Friday, January 23, 2009

Living like a non-poor student on a poor student budget

Well, it's not possible. I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up other than my own. The only option is to live poorly and then occasionally spend more money than is at all reasonable on a meal (esp. in New York) by eating out. I have, however, found a place where I can do that slightly more often than other places: Dojo. And now for the back story ... (I hope those are better CF)

Lately I've been working in the NYU Bobst library on the south side of Washington Square on account of my being unable to make myself do anything other than play Tetris Attack if I am at my home. This, however, poses the problem of an absence of freshly toasted PB&J sandwiches, cheese quesadilla, and the like. As usual I turned to my friends at Chowhound (who are far more reliable and comprehensive than my acquaintances at Yelp) for suggestions. I found a Dosa cart that was remarkably good street food, but it was still $5 and served with a plastic fork. I figured I could do better, and after looking for a while longer on the message boards I struck gold: an 'asian-fusion-vegetarian bar and grill' type place that has super cheap food ($4 veggie sandwiches) and super cheap happy hour beers ($2 for a Brooklyn Lager is far from shabby). I, having to work after lunch and all) went for the coffee and nachos instead. The coffee was what you would expect from bar coffee, but the nachos, holy crap. To give you an idea, someone walked by, saw me eating them, immediately came in and said "oh my god that looks delicious! what are those, just nachos? I have to have some!" They were on fresh homemade tortillas that had generous portions of sour cream, homemade guac, and this awesome weird home-made salsa that lacked the tomato-pasty look,texture,taste that lets you know you're eating crap out of a jar. There was also a lot of melted jack cheese. $6 for a meal that left me without an urge for a fancy dinner later that night and I think I can put off brown bagging it for another week or two!

6 comments:

eLs said...

WOW I HAVE BEEN REALLY WANTING TO TRY DOJO TOO. One of my friends is obsessed with nachos, I'll have to drag her here.

Also, what's up with four-letter restaurant names that rhyme? GOBO v. DOJO: SHOWDOWN 2009.

CaseyMustPie said...

Can we go to Dojo next thursday for lunch maybe?

also, why are my initials up there I don't understand

mwr said...

sounds great ... though do you have enough time to walk all the way down to 4th st? I guess probably if we ditch the coffee.

They're there because you hate ellipses of the sort used earlier in this comment.

CaseyMustPie said...

OH thank you and yes those are okay! I dunno I guess I'll just quit...

k said...

i had a 'soy burger dinner' at dojo tonight, which basically consisted of a bland soy patty smothered in delicious carrot-tahini sauce, brown rice (which i smothered in delicious carrot-tahini sauce), and a side salad dressed with.... carrot-tahini sauce.

i would order anything from this place if it had carrot-tahini sauce on it. i wonder if they sell it.

k said...

hey mike - it says online that they sell containers of them for $3.50. can you pick me up one next time you go? i will pay you back so hard!