I made patty melts. Turkey burgers, swiss cheese, and Emmy sauce on toasted rye. Plus roasted broccoli and cauliflower tossed in scallion peanut sauce.
Super savory umami bowls of sautéed cabbage, ground turkey cooked in shallot oil with gojuchang, toasted peanuts, and chili crisp.
Turkey reuben sandwiches for St. Patrick’s day. Rye, swiss, smoked turkey, tons of sourkraut, and homemade thousand island sauce.
We had a great time this weekend visiting some of our favorite spots and discovering some new favorites! Highlights include…
High Low Beverage Company. Vietnamese-influenced with a gorgeous backyard. Cherry and lime leaf jelly doughnut.
Tiki New Fashioned – banana-infused Four Roses bourbon, Plantation pineapple dark rum, pandan syrup, tiki bitters / HiLo Hello – Thai chili-infused mezcal with lime, passionfruit, and cane syrup.
Papaya salad with sambal beef jerky, cabbage, herbs, peanuts, fried shallots, fresno chili, and plum vinaigrette.
Double Chicken, Please. Draft cocktails, massive sandwiches, and clever desserts! #2 – Teeling small batch whiskey, brown butter, black raisin, honey, verjus (warm) / #9 Barcardi Cuatro rum, St. Germain, verjus, amontilado sherry, banana, walnut.
Five spice and plum salt sweet potato chips.
Hen of the woods mushroom sandwich with seaweed and bamboo / fried chicken sandwich with shrimp, brioche, and salted duck yolk sauce.
Shot – mezcal with plum and shiso / ice ice weenie – chocolate ice cream on a potato bun with salted duck egg sauce, hot honey, and whiskey cream.
We found fresh soursop juice at the Dominican place in Essex Market.
All the beers (truly, almost all of the beers) at Evil Twin. My three favorites were the ET Stay Home 6 Royal Treatment – sour ale with peaches, papaya, pineapple, passion fruit, coconut, marshmallow, vanilla, and cacao / This Deli Needs a Bigger Double Kiwi Lime Coconut Muffin Lassi Gose / Luxurious Luxury – imperial Berliner gose with grapefruit, tart raspberry candy, coconut, and marshmallow.
We also finally checked out (and loved!) Bridge and Tunnel Brewery just down the street. Everything we tried was great but the standout was the F**k the Virus coconut New England IPA.
Super Moon Bakehouse. Epic baked goods. I loved this cookie butter, dulce de leche crunch cookie with my whole heart.
I also brought home a square of sourdough focaccia and made an insane turkey and cheddar sandwich.
I couldn’t contain myself but this terrible picture is to serve as a placeholder to remind Adam and I that we want takeout from The Meat Hook again immediately. We had several sandwiches and the best french onion dip I’ve ever tasted.
We retried the cola coffee with great success – espresso, Coke, and scm. Yes, I am furiously looking to get my hands on the newly released cans of Coke with coffee.
One of Adam’s friends delivered us amazing nutella, sea salt caramel brownies.
I obviously crumbled one into plain skyr with some berries and cinnamon.
Chicken nuggets with frozen broccoli wok-sauteed with honey mustard and pickled onions.
Last week was great, and filled with great eats. It worked out that I was off from work most of the week, which was just lovely! And Adam and I were both home together for Christmas, which has rarely happened in our marriage. The absolute best part of the week was walking around Manhattan (8 miles!) admiring holiday decorations and checking out the Rockefeller tree – – it was impossible to capture in a photo but even in the daytime the lights were stunning.
Other highlights included…
We obviously had to buy both of these eggnogs to do a comparison taste-test (premium was a bit better!).
Christmas morning dalgona coffee with eggnog.
Max Brenner‘s peanut butter hot chocolate blew our minds.
Trader Joe’s peppermint mini marshmallows are great.
And we loved this peppermint seltzer.
Birthday cake scone from Sweetie Pies on Main. We went out to Cold Spring Harbor to admire their decorations. And yes, we do have a car tree.
