Souvenir Tastes

by Emily

Highlights from this week include…

We were missing vacation and immediately ate all of our Hawaiian goodies.

Taro macadamia shortbread / passion fruit gummies / li hing gummy pineapples.

Also Hawaiian-inspired goodies, dried baby pineapple and tropical punch kombucha.

We went to brunch at Comfortland and loved it x10,000. The space was super cute and I wanted everything on the menu!

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We had a doughnut milk latte! Plus a nutella creme brulee doughnut. And a giant bbq fried chicken biscuit that I got too excited to photograph.

Dinners were awesome thanks to some great H-Mart finds – jumbo puff tofu and Korean rice cakes.

Stir-fry with tofu, baby bok choy, mushroom, green onion, and cherry tomato. Sauce = soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, sugar.

Stir-fry with chicken, egg, rice cake, cabbage, and onion. Sauce = gojuchang, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, lime, canola oil, brown sugar.

9Jan2020

Oahu Part III, Fun Places We Ate

by Emily

We were blown away by how good everything we ate on this trip was! Hawaiian chefs are absolutely killing it. The next time we go back to Hawaii I would strongly consider returning to Oahu just to revisit some of these spots!

I really tried to limit my picture taking and this post will be a million pages long if I list out every single thing we ate so this will just be the highlights of the highlights…

** Kona Coffee Purveyors.

Nitro Kona coffee with a black sesame kougan amann (not shown). Affogato.

** Leonard’s Bakery.

This malasada (Portuguese doughnut) stuffed with guava cream was my favorite bite of the entire trip.

** Matsumoto Shave Ice.

This was my favorite shave ice of the trip; the flavors were spot on and the ice cream was wonderfully chewy and a great foil to the ice. Guava, passion fruit, and strawberry on top of vanilla ice cream and topped with condensed milk.

** O’Kims.

Dumplings stuffed with king oyster mushroom, button ear wood, yellow squash, zucchini, and truffle paste, topped shoyu jelly and pickled dikon.

Korean fried chicken with gochujang, housemade gnocchi, brussel sprouts, purple rice, and kimchi.

** The Pig and the Lady.

Midday Run – mezcal, passion fruit, vanilla, habanero, and lemon (not shown). Le Swoon – Kohana rum agricole, Okinawan sweet potato, pandan, coconut milk, cinnamon, lime, and aphrodite bitters.

Chocolate banana tart with Valrhona dark chocolate cremeux, chocolate cookie crust, fresh banana and banana marmalade, toasted hazelnuts, and tamarind caramel.

** Piggy Smalls.

This was hands down our best meal of the trip! We ordered all the things. Brussel sprouts with makrut lime, peanut, fried shallots, cabbage slaw, and pickled red onions.

Stir-fried ramen noodles with aged garlic shoyu, Chinese chives, pickled fresno chile, and shrimp.

Lychee infused milk cake with blueberry compote, lychee chantilly cream, and lemon citrus streusel.

Hanoi egg coffee, Kona dark roast poured on whipped egg yolk and vanilla bean.

** The Surfing Pig.

Best cocktails of the trip. I drank way too much prior to our 10 hour red-eye flight. The bartender was crazy talented and also maybe my new favorite person – she hugged us on our way out. Smoked rosemary mezcal margarita. I also had a spicy paloma with mezcal (not shown).

** Waiola Shave Ice.

Guava and passion fruit with vanilla ice cream, condensed milk, and housemade mochi.

7Jan2020

Oahu Part I, Fun Things We Ate

by Emily

Adam and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary(!!!) with a trip to Hawaii and had an absolutely fantastic time. We chose to spend our entire trip in Oahu – versus island hopping – and ended up being very happy with that decision. We walked a ton, stuck our toes in the ocean, ate a million delicious things, and saw a billion beautiful things. I did not even take as many photographs as I usually do but I still need to split my recap into multiple posts!

I’ll share more about the amazing restaurants we visited in a later post, for now, here were some of the best Hawaiian bites…

** Chicken katsu musubi – seasoned rice with seaweed and fried chicken.

** Shrimp okonomiyaki – a savory Japanese pancake.

** Garlic butter shrimp plates from the food trucks out on the North Shore.

** The cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company are all 10/10 buttery and delicious.

** Butter mochi – cake made with glutenous rice flour.

** Dole Whip – blended frozen pineapple.

** We ate shave ice practically every single day of the trip! The standouts are in a later post but these were still pretty darn good! Both of these were Japanese kakagori style versus the more traditional Hawaiian style. From Ice Monster – coffee ice with brown sugar jelly, panna cotta, and cookies and cream gelato.

From Snow Factory – cookie butter ice and butterscotch ice with mochi, coffee jelly, and condensed milk.

6Jan2020

Waffley Glad

by Emily

We had a really amazing time in Hawaii (several posts are coming soon!) but I am awfully glad to be back home with Webster!

I didn’t make it the grocery until Sunday afternoon but we still managed to eat some yummy things this weekend. Highlights include…

My new favorite yogurt bowl = Trader Joe’s plain Skyr yogurt with maple syrup, blueberries, banana, and blistered peanuts.

