3:50pm chocolate covered snack cake

Lots of absent mindedness happening lately, is it the constant sunny California weather we've been having where I feel like I'm living in a state of sunny suspended animation? And to top off forgetting to take a lunch photo, M. picked up a chocolate covered twinkie interpreted by Empire Cake but there was no cream filling. Weird! As if someone forgot to pipe it in. Even without the cream filling, the snack cake is pretty damn good, but it would have been a nice addition.
Empire Cake, 112 Eighth Ave, NY, NY 10011 (bwtn 15th and 16th)

L&W Oyster Co., with friend Thu

I used to have an oyster or two when someone else orders them on the three tiered seafood platter, but I never understood the passion behind them until maybe a year ago when my taste buds changed and suddenly I wanted oysters ALL THE TIME. Oysters are not exactly standard lunch fare so when I asked my friend Thu which of the 6 types of oysters she wanted to share at L&W Oyster and she said all of them, I knew we were in for a good lunch. After we finished off the dozen oysters and split a lobster sandwich, I realized I had completely forgotten to take a photo. So we ordered four more of the Montauk Pearls just to have this picture for you dear reader.
L&W Oyster Co., 254 5th Ave, NY, NY 10001 (btwn 28th and 29th Sts)

4:00pm assorted desserts

Apparently the trick to having dessert at Pain Quotidien is to try everything. Our good friends, staying with us this week, brought back a box full of treats which we have slowly been making inroads into. So far I'm down with the chocolate fondant and surprisingly the lemon tart.
Le Pain Quotidien, 931 Broadway, NY, NY 10024 (btwn 21st and 22nd St)

Num Pang

1129 Broadway, NY, NY 10010

Rating: 3 - Feeling Good
In brief: If only the seating were more comfortable, the space less hectic and more cozy, that 7 rating would for sure rocket to 8 cause the food is mostly always good.
Visit #: 3

Hubba hubba. My only complaint about the pork belly Num Pang is the messiness, like maybe they could cut the already small sandwich in half so it would be easier to eat one handed while reading a book during lunch break.

3:22pm smack

A friend of a friend has an ambitious plan involving the dissemination of a mini version of the canelé, a traditional dessert originating from Bordeaux. But instead of complicating the American mind with a long explanation about what exactly is a canele, let's just call them smack. He brought us a box last night, I easily ate 2 and could have probably had another half dozen they were so delicious and perfectly sized. Right now you can only get them in the D.C. area, unfortunately for us New Yorkers. But if you are in the D.C. area, I highly recommend picking up a batch or two or more.

Wingnitnyc

Well, well, well, I shall look no further for jerk chicken wings than the Wingnitnyc truck. The inconsistency of Wildwood jerk chicken wings has been replaced by a quick and easy $10 lunch today. Sure it's no kale salad but within minutes I was handed a half dozen grilled jerk chicken wings, a bag of tater tots and a Ginger Ale. A girl need not want more.
Wingnitnyc, 5th Ave btwn 21st and 22nd St, NY, NY 10010

Shake Shack, with Jef & Sandie

Madison Square Park, NY, NY 10010

Rating: 2 - Super Happy
Visit #: 7
In Brief: The Shake Shack burger is as good as people claim, but we wait for rainy days and cold weather instead of braving any hour long lines. Do not overlook the shroom burger.

It's tough nowadays to find those things that make a city unique, especially with globalization proliferating brands across the world with ease. Which is why I have eaten at Shake Shack more times than I care to admit to this past year. We've had an ongoing line of foreign friends visiting and each time I recommend Shake Shack for that undeniably good burger. It's the perfect experience - the explanation of the food craze, the outdoor fast casual ordering, the picnic like atmosphere, so American and so New York. I hope Shake Shack continues to do well but not so well that one can be found in on corner of the world. It's the one place I can take my French friends that they cannot find back home. Also, I should note that there is no line before noon. NO LINE.

4:20pm sugar cookies

My daughter made sugar cookies in cooking class last week and since she happened to be the only one in class, she took home the whole batch. Good for me because they were that perfect kind of sugar cookie.

