Favorite Restaurants in Midtown Manhattan

There is hope yet for the neighborhood that really has no name. Yes, it's touristy because of the Empire State Building and Macy's, but so far I have managed to avoid the out-of-town hordes. Here are the PAC Project's favorite lunch spots:

• Minado for important milestone lunches


• Grand Szechuan for roll-on or roll-of lunches, it's a hike but the xiao long bao rock


• Chipotle for both take-out or eat-in, it's worth the schlep to 8th Ave


• Chennai Garden or Dimple for curry if you're not in a hurry


• Blue Smoke for the carnivores

My new fave is Bonobo's. Yes, raw vegan cuisine sounds scary and paradoxical, but the gazpacho kicks @ss and the napa cabbage sandwiches satisfy without putting you into a food coma. So far, no one will come with me, but I still love it to death!

My new (sort of) car!

Just as luck would have it, I found another VW Cabrio. This one is a 2002, silver with gray leather interior. Slightly more mileage and wear-and-tear than Filomena, but I still love it. Got a good price too. Bayside Volkswagen's credit and sales departments are a little shady, but I bitched enough to get them to straighten up. I think I will christen it Adele, after my maternal grandmother :).