Can I buy you dinner?

I keep getting approached by random men in the streets with this question and it's not an unusual thing to ask in itself but each time it's said with such gusto that I'm beginning to think there's more to the question than meets the eye.

So walking down the street in Brooklyn, random hispanic guy wearing a vest (yes as in undergarment type vest) stops to ask me for my name and number, the first he gets, the second...ah not so much. As I try being firm but polite and walking away with 'sorry I have to go', it seems like he decides this is the right moment for him to play his trump card so he says 'I'd like to buy you dinner'. Then he waits expectantly as though I'm going to say 'oh well when you put it that way...ofcourse you can have my number'. In my head ofcourse 'I'm thinking I doubt you can feed yourself let alone me'. But once again my mama raised me right so I smile politely, say thank you but no thank you and walk away.

Fast forward a few similar encounters to today as I'm walking down Fifth avenue, I get accosted by a guy wearing an awful awful (no that's not a typo I said it twice because that's how bad it was) check jacket, dark pink shirt and what we Londoners would refer to as 'dodgy' trousers. He offers me his business card which I scan quickly; he's an image consultant - well what do you know? He apologies for stopping me, and clarifies that he doesn't think I need his service but...wait for it....'I'd like to buy you dinner'...this is said ofcourse in a 'wannabe-smooth-debonair-I-mean-what-I-say' way which I suspect is meant to have the effect of me doing cartwheels - and screaming 'dinner? really me?...oh thank you thank you!' Fortunately for him and me, he doesn't wait for my response, no doubt confident that I will be calling that number for that dinner....after all when was the last time a man offered to buy me dinner? ..last week?...oh yes, ofcourse...I forget.

I admit that perhaps I'm harder to please now that I'm older and more jaded or maybe I just missed the memo that went around about women all gagging for men to buy them dinner. I'm hoping the men who read this will take heed - by all means offer to buy a woman dinner but don't say like you just told her you were about to fly her to venice in a private jet. Really dude, its just dinner and how do I know you're not going to suggest some 'all you can eat' hole in the wall anyway?