Shangri-La Express $2.99 Lunch Special

Shangri-La Express has a crazy lunch special. $2.99 ($3.25 with tax) is the cheapest lunch I have come across yet, which is pretty perfect because right now I have very little money to spend. Now it isn't the most exciting lunch special, it's pretty much a festival of starch. If you're a big spender, there is a $3.99 version, which includes a meat choice. But I went veg at this tiny Tibetan shop.
It says on the menu that there are four items in the special. I was only able to distinguish three: spiced potatoes, yellow rice, and white rice. The fourth is either another kind of rice (the rice directly beneath the potatoes was reddish, and I couldn't tell if it was from the potatoes or a third rice option) or the iceberg lettuce garnish counts as the fourth. Either way. The potatoes were nice. Soft and spicy, with a touch of freshness from scallion tops. The yellow rice had black mustard seeds and a mellow flavor. White rice, crunch from lettuce, and that was that. Two (or three) types of rice topped with potatoes? Not a particularly well-balanced lunch, but filling and CHEAP. I can appreciate that.

Shangri-La Express
72-24 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights