My Ten Favorite Deals in Manhattan (Part 5 of 5)

9) Shun Lee Palace - $24.07 for three courses

I have been a huge fan of Chinese food since my first trip to the Great Wall Restaurant for my very first birthday party. I was placed in my high chair and given a bowl of rice to eat, as my palate wasn’t yet ready for the likes of moo goo gai pan.

I must have not appreciated the beauty of white rice yet (i.e. it’s great when you want to eat 2000 of something) so I decided I’d test out its value as a projectile. I proceeded to toss the rice every which way but into my mouth and soon there was a small mess in our general vicinity.

After throwing my stash of grains all over the restaurant from my assassin’s perch, the waiter, not-so-kindly, came over to our table and asked my family to leave immediately and never come back.

We heeded their warnings, but have sampled many other Chinese restaurants since. After hundreds of meals, in easily over 100 Chinese restaurants from Hawaii to Prague, without question, the best several Chinese meals of my life have been at Shun Lee Palace on 55th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues.

Shun Lee has a mixture of familiar Chinese-American staples (Sweet and Sour Pork, Orange Beef, Lemon Chicken) as well as several dishes not found anywhere else I’ve visited (Szechuan Style Alligator, Slippery Chicken, Sweetbreads with Black Mushrooms, Ants Climb On Tree). The significant difference between Shun Lee and everywhere else I’ve tried has been the ingredient quality (impeccable) and skill of the kitchen in letting those fantastic meats and vegetables shine.

As can be expected, Shun Lee is a pricey restaurant where one could easily spend $50-70 a person for a three course dinner. Luckily, those in the know can go for lunch, where a delicious and filling 3 course lunch will only run you $24.07.

I highly recommend starting off with the Chicken Soong, a lettuce leaf filled with diced, stir-fried chicken and vegetables in a fantastic sweet and savory sauce. This dish is so good in fact, that I now make my own version at home at least once a month. It’s quite tasty, but I still haven’t matched the perfect mixture of crunchy vegetables and balanced sauce that Shun Lee manages to create.

While you really can’t go wrong with any of the entrée choices, the Peking Prawns are particularly memorable for their ability to frame the succulent crustaceans in a slightly spicy and savory sauce that manages to work as a foil to their sweetness without overpowering it.

For those who love lamb, the Hunan Lamb is one of my favorite preparations I’ve had for this flavorful meat. Very tender and juicy slices of roasted lamb are slathered in a piquant, flavorful sauce that works very well with the natural flavor of the meat. Other good choices I’ve had include the Mo-Shu Pork with Chinese Crepes (just plain fun to eat) and the Heavenly Fish Fillet (while not divine, pretty damn good).

Dessert is your choice of either fresh pineapple (refreshing and light) or ice cream (go for the pistachio).

Every time I’ve gone to Shun Lee I’ve walked away feeling very full and happy and feeling like I really got a great value for my dining dollar.

Insider’s Tip: There is a second location on West 65th Street and Broadway, but this location does not have the lunch deal. They do, however, serve a mean Dim Sum that the east side branch does not offer.



10) Gray's Papaya Recession Special ($3.50 for Two Dogs and A Papaya Drink)


Whether or not we are in a recession is a matter of constant public debate.



One fact that can't be disputed is that Gray's Papaya's recession special is one of the great deals in New York City.


Though the hot dog may have a humble pedigree, Gray's and a few others in the five boroughs (Nathans, Papaya King, et. al.) take this simple sausage to a new level.







By using high quality meat, seasoned perfectly and cooked correctly, these hot dog palaces churn out frankfuters so delicious that people don't laugh when Papaya King proclaims their weiner to be "tastier than filet mignon."






Gray's Papaya cooks their franks on a foil covered griddle. This allows for the dog to have maximum contact with the heating element, giving the weenie its signature flavor and snappy crunch that could never be achieved by boiling a frankfurter würstel.











In addition to two delicious dogs, your recession special comes with the truly refreshing eponymous 14 oz. papaya drink; a match made in dog heaven.

Like a beer and a burger or red wine and steak, the sweet, milky papaya beverage is a perfect foil to the spice of the hot dog. You'll wonder why you've never had this drink at a cook-out before.

Best of all, sampling two of New York's finest edible canines and one of it's signature drinks will only set you back $3.50. Recession or not, that's a special deal.



Insider’s Tip: There are three Grey's Papaya locations (539 Eighth Avenue at 37th Street, 402 Sixth Avenue at 8th Street, and 2090 Broadway at 72nd Street) and each is open 24 hours a day. That means you could be eating there right now. What are you waiting for?

