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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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

Today’s Groupon is pretty awesome, $28 worth of Mexican things for $14 at Los Taquitos de Puebla. Half off  carnitas, quesadillas,  and eyeball tacos? Hurray! Don’t forget to enjoy the wall art.

I was running late for something very important and impressive and a quick and easy lunch at Mezze, right in the middle of Reading Terminal, fit the bill.

They have several lunch combo possibilities, with half sandwiches, small salads, etc. For the sake of saving time, carbs, and money, I chose the cheaper combo ($7)- a small salad and a soup.

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