Affordable eating: Ali Khan’s ‘Cheap Eats’ doesn’t break the bank

It’s no secret that eating out can be expensive. Usually that isn’t too hard to get around: just whip something up at home! But sadly, that isn’t really an option when you’re visiting another city, and bills from eating out for three meals a day (plus some snacks tossed in for good measure) can get pretty pricey in a hurry.

That’s where “Cheap Eats” host Ali Khan comes in. The man behind the Bang for your Burger Buck blog returns with a new season of the Cooking Channel series on Wednesday, March 21.

In each episode of “Cheap Eats,” the charismatic host visits a new city with nothing but an empty stomach and 35 bucks budgeted for food. That’s $35 for the entire day — he needs to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with those limited funds, plus an afternoon snack to boot. Of course, he also avoids the dirt-cheap fast food joints; that would be totally against the spirit of the challenge, and besides, he’s in these cities to soak up the local culture, and that includes local foods.

In Wednesday’s premiere, Khan is in Philadelphia, a city with a reputation for serving food with an attitude. First he hunts for breakfast, and finds a place serving a local favorite that won’t break the bank: a scrapple (a pan-fried pork dish), egg and cheese dip sandwich. Come lunch time, he tracks down a joint serving a Philly original: pork roast served with provolone and spinach.

That’s two meals down, but with the snack included, there are still two to go. For an afternoon pick-me-up, he buys some dumplings stuffed with cheese steak, apple pie and cheesecake, and for dinner, Khan heads to the city’s Fishtown neighborhood, where he finds a unique twist on ramen that tickles his taste buds while not breaking the bank.

Ali Khan hosts “Cheap Eats”