New Yorkers Complain: 'The Rats Are Taking Over'
NEW YORK - When New Yorkers see something scurrying, they say something and that has brought rat complaints to the city's 311 hotline to a recent high of more than 24,000 so far this year, officials said on Thursday.
"The rats are taking over," New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer told Reuters. "I'm a lifelong New Yorker and I've never seen it this bad... I see them on my way home, they're standing upright, they say, 'Good morning, Mr. Comptroller.'"
With more than two months of grumbling still left in 2015, rodent-related grievances were already at 24,375 as of Wednesday, said Mayor Bill de Blasio spokeswoman Natalie Grybauskas. That's up from 20,545 in 2014 and 19,321 in 2013.
And that's just above-ground rats - complaints about vermin in the subway are routed to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and not recorded by the 311 line, Grybauskas said. .................(more)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-rat-problem_5629452fe4b0aac0b8fc3c24?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
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If I went outside around sundown, I would see many of them walking down the street. It was almost like a shift change: humans coming in for the night, and kittehs taking over. 
All you need is a food cart!
Ingredients
Fresh rats
Fresh herbs
Cooking oil
Chilli peppers
Butter
Peanuts
Preparation:
Blow the rat skin with a blowtorch.
Leave rats to cool down.
When they are cool enough, clean the rest of the skin with a steel wool.
Eviscerate the rats and split them.
Put all the good rat parts in a jar, with the fresh peppers, herbs and oil.
Leave this for half an hour in the fridge.
Deep-fry until brown in a mixture of butter and peanut oil.
Serve hot with some crunchy peanuts.
More Rats Recipes
Bordeaux Grilled Rats
Skin and eviscerate rats that live in wine cellars. Brush with a thick sauce that combines olive oil and crushed shallots. Grill over a fire of broken wine barrels.
Stewed Cane Rat
Skin and eviscerate the rat and split it lengthwise. Fry until brown in a mixture of butter and peanut oil. Cover with water, add tomatoes or tomato puree, hot red peppers, and salt. Simmer the rat until tender and serve with rice.
Creamed Mice Skin, gut and wash some fat mice without removing their heads. Cover them in a pot with ethyl alcohol and marinate 2 hours. Dice a piece of salt pork or sowbelly and cook it slowly to extract the fat. Drain the mice, dredge them thoroughly in a mixture of flour, pepper, and salt, and fry slowly in the rendered fat for about 5 minutes. Add a cup of alcohol and 6 to 8 cloves, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Prepare a cream sauce, transfer the sauteed mice to it, and warm them in it for about 10 minutes before serving.
From Canadian naturalist and conservationist Farley Mowatt:
Drain the mice, dredge them thoroughly in a mixture of flour, pepper and salt, and fry slowly in the rendered fat for about five minutes. Add a cup of alcohol and 6-8 cloves, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Prepare a cream sauce, transfer the mice to it and warm them in it for about 10 minutes before serving.
There have even been suggestions that Westerners raise rat for meat. Tastes like chicken!
