Duck, Duck, Soup

Highlights from a tasty weekend…

Giant green smoothie. This had frozen spinach, strawberry, soursop, honey, and vanilla almond milk.

Siggi’s vanilla honey skyr. I only liked – not loved – this and found it to be a little sour (and am mostly posting to remind myself).

Kimchi butter ramen. This was spicier than I was expecting.

Gelato from a new spot in LI. I got Kinder and s’mores in a vanilla cone. We weren’t head over heels for this spot but my s’mores scoop did have a giant toasted marshmallow in it and that was delightful.

Beers from Destination Unknown. This was our 2nd trip there and we have loved almost everything we’ve tried. Great IPAs.

Brunch at Maya Congee Cafe. We loved it here. We shared passionfruit tea with mango stars.

Chicken breakfast congee with smoked cheese and a soft egg.

And a braised chicken bahn mi.

Dinner at Long Island Pekin. This is officially our favorite Long Island spot. This dinner was an 11/10 and the leftovers were sooo exciting. We shared the Peking duck scallion pancakes with cheddar and sweet plum sauce.

Flat rice noodles with veggies and duck.

And the half Hong Kong roast duck.

Leftover soup. I topped my bowl with chili crisp. Served with homemade garlic bread.

No photo but worth a mention – we tried the honey butter chicken sandwich from PDQ and were both impressed!

Soup’s Up

Highlights from this week…

Whole Foods’ Spring latte special is brown butter cookie – good but not excellent.

Meanwhile, Partners‘ Spring latte special is mojito and it is a 10/10.

I added butterfly peaflower tea to this smoothie (with frozen peaches, banana, soursop, and vanilla almond milk) to make it pretty and ended up with greige.

I was much more successful with frozen blueberries, banana, almond milk, and butterfly peaflower tea.

BelliWelli birthday cake flavored probiotic bar.

I feel like I should give another shout-out to this rapidly dwindling bag of Zapp’s Voodoo seasoned pretzels.

Passion fruit sips; hard seltzer and kombucha.

I had a day off this week and I walked 7 miles roundtrip from Penn Station to the Seaport for this burger and fries. The signature smashburger with gojuchang aioli, American, miso-caramelized onions, and garlic parmesan butter and waffle fries with red miso cheese sauce.

Monday I hadn’t gone to the grocery store for the week yet but we cobbled together a pretty good dinner. Chips and guacamole from our local burrito place.

Bitchin dip with mini sweet peppers (and cucumber slices).

And these Fillo’s walking tamales – Adam liked them, I thought they were underseasoned.

Tuesday I went to the fish counter and whipped up this Southern feast. Fried catfish (breaded in a mix of flour and cornmeal with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika); collard greens sauteed with green onion, lemon, and garlic; and hushpuppies. Then I doused my plate in honey, lemon, and Crystal hot sauce.

And Wednesday I made a giant batch of soup. With evoo, salt and pepper, garlic, yellow onion, celery, zucchini, carrot, potato, diced tomato, harissa, chicken broth, and chicken breast.

Bean, Banana, Bap

Highlights from the week…

Dessert-y yogurt bowl. Vanilla skyr with condensed milk, strawberries, banana, cornflakes, and sprinkles.

These jelly beans really do taste like Froot Loops!

We got chips and quesadillas from Chipotle with their new chicken al pastor and it was actually pretty great.

We went to Long Island Pekin this week for duck (sans camera) and it blew our minds! I ate leftovers with other leftovers and it was a great meal.

Bibimbap-inspired veggie bowls. Riced broccoli sauteed with white pepper and sesame seeds / crispy tofu shreds – extra-firm tofu that I shredded, tossed with evoo and gojuchang, then baked / bean sprouts / gojuchang / cucumber / sauteed baby shitake mushrooms and green onion / fried egg.

Roasted cauliflower with crispy white beans – tossed in evoo, cornstarch, furikake, gochugaru, and ranch seasoning then baked.

Potatoes, Eggs, And Coffees

It was a wonderful weekend! Adam and I had a ton of time together, the weather was gorgeous, and we took some great walks around the Lower East Side and Williamsburg and admired the spring flowers. Also we went on a million and one dates; our fridge is stuffed to the brim with leftovers – a very good problem to have!

Some highlights include…

Iced coffee with ube cold foam.

Dalgona iced latte with strawberry milk and and a dreamy packet of peaflower and edible glitter!

Iced matcha with ginger sparkling water and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Pazazz apple – a good spring choice, sweet and crispy.

Butterdose. Cream puffs – yuzu, ube coconut, and an Easter special with Cadbury eggs, Oreo, whipped cream frosting, and cream cheese filling.

Levain. This dark chocolate chocolate chip cookie tastes exactly like brownie batter and was the #1 best thing I ate all weekend.

Lindens. This meal was pretty unforgettable; the space was gorgeous and it was hands-down the best service I have ever experienced at a restaurant. We will be going back!

Lavender Daisy – pisco, gin, lavender, concord grape jam, lemon, club soda, and egg white.

Rosemary spiced margarita with mezcal, habanero, grapefruit, and agave.

Parker house rolls with grilled ramp butter. Tempura artichoke, maitake, and broccolini with chili oil and a cilantro yogurt sauce.

Herbed shoestring fries with a truffle aioli. 3rd best thing I ate this weekend and easily the best fries I’ve eaten the past 5 years.

Cheeseburger with grilled onion and cherry pepper relish.

Ocean Code. We had a highball with kyoho grape syrup.

