Last night, a group of friends and I embarked on an East-Village culinary tour of St. Mark’s Place. Starting at Tompkins Square and working our way west, we wandered from storefront to storefront sampling bites of the many different cuisines offered in a span of just a few short blocks, making a genuine effort to keep our bites small and stretch our appetites as far as possible. I was determined to make it to Astor Place without needing to stick my finger down my throat.

Granted, the east village is chock-full of delicious, dirt-cheap food options, and limiting ourselves to St. Mark’s probably didn’t afford us a well-rounded sampling of the area’s best offerings. But it was fun to stick to a single street and see just how far that could take us, while barely stretching our wallets at all. Plus, I have to admit, St. Mark’s is a street I’ve generally avoided like the plague since college (don’t really like the annoying crowds), so this was a great excuse to force myself back into the hustle and bustle of what is, at this point, simultaneously one of the most egregiously fake and yet stubbornly real streets in the city.

But on to the food.

We started out at Crif Dogs, always a favorite. I tried to keep it “light” by having the Veggie Special–a veggie dog topped with jalapenos, tomatoes, and cucumbers (no onions for me). I slathered mine in mustard. Yum.

Next up was Hummus Place, where I think we seriously overdid it. Hummus sounds so innocent and innocuous, but I didn’t realize how much pita I was putting away (and how filling it is) until it was too late. The hummus was incredible, though–we sampled one of each of the three types on the menu. Definitely some of the best I’ve ever had.

Then it was on to Dumpling Man. We tried each of the varieties they offer, and while they may not be as great (or as much of a bargain) as what you can get for a dollar in Chinatown, I’d say they were pretty damn good. Hot and chewy and tasty, just like they should be. And it was fun to see them being made from scratch. I loved the veggie ones–they were completely different than any other veggie dumpling I’ve ever had. The filling seemed to be mushroom-based, as opposed to cabbage or whatever you usually get. Though some people in our group thought they were weird.

At this point, we started to doubt our abilities to make it as far as we had planned. So we cut out an empanada stop (the idea of empanadas on top of the dumplings seemed to make us all a little green) and headed directly to Bamn, the new automat place just west of Second. Looking at the greasy little bites through their sparkling glass windows, I started to feel a little ill. I had actually been looking forward to checking this place out, but once I found myself standing there in front of the wall of metal doors, I just couldn’t do it. My dollar bills stayed in my pocket. But I tried bites of friends’ donuts and weird peanut butter and jelly empanadas. Kind of ok, but kind of greasy and gross… Definitely would be a great late-night, wandering home drunk stop, though.

And finally, we were determined to choke down some yakitori before calling it a night. This place is great, and from what I understand, pretty reminiscent of the yakitori places in Japan. Too bad we were all so full. I drank some sake and nibbled at some roasted corn. I know. Lame. But everything looked really good, and I’m definitely going to go back. Hilariously, they have a $7 per-person minimum, which we found ourselves unable to meet. Even with two bottles of sake! But at that point, we were beyond caring. The waitress seemed really surprised that we wanted her to just charge us the minimum, rather than bring us more food…

Shame-faced (ok, not really) we settled up, and stumbled out onto the street. It was definitely a fun night, and one I hope to repeat in other areas of the city. I’ll just pace myself better next time.