4:00pm egg custard tart

I love eggs. I REALLY love eggs. Eggs in any form - boiled, poached, fried, scrambled, pickled, deep fried - whatever. And this love extends to sweets, anything with that egg-y baked/cooked flavor entices me like no other ingredient. Some people are crazy about chocolate, I'm crazy about eggs. So what's not to like about an egg custartd tart (silky egg custard inside a flaky pie shell)? Absolutely nothing. Tempted to try making it myself too.
Fay Da, 191 Centre St, NY, NY 10013 (at Hester St)

Wah Mei Fast Food

It's getting hot out there, and people are dressed like they are at the beach (or at least some of them)! Well, it's the end of the week, and I've got a bunch of stuff to get out, so while i took a round about way to grab lunch, I decided to keep it quick-ish. The deep fried chicken over rice from Wah Mei definitely hit the spot, but it's left me wanting to take a nap rather than forging forward and being productive.
Wah Mei Fast Food, 190 Hester St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Baxter & Mulberry)

4:00pm strawberry tart

After our less than satisfying lunch, we needed some guaranteed goodness in the form of dessert. Caffe Falai's strawberry tart usually fits the bill. Even though the crust seems to slightly vary each and every time we've had it, it still always manages to be quite right.
Caffe Falai, 265 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

Ground Support

Despite positive mentions on the internet, I can't say we were overly impressed with the sandwiches from Ground Support. The Cuban was fine but the Turkey Picnic came with a BBQ sauce that tasted EXACTLY like McDonald's BBQ sauce. Strange. Nevertheless the atmosphere is relaxed and low-key, as are the people eating there, reminding me of a more adult version of a university cafe.
Ground Support, 399 West Broadway, NY, NY 10012 (below Spring)

4:00pm donut

Ever get the feeling you're staring into an endless black hole (is that redundant?)? Like you're working and working and still working and all of a sudden it's practically halfway through the year and all those things you keep meaning to do have fallen to the wayside. Ah well, beach weather will be upon us soon and everything will right itself.
Balthazar Bakery, 80 Spring St, NY, NY 10012 (near Crosby)

Emporio, with Sarah

Lunch is really such a great meal. A conveniently situated break in the middle of the day, it can range from picking up messy street food or a civilized luncheon among girlfriends. Either way it's a break we always take with great satisfaction. Today we went with Sarah to Emporio because it's a lovely place for lunching with friends. Especially when you can have a sophisticated meal of first course, main pasta and espresso for a mere $15.
Emporio, 231 Mott St, NY, NY 10012 (below Prince)

4:00pm banana bread

There is some fierce baking going on among the office mates, and strangely it often seems to coincide, so that if Karen brings in banana bread loaves, Patrick's Kristy will just have happened to bake a caramelized banana chocolate cake for the same day. We also have a contribution from an Aussie in the group, Brett, who brought in chocolate freckles. That's enough sweets to last the office at least a day or two.

Soho Halal Cart

We are anxiously awaiting lunch service from neighborhood newcomer, Balboosta, but sadly that day was not today. So we wandered over to the halal cart on Spring and Broadway for the most utterly satisfying lamb gyro sandwich we've had in a long time. Messy and a bit spicy, this one hit the spot.
Soho Halal Cart, Spring Street just east of Broadway, NY, NY

4:00PM oat and blueberry muffin

Muffins are more breakfast than tea time but I had a third of one yesterday for an afternoon snack and kind of craved a full half today. It's light and airy, not too sweet and has a sugary crumble top that gives the whole ensemble a lovely textured crunch.
Village Tart, 86 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (at Mulberry)

Xe Lua

It's been ages and ages since we were so engrossed with eating that we forgot to take a pre-eating photo! And not that the pho at Xe Lua is so overwhelmingly incredible that we were distracted, but on a gray and cold Monday it was absolutely the perfect thing for lunch. We like Xe Lua. Given the lack of proper Vietnamese food in Chinatown, Xe Lua is better than some of the others, as we've mentioned before.
Xe Lữa, 86 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10013 (below Canal)

4:00pm fruit tart

You know we're fans of the fruit tarts at Cafe Select, they are a simple and straightforward afternoon choice. They differ ever so subtly each time we order one, and today the pastry shell was particularly delicious.
Cafe Select, 212 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 (at Kenmare)

