A-U-T-O-Matic

Today I had a fewdblogworthy eating experience. It was not especially delicious or savory, but it was certainly unique, and disturbingly satisfying. That's right; I bought food out of an automat. You know, an automat. A vending machine / wall of mini-ovens that dispense hot, prepared food at the mere insertion of a coin.

This automat, Bamn! (not to be confused with BAMN, the Michigan-based civil rights organization), located on St. Mark's in the East Village, NYC, is allegedly (according to that most trustworthy of all sources, the Wiki) the first automat to exist in the U.S. for 15 years. I had seen one of these before, in the Netherlands when I was in high school, but I don't think there was a single item my vegetarian self could have eaten, so tonight was my first automatic (as it were) eating experience. I'm guessing that there isn't not a relationship between decriminalized pot in Amsterdam and the life of the automat, so it makes sense that the automat would be located within easy walking distance of the various types of substance dispensaries of the East Village. I mean, you'd have to be on something to eat food out of a wall of hot pink ovens, right? Right? I'm not going to lie - the food I ate at Bamn! (that name has got to go) was not half bad. I ate...a macaroni and cheese croquette. That's right, deep fried macaroni and cheese. So awful. So amazing. Such a good trade for two dollars in loose change. Other items included the Mozarella sticks (standard), chicken burger (standard), and peanut butter and jelly empanada (hmm....). I went at night so it was mostly munchies, but based on the photo, it looks like they shuffle in more breakfast appropriate items in the morning. The deep fried mac-n-cheese made the perfect post-beer snack, though I did spend the train ride home pondering Important Questions About Man's Place in the Modern World. Also, having to pee.

Thanks to Kathryn for the photos shamelessly lifted from her flickr account (but she's my friend, so its ok)