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 Mary, a commenter who shares my love for finding great eats in Chinatown.

Name: Mary

Age: Let’s just say I’m old enough to be the mother of most of the ML’ers who have been profiled so far… ;-)

Occupation: Accountant

Where in Philly do you Work?: 15th and JFK

Favorite Kind of Food:Edible. No, really. I was taught from an early age that I wouldn’t know if I liked something or not unless I tried it, and I’ve kept that attitude all my life. Sometimes it was helpful; my husband and I lived with my mom for many years, and she would cook most of the time. I learned to go to ethnic restaurants so I wouldn’t have the same thing twice in one day. I will *try* just about anything – doesn’t mean I always go for seconds though.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I never could eat sweet potatoes or carrots (at least cooked carrots), they both literally make me gag. I don’t mind raw carrots though. Also I really don’t like cilantro. I’m not one of the ones who gets physically ill from eating it, I just don’t like a huge pile of fresh stuff on top of my food and the taste drowning out everything else I am eating. I don’t mind a *little* used in cooking, but there doesn’t seem to be any such thing as “a little” cilantro. I really can’t wait until the fad is over for that one, but it’s been going on for years and years… Sorry sushi fans, but sushi to me = bait. I grew up spending a week or two every year at my grandparents’ shore house, and if I wanted raw fish I could have had all I wanted for free from the fishermen on the pier..

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: I’m a Chinatown fiend. I’ve tried just about every restaurant there and go to certain restaurants only for certain dishes: Dim Sum Garden for brisket noodle soup, David’s Mai Lai Wah for steamed dumplings, Tasty Place for beef with rice noodle and vegetable or roast pork with pan-fried noodle, you get the idea. Soup dumplings are a toss-up between Sakura and Dim Sum Garden though. The uber-cheap “house soup” at Tasty Place is well worth getting along with your entree btw. I also like Indian food and am partial to Sitar India on 38th St between Market and Chestnut, an easy trip by El and the 10% coupon in the weekly papers is a nice bonus.

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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 Erin, who loves veggies and cute cats.

Name: Erin

Age: 23

Occupation: Law Clerk

Where in Philly do you Work?: A law firm, around 16th & Walnut

Favorite Kind of Food:Various vegetarian fare. Most Asian cuisines (shout out to my Filipino mommy) and potatoes in any form (and my Irish pops). Mexican, Italian, & Ethiopian cuisines. Pizza, sandwiches, mac & cheese, fruit, DQ blizzards & marshmallow sundaes, Bomb Pops, CPK’s Mediterreanian Salad, tuna on toast, my mom’s cooking, cheese, candy, pie, and sweets in general, pretty much.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Sundried tomatoes. Sick.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: These are in no particular order because I love them all dearly. The Foule or the Vegetarian Combo from Almaz Cafe (20th Street, just above Walnut) – these Ethiopian delights are absolutely must-try, if you haven’t already. The vegan cheesesteak from Mi Lah Vegetarian (16th, just below Walnut), or a vegan chicken cheesesteak from Govinda’s (SW corner at Broad & South). Any lunch special from Su Xing House (Sansom, between 16th & Broad), with miso soup, brown rice & a spring roll. Tampopo’s fresh tuna bi-bim-bob (more about that in a moment). On days I don’t feel like anything big, I’ll just get a pear from Sue’s Produce Market or a chocolate croissant from Le Bus (both on 18th St. between Walnut & Chestnut).

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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 Dan, a mushroom lover who recently starting blogging about his search for local Philly produce.

Name: Daniel

Age: 22

Occupation: Student

Where in Philly do you Work?: West Philadelphia, St. Joseph’s Univ.