This snowball doughnut from Comfortland was insane. It was coated in coconut and stuffed with marshmallow cream.
Plain Greek yogurt bowl with banana, chocolate cashew butter, and cinnamon.
I’ve had my eye on this salmon candy spread for months and it did not disappoint. Paired wonderfully with everything-style crackers.
Still very into this frozen meal. Also fresh mandarin oranges.
Best meal I’ve ever made – crockpot five spice chicken thighs / celery, bok choy, and scallions / rice cakes / gojuchang brown sugar sauce. Topped with chili crisp.
We broiled the leftovers with mozzarella cheese and it somehow got even better.
The best meal we’ve ever eaten came from Milu. Mandarin duck with duck fat rice and marinated cucumbers / brisket with chili garlic mint sauce and tofu seaweed salad / chili crisp fried chicken with scallion mayo. Plus egg tart soft-serve. Every single bite was swoonworthy.
A roasted sheet-pan meal with brussel sprouts, cave aged blue cheese, turkey sausage, dried sweet cherries, yellow raisins, and sweet and spicy pecans.
Soft-scrambled eggs with roasted broccoli rabe and purple cauliflower, cucumber salad, and hot-smoked salmon.
What a wonderful weekend we just had! I worked (super long, busy days) Friday, Saturday, Sunday but Adam was off in the evenings too so we made sure to aggressively enjoy ourselves. Tons of NYC restaurants are doing safely distanced / non-exploitative outdoor dining now and we took full advantage.
Highlights include…
Homemade frozen pain-killers, enjoyed on a long walk with Webster. Coconut milk, orange juice, frozen pineapple, nutmeg, and dark rum.
Drinks and dessert at Freeman’s Alley. Bananas foster with a spicy margarita and a jammy vodka cocktail with elderflower and raspberry.
Dinner at Wayla, aka our new favorite Thai spot. They have Thai iced tea with oat milk.
We had a couple good cocktails, including this Hanabi Milk Punch which was my favorite drink I’ve ever been served. Naked Turtle Rum, Blackwell Rum, strawberry, star anise, cloves, genmaicha, and Singha soda.
Lump crab fried rice
Tua Pad Prik Khing – wok-fried long beans, crispy tofu, and galangal chili paste.
Dinner at Glasserie. I had a hibiscus margarita. Also a Hemingway daiquiri that knocked my socks off.
We shared a bunch of plates, each one better than the last. Olives and pickled peppers // labne, honey, and griddled bread.
Roasted lamb with potato and grilled scallions.
Tzatziki with trout roe and potato husks. <– my favorite dish of the weekend
Highlights from this week (mostly beverages that blew my mind!) include…
Starbucks vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew can gets a 7.5/10. Not as good as a freshly made nitro but better than many canned coffees.
Wendy’s new cold brew with chocolate Frosty creamer gets a 7/10; a great score for a fast food coffee. It was not too sweet and the coffee was vastly more robust than Dunkin Donuts’.
I always enjoy Health Ade Kombucha and their passion fruit tangerine flavor is my new 2nd favorite (it comes in behind their holiday spice flavor).
AHA = my new favorite sparkling water. This was the surprisingly fantastic flavor combo of cherry and coffee! And it’s caffeinated!!
My favorite yogurt (Trader Joe’s plain skyr) with my new favorite oatmeal cookies (Stella’s easy one bowl recipe) and some mandarinquats (which I actually didn’t enjoy because they were impossible to eat).
Crazy good take-out from Cheng Du. I got kung pow tofu and Szechuan chili oil tofu and it was some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever tasted.
This was hands-down the best sandwich I’ve ever made. I could not stop raving out it.
Brioche bun with Kewpie mayo / chicken thighs marinated in pineapple juice, brown sugar, sriracha, minced ginger, soy sauce, and rice vinegar then roasted / bbq sauce made with the reduced marinade plus ketchup / topped with sauteed sweet onion, poblano pepper, and pineapple. Served with roasted broccoli.
Eating Chalk 