Midtown Lunch

It was practically a year ago this week that I first wrote about Hawaiian Island Grill, the plate lunch arm of a three headed take out spot that also includes Chinese (Gordon Chen’s Kitchen) and Japanese (Hakata Grill) food (on 53rd btw. 2+3rd).  Seeing as I knew nothing about Hawaiian food, I roped in native Kathy YL Chan to join me- and we sampled practically the entire menu.  The Verdict:  It wasn’t going to replace any of Kathy’s favorite hometown spots, but with good menu management you could end up with a decent lunch.

Well it’s a year later, and Gordon’s Hawaiian Hakata has added a fourth option to their repertoire… the steam table lunch special!  $6.50 gets you pretty much whatever you want. (No joke!) And ironically enough the options are mostly Korean food.

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Photo Courtesy of Lunch’er “Miche”

Thanks to Lunch’er “Miche” for posting this great deal in the ML forums (and sending along the photo above).  The new location of Katsuhama (on 55th btw. 5+6th) is offering a Monday lunch special.  $5.50 gets you “curry over rice with your choice of katsu – chicken, pork tenderloin or pork loin- plus all you can eat salad.”  And what do you know?  Today is Monday! (Note: The special is only available at the 55th Street location.)

Related:
Katsuhama 55 is Now Open

A fifth Midtown LPQ (and second this year) has just opened up on 50th street btw. 6+7th. Rock Center is already pretty saturated with sandwich/salad/soup spots like this, but Le Pain Quotidien is far better than any of the other options and I’m guessing a lot of people in the area won’t mind paying the extra $1 or $2 for their baguettes. Be afraid Au Bon Pain, be very very afraid.

A look at their sandwich board is after the jump.

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If I see one more thing about turkey, or stuffing, or leftovers I’m going to barf… but there’s always room for pumpkin bread! VendrTV hit up the Street Sweets Truck last week for their Thanksgiving episode and sampled the macarella, the pumpkin whoopie pies, and a pumpkin loaf. I don’t know what I enjoyed more, seeing Samira rib host Dan Delaney while they made pumpkin bread or her husband Grant saying “Christian Louboutin” (?) with a straight face. (Smile Grant! I know you can do it…)

Check out the video after the jump…

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City 75’s Fresh Carved Turkey Sandwich (if this doesn’t put you in the mood for the weekend, I don’t know what will.)

• Dave Cook from EIT writes up Gulluoglu for the Times [NYT]
• The pad see ew from Breeze Thai on 9th Ave. is terrible [Blondie and Brownie]
• This blogger enjoyed their meal at OBAO… [A Skinny Pig]
• … this one, not so much [Tiger in the Kitchen]
• Rock Center will open an “Igloo Bar” on Dec. 5th… [Wined and Dined]
• … but beware of the naked ice skater! [Gothamist]

Midtown is no stranger to weird new fast food concepts (Kolache Mama anybody?) but this one could take the cake. It’s called 4Food, it plans to “de-junk fast food” starting in March on Madison and 40th Street. Their website creates more questions than answers, but I think the gist of it is this: they plan on making fast food (burgers, nuggets, fries, etc.) in a natural and more nutritious way (think Zen Burger, but with grass fed beef?) I suppose I can get behind a more sustainable and accountable McDonald’s, but their signature dish sounds positively out there- and I believe involves a hamburger patty with a hole cut in the center and filled with something more healthy?

Meet the “W(hole) Burger”

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Tomorrow is quite possibly the biggest eating day of the year for most of us (well, biggest historically sanctioned eating day of the year).  And while some of you might starve yourselves, or “eat light” as it were, in the hours leading up to the big day I like to take a different approach.  It’s what I call “preparing for the onslaught”.  Your stomach can’t go from salad to gorgefest in a 24 hour period.  You’ve got to ease it in.  In past years I’ve recommended great Midtown turkey sandwiches, or hitting up an all you can eat buffet, but this year I’m going in a different direction.  Lamb.  And more specifically, an amazing off-the-menu lamb sandwich from Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) that is only available on Wednesdays.  Well, would you look at that!  Today is Wednesday…

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If you wanted to hit up a cart as your last lunch before Thanksgiving, all the old school carts will be out- and the most of the new school ones  are in Midtown today… Wafels & Dinges is on 52nd btw. 6+7th, Street Sweets is on 50th btw. 5+6th, Cupcake Stop Truck is on 47th and 3rd, Rickshaw is on 57th & 8th, NYC Cravings will be on 53rd and Lex (with their $5 Thanksgiving week special), the Treats Truck will be on 45th and 6th, and the Schnitzel Truck is just out of bounds on Park btw. 26+27th.  Of course things can always change so you might want to check the ML Twitter Tracker before heading out.

Check out the latest from Barros Luco, the Chilean fast food sandwich and hot dog place on 52nd btw. 1+2nd…  The BL Ace ($4.50): thin slices of steak served on a homemade hot dog bun and topped with Pebre and Aji Verde sauces.  Dios mio, man.  (If it had avocado it’d be perfect!)