Gluttony Weekend

My little brother (who at 6”6, 250 lbs is actually not so little) was in town this weekend. Being a food lover runs in the family, so I tried to show him both a good time and a few of the vittles that make New York City justifiably famous.

In trying to feed him a little of everything he "needed" to try in his 48 hours in the city, we ate everything in our path, which isn’t surprising since we set our path based on where the good food was. Here’s an exhaustive list of everything consumed this weekend. 

Please don’t try this at home.

Shake Shack
Shack Stack – Cheeseburger and Deep Fried Cheese and Onion Stuffed Portobello Mushroom on Potato Roll

Cheeseburger

Resto
Spiced Lamb Ribs Yogurt, Pickled Tomato

Lamb Belly Snap & English Peas, Tendrils, Leaves, Goat Cheese

Gruyere Cheeseburger, French Fries, Greens

Green Hornet - aviation, citrus, wild ramp leaves

Luzzo

Coal Oven Pepperoni Pizza

Radegast Beer Hall
1 Erdinger Hefe-Weizen
1 Weihenstephaner Dunkel Weisse

Vento
Oven roasted beets, fresh robiola drizzle, chive & walnut crumble

Truffled cornmeal fries, gorgonzola sauce

Seafood Salad - shrimp, scallop, calamari, farro, cucumber, tomato, garlic-oregano dressing

Pizza - spicy sausage, roasted peppers

Fettucini Carbonara - crispy bacon, caramelized onion, pecorino

Glass of Nero D'avola cusumano, sicilia 2005

Grilled veal skirt steak, crispy bliss potato,pickled vegetable salad

Pistachio Crunch Gelato

Tailor

"Solids" - Cuba Libre, Ramon Gin Fizz, White Russian

Agua Verde - Tequila, Tomatillo, Habanero, Cilantro

Artichoke

Margherita Slice

Artichoke Slice

Sarge’s
American Cheese Omelet, French Fries, Pickles, Cole Slaw

Steven Tannenbaum’s Apartment
1 Hamburger
1 Hot Dog
Way too many Ranch Doritos

Nice (New) Green Bo
Steamed Tiny Buns (with Pork)
Fried Pork Dumplings
Scallion Pancake
Hot & Sour Soup
Sesame Chicken
Hot & Spicy Shredded Beef
Eggplant with garlic sauce

My Ten Favorite Deals in Manhattan (Part 4 of 5)

7) $28 Prix Fixe Lunch at Jean Georges

One of the great features of New York's dining scene is that a lot of difficulties that arise in sampling the city's best places simply go away when you choose to eat lunch rather than dinner at these places. Table availability, service and most importantly price tend to improve if you are willing to eat earlier in the day.

Many famous restaurants have prix fixe lunch specials ranging from Subway to Joel Robuchon.

While all three of the city's three Michelin Star restaurants (each also received 4 New York Times Stars) have prix fixe lunch menus, their prices are vastly different.

Per Se - $275- 9 courses

Le Bernardin - $66 - 3 courses

Jean Georges - $28 - 2 courses, each additional course is $12

See where I'm going here?

Diners get to select from the same courses available to dinner patrons (who pay $98 for three courses) and construct their own perfect lunch.

You can sample some of the most highly regarded food in the world, for not much more than an entree at a very average midtown restaurant costs.

High end food doesn't always have to be high cost. This is a perfect example.

Insider's Tip: Another spectacular deal is available in Jean George's bar area, called Nougatine. A 3 course prix fixe meal is $24 and is both significantly easier to get reservations for and available on weekends (Jean Georges is closed for lunch on weekends).

8) Soup and Sandwich at the Bar at Gramercy Tavern ($14)

In keeping with this post's theme of sampling a bit of "the good life" for a reasonable price, this deal allows you to sample some of the Gramercy Tavern's three star food for a fraction of the price of a dinner there.

The restaurant has a beautiful, comfortable bar where patrons can sit with friends, chat up the bartender or relax with a good book while sampling some of the city's best food. When dining at said bar, the option exists to indulge in the daily Soup and Sandwich Special.

Both the soup and sandwich options change on a daily basis (usually one soup and two types of sandwiches are offered).

Some of the delicious soups I've sampled include Spring Pea with Mint and Creme Fraiche, Smoked Tomato Cream, and Roast Carrot.

