Ship of Fools: The Pauper Gourmet

Thread: The Pauper Gourmet Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=025698

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Eating in, eating out, eating on the pavement outside the chippie: there have been a few remarks on threads that seem to indicate that people's favourite meals/fondest memories have been around stuff that cost very little.

Would you agree? Does distance lend enchantment to the taste, or are there things you have eaten/eat now that would see off the Beluga and a Krug '98?

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

There is a woman who sets up a cart in an auto part store parking lot on the north-west side of town and sells tacos. Honestly, if I had to take someone to one meal in this city, her cart might be it. One taco will cost you $1.50, but since one is just going to make you want another, I'd go with three. And while you might be tempted to order three different fillings, I'll have three of the desebrada, and a half-liter bottle of Mexican Coke.

[ 28. June 2013, 22:13: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

There are great cheap foods that are wonderful when you are hungry. But most of us were poorest when young, and our memories of the foods eaten then may have the haze of fond memory.

I miss a New York corned beef sandwich on corn rye with a side of horseradish coleslaw and a bowl of assorted salt pickles and a potato knish. If I ate that today I would need to lie down for a few hours till the grease and salt succumbed.

Alas many of the cheap foods have gotten expensive as I get older. Fried Clams, Oysters, the above Delicatessen and Frozen Custard. Just as well.

Posted by Evangeline (# 7002) on :

My best food memory is of eating satay sticks at rickety tables in a carpark in Singapore in the 70s.

This meal stands out in the culinary wasteland of my Australian childhood. In reality I suppose I was spoiled, in Australia we had excellent-quality, affordable meat and fresh vegetables and a full-time stay at home Mum to cook nutritious food for us every night BUT ghee it was bland. The exotic tastes, smells and sounds of a Singapore evening were sensory overload to this Anglo-celtic 6 year old and of course satay is such a child-friendly dish.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

A hot bacon roll with tomato sauce eaten on the way to work, early one crisp autumn morning. It was the kind of morning when you could see your breath in the air. Maybe that was why, but it came across as the best bacon roll I ever had. That and a hot coffee with a rich aroma and flavour to wash it down from one of those polystyrene cups with a lid on, and it couldn't get better than that.

Actually, breakfast can be a pretty good thing and going out for breakfast at a weekend and having a plate of bacon, tomatoes, fried egg, mushrooms*, baked beans, hot buttered toast and a coffee or tea, and still getting change from £5, is one of life's under-estimated pleasures. And as before, it's even nicer in the open air.

* These have to be fresh and fried in butter. Tinned ones just don't cut it.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

One of the most memorable things I ate last summer - and hope to again this - was a warm salad of potatoes and broad beans, dug/picked from my own garden.

Mine for just a few months of intermittent toil and the initial outlay of 90k on the house and plot...

Posted by MrsBeaky (# 17663) on :

So many examples and fond memories so I'll just stick to the seafood in everyday settings (I've also enjoyed it in expensive surroundings with champagne too!)
- crab feasts with my family in Baltimore, Maryland
-freshly cooked fish and chips watching the early evening waves at Lyme Regis, Dorset
- scallops and black pudding salad with my daughter having walked around one of the bays in Wellington,NZ

What joy!

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

I still remember (40 years ago, now!) the taste of a spiced beef patty, eaten standing at a high table and watching the sea (and my eldest nephew who was being encouraged by his father to jostle my elbow, so I would get the full Jamaican experience!

Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :

I've been misreading this thread title - thinking it said 'The Paper Gourmet' and getting confused as to why eating on a tight budget should involve eating paper! Now I've realised what it says, I can agree that for me the best meals (both past and present) tend to be the cheapest. I think because, for me, when I'm on a tight budget, I don't overeat, and I buy only natural, simple foods, rather than a lot of processed stuff. Overeating can make me feel uncomfortable and then food doesn't taste as good. And a simple, natural meal tastes wonderful.

