Taste of Times Square

Tonight I went to an annual summer tradition in New York, a foodie's paradise called Taste of
Times Square. I stumbled upon it (what luck, considering it's a one-night a year deal!) the first summer I spent in NYC, and eagerly have been going back since.

Basically dozens of Times Square restaurants set up little tents on 46th St. between Broadway and 9th Ave. ("Restaurant Row") and sell around 1-3 of their signature menu items. You pay $5 for 5 tickets or $10 for 10 tickets, and then use the tickets to pay for the food. Each item sold at the tents is between 1 and 4 tickets typically, and it's a good deal for the customer generally. The portion sizes are sometimes small but often regular-sized, and equivalent to only $2 or $3 in cost (so the customer saves money). Planet Hollywood offers Bananas Foster cheesecake, John's offers pizza, Bubba Gump's offers corn, mahi-mahi, and shrimp fritters, Virgil's offers chicken wings, and numerous other vendors sell pasta dishes, meatballs, and ribs, to name a few selections.

My particular favorite from last night was Joe Allen's pulled pork sliders -- the BBQ pulled pork was some of the best I've ever eaten, and I even went back to get a second portion at the end.

My only caveats: go early (it started at 5), bring your own water bottle, and if you're claustrophobic, you may want to have a friend bring you back something instead of literally facing the hundreds of people in the crowd.