Filling Your Belly During The Recession

By Brian Bernbaum Mon., Mar. 31 2008 at 9:16 AM

In homage to the coming recession, a New York Times reporter made dinner every night for a week using (mostly) supplies picked up at 99-cent stores, culminating in a final weekend dinner part for friends, comprised solely of 99-cent items. Over the course of the week, 22 99-cent stores across Manhattan were surveyed. Predictably, Little Debbie and Goya played major supporting roles. The dinner party menu went like this:

Antipasto of "pepperoncini, olives, artichoke hearts, crackers, very greasy salami and a hockey puck of Brie ..."

Chilled pear soup "nothing more than a mixture of Goya and Kern’s pear nectars that I served in beautiful Chinese bowls with star anise floating on top."

Entree: " ... penne with peas and turkey bacon in a light cream sauce gave way to much conversation about frozen peas."

Dessert: "The flourless pecan torte ... met with approval, but nothing like the semiriotous adulation inspired by my subsequent offering of a 3.5-oz. Toblerone bar."

No too shabby for eating on the very, very cheap. On that note, Slashfood scraped up a list of seven cheap eating web resources to help bargain home cooks. Count your pennies people.

Photo courtesy/NY Mag