Also, I tend to shop on the reduced aisles, at the end of the day, when food about to reach its expiry date is reduced to very cheap prices, and I find a lot of interesting food that I wouldn't normally buy - purple and white carrots, for instance, and mini bananas. And there is a sense of fun and unexpectedness to go to the bargain aisle and see what is there - never knowing what you'll find.

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

One of my favourite lunches which is also cheap is a hot potato topped with butter, onion, cheese, bacon and coleslaw. I feel great for the rest of the day after such fare, Mind you, I always ask for a crunchy potato from the vendor who always cooks in a special oven, not the microwave which produces an inferior product. Now I'm feeling hungry!

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

A tin of baked beans and bread can be wonderful - but it has to be very fresh, crusty bread spread with cold butter.

I am not generally a goopy tomatoey sauce fancier, but they were my favourite food as a child - except not with potato. That was and is just Wrong.

I'd also say that through all the changing scenes of life I've never lost my affection for hot buttered toast.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Farm stand fresh Sweet bicolor sweet corn before they made all this supersweet crap.Steamed with butter and salt.

A wedge of chilled watermelon.

Clam chowder in all it's forms, Boston, Manhattan and Rhode Island.

Fresh cherries. Not that cheap.

Ripe fresh tomatoes.

All of these can be super expensive or in the right season and place incredibly cheap.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

Very plain cheap staple foods can be transformed using small quantities of more costly foods and the right herbs and spices, coupled with only slightly more sophisticated techniques.

Lyonnaise Potatoes is a good example of a dish that needs only care, practice and a few extras to transform what would otherwise be plain boiled spuds.

eta: if you leave out the garlic and parsley, and add some streaky bacon and Bisto gravy (or left over gravy from a recent roast) you have "tatties in the tin", a favourite when there is more month left than money.

[ 29. June 2013, 21:14: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Very plain cheap staple foods can be transformed using small quantities of more costly foods and the right herbs and spices, coupled with only slightly more sophisticated techniques.

It pays to buy top quality herbs and spices. Even the most expensive will be a very small percentage of your food budget, and the flavor difference is very great.

Moo

Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :

I loved staffordshire oatcakes with cheese and grilled mushrooms. They used to have them everywhere in county where other places would have sandwiches. One of the things I really missed when I moved away after uni.

Posted by Amika (# 15785) on :

Chips from the fish and chip shop, eaten out of the paper, was what I craved constantly as a kid, along with my brother and sister. We only got them every now and again as a treat - this was the sixties. Portions back then were (I think) about a quarter of today's portions and always seemed plenty. It's funny how it was the chips and not the fish that we wanted so badly!

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

Stuff, or as it's known outside of my household, leftovers (regular conversation at the Arachnid house:
-What are we having for tea?
-Stuff
-Ooh, stuff. My favourite).

There is virtually no food that doesn't taste better the next day with two other types of leftover food added to it: soup made from the water used to cook a gammon, with veg from one meal and meat from another. Leftover roast meat in an omelette, or added to baked beans. The remains of Christmas dinner wrapped in pastry for Boxing Day Pie.

Also wasting food makes me (and probably the baby Jesus) cry.

Am off to raid the fridge for stuff now.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

When I was a child, one of my favorite veggies was enjoyed in the spring and early summer. All we had to do was labor a bit for it! Dandelion greens!! My brother, sister and I would be sent on a dandelion safari, and we would find as many young leaves as we possibly could. It seems a bushel of the leaves makes about a spoonful cooked for each person at the table.

I think it was special because we found it ourselves! The hunter-gatherer meal. (With freshly caught trout, dandelion made a meal fit for royalty, in our thinking!)

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
... I am not generally a goopy tomatoey sauce fancier, but they were my favourite food as a child - except not with potato. That was and is just Wrong.

Yea and amen, Firenze, and also not with a Cooked Breakfast - the sauce from the beans and the fried eggs are Not Friends.

If we get the chance when we're in London and it's late at night, we try to go to the Beigel Bake in Brick Lane, where for very little money you can get a bagel stuffed with cream cheese and a very generous amount of smoked salmon. Perfect sustenance for the trip back to Colchester after a day's shopping.

For cheap DIY eating, beans on toast, or baked potatoes with butter and a generous grind of pepper (grated cheese optional) can be dishes fit for a king, if you're in the mood for them.

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

When I was growing up, sometimes we'd have pancakes for supper. I thought this was the coolest thing ever, breakfast for supper. Years later, I was talking to my mom one evening while I was making pancakes for supper, telling her what wonderful memories those meals were. She then says, "Oh, baby, we were so poor, that's all I could afford to fix on those nights."

Way to sully a cherished memory ma [Roll Eyes]

One of my favorite quick, cheap, comfort food meals is a bowl of pasta with a little butter and a lot of garlic. I have been known to fix that for myself in the wee wee hours of the morning...

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

I'm with BessHiggs on the pasta with butter and garlic - scrumptious!

A variant when I was still gainfully employed was to put the pasta on, chop an onion into a frying pan with butter and a little olive oil then a spoonful of garlic paste from a jar then a few brickettes of frozen chopped spinach and some chilli paste from a jar. Drain the pasta and add to the now ready hot brown sludge and it was a gorgeous, filling meal.

Cheese on toast is another easy standby and using bits of different white, red and blue [or even green] cheeses pretty patterns can be created - and crumpets with cheese melted into them are glorious - particularly with a spoonful of Branston Pickle™.

I really think we need a drool smiley.

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :

Egg and chips, cooked in lard - which is actually not that unhealthy, in moderation, by my nana.

Sardines on toast (you really need the kind in oil for this, it crisps up the toast). I should try it with anchovies since I love anchovies, or upgrade to scotch woodcock.

My nana used to make soft cod or herring roe (also called milts) into a kind of fritter, eaten with lots of salt and vinegar - yum.

Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :

One of my favourites is potatoes cut into chip shapes, roasted in the oven with oil, with cheese added for the last ten minutes of roasting.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

quote:
Originally posted by piglet:

If we get the chance when we're in London and it's late at night, we try to go to the Beigel Bake in Brick Lane, where for very little money you can get a bagel stuffed with cream cheese and a very generous amount of smoked salmon. Perfect sustenance for the trip back to Colchester after a day's shopping.

The perfect food for eating at 3 in the morning, having walked back from clubbing in the West End (I used to live in Bethnal Green).

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

A thing you don't see now - I suspect BSE-prompted regulation did for them - is lamb bones. They were butcher's debris - ribs and vertebrae and the like. You roasted them and then gnawed off all the little sweet scraps of meat and fat. It was the sort of meal where you not only got grease on your fingers but your ears.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I can recommend getting an allotment or growing your own veg (even if it's just one thing in a pot or windowbox). They're usually much nicer than anything you'll buy in a supermarket, even the "Supermarket's Best". Also, they're free, and it's "family fun" - children can enjoy seeing veg grow and picking fruit, which IMO is a part of childhood every child should have.

[ 30. June 2013, 08:21: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :

I love the idea of growing my own, but for me, attempts to grow my own herbs proved considerably more expensive than buying them from Asda. The herbs I was growing were continually getting eaten by slugs, so I was trying all kinds of methods to deter/kill the slugs. When it got to the point where I was buying beer to make beer traps (the one method which did actually work) I realised that it would be a lot cheaper to go to Asda at the end of the day and buy herbs from the reduced aisle, when they are reduced to 2p!

Having said that, my sage and rosemary have never been eaten by slugs - they are the two herbs that have lasted. But my repeated attempts to grow mint, parsley, coriander and basil were always thwarted by slugs!

Another option, though, is to go foraging and pick wild edible plants. There is a field I walk through on my way to work which is full of wild mint, so I always pick some and then make mint tea with it when I get to work. I've also sometimes picked nettles from the woods (I take gloves and scissors, so I don't get stung) and made soup from them - they are full of nutrients and very tasty. And I love blackberry picking in the woods too.

Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :

<tangent>

COpper slug tape is fab.

</tangent>

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
<tangent>

COpper slug tape is fab.

</tangent>

Or a band of fine gravel around plants in the ground.

There used be a "restaurant" called No Names in a run-down area within walking distance of the Sydney CBD. It could still be there. For something around $6 a head, you stood on the stairs until a table became free, the were served a huge bowl of spag bol, a piece of veal and a salad. Either you took your own drink or there was unlimited serve-yourself weak orange cordial. If you wanted an after dinner coffee or cake, there were coffee shops around the corner. Obviously not a place to go to for a romantic dinner, but great after a couple of drinks at the pub, or for a quick bite before the theatre or a film.

[ 30. June 2013, 12:15: Message edited by: Gee D ]

Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:

quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
<tangent>

COpper slug tape is fab.

</tangent>
Or a band of fine gravel around plants in the ground.

I've tried the band of fine gravel (and also sand, and egg shells!) and it always washed away in the rain. The copper tape looks promising though - I might try putting it all round my house, as the slugs manage to get into my kitchen and living room too!

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :

I'd second the copper slug tape recommendation, it's the only thing we've found that works.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Advice on how to deter slugs would be most welcome on the Gardening thread, where this is a kind of perennial FAQ.

(Advice on how to cook them, free and plentiful though they may be, probably belongs in Hell.)

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
A thing you don't see now - I suspect BSE-prompted regulation did for them - is lamb bones. They were butcher's debris - ribs and vertebrae and the like. You roasted them and then gnawed off all the little sweet scraps of meat and fat. It was the sort of meal where you not only got grease on your fingers but your ears.

Butchers might not have them on display but they'll definitely have them in - well-worth an ask (ditto ham bones for making soup with). Also, Chinese supermarkets should have them (along with other cheap goodies - chillies, ginger, garlic, massive bunches of coriander, chinese or garlic chives which taste quite different to the regular kind).

I also recommend the big bags of broken basmati (and sometimes even jasmine) rice in Indian/Asian grocery stores - nobody notices the broken grains.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

quote:
Either you took your own drink or there was unlimited serve-yourself weak orange cordial

I remember the cordial. Disgusting, but then I have never liked such stuff. No Names for a while had offspring in various pubs around here. I remember one in a pub near Evangeline and another at Burwood. Haven't heard anything of it for years.

When I was still at school many years ago, we spent January at a lovely beach on the Central Coast on Broken Bay. Our evening meal was always a picnic around the point on the rocks looking back towards Sydney and Barrenjoey.

After lunch dad would make sandwiches for all of us. Always the same. Garlic sausage, thinly sliced onion and tomato. Four Sao biscuits put together with strong bitey cheddar and an orange. I still think of this nostalgically and Saos with cheese is a trigger for the nostalgia.

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
... soft cod or herring roe (also called milts) into a kind of fritter ...

When I was a very small piglet, my mum used to do cod roe like that, coated in bright orange Ruskoline breadcrumbs; I remember loving it, but I can't for the life of me think what (if anything) she served with it.

That's just reminded me of the patties/rissoles she made with left-over Sunday joints and potatoes (and the obligatory Ruskoline), served with tomato ketchup - I can taste them yet ...

**sigh**

Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :

When I was a child, in the late fifties, battered cod roe featured regularly on our family menu. Served with chips & peas - or at least that's how they figure in my memory. My mother used to cook scollops, too, but made with slices of potato, like circular chips, rather than mash shaped into rounds.
I don't think cod roe and scollops ever appeared together on the same plate.

Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :

... Soft herring roes were one of my father's favourite dishes, served on buttered toast and sprinkled with with lots of pepper.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

I like two fish tacos from Del Taco and the Atkins special (fresh hamburger meat with cheese and condiments wrapped in a lettuce leaf) from In'n'Out Burger. Both are under $4 US or £2.50. First-rate lunches both of them!

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

By the way, if you are in the US so you can actually order the latter, my lovely bride has told me it is called "protein salad" and it is her favourite.

Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :

Dinner (or indeed, supper) chez Junior PeteC was often stewed tomatoes, with bread and margarine. Or pancakes spread thinly with jam (or white or brown sugar, whatever Mother had in the house) A small roast of beef, or a chicken, or a pork roast was reserved for company or for Sundays, if for some reason, there was enough money in the house. A tin of vegetable soup, thinned with a little more water than called for often served as supper with omnipresent bread and margarine (Butter was seriously expensive, and only seen at Christmas and Easter.)
eta:
I should be clear that these meals were stretched to feed 3 adults and 5 children

[ 01. July 2013, 14:36: Message edited by: PeteC ]

Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :

quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
(Butter was seriously expensive, and only seen at Christmas and Easter.)

Butter is still known as 'christmas' to most of my family as that's the only time we ever had it.

Posted by cheesymarzipan (# 9442) on :

Something I loved when i was in Liverpool was the doughnut stands that are everywhere there. 5 small doughnuts covered in sugar for £1 (or £1.50 or whatever). The smell of the sugar just makes me want more.
A similar DIY version could be eggy bread with lots of sugar. It smells the same anyway!

Posted by Photo Geek (# 9757) on :

To me, the best summer meal is sweet corn on the cob (usually 3 ears for $1.00) and a freshly picked tomato from my garden. [Axe murder]

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

Fish and chips from the fish shop in Newlyn eaten sitting on the seats by the bridge, warding off seagulls.
The squidgy strawberries that weren;t good enough to freeze and eaten for Sunday breakfast after we'd been fruit picking on a Saturady.
Good granary bread from the bakers in town cut in culfs (not sure of the spelling - it's Wenglish) with lots of butter.

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Local Italian deli on Friday nights during the summer has a great special. Arrive at 6 order a bowl of yummy home made pasta with bread and a bottle of wine. take it outside to the court yard, with tables jammed so close you have to talk to your neighbors. Total price for 2 is just under $20.00. Then stay for the free show. Mostly local talent, and often very good. Well, there was the one night the singer was drunk, but even that was an interesting experience. Tip the jar and away you go for a pauper night out.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Photo Geek:
To me, the best summer meal is sweet corn on the cob...

Our recommended method of cooking is:
1) put water on to boil
2) go out to pick corn
3) eat corn before you get back to the boiling water.

Years ago, two of us stopped in a Chinese Restaurant in Fiji one evening to use up our local currency before leaving the next morning. We ordered 3 dishes to share, it was delicious, we stuffed ourselves and couldn't finish it all. Total cost was about $3.

A couple of our local supermarkets still do a lot of their own meat trimming, and often have 1kg packages of "bacon ends and pieces" or "ham for flavoring", either of which will dress up a huge pit of split pea soup and several other dishes.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cheesymarzipan:
Something I loved when i was in Liverpool was the doughnut stands that are everywhere there. 5 small doughnuts covered in sugar for £1 (or £1.50 or whatever). The smell of the sugar just makes me want more.

I must walk around with my eyes closed (or nostrils averted). I have never noticed them and I live there! But then I don't like doughnuts so probably mentally tune them out.

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Carex:

quote:
Originally posted by Photo Geek:
To me, the best summer meal is sweet corn on the cob...
Our recommended method of cooking is:
1) put water on to boil
2) go out to pick corn
3) eat corn before you get back to the boiling .

Ditto for peas

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

A long time ago I used to work opposite Smithfield market in London -- on my way to work I'd walk through the market, dodging barrows laden with corpses and meat porters carrying whole pigs over their shoulder. I used to have lunch at a meat porters cafe -- meat and two veg, pudding (with custard) and a mug of tea, all for £1.40. Even in 1982 that was a complete bargain. And delicious too!

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by St. Gwladys:
Fish and chips from the fish shop in Newlyn eaten sitting on the seats by the bridge, warding off seagulls.
The squidgy strawberries that weren;t good enough to freeze and eaten for Sunday breakfast after we'd been fruit picking on a Saturady.
Good granary bread from the bakers in town cut in culfs (not sure of the spelling - it's Wenglish) with lots of butter.

I know you didn't mention it but now I am nostalgic for Welsh cakes!

The best I have ever had were made by old ladies from the parish church during carnival time in Tenby (or something like that - we were on holiday in Amroth), they were making them fresh on griddles outside the church, next to the 'guess the weight of the pig' stall. Best breakfast ever!

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

I used to buy fresh baked rolls or a small loaf of bread from DeLaurenti's in Pike Place Market (is this wonderful gourmet store still around? I'm visiting Seattle on July 18th and would love to go there) and maybe a pasta salad or a soup and then go down to Victor Steinbrueck Park, sketch or people watch. I used to be able to visit all sorts of little stores in the Market and assemble a nice lunch. It's one of the things I really miss about Seattle. Also, DeLaurenti's sold pizza by the slice... oh, god, those slices were huge but inexpensive. Seattle... I love you!

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Just remembered a childhood favorite. At the end of the month when Mom's budget was thin she would put a mound of mashed potatoes on my plate, make a dip in the center and fill it with warm stewed tomatoes that she thickened with corn starch and milk.

She called it creamed tomatoes in a hole. Other times she filled the hole with creamed corn. Not as good.

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

With five kids in my family, we didn't have a lot of money. But my mother was awfully inventive when money was tight. She could make a beef hash that was soooooo damn good! She would use leftover roast beef, celery, cubed potatoes and a homemade beef gravy. It was so filling. She also made two different kinds of potato salad. A hot, vinegary German potato salad which I hated but everyone else loved and a cold one with simple ingredients: Potatoes, mayonnaise, celery, onions, radishes and salt and pepper. I wish she had written this recipe down because I often find myself craving it... like about NOW! My dad would grill some pork chops and we'd have the cold potato salad with it and it was so damn good. Sorry... one more and I'll shut up for a minute! [Biased]

Hot dogs wrapped in bacon. Ummmmm!

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Things like risotto can also be cheap and filling - it doesn't have to include wine! A splash of oil, a bit of onion, a bit of garlic, a few mushrooms, a few frozen peas, a stock cube, water and some rice - simple!

It can also be tarted up with all sorts if you have it about and is very heaven if a little creme fraiche [full fat] is stirred in just before you serve it.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Or a little freshly-grated Parmesan. It's worth investing in a chunk. A little goes a long way, it keeps for ages and you can add the rinds to soup for extra flavour.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

...or BOTH!

Pecorino is another hard Italian cheese [made from sheep's milk?] that also goes well - and like Parmesan it is not cheap but a little goes a long way and if you keep it in the fridge wrapped in foil [not plastic] it last ages.

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Or a little freshly-grated Parmesan. It's worth investing in a chunk. A little goes a long way, it keeps for ages and you can add the rinds to soup for extra flavour.

Oh, lordy, I love me some Parmesan! [Big Grin]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Sorry for DP:

I think at the core of creating good, entertaining meals on a budget are:

1] - creative shopping; and

2] - portion control.

I agree with the point above about buying stuff that is close to sell buy date, if it still looks good. Just a little of something more expensive can actually be a bargain.

Also, don't be scared of buying reasonable size tins of tomatoes, or whatever, and storing the unused bit in a plastic tub in the fridge for a day or two. Small tins are a rip-off!

In Liverpool we were lucky having several Asian grocery stores where exotics were a lot cheaper.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0