Between the Bread: A New Favorite Midtown Lunch Spot

Last week I was invited with my coworker Stephanie to try the Midtown lunch hotspot and catering company Between the Bread. We arrived to a bustling storefront of hungry workers on their lunch breaks hankering for a plateful of healthy, fresh, local fare.

On the menu were a wide array of sandwiches ($7.95-$8.95), salads ($2.95-$4.50), soups ($3.50-$5) and entree portions of chicken, shrimp, or fish, each served with 2 sides ($9.95-$13.95). Menu items change on a daily basis so you'll never get bored eating here.

Sandwich selection

Entrees of the day

Soups

I tried the herb salmon with Parmesan roasted cauliflower and grilled veggies while Stephanie had the grilled chicken with fennel green bean and potato salad and tomato salad. First off, the portions were GINORMOUS. My plate was definitely enough for two meals, which makes it a great value. Also, everything was super delicious, yet healthy. I could have eaten a plateful of that cauliflower alone and I really liked the wide array of grilled vegetables, including beets and sweet potato on top of squash and bell peppers.

There really isn't a place to eat inside the restaurant, but we took our food down the street to an outdoor pavillion (yay almost Spring!) and enjoyed our lunch al fresco. I definitely want to come back to try Between the Bread's other entrees and their baked goods. Yum!

Screw the Cold! Order Delivery and Get Free Stuff!

I have to admit, I don't order food for delivery that often. My philosophy is if I'm going to spend money on food from a restaurant, I'd rather make a night of it and enjoy the ambiance. However, on frigid days like today (and on lazy, especially rainy days) I make an exception.

So what did I want for lunch, I thought to myself at about 10:45 this morning when my stomach began to rumble. I could be like everyone else and use Seamless, but instead I opted to go with Delivery.com, and I'll tell you why. The basic concept is the same--login, pick a cuisine, add your items to your cart, list any special instructions, hand over your credit card info and the rights to your soul, and soon food will be delivered right to you without you ever having to interact with a human being (with the exception of the delivery person of course). However, Delivery.com is a smaller operation compared with Seamless and hence offers more perks to try and lure new customers.

For example, instead of choosing a cuisine first, I entered my office address and opted to sort the available delivery choices by discount. Low and behold there were 6 different restaurants that offered a 25% off deal for your first order. Score! I decided to order from Marrakesh because I was in the mood for hummus and I could get a shish kebab combo platter for $12.95 (includes a garden salad or rice, 2 pieces of pita, and 2 vegetarian sides including hummus, grape leaves, falafel, etc.).

Nothing surprising so far, BUT not only did I get my food and my 25% off discount, but I also received 316 loyalty points and one stamp on my loyalty card. Basically, the points can be redeemed for anything from a $5 charity donation (10,000 points) to a $50 iTunes card (125,000 points) to an 11 inch Macbook Air (1,380,000 - you have to order A LOT of delivery for this guy but I guess it's incentive to take the office's lunch orders!). In addition, you get one "punch" for every order and a $5 credit for each 10 orders no matter how much you spend.

There are other ways of earning points as well. You get 1,000 just for signing up, plus 1,000 more for each friend you invite to Delivery.com. So what are you waiting for? Start making your delivery dinner plans for the rest of this awful freaking cold week!

The Namesake of Falafel

One thing any New Yorker can tell you is that there is NO shortage of falafel options in this city. Sometimes I look around and think I'm in Tel Aviv or something. From street carts, to hole-in-the-wall joints, chains to fancy $10 pita sandwiches, how's a girl to choose? While I'm all for the street cart (as long as you don't see any little critters crawling on it), I was recently invited to Chickpea to see what they are all about.

Chickpea in the CitiCorp Building is PACKED at lunch time

A NYC mini-chain, Chickpea has 7 locations throughout Manhattan with an 8th opening soon on the Upper East Side and potentially a site in Brooklyn in the future. Named for the main ingredient in both falafel and hummus, Chickpea was born from the concept that food should be healthy, fresh and innovative. Sure you can get your standard falafel and hummus on a pita, but if you're in the mood for spinach broccoli falafel with jalapeno garlic hummus on a whole wheat pita, they can hook you up too. Another thing that makes them different is that all their falafel is baked, not fried like it usually is. The salad bar is also one of my favorite parts because you can load up your pita or platter with fresh veggies and tahini.

Falafel choices

Hummus choices

In addition to falafel, Chickpea offers meat options like chicken schwarma, lamb kebab, grillled steak and the inventive schwafel (the best of both worlds!).

Chickpea workers

For my lunch, I ordered a schwafel sandwich on whole wheat pita with red pepper hummus. It came in this little cute box that seems like it would make eating falafel on the run an easier task.

