I don’t know what my favorite cheap thing to eat in New York is, but I know what my cheapest favorite food is . . . and cheapest by some margin. The $1.50 doubles at A&A Bake and Doubles on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. For that buck and a half you get curried chickpeas (channa), between two pieces of chickpea flour bread (barra), seasoned with tamarind sauce and chili sauce. It is not pretty food, but it is absolutely delicious.
But that is sort of cheating, because it’s vegetarian. You used to be able to get a great plate of char siu or roast duck at New York Noodletown or Big Wong for $3.00, and I remember when you could get a plate of curried beef brisket at what was then a much smaller Malaysia Restaurant for $2.75, but those days are long over – both still good but no longer giving it away (and in the case of “New” Malaysia Rest in much fancier digs). My best bargain now in Chinatown is the $5.50 Pork Chop on Rice at Hua Ji on Allen Street, which is really well done, and vastly better than any of the other pork chop places.
The best value meat meal that comes to my mind today, is a near tie between two dishes in Astoria, Queens. Probably my favorite would be the Sheftalia at BZ Grill on Astoria Blvd., which are homemade Cypriot pork sausages wrapped in caul fat and crisped on the grill, which I believe are $6.00 with pita and tzatziki. There is no better sausage in this country in my opinion.
If I had to name a third, a bit less good and $.45 more, is the shawarma in pita at Duzan on Steinway.