Favorite Kind of Food:This is a ridiculously tough question, but to narrow it down, I currently have a love affair with bread and fresh vegetables. I swear I could live off of bread alone – baguettes, pretzels, pizza – anything that involves dough, I’m crazy for! I’ve been on a vegetable kick for a while now – my recent obsession are mushrooms, radishes and beets. And I’m always down for burritos.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: I’m pretty much always willing to try anything at least once and I don’t really dislike much. The only thing I have always had a weird distaste for is celery – I don’t know why but I can’t stand it

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: I am different parts of the city all the time, so here are some highlights: Honest Tom’s – Whenever his truck and I cross paths it’s always a good thing. His tacos and guacamole are so good. Fu-Wah (47th and Baltimore Ave.) These are my favorite banh mi ever. The Vietnamese tofu hoagie specifically always makes my day better, the marinated tofu with lemongrass is the best I have ever had. Cafe Nhu Y (8th and Christian)   This is another banh mi spot that is always solid. They have an unusual one with yuca and pickled daikon that is amazing with their spicy, tangy mayo. Sarcone’s Deli (9th and Fitzwater)  Their hoagies will remind you all day that you ate the garlicky goodness on the best bread in town. Earth Bread + Brewery (7136 Germantown) Yeah, it’s a little out of the way, but go for a very late lunch and eat some great creative flatbreads with local brews. Garces Trading Company (11th and Locust)  It’s a great and convenient spot and you can go and pick up cheese and bread and head outside, or sit in – I’ve never had anything I didn’t like.

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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 Mike, aka helpful commenter MWinston, a student who seems to know the good eating spots of University City like the back of his hand.

Name: Mike

Age: 22

Occupation: Student (About to graduate!)

Where in Philly do you Work?: Fine Arts Major for Graphic Design at The University of Pennsylvania

Favorite Kind of Food:I eat around 85% of my meals in sandwich form (generally on a longroll). This is a something I learned the hard way this year over Passover while I struggled to find meals that weren’t served on bread. My lunches are heavily dominated by meatball subs, chicken cheesesteaks, bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, etc. I also really love ethnic food of all types. Fortunately for me, West Philly is a pretty decent place to find a variety of ethnic food. I love pickles too. I go through about a jar of pickles per week. Through all of my pickle eating I’ve learned that my favorite kind is the Kosher Dill Spears from Claussen. Finally, when I cook, I put caramelized onions and garlic on nearly everything. There’s not much food in this world that won’t be improved by the addition of caramelized onions and garlic. I almost forgot… Sriracha! Well it’s not a food, but a sauce. Oh well, it’s delicious on everything. Eggs. Fried Rice. Meat. Hot dogs. Everything.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: There’s not much out there I won’t eat (or at least try), but I can’t stand gefilte fish. I gave it the benefit of the doubt a few weeks ago and gave it another taste, but no. It didn’t want to go down.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly:I eat a majority of my meals from food carts so I’ll just do some shoutouts to my favorite carts around campus. At Lyn’s cart (36th and Spruce) I often order their Meatball Sandwich, but don’t overlook their Eggplant Spinach Parm Sub which is equally as good. When she asks if you want hot sauce on it, say yes! It’s Sriracha. From Steak Queen (38th and Locust) I usually order a “Chicken Cheesesteak with Onions and Honey Mustard”. It is the best foodcart chicken on campus in my opinion. From Don Memo’s (38th and Sansom) I usually order an Al Pastor Burrito though recently I’ve been ordering the Pork Torta. Another favorite is Bui’s (38th and Spruce) where I usually order a Pepperoni, Egg, and Cheese (Double Egg) with Onions and Bui’s sauce (which is basically a Sriracha mayo). I know this dish sounds kind of strange, but trust me on this. It is great hangover food.

I mentioned ethnic food before and these places I’m about to talk about tend to be more dinners than lunches for me but I’ll mention them anyways since most of them are in ML price range. On campus, we have a number of Thai options; my favorite is Thai Singha House (40th and Chestnut). They have a really great lunch and early bird deal. West Philly also has a good number of Indian restaurants whose buffets make for a really good filling meal. New Delhi (40th and Chestnut) does a pretty good job with keeping a variety of tasty food in their buffet. My favorite cheap and filling place to eat is Pho Cafe Saigon (43rd and Spruce) where you can get a gigantic, delicious bowl of Pho jam packed with Beef Brisket, Flank, Tripe, Tendon, cilantro (sorry cilantro haters), onions, and more for around $7. Every now and then I have enough time to venture out to 45th Street for some African food. I love the Ethiopian food at Abyssinia (45th and Locust). I think the spongy Ethiopian bread that the dishes are served over is really interesting.

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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 Sarah, an attorney who is all about the Korean food at home.

Name: Sarah

Age: 28

Occupation: Attorney

Where in Philly do you Work?: 17th btw Market and Chestnut St.

