EDIBLE: Great food bargains in Marina, including a new heartfelt Salvadoreño spot.

Maybe it’s the fact that Car Week is here with all its material bling. Maybe it’s because there’s a five-bedroom house on 17-Mile Drive for sale at $41,888,000 (see insert, this issue). Or maybe it’s my gut telling me there are going to be a lot of $110 bisteca alla Fiorentinas sold at Péppoli at Pebble Beach this weekend. More likely it’s the fact that I made it back to Tommy’s Restaurant (582-9503) in Marina for the first time in a while.

Whatever the case, I felt inspired to track down the best bargains I could in the last few days, and cash-only Tommy’s is the best place to start.

In a converted little house behind the 76 gas station on Del Monte Boulevard, Tommy Lee does the cooking in the tiny kitchen and his wife Judy mans the six-stool counter and four-tops in the dining room, refilling cups with respectable coffee relentlessly.

You can order three well-done pancakes, two eggs, hash browns and turkey bacon for a lean and mean $3.75, but we were there for the “Working Man’s Breakfast.” That includes two eggs done exactly to order, generously buttered toast, a tab of jam and tasty hash browns for… $1.49. I swapped in fried rice for hash browns at no charge and now understand why a lot of regulars go that route.

Yes: a substantial breakfast for less than the coffee ($1.65).

Another good spot to start also calls Marina home and deploys similarly sweet and earnest service. The line at Marina Donuts & Bagels (883-4527) can stretch out the door – even at a seemingly off-hour time like 10:20am on a Monday – but the four sharp staffers in matching MDB T-shirts mow through the line quickly.

The donuts occupy the left side’s big glass case at reasonable rates like $0.85 per cake donut, $1.10 for bars and twists and $1.20 per custard. Dozens go for $1 off (bagels too) and adorable donut holes are an easy $0.15. The bagel goodies assemble on the right side, including plain bagels for less than $1 ($.90) and special combination sandwiches like the number four with lox cream cheese, red onion and tomato for $5.

The house cream cheeses, which include strawberry cream cheese, herb cream cheese, walnut raisin cream cheese, date nut cream cheese and even garlic and cheddar cream cheese, catch the appetite’s attention. My sizable and freshly baked everything bagel with bacon-and-spinach cream cheese – which was as good as it sounds – was $2.70, so I could do some donut-hole dessert and still come in at $3 for another solid meal.

The Asian Market (384-3000) a few minutes away helps cement Marina’s status as Monterey County’s frugal food capital with 12-inch kim-bab sushi rolls handmade by the owner-operators with pickled cucumber, imitation crab, fried tofu and daikon radish. Kept in a bin next to the cash register, they run just $1.50 a pop, and are made fresh every two hours.

Right next door is the newest entrant to the Marina matrix of affordability. The former Frutti de Mar (which moved to downtown Monterey) is now El Salvadoreño Pupuseria (747-2385). The interior is colorful and clean, with a big map of the Central American country from whence comforting pupusas hail. A signature revuelta (with cheese, chicharrón and refried beans in a puck-like corn flour pouch), flanked by homemade salsa and pickled cabbage, is $2.75; a jalapeño-and-cheese $2.50. They also do tamales for $2.50, and half a chicken for $13.99.

Mom-and-pop co-owner/operators Lorena Salmeron and Camilo Rodriguez opened it last month after working in Carmel restaurants for a decade and a half apiece.

“A long time ago I learned the recipe for pupusas from my grandma,” Salmeron says. “They’re the classic Salvadoreño dish. It’s always been my dream to open an authentic Salvadoreño restaurant here.”

But even ardent pupusa lovers can’t eat them for every meal. Fortunately more great deals appear here:

$10.85 • Workers lunch • il Vecchio (324-4282) • The rotating pastas – at least two choices, including orecchiette al boscaiolo with housemade sausage and polenta con verdurewith Parmesan and pecorino – come steaming by table side and are all-you-can-eat, just like the family-style salads. Weekdays only.

$9.90 • Sunset supper • Beach House at Lovers Point (375-2345) • If you’re seated by 5:30pm (starting at 4pm), a range of nice plates – including sole almondine, grilled salmon filet, flame-broiled pork loin chop and bacon-wrapped meatloaf – are less than $10.

$5 • Hamburger combo • Main Street Bakery (771-CAKE) • Solid: a homemade cheeseburger with fries and a soda.

$4.50 • The breakfast sandwich • Randy’s Sandwich Shop (375-9161) • With sausage, bacon or ham, it’s big enough to take care of breakfast and lunch.

$3.99 • Bahn mi sandwich • Chopstix (372-2622, 899-2622) • Whether it’s the combo with pâté and pork or the veggie with crunchy daikon, cucumber, carrot and tofu, it’s a fresh sandwich for less.

$3 • Two slices of pepperoni pizza • Pelican Pizza (649-4040) • These types of deals don’t exist in this decade. $0.50 more for solid combination slices.

$2.99 • Breakfast burrito • Troia’s Market (375-9810) • Eggs, ham, potato, cheese, homemade salsa, XXL value.

$1 •Sushi •Monday nights at Sushi Time (884-5011) •The buttery ono is amazing, particularly at that price point.

$1 •Street taco • Wednesdays at La Bahia (884-5269) • Tasty, authentic and affordable.Amen.