Rule #1 of Midtown Lunch

Like most people who work in Midtown Manhattan, I'm subjected to expensive and mostly crappy food when I don't pack my own lunch.  There are tons of websites out there that certainly help identify "inexpensive" options, but is $10 or less really inexpensive?  That's $50 per week, about $250 a month or worse, $2600 a year.  That's terrifying.  I don't want to spend $2,600 on crappy food a year, I could go on a lovely vacation for that price.

So after working in Midtown East for over 2 years, I've narrowed down the food that I'm willing to spend money on and there are a few loose rules that I apply when selecting lunch.

Rule#1 of Buying Lunch in Midtown:
If its large enough for two meals then its a win!

Let's be real here, Americans overeat which is why we have an obesity epidemic, but I tend to win in these situations since I portion my meals.  A number of lunches I purchase are more than enough for two, sometimes three!  This brings down the overall lunch cost a great deal.

A very clear example of this rule is from one of my favorite meals for lunch from an Indian take-out place I discovered week 1 at my job called Joy.

I used to eat here about once every two weeks for months on end. That is how much I love my Indian food.  Recently I noticed that they received a B from the Dept of Health but I don't really care.  They're awesome and I will keep eating here.  The reason I don't frequent here as much is due to my diet, but I treat myself every so often and its worth the extra calories.

They have a steam table, which is nice so you can see what you're getting.  They're always adding fresh items throughout the day, so everything is super hot and tasty!

I usually go with their #2 special which is a meat and a vegetarian dish with rice and naan.  It is a TON of food, as you can see from the photo below. 

This is Chicken Karahi, which is mildly spicy (although sometimes its a little hotter than other days since its made fresh and can vary depending on the cook).  I LOVE sauce, so I ask them to drench my rice.  It has fresh ginger and tomatoes with big chunks of white meat chicken.  It is oh so delicious.  I noticed they had Chicken Sag, so I asked that they give me just the sag (spinach) as the veggie side.  They're super nice and know me well by now so they usually cave in to my ridiculous request.  They always have unique and fresh veggie sides.

Indian is one of the few cuisines I could honestly go entirely vegetarian for.  They make everything so good that you really don't care that an animal is missing from your plate.

 

Chiara, my fabulous coworker and usual lunch buddy, ordered the same dish but with a side of mixed vegetables.  There is always so much food that neither of us can ever come close to finishing our lunch.  So we pack it up and save the rest for the next day.  What's wonderful about Indian food is that it usually tastes just as good the next day reheated.  Curry is magical?

I really don't know how people can sit and finish this much food, but I guess power to you if you can?

This meal costs a little under $10 (I think its $9.17) including tax and yes it comes with that giant fluffy amazing nan.  It's hard to find anything in Midtown that feeds a person this well for less than $5.  

This concludes Rule #1 of Midtown Lunch.  

Stayed tuned for Rule #2 Supporting the Food Trucks!