Midtown Lunch

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.

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.

Update: We picked a winner who has been notified by email, thanks for chiming in guys!

Who hasn’t loved Ted Allen from his Queer Eye for the Straight Guy days? Currently the host of Food Network’s Chopped, he as written a cook book called “The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes.” The people at Robert Mondavi Wine are offering Midtown Lunch readers a package with the cookbook, along with a keychain, water bottle, and an apron. This deal is to highlight the Robert Mondavi Discover Wine Tour, which is wrapping up outside of Philly this weekend at the Food and Wine Festival in Valley Forge.

For a chance to win, post your favorite wine for the fall season in the comments.

To double or triple your chances, you can:

“Like” Mondavi wines on Facebook

“Like” Midtown Lunch Philly on Facebook

Send a tweet to @midtownlunchphi and @RobertMondavi

We will pick a winner by Friday at 5pm

Are you going to the 4th Food Trust Night Market in Chinatown tonight?? From 7-11 in the heart of Chinatown you can buy snacks, drinks, or produce from the following local (or suburban) places:

Avenida, Cantina, Capogiro, Chewys (new truck alert), Chinatown Cafe, Cosmic Catering, Crepewalk, Cuba Libre, Dapper Dog, Foo Truck (new truck alert), Geechee Girl, Gigi and Big R, Guapos Tacos, Hardena, Hong Kong Bakery, Hubub Coffee, Jimmies Cupcake, Local 215/ Strada Pasta, Los Taquitos de Puebla, Made in the Shade, Mamma Maria, Maru, Nomad Pizza, Not by Bread Alone, Pitruco Pizza, Queens Farm, QT Vietnamese Sandwich, Renaissance Sausage, Royal Tavern, Salvatore’s Groceria, Say Cheese (new truck alert), Sweetbox, Mini Trini (new truck alert), Veggie Lovers, Vernalicious (new truck alert), Yards, Yummy Yummy, and Zsa’s ice cream.

Is Chinatown ready for all of this? Are you ready?

I will be there towards the end of it helping and cleaning up, so don’t make too much of a mess for me to clean and say hi if you see me!

I was lucky enough to attend the NY Vendy Awards this Saturday on Governors Island. Check out the Midtown Lunch recap here.  I was really impressed with how many vendors were slinging their amazing wares. Saturday’s winners including a papusa and tamale truck (Vendy Cup), the best souvlaki I’ve ever had (People’s Choice Winner), korean tacos (Rookie Winner), not to mention the Jersey, Dessert, and Marker’s Mark categories. It wouldn’t be fair to compare Philly’s Vendy awards, since ours was brand new. So to all Philly food trucks, I hope to see you next year at our 2nd annual Vendy awards, lets show NY how outstanding our truck scene can be.

You know its restaurant week again, right? This week and next week, excluding weekends, the 3 or 4 course $20 lunch and $35 dinner is back. There is a twist this year though, a twist I am all about. Philly Homegrown (part of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation) has worked with Center City District and participating restaurants to get at least one option on each RW menu to include locally sourced ingredients. Philly Homegrown is all about promoting both tourists and locals alike to appreciate our locally sourced food, and why shouldn’t we? We grow nice stuff around here. At Garces Trading Company, many of the lunch options have that red tractor next to them- meaning, this dish uses some local goodness. Lucky for me, I got to try those tractor approved dishes.

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Starting at noon (and going until 5), there will be free ice cream at Reading Terminal to celebrate the birthday of the Cooking Channel.