April 26: Washington, DC to New York, NY

For years, they have battled over the small strip of land created by the intersection of E Passyunk Ave and S 9th St in South Philly. More importantly, Pat's and Geno's have fought it out for cheesesteak supremacy. Today, my task was to settle this matter once and for all.

The two competitors

I went to Pat's first.


Then Geno's

From the pictures, Pat's definitely looks more impressive, but that's mostly because Geno's wraps up the sandwich and Pat's doesn't.

The main differences, as I see it. I thought Geno's bread was better. The flavor came through, while Pat's bread was just kind of there. Pat's chops up their meat, while Geno's keeps it in long thin slices. That in itself didn't make a difference to me, but I thought Pat's meat was slightly better. Then there's the cheez whiz. Pat's puts the cheez whiz on last, so it ends up mingling more with the meat. Meanwhile, Geno's puts the whiz on first, causing it soak into the bread. Personally, I slightly favored Pat's way of doing it, but I see the merit in what Geno's does as well. Taking everything into account, I'm going to have to give the nod to Pat's.

However, I did have one major problem with both places. Both Pat's and Geno's charge $8.50 for their cheesesteaks, meaning I spent $17 on the two sandwiches. And I still plowed through both of them without any difficulty. So either they need to lower their prices, make their steaks bigger, or I need to stop being such a fatty.

Anyway, then I made a quick visit to the Liberty Bell. There's a little museum where they keep it, and give some back story. There also appears to be some other historical buildings and such around there, but I was kind of in a hurry so I just checked out the bell and left.



Then it was off to New York. This short visit nicely encapsulated the dichotomy that is New York. First the bad. Getting there I paid, and this is just a ballpark estimate, $1 million in tolls. Then there's the traffic, which was horrible trying to get into Queens. As I was exiting the Jersey Turnpike (of course paying a toll) and getting on to the Verrazano Bridge, I encountered perhaps the biggest traffic shit show I have ever seen. At the toll plaza, there are about 13 lanes, which then crash down to 2 going to the bridge. Some cars tried to maintain a sense of order, kind of forming lanes based on their path from the toll plaza. But of course, impatient New York drivers took over and started squeezing in between these makeshift lanes, creating a mess of cars where no one wanted to let anyone else move in front of them.

And did I mention it was pouring rain? And there's nowhere to park? And that my brother's apartment doesn't have a bathroom sink so I brushed my teeth in the kitchen?

But there is a good side. After my brother got done with clinic, we met up with two of his friends and hit the town. Positive number one: the subway system really is great. $2.25 gets you anywhere in the city, and there's enough stops for you to easily get to most places with just the subway and your feet. Then there's the drink deals. Our first stop was Duke's, which was ok, a pretty standard bar with sandwiches and burgers. Had a couple pitchers there (Bud Light is $10 during Yankees games), then moved on. Actually, before we get to the next stop, I must mention that Jerry's friends are, for lack of a better word, characters. Mikey's go-t0-move apparently is to ask girls for high fives, and later ask to take pictures with them. He especially likes to do this with waitresses. We get up to leave Duke's, but Jerry has to go to the bathroom. So me, Ehab, and Mikey are standing around, when they start talking about getting the waitress to take a picture with them. I try to distance myself. She walks by, and Ehab starts asking about taking a picture. Waitress says, yeah sure. Ehab continues so it'll be the three of us, and he'll (meaning me) take the picture. Now waitress looking kind of weirded out, but she agrees and I sheepishly take the picture. After she leaves, we realize Mikey had wanted a picture with our first waitress, at which point I just walk outside.

Later on in the night, Ehab would show us his impressive forearm muscles, and say they were a result of "12 years of experience."

Anyway, next stop was St. Mark's Ale House. That night they had a special going: buy any drink, get 6 buffalo wings for $1. Pint of Killian's, 6 wings, $5, bam. And the wings were actually pretty good (comparisons: not as good as Cluck U, far superior to Alondra's). I also had a pretty great burger, with a fried egg on top. I'll have a picture of it as soon as my brother sends it to me. And Mikey also did his high-five and picture routine with the waitress here. Him and Ehab chatted her up a little bit after the picture as well. Summary of their conversation, courtesy of Ehab: "I think she got scared when I said I was from Iraq."

Another deal that was mentioned, but I didn't actually get to take part in. There's a bar that, during happy hour, has pitchers for $7 and you get 4 hot dogs with each pitcher! (CORRECTION: this is available at all times, not just happy hour)

Stop #3: perhaps the best deal in bar history. A bar by the name of Continental offers 5 shots for $10. Any shot. 5 shots of well whiskey? $10. 5 shots of Grey Goose? $10. And when you add in the Tray Shot, it becomes even better. What's the Tray Shot, you ask? Allow me to explain. At Continental, they put the 5 shot glasses on a tray, then pour. Most bartenders aren't very careful about spilling, so you end up with some alcohol on the tray. Mikey, earlier this year, originated the Tray Shot, in which you pour that extra alcohol into an empty shot glass, and drink it. Anyway, I mentioned to Jerry that if I came back to New York, and brought our cousins Regi and Bobby with me, the four of us could probably put this place out of business.

After Continental, we made our way to the world famous Chicken and Rice. It's not actually called that, it's just a halal food cart that takes up residence on the corner of 53rd St and 6th Ave at night. It stays open til about 4 am, making it a big draw for drunk people such as ourselves. I only took a couple bites of mine because I was stuffed, but it was pretty good. And held up well when I reheated it the next day.

There was some additional hilarity on the subway ride home, but I'm too lazy to recount of all of it. And no pictures from NY cuz it was raining and there was heavy drinking going on, so I didn't bring my camera.