Midtown Lunch

Do you wonder what the ML contributors do when they’re not eating lunch in Midtown? (They’re actually pretty easy to stalk!)

Tilapia w/ rice and beans from Sandra’s Food Spot Downtown

Donny photographed the cooking process for Sea Bean Goods, Brian had Venison Nachos at Waterfront Ale House, Blondie has learned to love anchovies, Brownie checked out the Serious Eats Sandwich festival and I scouted out opening day at Brooklyn’s new Dekalb Market.

Elsewhere in the ML universe, Zach hits up a Thai Costco in L.A.’s Chinatown, Jamie discovered authentic Korean food in Northeast Philly and Andrea waited for tilapia and rice and beans from Sandra’s Food Spot Downtown.

You can’t deny it, people love Potbelly (44th btw 3rd+Lex). There has been a line out the door everyday since it first opened last week (though I’m sure eventually it will die down). I was sort of on the fence about Potbelly at first. On one hand, from reading some of your comments, Potbelly seems like a slightly above average Subway (my Chicago friends think Potbelly is just meh) but then Andrea really enjoyed her sandwich at the Downtown store. Seeing so many people excited about Potbelly gave me hope about the sandwiches but I was still a little skeptical.

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Last week, Eddie’s Pizza Truck (and Cart) started offering a new side, Pasta Pesto. I’m not usually a fan of cold pasta salads, but I’ve been having a bit of a love affair with pesto lately. I know that most people are stopping by Eddie’s for their own bar pie, but sometimes you want to add something onto your lunch, and this is a fantastic side to be offering. It also might be a little more refreshing in this hot summer heat than some other cart offerings.

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Turkey Sandwich from Katchkie Farms, who will be back on Fridays

Just a quick FYI for all you farmer’s market fans… the Rock Center Greenmarket returns today, and will be open 8am to 5pm every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday through September 2nd.  Curious what vendors are going to be there on which days?  The full list is after the jump…

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• Would you like a vibrator with your chicken and lamb over rice? [Miscellaneous]
• Where is the best General Tso’s in Midtown East? [Midtown Eating]
• Omar from Little Morocco has moved to Los Angeles!? [Midtown Eating]
• Not everybody loves Comme Ci Comme Ca [Midtown Eating]
• The ML meetup happy hour is tonight [Connections]

If you haven’t heard by now, our very own Korilla BBQ truck will be competing in the second season of Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race. The show premieres on August 14th, and they’ve released a sneak peek of the new season- complete with Korilla getting publicly spanked by Tyler Florence for speeding. Check out the video after the jump…

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Every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week we’re proud and excited to welcome Lauren Shockey, one of the Village Voice’s restaurant critics, as an honorary Midtown Lunch’er. Her book “Four Kitchens: My Life Behind the Burner in New York, Hanoi, Tel Aviv and Paris” comes out tomorrow, and we’ve got a copy to give away after she gives us her recs for lunching.

Name: Lauren

Age: 27

Occupation: Restaurant Critic and Blogger for the Village Voice and author of the just-released culinary memoir Four Kitchens

Where in Midtown do you Work?: Our offices are on Cooper Square — not in Midtown, I know, I know — but I’m often running all over the city in search of good eating and regularly am in Midtown.

Favorite Kind of Food: Southeast Asian of any kind, but especially Vietnamese, Thai, Sri Lankan, and Malaysian fare. Really, anything that comes from those parts of the world. If I see chiles and garlic and coconut and spices and fresh herbs, I’m down. I can also never say no to raw oysters or lobster rolls, and I have a deep love of pasta with either tomato sauce, white clam sauce, or carbonara.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I don’t like olives, which is unfortunate when it comes to cocktail parties and dirty martinis but otherwise I can avoid them pretty easily. And I also am not a huge fan of kidneys (I mean, think about their function). Other than that I’m pretty omnivorous.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: On the West Side, I’m a big fan of Danji – love the sliders (pork ones especially), and the japchae lunch. I also enjoy the sandwiches at Mooncake Foods and the ramen at Men Kui Tei. Can you tell I like Asian food, haha? On the East Side, I Soba Totto is probably my top spot and I go there frequently, especially in the winter for the hot soba. I also think Bi Lokma is great – I’ll get the stuffed grape leaves, the hot yogurt soup, and the meatballs for sure. And if I want something fancier, I’ll head to the Bar Room at The Modern.

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Island Burgers & Shakes has been a go-to Hell’s Kitchen spot for me for going on 10 years. The back of their menu has always had this long explanation about how their kitchen is too tiny and the electricity to run the fryer/bring the space up to code would cost a fortune so they only serve bagged chips and baked potatoes. Back in January we reported that they finally started serving fries, but I only recently had a chance to go check it out in person. Read more »