Oden – beef, black fungus, daikon, tofu, and an inari-wrapped mochi ball in a super flavorful broth.

I had the spicy tuna rice bowl.

Okka. Very good cortado and Turkish coffee, plus baklava.

OTB. My favorite bar food in Brooklyn. The fantastic cup on the left was a frozen mojito.

Nuggets and chili cheese fries.

Rule of Thirds. Chiba Surf Club – yuzu sake, lillet, strawberry, sparkling wine, and fresh chives.

Douglas Fir-Banks – sesame shochu, gin, peach, vetiver, lime, umeboshi, and douglas fir. Plus a hojicha iced latte that was the 2nd best thing I ate this weekend.

Souffle pancake.

Japanese omelette sandwich on milk bread with miso mayo and yuzu cucumbers.

Smashed potatoes with mushrooms, hatcho miso, and a poached egg.

Butter Me Up

Some highlights from this tasty week include butterscotch, butterfingers, and butternut squash…

I bought this Monin butterscotch syrup for coffees (and ocassionally Diet Cokes!) and have really been enjoying it.

I also made an ube Vietnamese iced coffee one day.

Another fun beverage – sparkling pomelo iced matcha.

Creamy peach smoothie; frozen peaches and banana with plain skyr and cottage cheese. I will definitely be adding cottage cheese to my shopping list more often.

Voodoo-seasoned pretzel sticks.

We made Butterfinger-inspired no bakes and they were 11/10. Just crushed corn flakes with salt, peanut butter, melted butter, honey, and melted chocolate.

Many of this week’s dinners paired perfectly with dipping sauces. Baked french fries / buffalo chicken meatballs – ground chicken, egg, panko, a splash of half and half, buffalo sauce, shredded gouda, sliced green onions / roasted zucchini tossed in smoked paprika and Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning blend.

Oven-fried extra-firm tofu – marinated in pickle juice and breaded with crushed voodoo pretzels. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

I had some leftover restaurant/take-out veggies saved in the freezer – spicy baby cauliflower from a Chinese place and garlic Chinese broccoli from a Thai place – which reheated quickly. With Trader Joe’s chicken and cilantro mini wontons.

Smoky broccoli salad – it was so good I gave it a recipe page! – with roasted butternut squash.

Sweet Ting

Some highlights from the weekend…

Blueberries with my 1st plum of the year.

I got my hands on a pink Ting!

One of Adam’s work friends gave us a mini cookies and cream bundt cake from a new cake place. It was good, we want to go try another flavor!

Dinner date a Kinya Ramen. We shared crabmeat fries.

And their special house Old Fashioned.

And I got spicy chicken ramen.

Best dinner of the week/month – savory cottage cheese bowls with chili crisp, fried egg, and cherry tomatoes sauteed in butter and evoo.

I got my greens in in smoothie form; spinach with banana and soursop.

Oxtail Pizza

Highlights from the weekend…

Passionfruit Coffee. This was a quad skim iced latte with caramelized milk chocolate sauce.

We are head over heels for these Nightingale ice cream sandwiches. Adam is a traditionalist but this cinnamon roll variety is my favorite.

We went to Food Bazaar recently (home of Rokstar Chicken) and brought home some great snacks. This weekend I enjoyed key lime grapefruit Polar seltzer,

honey butter chips,

Jom gummy candy,

and spicy beef ramen.

We waited in line two and a half hours for Cuts and Slices pizza — worth it! We got chopped cheese, chicken and wafles, jerk chicken, and stewed oxtail.

Lunch at For Five – I had a turkey Cuban.

Leftovers from a wonderful lunch at Mao Mao (I didn’t have my camera). Fried fish cakes with sweet chili sauce / steamed dumplings with chicken, shrimp, and mushroom / vegetarian rice rolls. We also had great poached chicken with chicken fat rice.

Roasted sheetpan hash. Fennel, bok choy, purple sweet potato, chicken pesto sausage, soy puffs, mint, and pesto.

Kiss Me

Highlights from this week…

Adam is busy tonight so we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day a day early with ridiculous/amazing corned beef reuben grilled cheeses from Roast. Plus short rib shepherd’s pie and (homemade) roasted green beans.

I also made us green iced lattes!

See also – this week’s coffee combo was a winner.

Still really enjoying these guava crisps.

Pineberries! We liked them more than the Oshinko berries but less than regular strawberries.

This bin of strawberry popping bobas felt like it had endless potential.

I made great iced matchas with lemon seltzer and boba. Also – amaretto and diet coke with popping boba; 9.5/10

We weren’t that impressed with these fancy truffles.

But were shocked by how much we liked these limited-release cookie dough candies.

Best meal of the week – chicken kale pesto sausage on a pretzel bun with honey mustard / roasted yellow and purple cauliflower / Japanese sweet potato salad that is one of the best things I’ve ever made; roasted Japanese sweet potato with mayo, Kewpie, Sriracha, rice vinegar, paprika, white pepper, gochugaru, green onion, and pickled radish.

Leftover veggies and potato salad plus salmon salad – canned sockeye, smoked sockeye salmon candy, mayo, Sriracha, rice vinegar, and green onion.

Giant, smokey, protein-packed salads. Romaine and carrot greens with black garlic balsamic vinaigrette / roasted brussel sprouts with evoo and urfa pepper / roasted carrots with maple, evoo, butter, paprika, and gochugaru / smoked turkey breast / bacon-flavored crunchy mung beans / fried egg.