Sign of the Times

In bodegas and carts across New York City, they serve a breakfast sandwich that consists of bacon, egg and cheese on a toasted roll.  It's the workingman's breakfast and is meant to be eaten quickly while peeling back the layers of wax paper that it comes in.  While on a short walk around the neighborhood, P and I split one from our neighborhood bodega that we discovered served a vast array of culinary delights that we never explored before.

Sign of the times, a new neighborhood spot that still doesn't show up on Google maps appeared around the corner that looks like a cocktail bar for Barbie dolls.  Cute though!

When I first moved to New York City back in the 90's, my Virgin Megastore retail coworkers introduced and schooled me on all things New York.  Things you must know, things you should know and secrets to maneuvering the subway and cab systems while heavily intoxicated.  One that I never understood until much later was the famous breakfast sandwich.  The lack of sexy name and look of the greasy sack handed to you by a large, sweaty man in a dirty cart kept me away for some years.  I robbed myself of the perfection that exists in the combination of melted American cheese, scrambled egg and bacon all hugged by this warm, soft roll.  Through the years I've worked at numerous places where the familiar white sack, stuffed with an inordinate amount of napkins, was held while balancing the blue and white deli coffee cup by many coworkers and I would marvel at the speed it was eaten while counting down the time clock. I think back on it today, so fondly because we have lost many bodegas and most definitely many old school food carts that served such delicacies.