Triangles below Canal: Egg salad sandwiches at Broad Street's Pret a Manger.

SANDWICHING IT IN
Best things since sliced bread

There's more to making a Cuban sandwich than throwing some ham and cheese on a roll, tossing the thing onto the sandwich press, and twiddling your thumbs until it's ready. Harlem's La Flor de Broadway earns its nickname, "El Rey del Sandwich Cubano," by meticulously basting the bun with margarine -- while the sandwich cooks in the press -- and generally lavishing attention on the thing as if it were a Thanksgiving turkey. The result is perfectly thin and crispy outside, and juicy within ($2.50). And believe it or not, the simple but similarly fawned over Swiss-cheese sandwich ($2) is even better.

We consider an elaborately dressed "churrasco" (grilled-chicken-breast sandwich, $5.75 to $8.75) at Island Burgers and Shakes to be virtually a two-for-one special. Remove some of the excess meat from the sandwich, fold it into the accompanying garnish of crisp romaine leaves as you would Korean barbecue, and share with your Zone-dieter friend. Be sure to order yours blackened (a couple degrees of Cajun heat short of a call to Jacoby & Meyers) and on a Sullivan Street Bakery ciabatta roll.

None of the prepacked but fresh and tasty sandwiches at the Wall Street outpost of the British fast-food chain Pret A Manger costs more than $5.55, including a $3.25 egg salad and cress on wheat, a boon for wounded Wall Street warriors. And by fall, three more branches opening in midtown will challenge the pricier Mangia's sandwich supremacy.

If egg salad on wheat bread is too white-bread for you, try a banh mi, the Vietnamese hoagie made with mysterious-looking -- but perfectly delicious -- lunch meats. At Viet-Nam Banh Mi So 1, $2.50 will buy you a warm hero roll crammed with a salty-spicy-crunchy-sweet combo of crumbly barbecued pork (red), a slice of cured pork (pink), "pork roll" (beige), cucumber, cilantro, pickled carrots, homemade mayo, and a dash of tangy hot sauce. And think of No. 16 on the menu at Chinatown's Dumpling House, the "sesame pancake with beef," as the banh mi's poor relation: a pizza-slice-size triangular wedge of bready sesame-studded pancake split open like a pita and layered with thin slices of beef, shredded carrots, and cilantro and topped off with a squirt of "beef juice," just $1.50.

LA FLOR DE BROADWAY, 3401 Broadway, at 138th St. (212-926-4190); ISLAND BURGERS AND SHAKES, 766 Ninth Ave., near 51st St. (212-307-7934); PRET A MANGER, 60 Broad St. (212-825-8825); VIET-NAM BANH MI SO 1, 369 Broome St. (212-219-8341); DUMPLING HOUSE, 118A Eldridge St. (212-625-8008).

HAUTE DOGS
And other street-food wonders

Fifth Avenue and 54th Street isn't the sort of corner where you'd expect to find a bargain, let alone a sign reading freaking deal, $5. But that's precisely what's written on the paper-plate sign taped to the Hallo Berlin street cart. Fans of bad puns and good German sausages will recognize the work of Hallo's owner, Rolf Babiel. "It's a frik-a-delle, a German meatball, you get it?" said Rolf as he buried a beef-and-pork meatball under a mound of sautéed onions and tossed it into a paper basket along with an excellent, mildly spiced currywurst sausage and a vinegary heap of German potato salad studded with chopped sweet and sour German pickles, before giving the whole freaking thing a squirt of his proprietary paprika-heavy mustard and his curry steak sauce.

What attracted us to Otafuku, the tiny East Village kiosk specializing in Japanese takoyaki (an octopus-filled croquette) and okonomiyaki (a sort of cabbage-and-egg pancake), was the Wonkaesque sight of a polka-dot-bandanna'd cook squirting batter through what looks like an electric nail gun into a vibrating griddle, its indented surface resembling a giant egg carton. His partner simultaneously formed a cabbage-vegetable-and-egg mixture into patties, which sizzled on the grill under little metal domes; then he did a Jackson Pollock on both snacks with mayo and a thick, sweet barbecue-Worcestershire sauce, after which he gave the whole thing a liberal dusting of bonito flakes. Five dollars here buys six Ping-Pong-ball-size takoyaki, light and airy with a chunk of octopus in the center, a nice contrast of soft-chewy textures and sweet-salty flavors. And the beef, pork, squid, or shrimp-topped okonomiyaki will set you back $7 -- a bargain for such a hearty, satisfying cross between a seafood frittata and a pumped-up potato pancake.

Taxicabs on stilts -- not real ones but a Madison Square Park art installation -- will lead you to the hot-dog stand near Broadway and 23rd Street run by Eleven Madison Park restaurant to raise money for the park's continued restoration. For one afternoon, forget about civic pride and try a "Chicago dog" ($2.50), boiled with bay leaves, onions, garlic, and allspice and topped with tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, pickles, mustard, relish, hot chilies, and a dash of celery salt. It's practically a Cobb salad perched precariously on top of a hot dog and a sneaky way of getting you to eat your veggies.

