Midtown Lunch

Last week I celebrated my birthday with a crew of friends. I typically do a BYOB dinner followed by dancing, but I wanted to change it up with some daytime fun. We started at Philadelphia Brewing Company for a tour and a tasting. The tour was short and sweet and the we were able to sample a whole slew of beers, many of them quite familiar and well loved. Beer for breakfast is the American thing to do. At the advice of our tour guide, we walked directly next door to the brand new distillery and tried their gin and whiskey. So far so good. Next we sauntered about a mile to the lunch destination- Lechonera Principe.

Read more »

Great pork is worth traveling for. If I were Game of Thrones royalty, that would be the motto of my House. Dominican cuisine knows how to treat pork and Philly has some great Dominican kitchens. Like Bran searching for my three eyed raven, I trekked all the way up to Frankford and Ontario in the hopes of finding some crispy skinned pork somewhere new.

Read more »

The Foolish Waffles truck is only a few months old. More of a savory gal, I was really intrigued by the meat topped waffle options. I tracked the truck for a few weeks, finally finding a convenient location for me to check them out.

Read more »

Now that the horrible weather is finally breaking, snacking at a stand is sounding like a better idea. Porky’s Point in North Philly is a Puerto Rican take out restaurant with a lot of pork and cheap, fried snacks.

Read more »

Today Luncher John is checking out another food truck for us 

Parked on the south side of Market Street between 33rd and 34th Street in front of Drexel’s law school is Cheese E. Wagon, a new food truck that opened last Fall. The name may evoke a truck simply focusing on grilled cheese or mac and cheese. Sure, grilled cheese is on the menu, but Cheese E. Wagon features plenty of cheesy goodness throughout its offerings.

Read more »

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?

The Shining Star restaurant serves Puerto Rican food in North Philly. I couldn’t help comparing this visit to when I ate at Freddy and Tony’s, who serve amazing Puerto Rican food one mile north, especially since we ordered similarly (fried things +pork). Note that there are two menus, one in English and one in Spanish. If your food Spanish is halfway decent, stick with that menu, since the English translations were confusing.

Read more »