Cheap Eats New York

I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer afford to eat in New York City. I can no longer afford the overpriced gourmet yuppie (Young Urban Professional) food in this town, or at least in this neighborhood the East Village, and that I may have to resort to dumpster diving, where you can actually find some really good food, and/or soup kitchens in order to continue to eat. Maybe I can compile a list of restaurants who give out leftovers at the end of the day after they close. Do they exist? For there is a ton of good food being thrown out and wasted in this town everyday at unbelievable and unbearable proportions to witness. City Harvest is an organization that collects this food to give away to others, and that is a good deed indeed. Maybe I should try calling them to see if they have any good food to give away. Is the word "Gourmet" a code word for overpriced food that one cannot afford? For richer or for poorer, this Quality of Life gentrify the neighborhood campaign is doing me in. Am I paying for location, location, location for this item of food that can probably be found for less than half the price in Nowhere Ville, Nowhere Town? And every single building I walk past on the Island is food, food, food and more food to remind me that it's time to eat again and again nonstop for as long as I am walking around on the street. Every building I past seems to be either a food market or restaurant and I want to go in and eat at every single food establishment I past as the menu and food display always looks so good and appetizing. And forget about going into those Whole Foods Health Food Markets that are popping up everywhere these days. Only the rich or at least people who are willing to pay the price for those outrageously overpriced food items shop there. I would need a full time job just to be able to afford to impulse eat in this town. I am being reduced to a rice and beans, bread and water diet here and thereafter. No more sushi, lobster, crepe suzettes, le' ten string beans with fancy sauce de jour, tuna tartare, bagadou bagels, shi shi salads and cafe' au laite's for me anytime soon. A cheaper way of eating is at hand, somehow.