Acme Bar and Grill

It's Fish Friday! Acme Bar and Grill has got to be the most underrated neighborhood joint. It doesn't get a lot of attention but the food is so spot on good and reliable. We always get a blackened catfish entree with three sides to share, the mashed potatoes, the mac n cheese and either the spinach or vegetable of the day. It may seem like we're always eating in different spots, trying new things, but sometimes we are utterly predictable.
Acme Bar and Grill, 9 Great Jones St, NY, NY 10012 (near Lafayette)

4:00pm sweet and salty cake

Continuing on the birthday celebrations with a sweet and salty cake from Tribeca Treats.
Tribeca Treats, 94 Reade St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Church and West Broadway)

Loreley, with Harvest

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Deutschland, we happily accompanied the Harvest crew to Loreley for a birthday lunch. Loreley has a charming biergarten out back that is great for groups and perfect on sunny spring days. They've changed the menu since the last time we went so we practiced ordering in German, here the Nürnberger mit Sauerkraut, Senf und Brot and not pictures but equally as good, the Frikadelle mit Pommes Frites.
Loreley, 7 Rivington St, NY, NY 10002 (btwn Bowery & Chrystie)

4:00pm cookies

Sweetness is such a personal preference and personally we prefer a little less sweet. If not for that idiosyncratic partiality, Tribeca Treats would be well worth returning to. Everything else about their desserts is quite nice - the texture, the taste and the pricing all work well together.
Tribeca Treats, 94 Reade St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Church and West Broadway)

Despana

We don't often eat salads for lunch here at LUNCH, something about the non-substantial nature of greens and assorted toppings. It just never feels satisfying. Except once in awhile I do get a craving for that particular combination of leafiness with tart vinegarette. It's fortunate that Despana, along with its much favored sandwiches, carries a nice selection of decent lunch eating salads.
Despana, 408 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 (btwn Lafayette and Centre)

4:00pm strawberry shortcake cheesecake

Yowsers! We tried cupcakes from Tribeca Treats today and I, I mean we, have to say they're just too sugary for our blood. It's not the saccharin sweet of Magnolia but more like an overly sweet butter cream. Which is to say we loved the textures of the frosting and the cake but probably couldn't eat too many of these without a dark, very dark, cup of coffee.
Tribeca Treats, 94 Reade St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Church and West Broadway)

Carl's Steaks

A beautiful day for running errands downtown, especially when the path takes us by Carl's Steaks. This Chambers St location is a bit nicer to dine-in than the Third Ave one we were at last year, or at least there is more seating anyway. We were tempted by The Works but decided classic cheesesteak with cheez whiz and grilled onions was the way to go. If you got a jonsing but can't make it to Philly, Carl's Steaks seems like a good option to my untutored palette.
Carl's Steaks, 77 Chambers St, NY, NY 10007 (btwn Broadway and Church)

4:00pm cupcake

Earlier today, office mate DW sends this email:
While working on the Bamboo Bike project this weekend in Red Hook, I picked up some treats from Baked, the famed treats joints in that hood. Help yourself to some sweet & salty cupcakes and bars in the kitchen area.
The small bites we tasted of the instantly devoured sweets were pretty incredible. Now if only we had an excuse to be in Red Hook soon.
Baked, 359 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (near Dikeman St)

Central Buffet

It's unusual for us both to have forgotten cameras so it's a good thing for iPhones and the fact that we ducked out for some unremarkable cheap Chinese buffet. Beautiful photo not necessary.
Central Buffet, 195 Centre Street, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Howard and Hester)

4:00pm berry frangipane

Strange gloomy Fridays are lovingly lightened by friends unexpectedly dropping by, bearing delicious desserts. Although we have tried a substantial portion of the Village Tart desserts, we probably haven't even touched half of the extensive menu. So how nice for us that Micbad brought by a really tasty berry frangipane that we had never tried before.
Village Tart, 86 Kenmare St, NY, NY 10012 (at Mulberry)

BCD Tofu, with o

The NY Times says BCD Tofu is like Denny's with kimchi. Which I take as a positive thing, I mean who doesn't like breakfast at Denny's at 3 in the morning? And as far as tofu stew places go, BCD Tofu turns out to be decent enough. You get a lot of banchan (including one fried fish each for Fish Friday), the tofu stews are super filling, come in a varying degrees of spiciness and the prices are nice and reasonable for all that food. Next time I'm going with an emptier stomach though.
BCD Tofu, 17 West 32nd St, NY, NY 10001 (btwn Broadway and 5th)

