Canelé de Bordeaux, Buffalo hot pepper cakes, Ghananian peanut soup with fufu, and more
Here’s the third in a series of tipsheets on Buffalo-area eating opportunities at $10 and under, priced to get you moving.
The cuisines of Buffalo (Mandy’s, West Seneca), Ghana (Yalley’s), Greece (That Greek Guy Bakery), France (Waxlight Bar a Vin), and Thailand (Nine & Night) star this time around.
All it takes is one Alexander Hamilton, or less. Immigrants: They get the job done.
Mandy’s Cafe, hot pepper cakes, $9.95
3796 Clinton St., West Seneca, 716-771-1553
Neighborhood tavern with better-than-usual bar food rocks a no-nonsense version of the famed Buffalo stuffed pepper. Cheeses, breadcrumbs, fresh chiles, all the right stuff, are chopped and formed into patties that are browned on the flattop and served with marinara and bread.
That Greek Guy Bakery, bougatsa, $6
999 Broadway (Broadway Market), greekguybakery.com, 716-200-9825
Fresh custard baked in flaky phyllo and dusted with powdered sugar – cinnamon or regular – bougatsa disappear fast from Michael Giokas’ Broadway Market bakery stand. They should be in stock Thursday afternoon. (He asks that you call him first before you head down hungry, because he’d hate to disappoint.)
Yalley’s African Restaurant, peanut soup, $9.50
290 Kenmore Ave., yalleys.com, 716-322-1012
The Ghanaian-centered African menu here can teach you savory lessons in jollof rice, deep-fried marinated turkey butts, and red-red, black-eyed peas in palm oil. It’s still the peanut soup with fufu that got me, a peanut broth alive with habanero holding boiled bone-in chicken. Plus fufu, which is like mashed potatoes with character.
Nine & Night Thai Cuisine, mango sticky rice, $6.99
414 Amherst St., nineandnight.com, 716-541-7963
Thai restaurants aren’t known for dessert, but mango sticky rice like Nine & Night’s should change that. Fresh fruit sliced to order atop a bed of warm sweetened rice of Play-Doh consistency. Over the top, coconut cream makes it a vegan tropical triumph.
Waxlight Bar a Vin, canelé de Bordeaux, $4
27 Chandler St., waxlightbaravin.com
One of Buffalo’s most famous restaurants beckons explorers with a plethora of sub-$10 dishes. There are actually eight at $6 or under on its current menu. Three-bite thrills and housemade desserts like a classic French canelé de Bordeaux, a Devil’s Tower of caramelized cruller, make Waxlight the classiest cheap date in town.
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