Favorite Kind of Food: I always find myself near paralyzed by this question, because how can I chose just one? I can’t even narrow it down by type of cuisine. It all depends on what particular craving I’m satisfying at that moment. That being said, my birthday dinner of choice for many years running has been my mom’s tonkatsu (thinly pounded pork cutlets coated in panko or crushed corn flakes), served with steamed broccoli, rice and kimchi.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cilantro, and whatever poor dish has been infected by it.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: I realized this year that I’ve been working in a 4 block square around Liberty Place for about ten years, so most of my favorites are kind of grouped together! Anything from Giwa (1608 Sansom St), the Kung Pao Dried Tofu from Su Xing House (1508 Sansom St), the tuna melt at the Midtown III (28 South 18th Street), the borscht and any sandwich from Le Bus (135 S 18th St) but particularly the one that has turkey and asparagus, leftovers from Han Dynasty (108 Chestnut St.).

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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 Hawk, from Drawing for Food. I absolutely love his hot dog drawings, sooo cute! I am seriously considering a print for my bedroom. Hawk’s loves include durian popsicles (really?) but he dislikes artichokes (boo!).

Name: Hawk

Age: 32

Occupation: Illustrator

Where in Philly do you Work?: Center City West / Graduate Hospital

Favorite Kind of Food: Sandwiches of all kinds. Hoagies, cheesesteaks (whiz), roast pork, braised tripe with longhots from 9th street, tortas, cubans, puerto rican pressed sandwiches filled with shredded pork. Jewish Deli sandwiches, po boys. Real BBQ and southern food, fried chicken. Pretty much anything pickled, smoked or cured. Indonesian, Vietnamese, Szechuan tongue & tripe salad. Durian popsicles. Meatballs. Tomato Pie. Frisee salad, anything with an egg on top. Creamed chipped beef on toast. Biscuits & Gravy.

Least Favorite Kind of Food: artichokes, muenster cheese, cupcakes

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Savoy (now Mexico On The Square) tacos; Little Pete’s Reuben, Hot sausage w / pepper hash from 25th & Passyunk truck, Cheesesteak from Philips (24th & Passyunk), Hoagie from Cosmi’s, Fried Green tomato and bacon hoagie at Chickie’s, Pretzel Dog from Reading Terminal. RTM in general is just a great place for lunch in Philly, at one point I ate there 2 or 3 times a week. Everybody loves Dinic’s and I have to agree, roast pork, pulled pork, they are all terrific. There’s another Dinic’s in the Navy Yard, great breakfast sandwiches and amazing chicken cutlet. Anything from LaRosa Pizza on Broad & Snyder. Fish cake combo at Moe’s Hot Dogs on Washington or Gus’s cart on 5th & South. Anything from Village Whiskey, or pretty much any Garces restaurant. Fried Oysters with Chicken Salad at Sansom Oyster House is out of this world. Also Su Xing House near 15th & Sansom, awesome vegetarian Chinese, for maybe 5 or 6 dollars you get the whole 9 yards, soup, egg roll, rice, tea, and a giant entree. Their Chinese cabbage (kale or something very close to it) with chilis is terrific.

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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 Scott, a bearded systems admin who is yet another adventurous- palate –Philly -luncher -cilantro-hater, what is up with that?

Name: Scott

Age: 34

Occupation: Systems Administrator 

Where in Philly do you Work?: 9th and Sansom

Favorite Kind of Food: Anything with curry. I am a sucker for the warmth and comfort that the smell of a nice toasted curry produces. Besides my own curried chicken, Palace at the Ben (9th and Chestnut), and Minar Palace (1304 Walnut St.) are good local options. There’s a new place set to open up in place of what was formerly Shinju Sushi (930 Locust St.)

Least Favorite Kind of Food: Cilantro. No, I don’t think it tastes like soap, I just don’t like it very much at all. Oh…and overcooked meat.

Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Philly: Tampopo 2 (see “goto” lunch place) for the chicken yakisoba with extra chicken, meatball hoagie at the Ben Towne Deli (9th between Chestnut and Sansom), Moriarty’s (Walnut between 11th and 12th) for their outdoor seating and their assortment of burgers. I don’t get to do it often enough, but a good wandering about in Reading Terminal Market usually turns something up.

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