A Blog on Surviving in this current day and age of $4.00 a gallon Gas, $6.00 Frappucinos, Skyrocketing Airline Tickets, Higher Prices at the Supermarket, and everywhere else. How, to cope, live for less, spend less, make each of your hard earned dollars stretch as far as possible. Living a $10 a Day, this does not include housing. Living on $10 a Day is about, how to make it through the day, eating, traveling (to work, to stores, to friends, etc.), and entertaining yourself for that day.
MINETTA TAVERN in Greenwich Village New York is a famous literary bar / restaurant that has seen as its customers, Ernest Hemingway, EE Cummings, Ezra Pound, Eugene O'Neill, and Dylan Thomas in days gone by. ANd these days such celebs as: Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Taylor Swift, Ken Burns, and Bruce Springsteen.
Keith McNally bought the old Greenwich Village landmark restuarant in 2008, renivated it with his famous McBally touch, hired Riad Nasir and Lee Hanson as co-Chefs and quickly turned it from an old sort of run of the mill to the hottest place in town and celebrity haunt, serving fine French Bistro Fare.
I've been going to Sun Sai Gai Rice Shop on Canal Street for more than 35 years now. It is without question one of the best places in all of New York City to get a super tasty inexpensive Cheap Eats Meal, "Sun Sai Gai" can not be beat by any restaurant , food-truck, or whatever in the whole of New York for the great taste, quality, variety, and affordability of a meal. They are The Tops. I've had hundred of meals here. It's actually a destination for me. When I first discovered the place in 1984 and lived on Avenue A in the East Village, and still now living in Greenwich Village on the West side now, I always walk all the way down there to get a fix of their tasty Roast Duck over rice ($5.50), Roast Pig, and Soy Sauce Chicken, all just $5.50, and if you want to get three of these items, it's just a dollar more at $6.50 for 2 meats served over rice, you just can't beat it with a stick.
Sometimes I get a Roast Pork Bun as well as an appetizer for just $1.50 ... Of course you get Free Chinese Tea and water with your meal, so you don't have to spend any money on a beverage unless you want a Soda or Beer. Yes they serve Beer. One of my other favorites is a steamy bowl of Roast Duck Wonton Soup. This dish is amazing! You get a big bowl filled with some Roast Duck, a whole bunch of Wontons (Pork Dumplings), and steamy broth for just $6.50, it's an incredible deal, it's soul satisfying and quite delicious, "I just Love it," and have eaten hundreds of bowls of it over the past 36 years since I first discovered this wonderful establishment. If they ever closed, "I think I would cry." Seriously.
Sun Sai Gai might very well be the greatest deal in town for some incredibly high-quality food, at the cheapest prices imaginable. Check it!
McSorley's Old Ale House, generally known as McSorley's, is the oldest Irish Saloon in New York City. Opened in the mid-19th century at 15 East 7th Street, in today's East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, it was one of the last of the "Men Only" pubs, admitting women only after legally being forced to do so in 1970. The aged artwork, newspaper articles covering the walls, sawdust floors, and the Irish waiters and bartenders give McSorley's an atmosphere reminiscent of "Olde New York". No piece of memorabilia has been removed from the walls since 1910, and there are many items of historical paraphernalia in the bar, such as Houdini's handcuffs, which are connected to the bar rail. There are also wishbones hanging above the bar; supposedly they were hung there by boys going off to World War I, to be removed when they returned, so the wishbones that are left are from those who never returned.
Two of McSorley's mottos are "Be Good or Be Gone", and "We were here before you were born". Prior to the 1970 ruling, the motto was "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies"; the raw onions can still be had as part of McSorley's cheese platter.
McSorley's is considered to be one of the longest continuously operating ale houses in the city due to the fact that during Prohibition it served a "near beer" with too little alcohol to be illegal.In 2005, New York magazine considered McSorley's to be one of New York City's "Top 5 Historic Bars"
Who drank there? Since 1854, McSorley's has seen many luminaries walk through its doors for a Liverwurst Sandwich and a couple mugs of Ale. Who? None other than Abraham Lincoln had a couple ales at McSorley's after he made his famous Cooper Union Speech just a few feet from the bar. Lincoln was not the only President who drank at McSorley's both Teedy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, as well as Civil War General and 18th President of The United States, Ulysses S. Grant drank a couple pints at McSorley's as well.
The writer EE Cummings and artist John Sloan who did a couple monumental paintins of McSorley's were known to frequent the bar also.
