east village cheap eats

cheap places to eat in the east village that you may not ever have tried otherwise because they don't necessarily look good and that ive never gotten sick from--sorry, the addresses might be block off at the most because i never pay attention to where i am:


east village thai (7th st btw 2nd and 3rd ave)
best thai food in the east village.* and ive tried a lot of them, having lived here for six years. not really a sit down and eat place though, cuz they only have like 2 tables and there's no "decor". my friend will lee turned me on to this place, and he's lived here his whole life.

downtown bakery (2nd ave btw 4th and 5th st)
yummy cuban sandwiches. super cheap. and they bake the bread right there. beware, the mexican food is so-so, though. and the egg sandwiches are awesome for breakfast cuz of the fresh baked roll and being really cheap.

pak pujab (1st ave and 3rd st), chutney (houston btw 1st ave and ave a), punjabi (next door to chutney)
pakistani food, cafeteria style, for homesick cab drivers. superduper cheap. and ive never gotten sick at any of them.

these two places have good food and look good too:

ginger (1st ave btw 7th and 8th)
not superduper cheap, but for midrange-priced sushi, i.e. four dollar makis, it's the best in the neighborhood by far. way fresher.

dumpling man
this guy, yes, there's actually a dumpling man, researched dumpings for years and came up with four perfect recipes, vegetarian, pork, shrimp and chicken. the wrappers are made by hand. rolled right in front of you, by real chinese ladies! again, cheap.

unfortunately i'm such a fan of rainbow falafel on 17th st and union sq west that i never get falafel in my own neighborhood cuz it's so not as good. but i love having brunch at cafe mogador, it's my favorite brunch place, perfectly poached eggs every single time, crispy chunks of potato, great cappuccino, my dog can sit next to me outside. and their hummus, tabouli platter is a perfect non breakfast meal. it's not on the list cuz it's not cheap.**

lately though my absolute favorite meal is the result of a trip to the farmer's market, union sq on saturday, tompkins on sunday. yesterday i had corn and a salad of baby kale, buckwheat sprouts and sunflower sprouts. with white concord grapes for dessert. (incidentally, mario batali was there on sunday being filmed shopping; his people probably stole that idea from my blog.)

as long as we're being all opinionated and stuff, my favorite record at the moment is *lovers and losers* by alice lee.
listen to sample tracks
buy it
she's also playing at the knitting factory on sept 30 which is a friday. ill be there.

*edited to add: klong on st. marks is better.
**edited to add: there is now a mamoun's falafel on st. marks, which is awesome.