When I took it out of the box, it looked like a much more manageable sandwich than some other's I've eaten before. The pita is cooked in a way that makes it more like a taco than a blorb of a meal (I don't know if blorb is a word, but you know exactly what I mean).

One thing I was concerned with was the fact that the falafel was baked, and I thought that might make it really dry. However, I was wrong. The entire sandwich was moist (and not in a soggy pita kind of way) and tasty. The salad that came with it was constantly surprising me with new veggies and the red pepper hummus gave a nice flavor kick.

Moist falafel

The sandwich was the perfect size for a lunchtime meal, not too filling, but the guys at chickpea threw in a piece of their homemade honeycake which I saved for later. I don't usually buy things like honeycake, or any dessert for that matter, with lunch. However, if you find yourself at Chickpea, do yourself a favor and ORDER THE HONEYCAKE!

I'll admit it doesn't look that impressive all wrapped in cellophane, but this moist concoction was jam-packed with so much honey, yet it wasn't sticky. The coconut on top played to another one of my favorite flavors and the texture was cakey and bready at the same time. I guess what I'm saying is Chickpea's honey cake is like the love child of corn bread and tres leches cake, and at only $3.25 it's a steal.

Honey cake close up shot

What I once though was just a standard lunch option is now definitely in my top 10.  Not only was the food tasty, healthy, and wholesome, but the philosophy behind the company and the workers really struck a chord with me. If you have a Chickpea near you, I would highly recommend a schwafel and a honey cake for your next lunch, and if you don't have one near you, I would highly recommend finding one for dinner.

FINALLY! Good Mexican in Manhattan

Being from Los Angeles, I have been searching high and low in NYC for something to even come close to replicating the often-craved, authentic Mexican food I can find readily available at home. There's the Mexican take-out joints run by Chinese people, and they have decent, cheap food, but the meat always seems like it could double in a Mongolian beef dish as well. Chipotle makes a decent burrito, but come on, burritos are more American than apple pie at this point. 

So when the oh-so-reliable blog Midtown Lunch alerted me to a new Mexican food purveyor near my office, I had to check it out. Taqueria Nixtamalito excited me because the name alone wasn't dumbed down to something a typical American office worker could say easily (not that it didn't take everyone a while to learn the correct pronunciation of Chipotle, but that's a different story). The "permanent cart," I'll call it, is an offshoot of Tortilleria Nixtamal in Corona, Queens. They've been dishing out fresh made tortillas, tamales and enchiladas (and wholesaling to NYC staples like Mexicue, Dos Toros Tacos and Rosa Mexicano) and decided to take their show to the big leagues by opening in a space just south of the Municipal Building (1 Centre Street).

When I arrived at 12:15 on a beautiful Tuesday, the line was about five people deep. I read that it can get much longer so I decided to take lunch on the earlier side. For such a small place, I was happy to see such a large menu. Tamales are one of my favorite foods if they're made right, and Taqueria Nixtamalito offered several varieties including chicken mole, chipotle with pork and chicken, and verde with pork all $3.50. The taco menu was also extensive and included chicken ($2.50), pork ($2.50), barbacoa ($2.75), carnitas ($2.50), shrimp ($3.00) and fish ($3.00). Rounding out the menu were chicken mole enchiladas, tortas, guacamole and salads. They also sell the Mexican soda Jarritos!

Although I was tempted by the chicken mole enchiladas, I couldn't pass up what I thought would hopefully be the most amazing (read = only) tamale I've had in years. I ordered the shrimp taco and chicken mole tamale. The cashier asked me if I'd like salsa and I said yes please. Then he made my day even more and asked if I'd like green or red. Salsa verde (green salsa) is amazing with tamales! 

Shrimp Taco

Chicken Mole Tamale 

Tamale Post-Salsa Verde

Ay carumba was I happy! With only three tables next to the actual stand, I took my food across the street to city hall park to eat in the shade and people watch. However, I would totally advocate for finding a table to eat this meal at. After carefully covering my lap in a napkin layered with the plastic bag layered with another napkin, I dug in. The shrimp taco came with mango, cucumber, a tangy mayo-based sauce and of course chunks of succulent shrimp. The handmade tortilla made all the difference as well.

I covered my tamale in the smoky salsa verde and enjoyed the mix of flavors with the mole. There were large pieces of shredded chicken that I enjoyed until I was scraping the extra off of the corn husk. For $6.50, this was a pretty filling lunch. I definitely could not eat two whole tamales without feeling super full. Next time I'm ordering the enchiladas. Who's with me?

The cashier said that they will soon be launching a system where customers can order online, but until then... Viva Taqueria Nixtamalito!