Truck Stop: Alex and Maria's

What to eat: This nondescript food cart, on 15th Street between Vine and Race, is best known for its breakfast sandwiches - cheap protein on a roll, made fast and fresh, to keep Hahnemann University Hospital students and employees going. Nothing fancy, just the classics, with solid execution.

Don't miss: Daily News Assistant Managing Editor Gar Joseph insists that Alex and Maria's makes the best scrapple-and-egg sandwich in the city. He offers the following review: "Two well-beaten, fluffy eggs are paired with properly sliced, crispy scrapple on a fresh hoagie or Kaiser roll. The thickness of the slice is important with scrapple, which must always have a well-crisped exterior. If sliced too thick, the mushy inside can be barely warm and, given what scrapple is made from, you definitely want it hot. If sliced too thin, it doesn't offer the soft and peppery balance to the egg that is necessary for a good scrapple-and-egg sandwich. This truck does it right. Coffee, of course, is the proper accompaniment for a scrapple-and-egg sandwich, and the truck does well on this count, too." (It's Habbersett scrapple, by the way).

Prices: Cheap! Egg and cheese is $2; with bacon, $3; with scrapple, $3.25. The most expensive breakfast sandwich is the steak-and-eggs, which is $5.50. "But that's a cheesesteak with eggs," said cart operator Maria Santourtzoglou, almost apologetically. They also sell lunch. The BLT ($3) and grilled chicken sandwich ($4.75) are the most popular.

Why we like it: Alex and Maria, both natives of Greece, aren't pushing any mobile-food boundaries here, but they make food that hits the spot, and they don't cut corners. This is the stuff that got us through college. "It's good quality," said Maria, whose parents were vendors in Philly for 35 years. "I don't do precooked bacon. I think that's one of the reasons why I do well." We agree. And they're nice people, too. We'll be going back for $3 breakfast sandwiches very soon.