Once Upon a Tart, with sister Thu

It was a little chilly for salads yesterday but it's hard to resist the Once Upon a Tart roasted pork loin sandwich, accompanied by side salads. Today I am thinking of my sister telling me of the broken car alarm that has been going off non-stop for two weeks in front of her apartment because I am trying to listen to the new Neko Case album over the sound of a jackhammer outside. Instead the clashing sounds are giving me a headache.
Once Upon a Tart, 135 Sullivan St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Prince and Houston)

Old Town

45 E. 18th St, NY, NY 10003

Rating: 2 - Super Happy
Visit #: 6
In brief: When it's not crowded (lunch) it's one of the best pubs in the city. The frankfurters are not to be missed, but otherwise it's not really about the food here.

I never noticed the crowded Friday lunch phenomena until recently. I guess it's a thing. M. is out of town so I thought I would enjoy a quiet hot dog at the Old Town bar but when I walked in there were barely any stools left. It cleared out pretty quickly but what a hustle bustle.

4:30pm doughnut

The Cinnamon Snail Truck inspires crowds, every time we walk by the line is already half way down the block. Danny says the trick is to go just before noon. They waited 15 minutes from start to end and so kindly thought to bring back a selection of doughnuts for the rest of us too lazy to go that early. I don't know which flavor this doughnut is, but it reminded me of the creme brulee ones from the Doughnut Plant. In other words, supremely yummy.
Cinnamon Snail Truck, 5th Ave btwn 21st and 22nd St, NY, NY 10010

Ootoya, with O

8 W. 18th St, NY, NY 10011

Rating: 2 - Super Happy
Visit #: 4
In brief: Be prepared to spend at least $20 for lunch, but also be prepared to be completely satiated on delicious, generously adorned, lunch sets.

This may look like a messy blob of gravy sauce but it's actually a quite tasty washu beef (or hamburg as it's called within the genre of Japanese home style cooking). You gotta bring your appetite to Ootoya, the lunch portions are ginormous. Even the mini sets consist of a bowl of miso soup, a bowl of rice and sashimi fish, a plate of cold soba noodles, a little serving of cold pickled vegetables and a custard dessert. Oofta, by the time lunch is over, we're all feeling lazy and satiated.

4:10pm madeleines

Our dessert options rotate between Burdick, Kayser and Carpe Donuts. Today, Kayser.
Maison Kayser, 921 Broadway, NY, NY 10010 (at 21st St)

Bocca

39 E. 19th St, NY, NY 10003

Rating: 3 - Feeling Good 5 - Disappointed
Visit #: 1
In brief: Until they bring back $9 lunch madness we remain yours, disappointed.

We're late with posting but I have something great to tell you. There is an unassuming Italian restaurant on 19th St, Bocca. And they have a $9 lunch menu that is pretty damn good. For $9 we were not expecting much but the pastas we tried were just right on, nicely al dente and flavorful. This is going to be our new Pepe Rosso I can feel it.

4:50m sakura mochi

Just like one day I hope to acquire a taste for eggplant, I too hope one day I will like Asian desserts. I think this especially when in elegant Japanese bakeries filled with the most beautifully wrought confections.
Minamoto Kitchoan, 509 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10022 (btwn 52nd and 53rd St)

Neapolitan Express

Maybe we can start a movement to bring the Neapolitan Express pizza truck to the Flatiron working lunch crowd. We would support that movement. Today we were invited to midtown to taste some pizzas, we picked the newest, latest and definitively greatest - the "a Diavolo" and the "di Parma". I don't know if it was the charming company or the bright sunlight but the pizzas we ate while perched on a concrete wall were simply divine. This natural gas powered truck is open on both sides, making it one of the more pleasant truck working environments. And if you're worried about time, no need to fret because their oven and prepping methods means a pizza can be ready in a matter of minutes. That's pretty amazing, a fresh pizza with that yummy yielding and crunchy crust, topped with tart tomatoes in far less time than it takes to get a cronut.
Neapolitan Express, Park Ave and 53rd St, NY, NY10022

4:36pm mocha cake

After some attempts at finding a dessert we could go back to, we have arrived at Burdick's mocha cake. The mocha is perfectly restrained, a hint of coffee but not at all bitter. The proportion of dense chocolate cake to mocha frosting made each bite a pleasing balance between heavy and light. Love!
L.A. Burdick, 5 East 20th St, NY, NY 10003 (btwn 5th Ave and Broadway)

Wildwood BBQ

225 Park Ave South, NY, NY 10003

Rating: 5 - Disappointed
In brief: Once, the first time, we had an amazing meal. This third meal sucked. The place still has one last chance to make the Carribean chicken wings from long ago.
Visit #: 3

This is the third time back at Wildwood for the Jamaican chicken wings that were so wildly fantastic our first visit. The second time was meh, and this third time? So way over the top salty that neither of us could eat more than one, and that was barely finishing the one. The Texas smoked brisket platter also fell on the side of saltier than usual, but not unbearably so. How many more times will we try before finally giving up on the chicken wings that once left me dreaming of more.

