gyro chicken and pita please
I just had dinner for 5 US dollars. One of the most wonderful dinners I've ever had.
I was lucky enough to grow up in metro NYC, my father is from NYC and I've spent alot of time here. This has given me a keen 6th street food sense. Here's the story:
I'm here for the search engine conference, it was about 10:30 and my cab was pulling up to the midtown Hilton. I was starving, having not eaten since lunch.
As we were pulling up I noticed a hot dog cart with a line about 50 people long. Even in NYC this is an unusual sight. The line wasn't full of Hilton guests, but I noticed instead that these were definitely locals on line. I knew right then that this was where I must eat dinner.
I'm not sure how it works in other cities, but in NYC there are hot dog type carts that sell other things beside hot dogs. In this case there were no hot dogs but rather a grill being worked by 4 guys with gyro and chicken. After about 10 minutes on the line I made it to the front. At this point I was already sure this was going to be a very good meal. I ordered the combo (chicken and gyro) with rice (yellow), white sauce and hot sauce (this is basically the only item on the "menu"). It also came with a full size pita, lettuce and tomato in a tray to go for 5 bucks. I was so excited I called my wife before I even got back across the street to my room to eat it.
Well I just finished and let me tell you it was fantastic. I wish I had pictures because it's the type of stand that most people I know would pass in disgust.
That's the wonderful thing about NYC. Last night I had a steak dinner at Ben Bensons with 2 other people for $300 and tonight I had a dinner twice as good for $5!