on the cheap

Real Pizza Koreana Vici Mr. Pie

In honor of the currently less-than-exuberant economy, On the Cheap brings you the entrées voted Most Likely To Make Great Leftovers from the Boston menu class of 2001:

• Silvertone Bar & Grill’s macaroni and cheese with buttered bread crumbs ($8). The fact that waiters often include written reheating instructions with your to-go container says it all: this mac was made for snacking. Weighing in at well over a pound, it’s as soporifically heavy as a midnight bite should be. Indeed, while I myself found the cheddar sauce, though enriched with a grated-cheese blend, a bit tenuous at first, I was charmed by the day-old version of the dish. Whether enjoyed straight from the fridge or warmed over, the sharper sauce, softened crumbs, and still firm noodles jell into a creamy, chunky, satisfying mess.

• Grilled-tenderloin salad from Stephanie’s on Newbury ($15.95). To those arch-carnivores wondering how a salad can fill anyone up once, much less twice, I say: okay, not twice. But surely once and then some. As for literal-minded types who might think of " wilted " and " soggy " as pejoratives — well, you’re also right, generally speaking. But not now. Pre-doggie-bag, this dressed-up dish has deep-pink slices of filet mignon poised atop a bed of field greens. By the time you get it home, however, you’ll find it in total dishabille, with the garlic croutons sloshing about in the balsamic vinaigrette, magenta strands of grilled onion draped over the gorgonzola, and the Dijon-roasted potatoes bundled up in glossy spinach. Kinda sexy. And yet the mixture only clarifies the range of its parts, from toasty to succulent, mellow to robust.

• Figs’s fried-onion-ring pizza ($14.95). Just as a sunny day is even brighter with snow on the ground, so any pizza that shines when hot downright sparkles when chilled. In this generous eight-slice instance, the almost gentle flavors that hang back from the salt blast of fried onion muster courage overnight. An emboldened herb ricotta emerges from its tomato-sauce shell; the fresh green arugula survives the ring batter, which, though somehow still crispy, has grown mellow; and the onions themselves are sweeter. Todd English should open up a leftover pizzeria next door.