Midtown Lunch

Every Friday our man UltraClay goes south of the ML boundaries in search of a delicious lunch. Sometimes it’s Murray Hill south or the Flatiron District, sometimes Gramercy and everything in between- but we just like to call it Flatiron Lunch.

I not a big fan of shilling in the forums, so I was a little bit put off by this post from “Luncher Khubird” promoting the new Cevap Truck in Flatiron. But that all went away when I ended up passing by the truck on the way to drop off some film. Shillers or not, the menu looked pretty tasty and I just couldn’t pass up trying it…

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• In search of good vegetarian options [Midtown Eating]
• The December ML Happy Hour meetup has been set [Connections]
• Last chance to nominate your favorite Midtown Lunches [Miscellaneous]

When I went to go check out the Macaron Cafe BOGO deal at The Market in the Grand Hyatt (42nd btw Park+Lex,) I was still smarting from my Baked by Melissa experience. Surely the price of the cupcakes are in some way justifiable based on location, and I would most likely find a comparable situation at the Market (seeing as how close to each other the two are.) Not so. What I found was a cookie table! Nom nom nom cookies in jars filling a table. I short-circuited for a half second, before realizing that these cookies were just $2 each.

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I love the chicken biscuit from Pies ‘n’ Thighs. Made up of a hot sauce decked fried chicken cutlet sandwiched between a honey buttered biscuit that would make Paula Deen blush, it’s nothing short of spectacular in my book. When I saw in Chris’ post that Brooklyn based Pies ‘n’ Thighs was holding court at the Columbus Circle Holiday Market, I had to go check it out for myself.

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Back in June Ultraclay wrote about the yellow Desi Food Truck in the Flatiron District (on 27th and 5th Ave.)  He was a big fan of their kati rolls, claiming the roti was better than the kati rolls at the Biryani Cart (bold!)  Well, today we have a chance to compare them side by side… we’re hearing that the yellow Desi Food Truck is going to try and park on 50th btw. 6+7th today.  They’ll also be serving their chicken haleem, a “rare Indian delicacy”.  Could be interesting.  Hopefully the cops won’t kick them out!  Early adopters let us know how it is in the comments…

Forgot to mention this in my write up of Foodie the other day (on 44th btw. 2+3rd). I discovered that they’re going to be my Zapp’s hook-up!  Zapp’s is brand of spicier, Cajun-inspired, kettle potato chips from Louisiana. Their Cajun Dill Gater-Taters are something from my childhood, a lunchtime swap that regularly occurred (I’d switch anything for a taste of their dill and garlic goodness.) It’s like bringing back a lunchtime tradition!  You might think it would be weird that a Vietnamese restaurant would carry Zapp’s- but there’s actually a huge Vietnamese population in New Orleans.  I wonder if that’s where the owners of Boi are from?

Related:
The Name Is Terrible, But the Dumpling Soup Isn’t at Foodie

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

Photo courtesy of Ultraclay

Clay is back from his trip to Hong Kong, but still posting photos- like this one of guts on a stick.
Brownie was checking out the cookies at the Union Square holiday market, while Blondie was baking cheese straws from a recipe in Saveur.   And finally Chris H. took on the Absinthe based punchbowl at 1534 in Nolita and won.

In the rest of the ML Universe… Andrea got a first taste of the newly open Toloache Taqueria Downtown, Jamie checks out Marabella Meatball Co. in Philly, and I was super excited to discover an under $10 lomo saltado Peruvian lunch special in Los Angeles.