4:23pm chocolate caviar tart

We stopped by Dominique Ansel on the way back to the office, way too late for any of the famed new creations. So we tried a different something. Cronuts aside, the guy is a rather amazing pastry chef. He somehow made a dessert that tasted precisely like caviar if it happened to be made of chocolate. Even the texture evoked caviar with its slight slipperiness. Amazing.
Dominique Ansel Bakery, 189 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Thompson and Sullivan)

Shanghai Cafe

100 Mott St, NY, NY 10013

Rating: 1 - Wonderful
Visit #: 22
In brief: Rarely has the lunch trifecta of soup dumplings, sauteed string beans and rice cakes with shredded pork and preserved cabbage ever disappointed us. Maybe once the string beans were a little soft.

We did think about going to one of our other favorite haunts from downtown, as we had meetings in Soho in the afternoon, but in the end I couldn't resist more soup dumplings from Shanghai Cafe. Especially since every single time one of my two sisters goes, they text me about it. I had a craving! The place was slammin' super busy and for a moment I was even afraid they had forgotten our order. But when it came, it was the most perfect it could ever be. M. and I stopped talking for the remainder of the meal. Occasionally one of us would look up and mention again how much happiness the meal was bringing us.

4:30pm cranberry cookie

This Maison Kayser cranberry cookie is a bit too cookie dough texture for our afternoon eating pleasure. Cookies don't seem to be his thing, unless he made bread-cookies. If there were even such a thing.
Maison Kayser, 921 Broadway, NY, NY 10010 (at 21st St)

Ilili, with Karen

236 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10037

Rating: 3 - Feeling Good
Visit #: 1
In brief: Sophisticated middle eastern food delicately prepared. For when you're feeling flush or need to impress your lunch date.

Ilili has been on our lunch list since we moved to the Flatiron, but we were sort of waiting to have a friend who wanted to try since the joy is in the array of small plates (mezze). We loved the cauliflower, the famed brussel sprouts and of course the french fries. I could have probably also sat there all afternoon munching on the airiest pita shells dipped in their delicate hommus. The space is super serene, with super high ceilings punctuated by wood and light panels. A lovely meal and place to take a business client.

4:50pm financier nature

I've been occasionally stopping by Maison Kayser in the mornings for a croissant and coffee. Their croissants are super lovely, very light with a thin crispiness to the exterior, but they're also like eating air. Five bites later and the whole thing has disappeared. Sorry this post has nothing to do with the financier pictured above.
Maison Kayser, 921 Broadway, NY, NY 10010 (at 21st St)

Mira Sushi

46 E. 22nd St, NY, NY 10010

Rating: 4 - Just Fine
Visit #: 3
In brief: Don't go here if you're an Asian food purist. And if you do go here, don't order the salad unless they happen to have changed the disturbingly sweet vinaigrette dressing.

I just don't get Mira Sushi, their dishes are not bad, but neither are they especially great. They fall somewhere between Asian and Western I guess. At times I look at the ingredients and see things that clearly belong in K-town but the taste that is going in my mouth could be from anywhere in midtown. M. says it's like XO Kitchen serving mac n cheese, which they do. I think of it as a strange hybrid mashup, not fusion, more like random tastes banging up against one another in a dish together.

4:30pm sweet revenge

We were excited to stop by Sweet Revenge following our afternoon visit but something about the combination of flavors just didn't work for us. Maybe the signature cupcake is not the way to go?
Sweet Revenge, 62 Carmine St, NY, NY 10014 (near Bedford)

4:28pm apple cider donut

I bet if you committed to only eating from food trucks parked in the Flatiron, it would be a pretty satisfying and diverse life.
Carpe Donut, 5th Ave and 20th St, NY, NY 10011

Toum

This are is rife with food trucks, especially the good kind. On our way down the block we got distracted by the words Lebanese and shawarama in one place. Toum used to be here, then they were not, and now they are back, hopefully on more Mondays to come. M. had the grilled kafta sandwich, which I admit I had food jealousy for. It's nice to have so much in the way of food trucks as long as we're having brilliantly temperate fall days.
Toum, 5th Ave btwn 21st and 22nd St, NY, NY 10010

