Pho

Here it is...one of the restaurants I usually keep close to my vest. Pho is at 73 Mulberry Street, between Canal & Bayard. CPZ brought me here years ago, and it's still a tried-and-true cheap/delicious/fun standby. She's a New York Native (a rare species), so I can always count on her recommendations to rock. We went here again last night, and I noticed some of their prices have gone up a dollar or two, but the portions are still big enough to share and more importantly, still full of flavor.

Every time we go, we get the fried spring rolls (they have pork inside) and the papaya beef salad (Note: They have a decent selection of vegetarian options if you're so inclined, but this post is mostly meat-related). The spring rolls are always perfectly crunchy, but just soft enough that they don't fall apart in your hands. They come with this dipping sauce that is so good, we keep it on the table the rest of the meal to douse over our noodles, etc. The salad isn't on the menu, but it's ALWAYS on the specials board. We noticed this time the price went up 2 dollars to 11.50, but trust me when I say this is still an excellent deal. The cool, shredded papaya is the perfect complement to the hot, charcoal-y grilled beef, which is so tender you don't even need a knife to cut it. This IS a spicy dish, by the way. This time it was so spicy I had to slow down a bit! Between the two of us, we can almost finish this, especially if we are super-hungry.

(a CU shot of my salad--after I'd already eaten the meat. Isn't it pretty?)

For our entrées we both got the grilled shrimp over vermicelli. 6 bucks!! That's basically a dollar a shrimp ;), plus noodles, lettuce, chopped peanuts, cilantro, etc. I took the rest of my spring roll sauce and a few dots of sriracha sauce to this bowl, and it was absolutely fantastic. It also made me fantastically full.

Another must-have for me is their Vietnamese iced coffee. It's very strong coffee that slowly drips out over condensed milk. You mix it and pour it into the glass of ice. Strooooooooooong, son, but oh-so-scrumptious. This time, I was so enamored with the food that I almost forgot it was sitting right in front of me! That papaya-beef salad will do that to a girl. ;)

This place is definitely in my Top 5 for cheap eats, not to mention it never fails to make my taste buds happy.

Pho Restaurant
73 Mulberry St.
New York, NY 10013
212-233-8988

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has long been on my list of places to try in NYC, but for some reason or another, it's taken me years to get there. When I met Halcyon and her DH in the city a month or so ago, her DH told me he wasn't that crazy about it, so I moved it down the list to a lower-priority ranking. :)

As it turns out, that place is RIGHT around the corner from my favorite Vietnamese restaurant (post coming after this one) that my dear friend CPZ brought me to years ago. It's a favorite of ours, both because it is delicious and it is remarkably cheap. Win win! CPZ treated me to dinner (gorgeous AND generous! oy!) and so the very least I could do is treat her to ice cream. She mentioned CICF, and after a roundabout walk (took me a few minutes to google it on my blackberry), we found ourselves just steps away from the restaurant and sampling different flavors.

Chinatown I.C.F. has some basics, like mint chocolate chip or vanilla, but they also have more 'exotic' (as they put it) choices such as red bean, lychee nut, zen butter and almond cookie. I tried one sample of almond cookie and was instantly smitten. I am an absolute sucker for anything almond. Tortoni is one of my favorite desserts, but bad tortoni is pretty awful. That's when it's gritty or frostbitten or just plain cheaply made. This ice cream was none of those disappointing qualities. It was smooth and satisfying and just what my taste buds wanted. I ordered a small scoop with rainbow sprinkles. Carlota got the mint chocolate chip with jimmies (rainbow ones are sprinkles and chocolate ones are jimmies, as any self-respecting Yankee knows. Debate over.) We tried each other's ice creams as well and agreed we'd both picked winners. The ice cream is SUPER rich and creamy. I initially looked at the small portion and thought "4.50 for THAT? I could buy a whole pint of Haagen-Dazs for the same price!" However, it IS extremely filling and decadent, and when I scraped the very last drops out of my cup, I absolutely felt it was worth it. And later, I will probably still buy the Haagen-Dazs (have you tried their "Five" line yet?? YUMMMM!)

At 4.50 for a small scoop + jimmies/sprinkles, this doesn't exactly qualify as "Cheap Eats" in my book, but it was definitely worth the visit, and I would recommend it if you're in the neighborhood!

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 608-4170