"Strictly from hunger" is old
American slang denoting desperation, low quality, or whatever.
William S. Burroughs probably uses it, though I can't recall a particular instance offhand.
Burroughs was a great fan of
American common speech of the
1940s and earlier.
It's also the title of an
S.J. Perelman anthology.
Perelman was another
idiom collector, and one of the most
paralyzingly funny writers who ever lived.