Past sandwich choices I've enjoyed have included Rare Roast Beef on Grilled Focaccia, Roasted Rabbit Salad (basically a hare-brained version of the best chicken salad you can imagine) on Country French Bread (that had been soaked in olive oil and grilled) and a BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich.

Sitting at the bar in the warmly decorated Tavern area and enjoying perfectly prepared food made with top notch ingredients is one of the true pleasures I've experienced in the city.  I think you will find the experience is well worth the (relatively) meager cost.

Insider's Tip:  The menu changes daily and is not published anywhere.  Give the restaurant a call and ask the hostess what the day's options are.

My Ten Favorite Deals in Manhattan (Part 3 of 5)

5) The Secret Lunch Take-out Menu at Pamplona

Created as a "courtesy to the neighborhood" (though they don't exactly check ID's), this New York Times two star restaurant is serving up Sandwiches ($5.95), Salads (Price varies depending on ingredients) and Soups ($3.95) that are far better than your standard deli fare.

Sandwiches may include Roast Chicken and Avocado, Grilled Steak and Manchego Cheese and Roasted Vegetable with Guindilla Pepper Aioli (spicy mayo in layman's terms). All are served on crispy, flavorful grilled focaccia bread that gives the right frame for the wonderful ingredient picture painted inside.

Salads can be constructed using the various seasonal ingredients of your choosing. Traditional Spanish treats like manchego cheese and piquillo peppers replace the tired options from the ubiquitous deli multi-plexs of world cuisines that feed the automatons in business suits who populate midtown during the day.

Soups have included winter warmers like Chorizo and Chicken or fresh takes on classics like a Green Gazpacho with bits of Cabrales cheese and fresh vegetables, depending on the mood of the chef.

My favorite is the soup and half sandwich combination that lets you enjoy a couple of delicious treats for only $5.

Now if only I worked in the neighborhood...

Insider's Tip: The menu is not posted anywhere and changes daily, so simply ask the hostess for the Take-out Menu when you arrive.

6) Four Course Dinner at Sonar Gaow, $7.95

Manhattan is full of "districts" where one can find dozens of stores selling the exact same items, all in one particular area.  There is a diamond district (47th St), a garment district (south of Times Square), lighting and restaurant supply districts (the Bowery), and not one but two Indian restaurant districts.

Lexington Avenue between 26th and 29th Streets contains no less than 25 Indian restaurants ranging from fast food to high end fine dining.  The land that these restaurants occupy has historically been called Murray Hill.  Today, everyone knows that stretch of real estate as Curry Hill.

A second Indian restaurant district exists on 6th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.  Affectionately known as Curry Row, this one block is home to approximately 14 Indian restaurants.  As there is incredible competition for your dining dollars, these restaurants all try to outdo one another with various perks including live music, ostentatious decor, BYOB policies and multi-course fixed price menus that are cheaper than single appetizers at many restaurants in the city.

My favorite deal of the many on Curry Row is at Sonar Gaow.

Sonar is a BYOB (with no corkage fees), has friendly, if not fast service and gives you the following for $7.95:

Mulligatawny soup

Choice of appetizer (I'm partial to the Meat Samosas)

Choice of entree (Chicken tandoori is a reliable choice)

Naan, Rice Pilaf, Dhal, Cabbage, Kasundi (onion Relish),  and various Chutneys

Mango Ice Cream

I've been no less than 10 times to this electric chili-pepper bedecked establishment and have always come away full and happy.  Bring a bottle of wine (or several), relax and know that you're getting the benefit of market capitalism in action, and it tastes delicious.

Insider's Tip:  This is a great location for birthday parties and the staff is happy to accommodate.  Just call a couple hours ahead of time and let them know your party's size so they can prepare for your arrival.

My Ten Favorite Deals in Manhattan (Part 2 of 5)

3) $1.75 Slices at Naples 45

To someone who knows nothing about Manhattan real estate, Naples 45 would be a baffling establishment.

If you sit in the dining room and consume their personal 10-inch pizza, it will cost you approximately $16.

If you buy the same pizza, but have it delivered, it will run you $7.50-$10.

If you purchase the pizza acreage equivalent of said pie (2 large slices) at their take out area, it will run you $5-$7.

Finally, we come to the deal.

Any one of their slices (I’m partial to the funghi, pepperoni or roasted vegetable) will only set you back $1.75 if you can hold out until 2 P.M. The deal also runs until 8 P.M. if you’re looking for an easy early dinner.

This is no average slice either.