OTAFUKU, 236 E. 9th St. (212-353-8503).

THAI REQUIRED
Bangkok for your buck

Too often, Thai chainlets give us what they think we want: too-sweet satays, tame tom yum, pallid pad Thai. The critical balance of hot, sour, salty, and sweet is lost in translation. There are exceptions -- namely, and most spectacularly, Sripraphai, a superb Thai kitchen housed inside a nondescript Woodside, Queens, storefront that looks about as cheerful as an H&R Block office. With all due respect to Mets fans -- if there are any left this season -- we can't think of a better reason to board the No. 7 train than feeding on crispy dried catfish in a piquant mango, red-onion, cilantro, and chili-pepper salad ($10.50); fiery beef panang redolent of basil and lemon leaf ($7); mouthwateringly good minced pork with chilies, peanuts, and lemon juice ($6). You'll trivialize the experience to some ineffable degree if you eat indoors, cramped among the Formica tables, under the fluorescent lighting, so instead repair to the semi-secret bare-bones backyard with its picture-book border of overgrown pink and red rose blossoms. But don't forget to make a pit stop at the dessert counter on your way out to stock up on sticky coconut-rice confections or some milky puddings for the road.

Somewhere between standard Americanized Thai and Sripraphai are Thai Cafe and Amarin Cafe, two brightly flavored spots in Greenpoint's pierogi-laden landscape. In the East Village, Kai Kai Thai Eatery deliciously breaks the menu monotony with fifteen appetizers that read like Thai dim sum, priced from $1 to $5 apiece. (We're addicted to the ma-ta-ba, a flaky, buttery chicken pastry.)

Good grub turns up in the unlikeliest of places, perhaps none less likely than Lady Bakery, a generic fluorescent-lit pastry-and-birthday-cake depot near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel. Strategically located a couple doors down from Cupcake Cafe, ostensibly to undercut the competition, this nondescript storefront dabbles in takeout Thai home cooking, almost as if it were a hobby. "People would come for coffee and ask for food," the cashier told us. She and her mother obliged, with handwritten signs announcing a daily choice of two soups and a main dish, like the rich and pungent chicken curry served with soft jasmine rice ($6.50). If the Hell's Kitchen cake racket proves too cutthroat, these ladies clearly have something to fall back on.

SRIPRAPHAI, 64-13 39th Ave., Queens (718-899-9599); THAI CAFE, 923-925 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn (718-383-3562); AMARIN CAFE, 617 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn (718-349-2788); KAI KAI THAI EATERY, 78 E. 1st St. (212-777-2552); LADY BAKERY, 510 Ninth Ave., near 38th St.(212-268-2616).

NAN PLUS
Surpassing 6th Street sameness

Sixth Street already had one sturdy anchor in Haveli, near the corner of Second Avenue, when Banjara, an atypically spacious and relatively snazzy new spot, opened last December to shore up its eastern extremity. Working within the same culinary parameters as his neighbors, chef Tuhin Dutta has breathed new life into 6th Street staples like vindaloos, biriyanis, and tandoori chicken -- the latter one-upped by its even more succulent clay-oven cousin, sharabi kababi, which is rendered uncommonly moist with a wine-and-cream marinade ($12.95). Dutta particularly distinguishes himself, though, with his dumpakht, a Lucknowi dish that resembles a potpie with stewed meat or vegetables baked beneath a taut bread crust ($11.95-$12.95).

Out in Jackson Heights, Queens, Rajbhog Sweets is best-known for its 60-plus varieties of milk-based confections tantalizingly arranged in display cases like Neuchâtel truffles. But toward the back, a steam-table selection of mostly Gujarati vegetarian dishes makes this sweetshop a compelling mealtime destination. The assortment changes daily, and includes snacks like khaman dhokla (steamed chickpea-flour cakes dotted with black mustard seeds) and chickpea-battered chili peppers. Freed from gloppy curry bondage, vegetables here are done to a delicate turn: tooriya patra combines long green squash with Swiss-chard leaves and lima beans; karela are green Chinese eggplant, cooked in a subtly spicy sauce with potatoes and cashew nuts. At lunch, one vegetable, a paratha (flaky griddle-fried bread) or poori (puffy deep-fried bread), and a pickle will run you $2.75; $4.50 buys an extra vegetable medley, plus rice and dal. If you still have room for dessert, you're in the right place.

HAVELI, 100 Second Ave. (212-982-0533); BANJARA, 97 First Ave. (212-477-5956); RAJBHOG SWEETS, 72-27 37th Ave., Queens (718-458-8512).

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• Archive: “Cover Story”
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