Lunch Break!

Aside from all the great restaurants that New Yorkers have access to, most of us eat at them no more than a few times per week. There are a plethora of ordinary, boring, restaurants which sustain me throughout the work week, especially when it comes to trying to figure out what to eat at lunchtime.

I gave up long ago to try and find routine lunch spots that are unique, savory, and cheap. The point of a work lunch is to sustain you until dinner; gustatory sensibilities are not something to consider.

However, once and a while, I try to make the midtown lunches a little less monotonous and try something new. Yesterday I finally ventured to the Schnitzel Truck, stationed for the day at 52nd and 6th. I already had tried to visit this truck before, but was confronted with a formidable queue. I still battled a line of about 30 minutes for Schnitzel, but have to say, it was one of the better lunches I've had in midtown to date and would hurry back next time they were around.

For those unclear about what Schnitzel is, it is a deliciously fried, paper-thin pounded piece of protein. Austrian by birth, it traditionally is veal (Weiner Schintzel), however the truck offers chicken, pork, and cod. I opted for chicken, and got two sides: mesclun salad and chick pea salad for $10. The price seemed steep, but the portions were admirable, even bountiful.

As for the food itself, wow. I was impressed--as apparently many were because the truck won Rookie Food Truck of the Year at the most recent Vendie awards. The meat was perfectly thin, crispy, but not greasy and really tender. The mesclun salad was--well a mesclun salad, but the chickpea salad added a nice taste of the Mediterranean through balsamic vinegar and olive dressing. As I mentioned, the portions were huge and I felt really satisfied afterward, but not immobile for the afternoon. In fact, I never slipped into my afternoon food coma which has been haunting me lately.

I'm a big believer in the food trucks (both savory and sweet), and will be devoting more blogtime to them. They are uniquely New York and really add a layer to our food scene that no other city can really rival.