New York Hot Dog and Coffee - West Village

Odd combination of foods in a generic and vaguely named storefront? Sure, I'm down for that. My friends Lauren and Caitlin notified me of a wacky place where they sell Korean hotdogs--I believe they told me this because I am partly Korean and because they are partly racist. Seriously, what, just because I'm Korean does that mean I will automatically like Korean things? Probably.

This store is kind of like the bizzaro dimension--they sell hotdogs and hamburgers of standard varieties, but then they offer hotdogs with bulgogi and kimchi toppings or chicken hotdogs with chicken kalbi toppings. And that's not all, they sell . . . Belgian waffles? Yeah, I don't know. I'm not complaining, but this place is pretty schizophrenic in a good way.

The hotdog with bulgogi was good if not for the unique take on a standard item, but it wasn't mind-blowing. I regret not getting it with kimchi as well--I think that would add some needed texture variety. The chicken kalbi hot dog wasn't as good--something about chicken on chicken didn't make for a satisfying taste, but that also may be my unfamiliarity with chicken hotdogs. The hotdogs are large, probably twice as big as your standard vendor hotdog or more. The buns are like normal hotdog buns on steroids--much larger and toasted for more bite and thickness. The fries were very crisp, not too salty or greasy, but for some reason the sign says "spicy fries" when these were just normal fries--a bit odd--perhaps lost in translation?

The prices are pretty average, not as cheap as I like them to be, at around $5-$10 with the higher end pertaining to the Korean influenced toppings. I would suggest going here to anyone simply because it's a pretty interesting experience: Korean hotdogs and burgers, coffee, Belgian waffles, somewhat odd furnishings, ceramic hotdog displays, super courteous Korean staff all in the west village. Like I said, bizzaro dimension.

I'm Korean

Kimchi from Vanessa's - $3
Pork Bulgogi from K-Town - $5
Pickled garlic from K-Town - $2.50

Slainte - Bowery

I normally would have never went here, but since my friend started working here I tried it out. It's certainly not terrible, but there's a lot of things I have problems with. First is the prices, this is a more touristy and conventional sports bar type of place--it's on Bowery right about Houston so it gets a lot of the moneybags from people in SoHo/Broadway area. Secondly, it's a sports bar. And third of all, it's Irish, which pretty much means the food is either awful or sub-par and I'm not too fond of paying $10 bucks for a cruddy hamburger. So don't do that.

Bangers and mash--simple, traditionally Irish--how could they mess it up? Well, they did. I'm pretty sure the onion gravy was canned, the sausage was unflavorful and most likely frozen with no kick at all, and the mashed potatoes might have been the only somewhat decent part of the dish--although bland. I know the Irish are not known for their quality of food, but c'mon, for $12 I expected much more. I also got a cheeseburger here one time and it was a similar story--my medium rare burger was well done and dry--an overall tasteless experience.

The beer isn't terribly expensive, but usually more than $5. There's $3 Miller Lites for happy hour and sometimes, randomly, there's $3 Yuenglings. The environment isn't much to look at either--it pretty much looks like a Bennigans with big dark wooden benches and tables and some sparse, lame, Irish trinkets. I'm not a huge fan of television screens everywhere either--but that might just be me since I generally go to bars to escape digital things.

The one thing I would recommend if you went here is the sweet potato fries. They're delicious and they're cheap. $3 will get you a "small" which is surprisingly very generous and $5 will get you a huge tub of fries. My suggestion would be to go during happy hour and slurp down Miller Lites or Yuengling (if it's $3) and chow on fries. Otherwise, there's not much other reason to go here when there's a lot cheaper places to eat and drink just a couple avenues to the east.

304 Bowery, New York, NY 10012, 212 253 7030, www.slaintenyc.com

Eastern Noodle - Chinatown

So you got like $5 in your pocky and your like "Aw, man I could really go for some noodles in my face," so you head to Chinatown and you're like "Aw, man where my noodles at?"

Then you walk to Forsyth and Canal and you see Win Kei Noodle and you're like "Aw, man, winky noodles?" Then you look down Forsyth and you see Eastern Noodle. Then you go there--to Eastern noodle. And you win.

If we're talking cheapest of the cheap then you can get a big bowl of noodles here with very tender and delicious bok choy for $3 (hell yeah). For $4.50 you can get noodles and beef with bok choy. For $3 you can get 12 steamed pork dumplings. The noodles are chewy and thick, but tender--they're hand pulled--by HANDS. There's this really cool middle aged chinese guy who grabs a clump of dough and just starts whipping it around and smashing it on this cutting board and in like 30 seconds he has the long strands of noodle dough--he's probably famous or something.

The broth is a little salty but that means it's a lot of good to me. If you're not feeling the salt then you can add some vinegar which they have handy. They also have fresh cilantro and this really amazing spicy pepper concoction that you can add to anything to make it 10 times more awesome.

The steamed pork dumplings are nice and always come out fresh and juicy. If you're really hungry you can get 12 dumplings and a noodle soup for $8. That's a lot of food. It's a very chill little shop too, there's usually what I assume is the cool guy's little son studying in the corner and he comes takes your order since he speaks fluent english--he's really cool for like a 9 year old.

I know it's summer now, and a little hot for noodle soup, but they have cheap dry dishes too. Me, I can't refuse noodles no matter the temperature outside--especially this cheap and tasty. You'd be foolish not to try it.

28 Forsyth St., New York, NY, 10002 yelp