day of the week. But what about stopping at six different carts and eating something from each one in a span of two hours? There is a tour company called Turnstile Tours that has taken it upon itself to show people (mostly tourists) some of the finest eats in the FiDi on Wednesdays. The tour guide: sometime Midtown Lunch contributor/ice cream maker/actor Brian Hoffman who talks far louder and is more animated than I could ever be. I was invited to tag along on his tour and while I came away with a full stomach, I also found out a lot of fun facts about some of the carts, trucks and people I’ve bought food from for more than five years.  Read more »