Food frenzy grips Big Apple as sun sets over blacked out Manhattan

FROM steaks to sushi to gallons of melting ice cream, restaurants, delis and bodegas around the city tossed out hundreds of pounds of perishable food just hours after the blackout zapped the Fried Apple.

At the legendary Zabar's on the Upper West Side it was a free-for-all food frenzy as a crowd of 100 mobbed the sidewalk while employees auctioned off perishable foodstuffs for a fraction of the price.

People standing five deep outside the Broadway gourmet store bid on sushi, French bread, precooked chicken, ribs and duck, fresh-squeezed pineapple and orange juice, sandwiches, milk and croissants all going for a mere dollar or two.