Steak and kidney pie?

Cincinnati (sp. took five tries) chili?

Yorkshire pudding and gravy?

Mashed potatoes and gravy?

Beans on toast?

One could widen the envelope as far as one likes, I suppose, but I was thinking, specifically, a ground meat sauce over a starch.  Except that Mapo doufu is meat sauce over a starchy-seeming protein.  So I really don’t know.

So basically your looking for a gelatinous protein poured over a starch?

I’m guessing Welsh Rarebit qualifies.  Goulashes of all varieties?  Stews?

I’m sure every culture has a comfort/filling food for the poor and those facing the end of the month.

It’s not dissimilar to Chinese Mapo doufu.  If you are from a different cultural background, do you have a similar dish?

Yeah, another vegan standby, except I used olive oil, and splurged on a garlic clove and some crushed red chilies (adds a trivial amount of anything — food value, money, calories…)

You can never go wrong with Top Ramen either!

Delicious convenience food!  Unfortunately, they deep-fry the noodles in hydrogenated palm oil!  Sometimes I wish they wouldn’t do that, and then I realize that it might not be delicious if they didn’t.  Still, 8.3¢ apiece is hard to beat for “just add water” food.  Or “food”, as the case may be.

You can never go wrong with Top Ramen either!

Yeah, knew that one.  And when I was vegan, the evening ritual of de-stoning beans and the morning ritual of putting them on to soak was comforting.

At Mexican restaurants, in my experience, they look at you really strangely if you say, “Actually, could you just bring me beans & rice, no cheese?”  After seeing their expression, you sometimes have to add, “I’ll pay you for them, I have money.”