Egg and bacon / egg and sausage were like $2 when I was there in the 90s. And they were about twice the diameter of the ones you get at McDonalds. I don't know what it costs now, maybe this is something like avocado toast that's become anomalously expensive, but calorie for calorie it was as cheap or cheaper than pizza back then. They could be bought from most bodegas that had a stove, as the peer points out. (The LA equivalent of this type of bodega was the "roach coach" - distinguished from modern food trucks by (a) an apparent lack of formal licensing, (b) presence of construction workers eating there, and (c) charging about 30% the price for the same items. The breakfast burrito, however, had not yet migrated to the East Coast).
At most non-fancy corner stores they're still under $4. Usually under $3 if you just want egg & cheese. And they're always made to order - ketchup, mayo, salt/pepper, hot sauce, on a roll or bagel, 50 cents extra for a tomato. I know New Yorkers can be a little insufferable about their bodegas, but I've lived in a few other major cities and none of them have provided me with this much access to a cheap breakfast.
It's true though, good breakfast burritos are still hard to come by here.
Thanks for the delicious reminder of how good those are! Nice to hear they're still competitive with pizza prices! I only eat once a day, since before college, so breakfast foods were like a sort of yearned-for delicacy in my world, especially at 3am in Brooklyn. That or cheap dumplings if I was anywhere near Chinatown. Hot corn muffin from the street vendor out my door if I was absolutely hung over and needed something in the morning...
Back on the west coast, the price of a breakfast burrito at my local cart has almost doubled since covid, and the burrito got smaller. My conclusion is that burritos are a scam. The contents of the classic round breakfast sandwich are much harder to fake.
I really miss the McDonald's egg and sausage muffins, mediocre as they are. They stopped doing the special breakfast menu during the pandemic here in Spain and it never came back. They only have it at the airport locations now.
The McCafe locations have a Spanish omelette roll again but it's not the same thing :'(