4:00pm chocolate and peanut butter cookies

Dear Kristina,
Even though we have never met, we thank you most wholeheartedly for sending Patrick to work today with a full container of pretty yummy chocolate and peanut butter cookies. As you say, super awesome! Please feel free to send future baked goods to the office for consumption.
Yours most happily,
Y+M

Zampa, with Brian

We are having a most delightful spring in my opinion. Warm days interspersed with cooler sunny ones, perfect days for lunching with friends in other neighborhoods. Even better when coincident with nearby work tasks. Brian already knew he wanted the chicken waldorf salad but M. and I wavered until the last minute when I happened to glance left and saw an attractive plating of poached salmon, green beans and salsa verde over a bed of organic lentils. Lucky for me it was not only prettily presented but quite delicious as well. The combination of tart tastes with the more moderate salmon on top of a background of lentils was just right for a spring day.
Zampa, 306 West 13th St, NY, NY 10014 (btwn 8th Ave and West 4th)

4:00pm carrot cake

Another winner from Oro Bakery, carrot cake this time. It's equally as enticing as our other favorite from Village Tart, but slightly different in approach. The abundance of nuts in the batter and on top add a marvelous crunchy texture while the frosting has lemon overtones that contrasted delightfully with the cake.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome St, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mulberry & Mott)

Cafe Colonial

We don't eat at Cafe Colonial very often. Despite the uber charming atmosphere, the menu just doesn't speak to us. On the other hand we are quite sad to see it may not endure the onslaught of trendy eateries popping up all over the neighborhood. It is, after all, a long time local fave and I will truly miss the warm steak salad.
Cafe Colonial, 276 Elizabeth St, NY, NY 10012 (at Houston)

4:00pm macadamia oatmeal lace cookies

You know what's better than homemade cookies? Really really really good ones. Like these macadamia oatmeal lace ones that Karen just happened to whip up over the weekend. Yum.

Pinche Taqueria

Sometimes I'm feeling wimpy and reluctant to brave Pinche Taqueria's bench seating and lack of heat for lunch. But then sometimes the allure of their tasty fish tacos or piled high tostadas is too much to resist, chairs or no. It doesn't matter whether you're on Mott or Lafayette, the seating is the same. The food is too though, and that's a big comfort.
Pinche Taqueria, 227 Mott St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Spring and Prince)

4:00PM sugar cookies

Another painstaking Cooks Illustrated recipe, this time yielding rather professional sugar cookies, even if there were just this side of too sweet. The most amazing thing is that following the first bite, the sugar cookies turn into Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies. Seriously! It's not immediately apparent but the secondary tastes and textures definitively evoked the store bought butter cookies.

Cong Ly

We always have the same thing at Cong Ly, a bowl of the hu tieu my tho (dai) and a glass of chanh muoi (salty lemonade). That almost never changes although today we saw an intriguing couple of dishes come out of the kitchen, not tempting enough to try but interesting nevertheless. The guy next to us got a bowl of bitter melon stuffed with ground pork served in broth water and the guy across from us ordered pork chops that came with a bowl of soup and a plate of rice. Never saw either of those before.
Công Lý, 124 Hester St, NY, NY 10002 (btwn Broome & Chrystie)

4:00pm tangerine sorbetto

It's a little strange that the tangerine sorbetto did not come out in a beautiful rounded mound of a scoop, instead it's just flatly scrapped up against the side of the dish. Weird right? Seems very un-Mario Batali-like. And makes for a not great photo. But still was very tasty and tangerine-y.
Lupa Osteria Romana, 170 Thompson St, NY, NY 10012 (above Houston)

Lupa, with John

That Mario Batali sure knows how to make a good meal. We have tried Del Posto, been to Otto and even checked out Casa Mono, but had not lunched at Lupa, that bustling neighborhood trattoria. Which made it a great place to meet John for an extended Friday afternoon meal. It's always packed at dinner, but lunch is sooo pleasant - busy yet not crowded. We split a hanger steak (delicious!), the bavette cacio and pepe (bravo!) and the pappardelle ragu (yum!). Everything, as it always is, was perfectly cooked - the temperature, the texture and tastes all spot on. It's not adventurous eating, but it is oh so solid and good.
Lupa Osteria Romana, 170 Thompson St, NY, NY 10012 (above Houston)

4:00pm applesauce cake

For some strange reason, the inclusion of the word "green" to the Birdbath motto, a "neighborhood green bakery", makes me think of all things vegan. But actually they have a variety of both vegan and non-vegan bakery items including City Bakery's famous pretzel croissant (so famous it has it's own website). And now they are local to Soho and close enough that we stopped by on our way back from lunch for this perfectly nice applesauce cake.
Birdbath, 160 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Thompson and West Broadway)

