In case ya’ll weren’t aware –New York law mandates that street vendors must display prices for their food. Keep this in mind, and stick to the carts with clearly marked prices. If you don’t, you could find yourself paying upwards of $30 for a hot dog!
Ahmed Mohammed, who sells hot dogs outside the highly trafficked One World Trade Center, has been caught duping unsuspecting tourists with his constantly changing prices. Apparently, the more you look like you need a map to find your way around, the higher the cost of one of his hot dogs. He charged one customer, who he mistook for a tourist but was actually from New York, $15 (for those of you not up on the current market rate of street meat, the cart around the corner from Mohammed charges $1, as is clearly displayed on their sign).
So the moral of the story is, try not to look like a tourist, or at least, be fully versed on NY food vendor rules and regulations before venturing out to grab yourself some grub.
Lauren is a New York based actor/singer/writer. She is a graduate of the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University as well as the College of the Holy Cross. She’s a fan of beer, pasta, and academic establishments with unnecessarily long titles. Find her on stage, or online– she’s there often.
