Day 85: Two More Kosher Lunch Options in Midtown Manhattan!

Exciting news on the NYC Kosher scene. My roommate, Tzip, tipped me off to a new lunch place called New York Lunchbox, on 36th between 7th and 8th. I went today, but they aren't open quite yet - it seems like the grand opening is in a week or two. It looks nice and the menu includes paninis, wraps, salads, sushi, a Hot Buffet (pay by the lb - includes pastas, fish, veges and a LunchBox Quiche - yum!!). They also list Creamy Butternut & Sweet Potato Soup as a DAILY option. I can't wait to try it! Since they weren't open yet, I walked a couple blocks north to the Vegetable Garden on 38th. The menu there is pretty much the same as all these other places - pizza, salads, sushi, wraps etc. I ordered a matzah ball soup and half of an egg salad wrap. The staff was VERY friendly and accommodating and made my wrap exactly like I wanted it (whole wheat, lettuce, cucumbers, pepper, no other veges). It was especially nice of them because they were stuck with the other half of my somewhat odd wrap, and had to hope someone would buy it. Maybe the staff eats those. I don't know. I went back to work and ate the soup first. It consisted of a clear liquid, with several cute looking mini matzah balls, and some tri-colored rigatoni pasta. The broth itself was pretty bland and sort of just tasted like pasta. Luckily I had salt and pepper packets at my desk to spice it up a bit. That made the soup much tastier. The matzah balls were OK but hard to cut into pieces with my plastic spoon. After I finished the soup, I ate my wrap. It tasted good and was very filling. I would definitely order a wrap from them again, but might skip the soup next time.

Have a tip about a new Kosher lunch place in Midtown Manhattan? Email me at rebeccalunch@gmail.com .

Day 70: Egg-xactly

Today was the end of the reign of mom-made lunches. I took some crackers, and used them to polish off the leftover egg salad. Egg salad is one of those foods that seems really simple to make but is actually very easy to mess up. My roommate and I have had many adventures trying to make hard boiled eggs and ending up with eggs that aren’t cooked through, or that have egg shell stuck on them, or have some other weird variation that renders them unusable. Anyway, my mother’s egg salad somehow always comes out correctly, and it made for a perfect mid-day lunch break before Tzip, Deb and I took a trip on the lazy river.