4:07pm sesame donut

This bright fall weather makes me want to drive upstate to a secluded expanse of grass and forest and just sit outside all day long. Maybe with a good book. And a sesame donut.
Tous Les Jours, 31 W. 32nd St, NY, NY 10001 (btwn 5th Ave and Broadway)

Rye House

I sat there, deeply conflicted, staring at Rye's menu. On the one hand the kale caesar salad sounded so nice but on the other hand I really wanted to try the Pittsburgh sandwich. I almost persuaded M. to split both with me but the server saved us all by announcing that the lunch specials today were any combination of salad or soup with sandwich. I got exactly what I wanted then, though if you assumed the sandwich would be half size, it's not. It is, however, a more refined version of the classic Primanti Bros, better meat, less cole slaw, less french fries, nicer bread. Hard to tell which I actually prefer.
Rye House, 11 West 17th St, NY, NY 10011 (west of Fifth Ave)

4:04pm spicy chicken empanada

I came in to the office late today. M. had picked up a dessert empanada from Nuchas, specifically apple, cranberry and Nutella. I thought, oh how nice, we can post in celebration of the sweet new year. But when I warmed it up in the toaster oven and cut it in half to share, the scent of onions emerged. Still I thought maybe it was one of those wacky savory sweet desserts. Nope, it was definitely not the dessert empanada that M. ordered. It was good and all but the spicy chicken didn't really go with my afternoon coffee.
Nuchas Empanadas, 5th Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets)

Nuchas Empanadas

I was entirely too lazy to think about lunch today. I knew if I walked down 5th Avenue that I'd be sure to encounter a worthy food truck. I saw Mamak first and let me tell you, it was really hard to not stop there. But I want Y to try their rendang sooner rather than later so I continued on. Where I ended up is Nuchas Empanadas, another Vendy Award Rookie Finalist. At $3 a pop you could get 3 for under $10. If you are hungry, you may want 3 - they are delicate, not overstuffed and not that filling as the dough is thin and light. The Shiitake Curry, was kind of boring (and didn't get much shiitake), but the Argentine was quite nice. I feel like it's better suited for a snack than a meal, but don't let that dissuade you trying it.
Nuchas Empanadas, 5th Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets)

3:53pm chipless wonder PB&J

I had a conversation with Tate's over Twitter this morning about the ways in which a chipless wonder cookie could be used. They suggested smores, I countered with ice cream sandwich and when Tate's replied with PB&J, I thought, aha, I knew that jar of peanut butter I keep next to my desk would come in handy. We found some jam in the fridge and presto, PB&J. M. wants you to know that the results are the best nutter butter you could make at home. I know, there's no jam in a nutter butter but whatever, Tates chipless wonder + peanut butter + jam = DELICIOUS. At first I thought it would be too sweet, but it's not at all. And the more I eat it, the more I really love it.
Tate's Bake Shop, 43 North Sea Rd., Southampton NY 11968

Vietnamese corn, crab, etc. soup

I have no idea what this gelatinous soup is called. It was my dinner last night and I brought in the leftovers for lunch. Each bite encompasses bits of egg, mushroom, corn, crab and other unknown items, but what makes it so worth eating are the quail eggs, cilantro and dash of pepper. Yum. I didn't quite have enough for two full meals and too much for one so we supplemented with a baguette sandwich.

4:00pm chipless wonder cookies

Not that we weren't already deeply in love with the cookies from Tate's Bake Shop, but after reading this article about Kathleen King, the founder, we love her even more. I don't know how M. stands to walk into the Southampton shop, but my first time it was all I could do not to buy every single type of cookie that is made. As it was, we walked out with only three bags. Naturally I stashed the bag of chipless wonder cookies for a later date, like now.
Tate's Bake Shop, 43 North Sea Rd., Southampton NY 11968

Homes Kitchen

22 E. 21st St, NY, NY 10010

Rating: 2 - Super Happy
Visit #: 4
In brief: The few things we have tried have all been good, but the dry sauteed string beans and ma po tofu are what we go back for time and time again.

We had a half hearted thought at ordering something new at Homes Kitchen but couldn't bring ourselves to chance lunch today. Our go-to shared meal of sauteed string beans and mapo tofu precisely hit the spot, as we knew it would.