That Crack-Pizza Smell On My New Commute

I can't seem to get that Slate article out of my head. I...I have to call food crack, I'm not going to stop at all. Calling it crack is crack in itself, the highest, most emphatic and least possibly literal praise for a delicious bite. What I'm saying is that I do not mean drugs. I mean delicious crack-food. Look at that cheap-o pizza with its waxy, greasy pepperoni and its quickly congealing mostly-cheese. How does that crappy pizza spot smell like 50 freshly-made pies crammed into a closet?

I have a slightly different commute since we moved offices last month, a commute that now takes me past a scent I can't forget — it smacks me in the face. It is that effing pizza. Flashback: nine years ago I'm interning for Men's Fitness magazine (whose offices are located on the same street where I work now). I live on an Aerobed in a falling-apart studio near Central Park. At the office, boxes, crates, bags and coolers of various gross sustinence-type things are sent to me for "taste-testing." Also, I am secretly dating the art intern. Saucy. Then everyone finds out and it's far less saucy.

On my way to work, exiting the 1 train at 32nd at 7th, I pass through a truly shitty pizza joint which also smells like pee, as it usually houses a colorful crowd of sleeping people. So...terrible pizza and pee. One after the other. A one-two punch. On the way home, I smell it once more, and feel deep shame that it spikes a craving for pizza. I would have to hold my breath for a solid 20 seconds to avoid the whole thing, which is hard to remember to do. And now I'm back there again, the same exact subway exit with the same odor lingering unbroken for who knows how long.

Why am I telling you this story? Because I'd like to bring it back around and congratulate all the summer interns who came to the city and are now comfortably back at school not subsisting on crack pizza, various forms of whey and Crystal Light Bro like I did that summer. You did good. Go back to your Dining Dollars or Buff Bucks or whatever and enjoy your Jamba juice with an immunity boost. You earned it. See also: Sweet Nostalgia For Lunch At USC.

What do you smell on your commute to work? Let me know in the comments, we can talk comment-scents.

More nostalgia for lunch on Food Republic: