We’d all love to have mountains of free pizza and burgers, and bathtubs overflowing with beer (the kind of dark water you’d love to be saddled with), but…You can’t have everything you want, and you got to live with the New York you have. Which basically means happy hour, cheap drinks and free food. Why is free pub-grub so important? Ahhh…ever been broke in New York? If you’d ever had to decide between a pizza and a drink, with loose change jingling in your pockets and nothing much else, you’d know very well how sweet a cold beer tastes, and how your stomach rumbles and you twist and turn at night, but somehow the sleep just won’t come. 

Well, broke or not, you no longer need to make that Devil’s choice.  For a dollar plus drink, you can gorge for free on pizza slices and buffett spreads, trays full of burgers, dogs and sausages and lots of free snacks. Below is a master list of NYC bars and pubs offering free food with cheap drinks. Have fun.

Alligator Lounge: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is ground zero for free bar food, and the bar which got the ball rolling on this free food fest in NYC is the Alligator Lounge, where you can grab a brick oven pizza if you buy a drink all night long. Regulars play pool and watch games at the bar, groups keep coming in and going out, downing truckloads of pizas and washing it down with pitchers of Guiness. Photo credit - Garrett Murray/Flickr

Time was when all you saw were chicks in tight jeans and some of the guys from the neighbourhood just hanging around in the evenings. Of late though, its getting too crowded by half, probably because word of the free pizza has gotten around, and there’s all kinds of folks, and gangs of teenagers streaming in and out. And you have to pay an extra $2 for toppings. Besides, with other bars and lounges being spruced up and new ones coming up everywhere, the Alligator looks even more seedy now, and if it weren’t for the free pizza, they’d probably be out of business. But it’s still the Alligator, where people live off the darn pizza, and enjoy it too.  Info: 600 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211 (near Lorimer St.); (718) 599-4440; www.alligatorlounge.com

Crocodile Lounge: Let’s just say that the Crocodile is the rich Manhattan cousin to the Alligator’s down home Brooklyn seediness, if you can excuse saying rich and free food in the same sentence. Drinks are costlier, it’s less crowded and the clientele is slightly less diverse and more ‘dignified’, but not by much. Otherwise, it’s about the same. Info: 325 E 14th St (1st & 2nd Ave) East Village New York NY; (212) 477-7747

The Watering Hole: Formerly Tracy J’s Watering Hole, it’s now known simply as the Watering Hole. While it’s lost of bit of the atmosphere with the name change, there’s still weird music belting out from the karoake, mostly drunk chicks and plenty of regulars downing rounds of beers make this more of a regular bar than a free food joint, so you can actually hope to have a fun time and get drunk yourself. Plenty of screens to watch the games, the staff is pretty good at their work and friendly, so you don’t get riled up with botched orders or being ignored. The pub offers a free food buffett during happy hour on weekdays from 5.30-6.30 p.m. The buffett keeps changing so not much point in trying to pin it down to specifics, but hey…It’s free. Info: 106 E 19th St (Irving Pl. & Park Ave. South) Gramercy New York NY; (212) 674-5783

Hank’s Saloon: A Brooklyn institution, and one of the few bars which remains just the same, Hank’s Saloon offers $2 beer with free BBQ sponsored by Soul! Sausage. It’s not just about the food - It’s the live Country music, the cheap drinks, the shows, the vibe, the $2 beer, the free burgers, all kinds of people, young and old, black, white, brown, you name it - Everyone gets drunk and there’s country music blaring out and punks breakdancing with lovely young chicks. Generally speaking, its a wild scene and you’re sure to have a good time, along with the free food . It’s the quintessential New York experience which has been lost somewhere in the glitter of the high-rises and big hotels and the political correctness of the elites of downtown Manhattan, which sad to say, has spread like a virus into Brooklyn. Thankfully, Hank’s Saloon is one of the last known such refuges left in Brooklyn. Info: 46 3rd Ave ( Atlantic Ave ) Brooklyn New York; (718) 625-8003

There are a heck of a lot more bars and pubs and lounges who offer free food, including the Rodeo Bar on 3rd Ave which serves nachos and wings, rocking Horse cafe on 8th Ave with baskets of tortilla chips and salsa bowls at the bar, Trash Bar in Williamsburg which dishes out tater tots along with drinks, Lost & Found on Franklin St. which piles up bagels and hot dogs, and Rudy’s in the Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood which offers free hot dogs.

Remains to be said that most of these joints serve out free snacks just to maintain the liquor intake, which would be cut down a lot without the food. I mean, it’s quite easy to have a couple more drinks when you have free food on the table. So, the bars which offer ‘real’ food, as opposed to nibblers which will just keep you on the edge and away from getting soused or throwing up, are the ones you want to end up at, if you’re looking for free grub with a drink. And if you have any more bars you know of, feel free to add them to the list in the comments. 

There are times when New York begins to bite. Everything seems to be going horribly wrong, and you feel so very alone, walking against the tide of humanity flowing out of Grand Central or jostling with the well-heeled shoppers on Fifth Ave. Everybody seems to be so busy and having such a good time in the Big Apple - Except for poor you with nothing to do and no money to do it even if you wanted to. At times like these, when you’re in the dumps, I usually retreat from the merciless inhumanity of Downtown Manhattan and seek comfort in Harlem with some real soul food and quiet jazz.

Life here is still simple, and you’re not expected to have a gazillion tucked away in stock options. Whatever you may or may not be, you’re still welcome at M & G’s at the corner of 125th & Morningside near St. Nicholas Ave, for a heaping plate of fried chicken and then hang around for a couple of hours nursing a cup of iced tea and nibbling on a short rib sandwich. You can perch on your stool and yak with the regulars about what’s happening in Harlem. They’ll happily talk to strangers, and all you have to do is nod along and listen, with the jukebox belting out an excellent selection of jazz, soul and R&B tunes. There’s something comforting about the place, which makes you forget all about your pathetic existence, and just flow with it. 

And it helps that the food is great and prices are still cheap, inspite of all the fame the M & G has recieved recently. I’d much rather prefer to cure my blues with some 20 odd dollars at M & G’s, than visit a therapy hack who charges by the hour…You can, of course, visit the M & G Diner, if just like soul food or you’re just looking to get acquainted with New York and Harlem. Info: 383 W. 125th St., New York, NY 10027; (212) 864-7326  

Another place I used to hang out at in Harlem until recently is Amy Ruth’s, located at 113 W 116th St., New York, NY 10026. Right now, it’s a bit over-rated and the waiting lines for a table are getting longer than I’m used to, which is why I shifted base to M & G’s, but it’s still pretty good, if you’re looking for soul food in NYC. The meals are named after famous folks like the Rev. Al Sharpton, and they serve up a smashing dessert - The Inez Bass, a red velvet cake. It feels good to be able to stick a fork into the good Rev. Sharpton, if you know what I mean… 

Other notable soul food joints in Harlem include Miss Maude’s on 547 Lenox Ave, Charles’ Southern Style Kitchen on 2841 Frederick Douglass Blvd and the nearby Londel’s Supper Club on Striver’s Row, which also features live jazz performances during the weekend. Londel’s chicken and waffles aren’t too bad either, and their Sunday brunch spread is a pretty good example of what Harlem soul food is all about.

Kathleen Lucadamo, NY Daily News, has some startling revelations in an ‘ Obecity fat study’ regarding New York’s collective waistline.

New Yorkers collectively gained more than 10 million pounds in two years, according to Health Department data released Wednesday. During the same period, between 2002 and 2004, obesity rates and diabetes cases swelled 17% and 173,500 of New Yorkers moved into the obesity range, health officials found. Health bigwigs blamed syrupy sodas in part for the city’s fat surge, saying that 27% of New Yorkers drink nearly two sodas a day - 300 nutrition-free calories. The survey of 10,000 adults showed that obesity ballooned 20% among whites in the city compared with 7% nationally. Obesity rates here grew 14% among Hispanics but nationally didn’t rise significantly for groups other than whites. Foreign-born New Yorkers experienced the sharpest increase in obesity at 33% since 2002, meaning that 22.4% of that population is obese.  

10 million pounds in 2 years…I have this mental picture of a fat waldo named New York who just gained 10 million pounds. Wow! Time to dust off the old nike and join the fitness freaks at central park. But seriously, exrecise and diet is just one-half of the equation. Fact of the matter is that New Yorkers are exposed to much more culinary delights than other cities. There’s so much more to eat - so many restaurants, so many diners, so many tempatations, and the food is so cheap (some NYC residents might disagree, but it is cheap, if you know the right places…). In fact, I’d say that New York, along with a lot of other awards, also takes the cake for being the biggest food fanatic in the nation.

As Exhibit A, I present to you yesterday’s New York Times column by Henry Alford, whose sole mission is to explain how you can prepare delicious dishes and eat tasty stuff by buying ‘only at 99 cent stores and outlets’.

In fact, he labels his column as a primer on ‘How to survive in New York on 99 cents’. Here’s some brief excerpts.

 There are 99-cent stores, and then there is Jack’s. It’s Closeout Central, an off-brand oasis. Located at 110 West 32nd Street, near Herald Square, with satellite stores at 16 East 40th Street and 45 West 45th Street, Jack’s has not only lots of freezer cases and five or more aisles full of food, but also an upstairs gourmet section with more upscale items — Buitoni and Bertagni prepared pastas, Lindt and Ferrero chocolates, Hero jams — at prices ranging from about $1.99 to $4.99…I visited 21 more 99-cent stores in Manhattan, including 12 in Harlem and Washington Heights, 4 in Chinatown and 1 in Spanish Harlem.

And this is just in addition to all the cheap eats in Brooklyn and Queens and the dimsums and rice bowls Chinatown, and the low priced greasy soulfood and juicy New York steaks and ubiquitous burgers and hotdog stands and pizzerias. All this comes with the who-gives-a-shit nutrition-free abondon which poverty forces one into, washed down with sodas and draft beers which further set the calorie counters clanging.

This proves that it’s a crime to be poor or rich in New York, and not just because you have to pay more taxes than your fair share. Its also because you’re exposed to higher calories. The rich because they have the money to throw away at parties and stuff their faces from dawn to dusk, besides not having to do any work to burn thoise calories, and the poor because they have no choice - They have to eat cheap fatty foods and they have no jobs to burn the calories. The middle-class never had it so good…

Buffalo, NY lies at the confluence of Lake Erie and the Niagara River, 400 miles northwest of New York City and 100 miles southwest of Toronto. And a few blocks north of downtown Buffalo sits the Anchor Bar, at 1047 Main at North St., home of the ‘Buffalo Chicken Wings’.

It was here, way back in 1964, that Teressa Bellissimo deep-fried some wings, covered them in a special secret sauce and served them to her son’s friends along with blue cheese dip as hors d’oeuvres. Before that fateful day, chicken wings were either used for soup or simply thrown away. Today, Frank & Teressa Bellissimo’s Original Anchor Bar Buffalo Wing Sauce has launched a thousand variations across the globe, and Buffalo Wings are now a staple at eateries around the world, not just in Buffalo or New York.

The Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar are deep fried chicken wings, served with hot sauce, celery stalks and blue cheese dressing. Here’s the original Anchor Bar Hot Wing recipe, create by Teressa Bellissimo, and brought to you via Totally Hot! The Ultimate Hot Pepper Cookbook.

