- My name is Prez, and I work at Thrillist.
Around these parts, I'm known as the 5 Dollar Lunch Guy.
Every episode, I'm gonna put you guys
onto the very finest New York grub for $5 or less.
(upbeat electronic music)
(phone rings)
Hello?
- [Caller] East Village...
- What?
- [Caller] East Village...
- Who is this?
- [Caller] "Operation $5 Lunch."
- Oh, OK.
Huh, East Village.
For five bucks, you can go to a lot
of places in the East Village.
With all that selection, where should we go?
Definitely gonna need help for this one.
Yo Khushbu!
- [Khushbu] Hey Prez.
- What up dude?
- [Khushbu] What's up?
- So I have a mission today, and it's East Village,
and I definitely need your help, please.
- [Khushbu] If I were you, I would
go to Punjabi Grocery & Deli.
You can get two veggies over rice or a roti
if you're feeling some flatbread.
- Oh the taxi place!
Yeah, I know that one.
Dude, you're a genius, I owe you.
All right guys, so that opens up so many options.
I mean we can get shimla aloo.
We can get maybe curry lentil.
But no matter what I get,
I'm definitely putting a roti on top of it.
Guys, Punjabi Grocery & Deli, let's do it.
So these are the rules of "Operation 5 Buck Lunch."
It's got to be good, 'cause nobody wants bad food for lunch.
No big chains, 'cause that's just too easy.
It's gotta be $5 or less.
And whatever I don't use today,
rolls over into the next episode.
(upbeat techno music)
Have you ever heard of a place
called Punjabi Grocery & Deli in the East Village?
- No I haven't.
- I have not.
- Really?
- No I haven't.
- It's a vegetarian restaurant
that serves Indian-style, Punjabi-style food,
24 hours a day, and it's like curried lentils
and potatoes and like roti.
Does that sound interesting?
- That sounds awesome.
- And it's all under five bucks as well.
- I'm always looking for good roti, actually.
- Nice.
- Everybody has their own favorite place
to go for a cheap eat, and I'll definitely
be checking out their suggestions, but we are on our way
to the one and only Punjabi Grocery & Deli.
And I'm super excited to get some vegetarian food
in me for a change.
Fun fact!
If you didn't know, the East Village was home
to one of the most important music venues in the world.
CBGB, which was home to American punk's
most important performances by legendary bands
such as the Ramones, Bad Brains, Misfits, and Blondie.
Now unfortunately, while they don't exist anymore,
you can still find the storefront where they used to exist.
(upbeat rock music)
Yo, Punjabi Grocery & Deli, we out here,
East [Houston] and East First -- yo, what up!
(camera shutters)
These guys have been here forever.
Usually serving East Village locals
and the massive amounts of taxi cabs
in the area delicious Punjabi-style vegetarian food
at all hours of the night.
Let's get in there.
- [Prez] What do you got here today?
- Some awesome vegetable dish from Punjabi.
- Oh yeah?
That's sick, why do you come here in particular?
- They always have really great food,
kinda know what you're getting.
They have the prices of them on it.
Honestly, half of the time I don't even know
what I'm getting. (Prez laughs)
It's just like, those colors look good, I'll try that.
- Well what do you like about Indian food in particular?
- It's healthy.
- Well it's my first time here,
what would you suggest for me?
- Do you like bitter-savory sort of stuff?
I'm sure they have a lot of real good dishes.
- I think I wanna go with
maybe the lentils
and the squash
in a small with rice and a roti.
How much does that come out to?
- $5.50?
I think that's the move,
I think that's the move, guys let's do it.
Thank you.
Guys, here we got rollover.
Let's do it.
(Indian-style music)
Yeah, I'm tempted.
I might just eat this right now, let's go.
The moment of truth.
Right now we have chickpeas and potato and peas.
And then under that, we have a thick layer of rice.
Of course we have my roti.
I'm gonna start with the potatoes and the peas.
Let's go for it.
Yeah, oh wow.
The potatoes seem to be boiled
and then flavored with the curry.
And of course the peas are mixed in beautifully,
perfectly cooked,
there's a little bit of crunch to the peas,
and of course the potatoes are soft,
but together with this curry, they're both a medium hot.
On the other side, we have these chickpeas.
Let's see how they do.
(camera shutters)
The chickpeas aren't curried.
I'm not really familiar with the sauce that this is,
but it's really good, it's kind of a milder sauce.
So it's not necessarily something
that will light you on fire.
This is solid chickpeas.
Now, let's see what this rice is doing.
This rice has peas in it as well.
In case you're wondering where we're sitting right now,
we are sitting in prime real estate.
The one and only seat, in this entire place.
Let's get to this roti man,
because I've been hyped for this all day.
Take this, and throw it right in there.
(camera shutters)
Give me a second, sorry about that.
This is like a hole-in-the-wall gem
that serves locals, passersby,
a fleet of taxi guys,
and they serve them all like they're family.
This is my first time here,
and the guy's chatting me up like he knows me.
Yo, this is a lot of food, and I'm not a vegetarian,
and I know I'm gonna be satisfied, but,
maybe my eyes were a little bit bigger than my stomach.
I think we're gonna need a transition
to get to the end of this.
Today's mission brought us to the heart of the East Village.
To hit up a neighborhood staple
that serves both cabbies and communities equally, man.
Yo, for real, I'm not a vegetarian,
but this stuff is absolute banger.
I will 100% be back.
"Operation 5 Buck Lunch": East Village was an absolute success.
It's in budget, not a big chain, and it was damn good.
Anyways guys, I'll see you later, bye.
(camera shutters) (upbeat rock music)
Hi Lee, how are you doing?
- Hi Prez, I'm good how are you?
- What are you doing here today?
- I'm making some sangria right now actually.
This is for a new show called "$30 Dinner Party."
We go all around the city, and Thrillist helps people
that are a little bit low on cash
to throw awesome dinner parties for their friends.
- So, check out my friend Lee.
"$30 Dinner Party," do that.
She'll be your friend, I don't know if you saw.
There's a video somewhere, somebody will link it,
she wants to be your friend,
and she wants to throw you dinner parties.
- I'ma be your friend - And now she's my friend,
and she's gonna throw me dinner parties.
Anyways, comment, like, follow, subscribe.
And I'll see you later, peace.
- Bye.