Montauk Pioneer - May 22, 2009

I always enjoy getting a quick bite to eat in Montauk. Over the last few years I have figured out where my favorite meals to eat under $10 are. Believe it or not there are a few really great choices around the village. Everyone has their favorites so I thought I would mention mine.

My favorite of late is the flounder on a bun at the Lunch Box. This sandwich has the most amazing bun and comes with a great tarter sauce for $6.75 and with a drink is just pennies over $9 combined. I have given one to many friends and now they too are ordering them. Even my Italian mother recently had one and said, "Why are you taking the credit for it being good, they made it."

Last year my favorite cheap meal was the Buffalo chicken wrap from John's Drive In, which goes for $5.98 plus tax and has chicken to kill for and a blue cheese sauce with spices all in a wrap. It tastes wonderful and it takes a skill not to get that magic sauce from spilling out onto your belly or sleeve, but boy is it a winner.

I used to bring them home so my roommate would not have to watch me devour one and not have anything as good to eat. Also with a drink it's an under $10 meal. For more of a formal situation there is the $5.95 recession burger at Shagwong with a coke and a modest tip that can still squeeze in at under $10 bucks. This burger seems to taste better. The last one I had was bought for me by Pioneer, Daily News and Dan's Papers reporter and Montauk legend Debbie Tuma and was really very good and surprisingly large. Since then I have sent many visitors there to sample this amazing deal.

Sausages, the famous local Pizza establishment on 27, right in the heart of town, has great pizza and with a coke you can get a slice and drink for well under $10, but my problem there is I end up eating more than one slice, then feel guilty later. However tasting that hot melted cheese mixing with the luscious house tomato pizza sauce and that crispy crust make the first two bites heaven on earth. By the way my dog loves their meat eater's pizza slice cold and diced up.

For a long while I used to really enjoy ordering an "Italian stallion," from Gaviola's because quite frankly the name made it seem really macho. With the cheeses, hams, salamis, peppers and sauce on a hero this sandwich delivered at the price of $7.95 plus tax, and with a small soda this can still come in under $10.

Now on hot days in the summer a really cold tuna salad sandwich at the IGA was always a choice of mine with the fun thing being what they would charge me for it. The fact is the price depends on who is making it but it is always under $6 and sometimes is $5. Once it was priced at $4, but just once. Biting into the tuna salad on a fresh bread role somewhere between a bun and a hero makes for a good day.

Then there is the hot dog stand down by Gosman's. There I get a hot dog, a knish, and a soda for under $10 and sit in my car and watch the fishing boats come in and out of the harbor. That's a meal under $10 with a million dollar, live action view.

So that's how I spent my last three years eating quick take out under $10 that I enjoyed and went back again and again to eat. Maybe next week I will write a story about my favorite meals over $200, if they give me a raise here at the Pioneer.