4 to 5 Lbs chicken wings, freshly ground black pepper, salt (if desired), 4 cups vegetable Oil, 4 TBS butter or margarine (1/2 stick), 5 TBS Louisiana-brand hot sauce or Tabasco sauce (use Franks Red Hot), 1 TBS white wine vinegar

Chop off the tip of each chicken wing, and discard it. Chop each wing in half (cutting at the joint) to make 2 pieces. Grind on fresh black pepper and sprinkle with salt if desired. Heat the oil over high heat in a deep skillet, Dutch oven, or deep-fat fryer until it starts to pop and sizzle (around 400F). Add half the chicken wings and cook until they’re golden and crisp, stirring or shaking occasionally. When done, remove them to drain on paper towels and cook the remaining wings. Melt the butter or margarine over medium heat in a heavy saucepan, add the hot sauce and the 1 TBS of vinegar. Stir well and remove from the flame immediately. Place the chicken on a warm serving platter, pour the sauce on top, and serve.

Today’s Anchor Bar & restaurant serves not only the famed Buffalo wings, but also splendid Italian and American cuisine using original recipes. Try their stuffed hot peppers ($6), served with bread, and stuffed with Italian sausage, cream cheese and romano  cheese, or the combo plate for $7 with two potato skins stuffed with ham and mozzarella cheese, two chicken fingers and two pizza logs served with sauce for dipping. For dessert, try one of their New York style cheesecakes ($4.50).

The Anchor Bar is also good for a quick bite to eat, with an assorted variety of hot and cold sandwiches, pizzas and tacos , washed down with a cheap beer. The food here is tasty, filling, cheap and its historic. It’s what we call a New York experience. Must visit if you’re a foodie in New York.

Besides, Buffalo has a lot of things, other than Niagara, to do and see. There’s the Albert Knox Art Gallery, Wilcox Mansion (site of Theodore Roosevelt’s historic amd improvised inauguration ceremony), The BUffalo Naval Park and the Buffalo Zoo, among others.

Info: Anchor Bar - 1047 Main Street Buffalo, New York 14209; (716) 884-4083, www.anchorbar.com

Web links: Buffalo, New York - hotels, visitors, Niagara USA

On my numerous culinary expeditions, I have always made it a point to visit the ethnic restaurant districts in each city I visit. Often times, these ethnic restaurants bunched up in a row offer the best food available in the area, at prices lower than those at the big name diners with standard American cuisine.

Besides, you have no idea how wonderful it is to wipe off a plate of spicy Chicken Tikka Masala with a Roti at an Indian diner for an early brunch, fill up the tank with a falafel or hummus for a late lunch at a middle-eastern eatery, followed by a lazy candlelight dinner at a Thai pavilion with succulent roast duck or tender pigeon breast on the menu. Enjoy a day of ethnic fare like that, and you’ll forget all about burgers and pizzas.

Point I’m trying to make is that I have a pretty fair idea of what ethnic cuisine should taste like. And of all the restaurants that I have been to, I’d rate only two Mediterranean restaurants at the top of any ethnic dining list - The Dish Dash restaurant in Sunnyvale, CA, and the Cafe Mogador in New York’s East Village. And if you’re talking about NYC, there’s not a single Moroccan restaurant which comes remotely close to the Cafe Mogador, in terms of the quality of service and taste of the food.

Located in the heart of the East Village, Cafe Mogador is one of the must-visit restaurants on New York’s ethnic dining circuit. Ever since its opening way back in 1983, the warmth and charmth this cozy restaurant exudes, along with the deliciously tasty Mediterranean cuisine, has been a major draw for both residents and visitors to the Big Apple.

Unlike most other ethnic restaurants on St. Mark’s Place, which have over time devolved into tourist traps and chain eateries with overpriced canned menus, the Cafe Mogador still maintains its independence, personalized service and the originality and taste of its cuisine, not to mention a very reasonably priced menu.

Like all good restaurants, the food is tasty and filling, reasonably priced,  service  exceptional and the ambience comfortable, with outdoor seating under the awning for lunch on warm spring days and a cozy indoor setting with an amber glow for dinner on a cold winter evening. Try their mixed platter ($8.95) with olive oil sprinkled Hummus and Babaganush, served with a superb Tabouli and Arabic salad. The Cous Cous is also something you’ll remember long after the plates have been cleared.

Info: 101 St. Marks Place, East Village, between 1st Ave & Ave A; (212) 677-2226