The dough is properly thin, crisp and chewy. The San Marzano tomato sauce is slightly sweet and matches perfectly with the creamy fresh mozzarella and salty, meaty (even when they are veggie) toppings. The deal is somewhat well known, but in this case, that’s a good thing. This means fresh pizzas are coming out every few minutes ready to sate the cheapskates.

The real estate lesson here is that taking up space in Grand Central costs a lot of money. Great pizza doesn't have to.

Insider's tip: Due to its extremely thin crust, this pizza loses heat very quickly. If you like your pizza hot, I'd recommend eating at the bar set up for doing just that in the take out area.

4) Happy Hour at Sapa 

(WARNING - SAPA is set to close in June 2008)

There are lots of great happy hour deals around the city.

Unfortunately, most of them are at dive bars or less-than-hip places that need the deep discounts to get people in the door.

Sapa, a French-Asian restaurant on 24th Street and 6th Avenue, has beautiful people, attractive decor (from my favorite design firm AvroKo) and an interesting and delicious happy hour menu.

I've had everything on the menu and there's not a disappointment in the bunch. My favorite are the potato knishes which are fried in duck fat to give them a crispy, flavorful crust surrounding warm creamy mashed potatoes. Best of all, the various small plates will run you only $3-$4 a piece. Raw oysters are only $1 a pop, which isn't much more than the price you'd pay at a seafood market.

In addition to the fun and tasty treats on the happy hour menu, Sapa has drink specials including $3 beers, $4 wines and $5 martinis; very reasonable prices given the price of alcohol at most establishments of Sapa's ilk.

The happy hour menu is available from 5:30 to 7:30 every weeknight. Its a great way to start an evening on the town.

My Ten Favorite Deals in Manhattan (Part 1 of 5)

To the naked eye, Manhattan is an expensive place.

To the Gucci sunglass shaded eye, not so much, perhaps.

Finding a great deal in Manhattan is a wonderful but strange phenomena. You immediately want to tell everyone who will listen, but with the way word of mouth spreads in this town, one is justifiably worried that it will become too popular (i.e. Shake Shack, Sake Bar Hagi) and you’ll only be able to go at odd times.

The following are ten of my favorite deals in the city that I don’t believe are in danger of disappearing due to disclosure (not that anyone reads this anyway). I’d love to hear in the comments about any of the readers’ (yes, I know it’s just you reading Mom and Dad) favorite deals. As always, these aren’t ranked, or in any particular order.

1) Dumpling House – 4 for a $1 Dumplings, 50 cent Sesame Pancake



Deals don’t get much cheaper than 4 piping hot crispy, juicy, delicious pork and chive pan fried dumplings for $1, tax included. There are plenty of dollar dumpling depots in the Chinatown area, but this is the best one I’ve found. It isn’t clean, isn’t efficient and isn’t comfortable, but that hasn’t stopped me from coming back again and again to this hole in the wall. The 50 cent sesame pancake is good enough to rival the dumplings, crispy on the edges, with a fluffy interior; full of wonderful sesame flavor and a joy to shred apart with your teeth. For a buck more you can make it into a phenomenal sandwich with sliced roast beef, cilantro, carrot and watercress. No matter what you order from the brief menu, you’re going to walk away having had a great meal for couch change.















Insider’s Tip: Dumpling House now has a deli counter style ticket system. Grab a ticket when you get there and be ready to order as soon as you’re called.




2) Pompano Taqueria – $2.75 Tacos


In the bowels of the Crystal Pavilion office building on 50th and 3rd Avenue, lies my favorite lunch spot in Midtown. 

For $2.75 you can get a scrumptious soft taco filled with luscious combinations like sautéed kingfish and napa cabbage, grilled steak with peppers onions and manchego cheese and grilled shrimp with black bean puree. Buy two and they toss in a free bag of homemade tortilla chips, so good that they would make a Tostidos fan renounce their past chip transgressions.

Several sumptuous salsas of varying degrees of heat complement both the tacos and chips very nicely, as do the fresh diced onion, jalapeño and pico de gallo.

 It ain’t easy finding cheap, quality food in Midtown. This place fits the bill.

Insider’s Tip: Call ahead with your order and walk to the front of the line when you show up. Otherwise you could be in for a wait.

Big Apple BBQ Block Party

The past two years I have had the privilege of attending one of the most enjoyable (and delectable) festivals in existence. The Big Apple BBQ Block Party is an event organized by uber-successful restaurateur Danny Meyer that invites the best barbecue restaurants in the country to bring their smoking rigs up to Madison Square Park in New York City to cater an informal gorge-fest. The event has drawn crowds of over 100,000 patrons per year in its seven year existence and seems likely to break that mark this year as word of its delicious fun spreads.