Project Sandwich

I don't think Project Sandwich has been open for much longer than a couple weeks but already the line is out the door. Granted the space is tiny and they have some significant issues to work out with their process (ehem extremely long wait times, no napkins with the orders, poor guy assembling orders on top of a microwave oven), but! the sandwiches are real good, at least the two we tried. The French could have been a bit more tart but the Brazilian was spot on delicious. Next time we're going for the popular Korean and hopefully the small German/Russian. And although the place needs fine tuning to handle the lunch rush, the service could not have been friendlier.
Project Sandwich, 105 Thompson St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Spring and Prince)

4:00pm peanut butter cookies

We always get 2 different types of Hampton Chutney's freshly baked cookies (hidden genius these are), because we can never just decide on one but for some reason today was all about the peanut butter cookie. One each for each one of us.
On a side note, check out this super sweet commentary from the lovely Canadian mag Azure, Feasting with Front Studio.
Hampton Chutney, 68 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (btwn Crosby and Lafayette)

Soho Park

89 degree weather in April is just way unnecessary. Completely uncalled for. But it does certainly put us in the mind of lazy beach days and although we didn't manage to sneak off to the ocean for lunch today, we did get in the mood with some beach food.
Soho Park, 62 Prince St, NY, NY 10012 (at Lafayette)

4:00pm banana bread

This fine afternoon we are dreaming of playing hooky at the beach tomorrow, night ferries from Rønne to Gdansk that don't actually exist, gold summer flats and baby yellow sneakers.
Rather decent banana bread, courtesy of Fresh Direct.

Alidoro

We were definitely not the only ones in the mood for summer sandwiches in the park. By the time we got to Alidoro's, the line was already out the door but it nevertheless moved steadily and politely. It's always a task to choose from among the 40 listed sandwiches and I had finally picked one out when we saw the hand written note on the display cabinet, La Porchetta. Unable to resist thinly sliced porchetta, we went special today and were well rewarded for the effort.
Alidoro, 105 Sullivan St, NY, NY 10012 (above Spring)

4:00pm brownies

Patrick is our local spokesperson for Askinosie Chocolate, because, as he says, they're great people and they make great chocolate. Which we won't really argue with when he produces such wonderful brownies as the ones he made today based on this F&W recipe using this cocoa. You know we're not huge chocolate fans but we could stand behind a company that works on outreach projects like Cocoa Honors Central US.

Office Potluck

Yes my friends, it's the 3 monthly office potluck and today we find: green bean casserole, brisket with gravy, cabbage and red pepper slaw, roasted fennel, spanish rice, broccoli kugel and fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes on sliced baguette. Quite the diverse gathering of dishes! And stay tuned for the dessert contribution.

4:00pm carrot cream

Or called something like that. Totally reminds me of those Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies that I used to love and didn't get to eat so often. And that's a compliment.
Cafe Zaiya @ Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10018 (below 42nd street)

Jup She

With Y sick as a dog, who practically came in today just to have lunch with me (I'm joking), and with me in a hurry, we wanted something soup-like and near by. Soondubu jjiigae was what came to mind and what we ended up having. For all of you out there suffering a cold - fell better.
Jup She, 171 Grand St, NY, NY 10013 (at Baxter)

4:00pm chocolates

Thank you to Patrick who was generous enough to bring in a big tub of chocolates to the office. And these are no ordinary chocolates, they are some really tasty and socially responsible chocolates! The big tub holds a variety of their offerings so I started out with the 77% Davao from the Phillipines - and wow - it's interestingly fruity/sour with intense richness - in a good way. I'm looking forward to trying the other ones!
Askinosie Chocolate

Paris Sandwich

Very little time was available for lunch today, but the sun is out and the temperature settling itself in the warmer climate zone, a walk, even a short one was in dire need. We had eaten a very interesting pseudo-banh mi a while back from this place and we have been meaning to go back for more. But since today wasn't about being adventurous, so I just stuck to the #1 Paris Special Baguette. I can't say that it's the tastiest around, but it's got stuff going for it. The fresh bread, the smaller better proportioned sandwich (at least to our lady-like preferences) that made it seem more authentic, though I personally don't know what that authentic is... yet.
Paris Sandwich, 213 Grand Street, NY, NY 10013 (btwn Mott and Elizabeth)