Midtown Lunch

Ecuadorian food options are few and far between in Midtown. The only places I’ve heard of are El Rincon de Sabor (on 47th btw. 5+6th) and the lady selling Ecuadorian food from a shopping cart that Zach wrote about a couple years ago. Neither are particularly accessible to me in the Midtown South area, so when Luncher “@stenro” tweeted the other day that El Guayaquileño, a new Ecuadorian food truck had popped up on 37th and 7th, I broke out into a jog to go check it out.

I was pretty excited because this was my first real opportunity to try out some Latin options more exotic than tacos and pernil. Interesting is definitely what this menu has to offer. See the food after the jump.

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A brand new cart has popped up on 49th btw. 6+7th, right next to the 3 year old Bulgogi & Kimchi Cart, and Lunch’er “Chris6Sigma” was kind enough to send in this full report…

One of my street meat favorites, the Bulgogi & Kimchi (B&K for short), has firmly established itself in the 6th ave corridor of vendors by serving tasty grilled Korean meats and tender japchae with unflinching cheerfulness. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lee are the very definition of a “Mom & Pop” biz, and they’ve expanded to the soup business by bringing on Mr. Lee’s younger brother to operate an adjoining cart at the NW corner of 49th & 6th.

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It’s kind of crazy to think about it, but Cer Te has been making ML special sandwiches for over a year now (that’s 15+ sandwiches). So I suppose we can forgive them for recycling a sandwich once in awhile. Soft shelled crab season just kicked into high gear, so for the month of May Cer Te is bring back the soft shelled crab sandwich that they sold back in June of last year. It’s also tough to complain because the sandwich is freakin’ delicious. (Provided they make it fresh!) The sandwich is $8.95 and will be available starting today.

Related:
If You Don’t Get An Amazing Soft Shelled Crab Sandwich I Want to Hear About It

Lunch’er Steven sends word that a new Japanese spot is opening on Lexington and 31st, and he hopes it will be his area’s Cafe Zaiya. It’s just outside the official ML boundaries, but check out the sign? Does that say dim sum? Hell, maybe it will be better than Zaiya! (We’re weary of Japanese/Chinese hybrids, but all will quickly be forgiven if this spot brings some decent dim sum to Midtown.)

Left photo courtesy of Ramen & Friends

• The early word on Otarian is not good… [Fork in the Road]
• …in fact, this blogger compared it to Danku! [Ramen & Friends]
• Halle Berry spotted lunch’ing at Serafina [NYCelebrity]
• Vegetarian lunch options in Midtown [Veggiewalla]
• Taim is launching a falafel truck!?! [Feast NY]
• Chiyoda Sushi is still offering 20% off their bentos [NYC Foodie]
• Margon gets another fan [Always Hungry]
• Sick of Ying Du? Lunch Box Buffet is a good alternative [Bionic Bites]

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every Friday afternoon our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

57 Napoli Pizza e Vino made some news as the novel “speakeasy” pizzeria from chef Salvatore Olivella, formerly of L’asso and No. 28. ML was eager to check out their wallet friendly $6 personal pizza during lunch, but due to opening week hiccups that slice didn’t go over so well. Yet, 57 Napoli hasn’t been reviewed for their new happy hour so this intrepid reporter went out to have a post-work tipple and bite the bullet by buying the –a bit pricey- brick oven pizza with hand pulled mozzarella on the dinner menu. Read more »

Photo courtesy of Miss Menu

Omg. We know this has nothing to do with lunch in Midtown… but it’s lunchtime. And it was in Midtown! And quite frankly… how could we not? From Lunch’er “Shayna” (aka Miss Menu): “[Hank] Azaria as Gargamel in the new version of The Smurfs filming at Bryant Park – so funny!”

Second photo is after the jump…

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Wondering if you could be a serious contender in the Go Go Curry Eating Championship?  Today would be the day to do it.  They’re holding a qualifying round today from 6-8pm, and according to Go Go Curry’s twitter feed the Champion “Gentleman” Joe Manchetti will be qualifying.  It’s your chance to match up head to head!  As of now, only 4 people have qualified… so there’s still a good chance a novice will make it through to the finals.  Could it be you?

Related:
Go!Go!Curry Eating Competition Update