So why am I posting about this now, eight weeks before the event?

Currently, you can purchase "Fast Passes" that enable the bearer to queue up for the 'cue in a special, significantly shorter line than the general public. Purchasing a Fast Pass will commit you to buying at least $100 worth of food and drink over the festival weekend, but this pass can be split amongst as many friends and/or strangers as you wish, so you don't have to stuff only your own face to use up the credit (though I likely will...).

If you don't purchase a Fast Pass, you can either

wait in line (often very long lines for the best places) with the uninformed, or find someone like me who is willing to share their access with you. Either way, I can't recommend highly enough that you get yourself to New York City June 7th and 8th and experience one of the best events of the year.

Bacon fat, on toast

A few years ago there was a public service announcement that was played on my college radio station several times a day. This PSA was meant to drum up support for programs that feed the homeless. The premise of the ad was that there are thousands of families who can only afford bacon fat on toast for dinner. How awful, I remember thinking. Images of dirty jars of rendered bacon fat spread on heater warmed toast flashed through my head. Where were the fruits and veggies? Where were the nutrients?

Flash forward to the present day.

A little (really, really little actually) restaurant in Manhattan's East Village is making waves with their culinary creations that are delighting diners and have people desperate to dine within its doors.

I am an enormous fan of the chef/owner David Chang's other restaurants, (Momofuku, Momofuku Ssam Bar) and have been very interested in seeing what he was planning to offer on his $85 prix fixe menu. Lots of bloggers have chronicled their meals here and I read one particularly thorough one that described each dish in detail.

Among the diverse and complex offerings was an amuse-bouche that sounded somewhat familiar. I'll leave it The Wandering Eater to to describe this creation.

"Soon after that, came in our second amuse of the evening, housemade English muffins with rendered pork fat and green onions. I’m not really an English muffin person. It’s awfully dry and unpalatable when it comes to the stuff my mom buys from the grocery store. But this sets the standard of how an English muffin should be. Crisp with little nooks and crannies with salty rendered pork fat permeating its tangy, thin core. I wish I have this for breakfast everyday - without getting atherosclerosis."

To sum it up: Bacon fat, on toast.

Iron Chef - Chili Peppers

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tesha challenged me to make her a meal that was a) composed of dishes unlike any she had eaten and b) spicy enough to challenge her Thai palate.


Last night, I made my attempt to satisfy her cravings.

First up was a salad composed of grilled, then chilled watermelon spears, warm, crispy Niman Ranch bacon, diced sweet red bell
pepper and paper thin slices of serrano chili peppers. The salad didn’t need much in the way of a dressing, but I added a little Roasted Yellow Pepper and Serrano Chili Dressing from Cindy’s Kitchen (which wasn’t that great to be honest) for color and moisture.

The individual components of the salad were as pleasant as you’d expect, but when eaten together they were an army of flavor, verging on being overpowering. Let’s just say it isn’t your parent’s salad. I particularly liked the interaction of the chilies and the watermelon, conducting their own symphony of sweet and heat; my go to flavor combination when creating new dishes. The salad wasn’t as tasty as the grilled peach and nectarine salad that I often make, but as those fruits are not yet in season, this was a pretty good substitute.

The second course was pan seared sea scallops (cooked in a bit of the bacon fat) with a jalapeno-apple cream sauce served over pan-fried grit cakes and roasted green beans. These were incredibly sweet scallops which jived very well with the spice of the cream sauce.
The sauce was made from a skinless diced Fuji apple and two finely minced jalapenos blended with ½ cup of half and half. I then poured the mixture into the scallop pan (cast iron) to deglaze, reduce by half and pick up some of the flavors left behind. It worked really well and you could adjust the heat based on your personal preference by adding additional pepper to the mixture.

The dessert portion of the meal was both the spiciest and tastiest portion of our dinner.

I took Trader Joe’s canned mangoes, rinsed off the light syrup in which they were stored, and rubbed them with a pinch of kosher salt and enough ancho chili powder to coat lightly. After macerating for two hours, I then grilled the mangoes in a cast iron grill pan until they were golden brown on both sides. The grilled fruit then went back into the refrigerator for an hour long chill.

To create the dessert, I placed three large mango slices in a bowl, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled some very finely minced habanero pepper over the top.

