It Only Takes $1 a Day...Ok, Maybe $3.50

A girlfriend of mine recently mentioned that she had a $2 per day food budget. I don't know if she was exaggerating, but regardless, it got me thinking: if I had a meager budget, what could I eat that still tastes good? Aside from $.99 chicken nuggets, fries and microwaved apple pies from Micky D's, by the way which are extremely tasty when you need a junk food fix, what relatively healthy options are out there?



Fortunately, New York has an abudance of good, inexpensive choices. One of my favorite places where one can purchase a $3.50 or less meal is Dumpling House on Eldridge. I discovered it while visiting a girlfriend, who lives down the block. I had walked by it a gazillion times and each time wondered why there was such a long queue out the door.

Caveat to potential Dumpling House patrons: This establishment does not offer upscale ambiance, fluent english speaking staff or courteous service, depending on who serves you. What it does have going for it are deliciously cheap homemade dumplings, soups, sesame pancakes and a glimpse into a typical Beijing style dumpling house. Traditionally as I have been told by a Shanghainese friend, this type of food is considered street food and it is common to see hawkers who set up shop all throughout China selling similar foodstuffs.

Once I was able to work my way through all the Chinese people calling out their orders in Cantonese or Mandarin, none of which I speak, (where's the love for an Asian looking, but non-speaking girl?) I bought a package of homemade chive and pork deep frozen dumplings and a crisp, doughy sesame pancake sprinkled with chopped scallion to go. The dumplings are dirt cheap at 30 for $5 or 50 for $8 and the pancake $.50. You can also get pre-cooked veggie or meat dumplings for 5 for $1!! Sadly, no dumpling or soup pictures because it was too crowded and being vertically challenged, I could not see over the taller people in front of me. However, before I devoured the entire pancake, I took a photo, bite marks and all, as I gobbled it up on the bus ride home.

Let's see, if I eat 5 dumplings per meal, I would have 6 meals at less than a buck each! Hmmm... dumplings and coffee for breakfast, dumplings and juice for lunch, dumplings and tea for dinner, and dumplings and a glass of milk before bedtime...Perfect! In all seriousness, though, a few suggestions for whipping up some super easy, quick and yummy dumpling meals are below:

Dumplings with Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
dumplings, defrosted
soy sauce
small piece of ginger, finely grated
garlic clove, minced
scallion, finely chopped
sriracha chili sauce

Sauce:
Add soy sauce to small bowl. Finely grate ginger, chop scallion and mince garlic. Add to soy sauce and mix well.

Boil water. Once it is boiling, add dumplings. While waiting for dumplings to cook, make sauce. Again, dumplings get plump when done. Strain water off of dumplings. Put in bowl and dip in soy mixture. Add sriracha to taste.

Variation:
You can pan fry the dumplings. Instead of boiling them all the way through, partially boil them. Heat a pan with some canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the dumplings. Brown on each side.

You can also add a dash of sesame oil to the soy sauce mix.

Cilantro or scallions can be used interchangeably. Cilantro is more citrusy and tangy versus scallions which are in the onion family. Although they have very different flavors, they are common ingredients in asian cuisine).

Total cost: $8.55 (Dumplings-$.83; soy sauce-$2.75 ; ginger-$.99; scallion-$.99; garlic-$.99; sriracha chili sauce-$2.00)

This is over the specified $3.50, but you'll get multiple uses from the soy and sriracha sauces, scallions and cilantro.

Dumpling Soup
Ingredients:
dumplings, defrosted
1 can of chicken broth
cilantro sprigs

Heat chicken broth and 1 cup of water in a pot. Once it has come to a rolling boil, put in dumplings and let simmer. Dumplings will plump up when done. Ladle into bowl and garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.

Total cost: $3.11 (Dumplings-$.83; chicken broth-$1.29; cilantro-$.99)