Midtown Lunch

Believe or not I had actually never eaten at the super famous Tony “The Dragon” Dragonas cart on Madison & 62nd until last week.  I am very familiar with his disciple, Carnegie John (on 56th and 7th), but have never made it up to see the man himself.  I know it’s just a few blocks out of bounds, but there’s something about the UES that repels me- and if I do find myself up anywhere near that area, I usually eat at the original El Rey del Sabor Cart (on 60th and 3rd).

Anyway, a doctor’s appt. brought me right past the Dragon’s popular cart last week during lunch, and again those words popped into my head (like they have so many times before when faced with something delicious)…  “how could I not?”

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If you missed out on the Taiwanese fried chicken madness earlier in the week, the NYC Cravings Truck is parked on 52nd and Lexington today.  Since it’s their first time parking in this space, you might want to keep an eye on their Twitter for any updates. Getting there early might be a good move too… although hopefully they brought more chicken today than they did on Monday!

Looks like the famous Halal Guys on 53rd and 6th aren’t the only quality late night street meat available in Midtown anymore.  The Kwik Meal cart (on 45th & 6th) has decided to try and stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (Before this week, their schedule was just M-F 11am until around 8:30-9pm.)  This is great news for any Kwik Meal fans who find themselves working over the weekend or super late at night.  Owner Muhammad Rahman says he’s going to test it out for a few weeks and see how it goes.  If there’s business, he’ll keep the cart open all night long, indefinitely.

After posting that you really have to go to 9th Ave. for a decent Greek style gyro, Lunch’er Susan emailed me to ask about a gyro special she had seen in Midtown Proper: “Pronto on 48th btw 5+6th, near Indus Express and Hing Won, has a gyro combo. Gyro, fries, drink for $6. Could this possibly be any good? I suppose stranger things have happened.” There are actually *two* Pronto Pizzas on 48th btw. 5+6th, but the gyro deal is at the one closer to 6th Ave. I stopped by there the other day to check it out.

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Saw this sign outside the infamous Belly Delly Deli (on Broadway & 50th), which has been closed since the end of last year. I always thought it was a gross generic Midtown deli, but I know there are some who will be excited for it to reopen. Not sure if it’s going to still be the Belly Delly Deli, or something else, but either way from the looks of the sign we can count on it being generic. I wonder if you’ll be able to eat your turkey sandwich upstairs while getting your nails done. That would be different!

Last week I got an email from Lunch’er Kyle asking me if I had tried the new chocolate corn bread muffins from Piece of Chicken, the just out of bounds soul food take out place on 45th btw. 8+9th Ave. where almost everything on the menu is $1 to $3.  Why no.  I haven’t tried the new choclate corn bread muffins, was my reply.  Clearly I needed to revisit Piece of Chicken, and see what was going on.

To be completely honest though, I had ulterior motives.  Chocolate corn bread muffins sounded pretty good, but what I really wanted to try was the fried chicken and waffle and fried chicken livers, two items on the Piece of Chicken menu which always seemed to be sold out every single time I stopped by for like two weeks straight last year.  Well, it’s been awhile- but I returned to Piece of Chicken a few days ago, and both items were available.

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Hallo Berlin (on 54th & 5th) is the latest cart to get their own episode on VendrTV, and watching Rolf Babiel work the cart while simultaneously answering the host’s questions is a sight to behold.  I learned the hard way not to take anything Rolf says seriously, but he ends up being pretty well behaved for most of this video- talking about how growing up poor in Germany taught him how to run an extremely efficient cart. The funniest bit is actually an outtake at the very end where he explains how Germans like to be spontaneous… like with sex. (Bonus Reveal: Rolf claims to have had sex in the store room and on the beer barrels at the restaurant.)

See the video for yourself, after the jump.

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