Not to toot my own horn, but this thing was fantastic. The mango and whipped cream had a wonderful mouth-feel when eaten together and the habanero added a burst of heat that played very well with the rich, sweet flavors of the grilled mango.

I don’t make dessert very often as I prefer to get my calories from savory foods, but this is one that I will be going back for over and over again. Especially because the cost of making one ($1 for the mango can, $.50 for ¼ can of whipped cream, 4 cents for small habanero pepper) ends up being about $0.75 a portion for an elegant, complex and delicious way to end a meal.

A text from Tesha today: "Thanks for dinner. It was incredible!!!"

Mission accomplished.

Bubba, McRib and Me

When I was eight years old, I consumed thirty-two McRib sandwiches in the month of March.  To put that in perspective, I weighed 94 pounds at the time.  As a McRib weighs approximately a pound with all the fixin's, in one month I basically ate a third of my weight in McRibs.  You could say I was a big fan.

The (rib flavored) apple of my eye.

Thankfully for my cardiovascular system, the McRib disappeared from the McDonald's menu for several years, only to reappear on a monumental day in my life.

I was in the sixth grade when President Bill Clinton came to Atlanta to speak at the CNN center.  My school took a field trip to see the speech, taking off in the late morning so that we could arrive for the 1 PM event.  We parked the bus right outside the food court and sat on the ground in the cool October air to enjoy our bagged lunches the school provided.  If you've ever been subjected to a school-made bagged lunch, I don't have to tell you that the granola bar was the only edible item in the bag.

Famished after the meager meal, I walked in our alphabetically organized single file line into the CNN Center to see the President.  As we passed by the McDonald's in the food court, I saw a poster with three words that made my heart stop.  It's Back! McRib.

After three years of waiting and wondering, my sandwich had returned.  Had I read Love in the Time of Cholera at age eleven, I would have compared my longing to that of Florentino Ariza.  Suffice to say, I would have waited a lifetime for one bite.

President Clinton spoke for about 45 minutes.  I paid attention for exactly none.  All I could think about was when I could get my hands on that boneless pork patty, barbecue sauce, onions and pickles served on a 6 inch (15.2 cm) roll.

When the speech concluded, the President made his way towards our group, going into the crowd to shake hands.  This indeed was enough to get my attention and I extended my arm when he was a few feet away.  He grabbed my hand and gave it a vigorous shake.  It was everything you'd expect out of a handshake from the most powerful man in the world.  I was incredibly excited.  My friends were all quite jealous as I was the only one in our group who had the honor.

I returned home from school that day beaming with the events of the day.  I bust through the door and ran up to my mother.  I could still feel the grip of the President on my young hand.

"Mom," I exclaimed. "Guess what!"  

"What sweetie?" She replied.

"McRib is back!"

Philly Tacos – Sinfully Delicious, or just plain Sin?

The Philly Taco could be considered either a triumph of American ingenuity, or everything that is wrong with society, depending on your perspective.   

What exactly is a Philly Taco you ask?   

Invented by a group of college students from the University of Pennsylvania, whom I’m proud to call my friends, this monstrosity is a Philly cheesesteak wrapped inside of a slice of pizza.  Yes, the whole cheese steak. Roll and all.   

Now I’m sure you’re wondering, where can I find one?   

As far as I know, you can’t.   

This beast you must currently construct yourself.   

If you find yourself in Philadelphia, South Street is home to legendary cheesesteak purveyor Jim’s and grimey, but great pizza parlor Lorenzo’s.  The two establishments happen to be right across the street from one another.  I think you can figure out the rest on your own… 

On a dare, I sampled one of these behemoths late one Saturday night.  Let me first say, this is not for the weak of jaw.  The task of chewing this monster alone could be enough work to dissuade a daring diner.  For those willing to persevere however, there is a wonderful reward for all that chomping.   

The verdict? 

Like the best foods of any kind, this chimerical sandwich melds sweet, spicy, salty and savory flavors in addition to the multiple layers of texture.  The interplay of the caramelized onions and peppers was a natural fit with the rich cheese and tomato sauce of the pizza.  The crispy, thin, pizza crust threw in a little extra crunch to the equation that added another layer of complexity to each bite not found in the usual cheesesteak experience 

To sum it up; it was actually kind of great.

Would I want to eat one often?  Not unless I had a death wish.   

There is something to be said though for just going crazy once in a while and taking on the gluttony gauntlet.  

I received no physical prize for winning this dare.  

There was, however, a feeling of accomplishment that far outlasted the indigestion

That, and of course, a new story to tell.