By: Lilease Waldron
New York City is an incredible place full of culture, history, activities, and opportunity. Unfortunately, these perks don’t diminish the increasingly high cost of living. Nobody should have to worry about being able to afford basic necessities, definitely not to the extent of questioning if they have enough money for their next meal. Luckily, NYC can provide reasonable deals on good food, as long as you know where to look and who to follow.
As soon as I moved to NYC, I searched for social media pages that promoted inexpensive restaurants so I could explore different cultures and boroughs in the city while still getting a hearty meal in. I struggled heavily with eating enough due to how broke and busy I was my first few months here, until I stumbled across the @the.frugal.foodies account on Instagram.
Katie and Jeremy from @the.frugal.foodies are a NYC-based couple who have been eating “frugally” for most of their time living here. I got the opportunity to interview Katie recently to ask her a bit more about their Instagram page and talk about how much it’s helped me. I first asked her how they got started. They’re not the only NYC cheap food or activities page on Instagram, so were they inspired, or was it their own idea?
“It kinda started out of necessity, just because my background is in dance and I’ve always been very frugal as I’ve never really made a lot of money. We did this just to kinda survive in New York- we started it because we wanted to be able to eat good food but still be able to pay rent,” Katie said.
Understandable and obviously relatable. I was still curious as to how they found and continue to find these places. Are they walking around, getting recommendations, finding other online sources… or is it a secret?
“I love just going and walking the neighborhood and seeing what I would like. When I started, the food scene wasn’t as big on social media. Although I did pull some inspiration from people, it was mostly from Google Maps and Yelp and all of that stuff,” she explained.
For fun, I asked if she could recommend me to one of her favorite spots. I figured it was time for me to try something new again, so she asked me a few questions about my taste and location and recommended Nepali Bhanchha Ghar, a Nepalese place in Queens.
“They have this goat momo soup (goat momo jhol) that is honestly one of the best things I’ve eaten in New York. They also have this sel roti, which is like a deep-fried round donut sweet mochi type thing… It’s really good,” she said.
I’ve never tried Nepalese cuisine before, but wow. The sel roti was just as she described, a sweet fried donut made of rice flour and served with a spicy yet fresh dipping sauce. It reminded me a lot of pico de gallo but with more of a flavor punch.
The goat momo jhol was delicious as well. It’s an orange spicy soup with what tasted like a tomato base and it held five to seven stuffed-to-the-brim goat dumplings. I went with another person and we couldn’t finish the entire meal, meanwhile, the total came out to only $13.
I hope if anything, this inspired NYC people to continue to eat and try good food as much as possible, no matter what their budget is. As long as you follow the right people and the right advice, you can make living in this city just a little less expensive. Although I may be a bit biased, I have to advise starting with @the.frugal.foodies, who’ll be more than happy to help recommend new eateries.
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