He's been eating cheesesteaks nearly every day for two years, scarfing down nearly 600 of the gooey sandwiches that Philadelphia made famous.

As coronavirus swept through the region and restaurants shut down their dining rooms indefinitely at the order of Gov. John Carney, Fairfax's James Pappas didn't put his meat-and-cheese obsession aside.

In fact, he ramped it up, ordering takeout at each spot instead.

No longer able to sit at shop counters to eat and take photos for his Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure website, Pappas now chows down more often in parking lots using the trunk of his 2011 Toyota Corolla as a table.

Why not take it home and have a proper meal?

"I'm usually starving by the time I get it," said Pappas, 57, who has eaten each of the cheesesteaks at a different shop in Delaware and the region.

Pappas ate his 578th cheesesteak on Tuesday morning at Cafe Napoli in Milltown, giving it high marks for its meat-to-bread ratio while also shedding some light on how the pandemic has affected his unusual routine: surprisingly not much at all.

He still works as an Uber driver in the morning. And while business seems to be down about 25 percent, the majority of his "regulars" are considered essential workers and use his service to get to their jobs.

Before coronavirus, Pappas says he had slowed down to maybe three cheesesteaks per week. He had been spreading them out, leaning on healthier options on other days, especially Poke Bros. on Concord Pike.

But the poke place closed during the health emergency. And other spots he would sometimes visit did as well, pushing him back into the arms of his beloved cheesesteak.

This might not come as a surprise, but Pappas doesn't really cook at home. His freezer currently houses only a leftover 2-for-1 rack of ribs from Acme and a pair of bake-at-home Tony Luke's pizzas. The refrigerator isn't much better, he admitted.

So in a way, the global pandemic has only encouraged Pappas' peculiar hobby.

Do people gawk at him while he wolfs down his sandwich on his car, taking photos and videos of the experience for his website?

"When I eat, most people just run away. People grab their children and say, 'Don't look at that man,' " Pappas joked in between bites of his Cafe Napoli cheesesteak in the parking lot.

Pappas said he lost a bit of weight since The News Journal first wrote about him back in August. He points to the small slowdown of cheesesteak-eating pre-coronavirus. And there was another culprit back in those days: Tastycake's Iced Honey Buns.

"They were two for $2 and I kept saying to Wawa, 'Please, please put these back at regular price,'" said Pappas, who maintains a detailed spreadsheet of every sandwich along with notes about each.

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In addition to cheesesteaks, he's recently rekindled his love for Chinese food and Pat's Pizza's Sicilian pie. He said he grabs some greens from Saladworks to even things out.

Pappas said he had a pair of standout cheesesteaks in Delaware recently, he's happy to report.

The first one came as a surprise at New Castle's Bowlerama bowling alley. While the lanes are closed due to the emergency, the restaurant is not. His $5.50 cheesesteak wasn't only a great price, but the meat in it was probably among his top 10 sandwiches.

The other new favorite was Meding's Seafood near Milford, where he had them add crab meat to the sandwich. Even though it was $18, it was damn good, he said.

Pappas isn't worried that the pandemic will limit his ability to get his hands around cheesesteaks, even as some meat processing facilities have closed, including a Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota over the weekend after more than 200 employees tested positive for coronavirus.

It has, however, affected his Facebook comments with a few people complaining about him going to all these eateries when travel is supposed to be limited to essential trips.

"I told them I'm bringing essential people to work and one guy decided to come back with, 'Do they all work in hoagie shops?" he said. "I mean, I'm bringing them to their essential job and now it's my time to have lunch."

With his cheesesteak adventure still in full swing, is eating 1,000 cheesesteaks in 1,000 different shops an attainable goal, if you can call it that?

He didn't blink. "Absolutely," he said.

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He still has a list of more than 250 places in the area that he has not visited, suggestions sent in by readers.

So what's the end game? There really isn't one. He's just filling time (and his belly) one cheesesteak at a time.

"I like having fun with them," he said after thinking about his daily ritual. "Plus, I love finding new spots like Bowlerama. I mean, really, who would have known?"

Got a tip? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).