Midtown Lunch

As is customary at Philly Lunch, every Tuesday we turn over the site to a different lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Philadelphia. This week it’s Sara, who isn’t afraid of carbs.

Name: Sara

Age: 30

Occupation: in the health care field

Where in Philly do you Work?: 16th and JFK

Favorite Kind of Food: mostly carb loaded food… pasta, tacos, sandwiches.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: not a big fan of foods on the sweet side

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: For a quick lunch in Philly, you can’t beat truck food like Angelo’s cheese steak on 16th and chestnut or the King of Falafel. It’s an economical and delicious option. Also, DiBruno Brothers in the Comcast building is a solid alternative to truck food
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On Sunday I got to judge the 8 amateur contestants who competed for the best meatball title at the American Swedish Historical Museum. We got to try so many fun variations of meatballs, but it was a unanimous decision that 83 year old Sicilian grandmother Jennifer had the perfect meatballs. Congrats Jennifer!

And the People’s choice winner, was Pasitificio, an Italian restaurant in South Philly. I didn’t get to try their meatballs, so I might have to trek down there to check them out.

Last week I wrote about one of my favorite Philly lunch experiences yet- the Greek platters at St George’s Greek Orthodox Church. As soon as I bit into my lamb shank I knew I would have to be back. And after getting a lot of feedback about it, I thought it would be fun to organize a lunch meet up at the church.  Remember, they only serve on Fridays, so our meet up will be this Friday at 12:30. There is enough space to accommodate a big group, so you can bring friends. Just please RSVP as soon as possible. The church would like a head court by Wednesday so that they can prepare for us.

Here is the full menu:

And here is a link to the facebook invite to RSVP. If you don’t have facebook, post in the comments.

Hope to see you there! If anyone finishes their whole lamb shank platter you will win my upmost respect and maybe a photo on Midtown Lunch.

• There is “Better Than Best” Food list on Phila Weekly, I don’t quite get the random categories and all the cursing, but Sazon, Dim Sum Garden, Nan Zhou, Little Baby’s Ice Cream, and Manakeesh are all on there [Phila Weekly]
• The pumpkin kugel at Delicatessen is highly recommended [Meal Ticket]
• Scott Dogs, the hot dog cart from South Philly Tap Room’s Scott Schroeder, is ready to start serving this weekend [Grub Street]
• Another truck, Lucky Old Souls, has begun serving burgers in LOVE Park Tuesdays and Thursdays [Foobooz]

Meatball Event Alert. Sunday is the 2nd annual celebration of the meatball at the American Swedish Historical Museum (1900 Pattison Avenue).

A variety of meatballs from local restaurants will be there for you to sample. Then you can vote for the Peoples’ Choice. Both amateurs and professionals compete. Professional ballers include: Chef’s Table Catering, Pastificio, Marabella Meatball Co., IKEA, Villa di Roma, Joey Joe’s Deli & Prime Meats, Dad’s Stuffings, and Village Belle. The 10 amateur contestants are serving Italian, Swedish, Puerto Rican and Asian meatballs.

Tickets are included in the price of admission to the museum ($6) and they also have a very cool Swedish Design exhibit going on right now.

And… I will be judging! Hope to see you there.

Check the museum’s calendar of events for other fun events, including cooking classes and a pea soup and punsch supper in January.

Normally I don’t like to talk about something you can’t get the same day I write about it. But. There is something that happens on Fridays, something so insanely amazing, that I am telling you today in the hopes that you get over there tomorrow and probably every Friday after that.

While passing by St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church, I saw the sign “Once a week, Go Greek. Lunch Today” Yes, yes yes yes yes. The church offers home cooked Greek food every Friday for lunch. They are not open all year. This year they opened the first Friday in October and will be around until the end of Spring.

I walked through the parking lot to the right of the white columned church to this back door, where a menu on the glass let me know I was in the right place. Check out that menu and the platter I got…

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The row of trucks along Montgomery Street on Temple Campus is  home to at least half a dozen trucks that specialize in things like chicken cheesesteaks. The recent addition of the Vernalicious truck brings instead comfort foods and  not a cheesesteak in sight. Verna, a former optician, and her boyfriend Dave are the friendly couple behind the truck, and they have a good sense of what the people want.  One important thing to know before you go over: whether or not they can even bring their truck out on a particular day and what foods they have to offer completely depends on their food suppliers, whose schedule isn’t completely finalized yet. So be sure to check on Twitter or Facebook to see if they will be out before heading over.

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