Midtown Lunch

I am a big pig and have eaten hundreds of exciting lunches this past year. I am both grossed out and proud of myself when looking back at all the damage. I wrangled up my favorites of 2013 to share.

January started the year off strong, with peirogi’s from Donna’s smokey bar, Caribbean platters from Little Delicious, tom yom beef jerky from Ratchada, and the gooey mac and cheese brisket sandwich from MeltKraft.

In February, the Uzbeki meal from Samarkand was pretty legendary.

Taco truck, Taco El Rodeo was a pleasant surprise in April.

Pennsylvania 6 did the fancy business lunch right for me in May. Less fancy, but still satisfying: Poi Dog cart’s fried chicken and Campo’s monster of a meat sandwich called “The Stockyard”. Plus, this month brought the opening of Sizzling Woks (called Xi’an Famous Foods then), which meant slippery, spicy liang pi noodles in my mouth.

In June, I was obsessing over the lamb tacos at Border Springs Farm.

The meatball sandwich at Corner Foodery and the beef sandwich at Pura Vida were stand outs. Slightly more upscale, I loved the grilled pastrami and mac and cheese at Twisted Tail.

The meaty torta from American Sardine Bar and meaty burrito bowl from Animo  provided tasty protein in August.

September is beautiful in Philly. Perfect for a picnic provided by Talula’s Daily. I was also overjoyed to find pupusas at Tamalex. I also ate a large amount of pork from Freddy and Tony’s.

The sandwiches at El Soto and cheesy tacos from Quetzally satiated Mexican cravings for October. I was also in love with the bread from High Street and much of the Cambodian snacks at Kavei Express.

Rounding out the year; in the past 2 months I was impressed by the dim sum at Wokano, the Godfather sandwich from Cosmis, and the soup dumplings from I-Green.

I think its time for a salad. Please keep your fingers crossed that I fit in to my New Year’s Eve dress tonight. So- What were your favorite lunches this year?

• Eater is doing a Philly restaurant “year in review” this week, and asking food friends to help. You can read, for example, my recommendation for best newcomer [Eater]
• Zagat has the winter lunch truck schedule for The Porch [Zagat]
• A Mayan style restaurant is coming to Bella Vista [The Insider]
• Here is the menu of the new East Passyunk vegan commissary [Foobooz]

I was doing some serious diamond shopping (not) and noticed a new addition to the area -Pamir Grill and Kebob, a month old Aghani restaurant. The menu is all about kebobs and stews. Ample seating is available; I did take out and it was ready pretty quickly.

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El Fuego keeps the lunch line moving with its simple menu, consisting of burritos, tacos, or quesadillas with your choice of chicken, steak, spicy beef, chorizo, or vegetarian.

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I-Green opened in the summer of 2012 and has managed to stay open despite its confusing identity. While it used to only serve vegetarian food, that is no longer the case. Is it a froyo joint? A generic Chinese food restaurant? Where to get bubble tea? A  sushi spot? A place to get a cheesesteak? A place for vegetarian mock meat? It is all of those things, yes, but those things are irrelevant. Because in the kitchen (located in the back, behind the whole froyo set up), you can score some fresh dim sum all day. At $6, I-Green’s lunch combo is almost tempting, but the basic choices are not thrilling. Instead, bring a friend, and share some plates from the dim sum section.

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On a Reading Terminal grocery trip, I got a little hungry and wanted a snack. I was blown away by the lamb shoulder sandwich at the  Border Springs Farm lamb stand in Reading Terminal, and wanted similar tastes in my mouth in a smaller size.  Lamb tacos seemed just right. I used up all my lamb puns in that first write up, so please refer to it if ewe are in the mood for that sort of thing this afternoon.

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