Extra spicy, extra veggies hand-pulled noodles from our mall’s fancy food court.

A perfect snack.

Costa Nova made me a fantastic quad iced latte! Plus a waffle with marshmallow and cookie butter!

We thought this frozen kunefe from Trader Joe’s was fantastic. Highly recommend buying if you spot it.

Waffle flavored chicken bites with baby carrots and maple sriracha aioli.

My new favorite veggies bowl = a base of cauliflower rice with soft scrambled eggs, sauteed baby tomatoes, and avocado (topped with Cholula).

The night before we left for Hawaii we celebrated our anniversary at Bowery Meat Company and the night we returned we feasted on leftover duck lasagna.

6Dec2019

Nacho Zip Code

by Emily

My stuff, my husband, my dog, and I all finally live in the same place (New York) again! What a surreal week! I worked Monday-Tuesday, moved Wednesday, and unpacked Thursday-Friday. I am thrilled to be with my amazing family and excited to be back in New York but am deeply mourning leaving Charlottesville, and my fantastic Virginia family and friends, and my unbelievably great job. <– it’s an extremely good problem to have 🙂

My last Cville weekend was low-key because I was a bit under the weather. I mostly watched tv in bed, drank Gatorade, and spent $8 on precut fruit.

Before I knew it it was Tuesday and I was drinking my very last hospital coffee! Sidenote – the coffee stands in the hospital served my favorite iced lattes in Virginia and I am going to miss them greatly.

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Also that afternoon coworkers took me out for coffee and then after work we went to Hardywood for a final round of marshmallow gingerbread stouts and by the time I packed my car I was a drunk, overly caffeinated mess.

My last night my family took me out for nachos – multiple plates! – and margaritas and I got to tell them how unbelievably grateful I am for their hospitality. I lived with my cousin and her fiance for the last 4 months and they could not have made my life easier or more fun. A lot of people thought I was insane for choosing to live apart from Adam and Webster for so long but one of the biggest silver linings of situation was the time I got with my Virginia family.

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And they would be thrilled to know that the very first thing I ate in New York was nachos!

Once we got the car unpacked Adam and I headed to I am Nacho Mama for bbq chicken nachos and fancy honey coffee.

I also had tacos – griddled cheese and salmon.

Last night we had a fancy dinner at our local mall, Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Small Batch.

Little gem lettuce with pecorino cheese, radishes, fried soft-boiled egg, and ceasar dressing.

Local duck breast with honeynut squash, figs, and black garlic.

Chocolate souffle cake with milk chocolate sauce, cookie crumbs, and bourbon-brown sugar ice cream.

25Nov2019

Fluffy GBS

by Emily

I don’t have a ton of photos to share from last week because I ate a bunch of celebratory meals sans camera. By the time I leave for real next week it is going to feel fairly anticlimactic!

A work friend and I went out for drinks at Vitae {highlights include a maple cinnamon sour with smoked rum}.

A big group of co-workers took me out for lunch at Asado {highlights include a smoked chicken quesadilla}.

And my team took me out for dinner at Junction {highlights include a rum and coke with allspice syrup and charred baby carrots with goat cheese and carrot top chimichurri}.

Other highlights include…

Eggnog and coffee!

A vanilla coffee can with a peanut butter chocolate chip Perfect Bar.

The cortadito from Gaurijos is excellent.

Vanilla bean yogurt with maple pecan granola and cranberry relish.

S’mores pie and a cortado at Pie Chest.

An orange creamsicle IPA my family brought me back from Maryland.

Hardywood has released their Fluffy GBS – a toasted marshmallow gingerbread stout!

My cousin took me out for excellent Thai food. My drunken noodles were super spicy and loaded with veggies (including cauliflower!).

Have a great week (and a happy Thanksgiving, all of my American readers)!

21Oct2019

Pumpkin King

by Emily

It rained all day Sunday but luckily Saturday was beautiful. One of my coworkers invited me to the UVA-Duke game and we had a wonderful time (bookended by stops at local breweries!).

Five food highlights include…

This cold brew from La Colombe is so velvety! (fyi, the stuff in the cup has half and half mixed in)

Trader Joe’s pumpkin yogurt with vanilla peanut butter.

I saved my two favorite pumpkin beers for last. I typically don’t drink imperial ales but Pumking is the best.

Crispy carrot sticks.

Waffle flavored chicken nuggets(!!!) with roasted green beans and honey mustard.

18Oct2019

A NY Weekend > A New York Minute

by Emily

I spent Friday night – Tuesday afternoon in the city enjoying a New York long weekend with my boys! So much fun! We ate ice cream at least once a day, took long walks around Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, and Long Island City, and had a great night with friends at a delicious dinner (Baoburg – I don’t have photos but it was fantastic!) followed by a trip to Barcade!

Highlights include…

A malted cold brew.

Is one of my favorite things about NYC the ability to find weird and amazing drinks absolutely everywhere? 100% yes. And we took full advantage of that this weekend. New canned coffees from Chameleon Cold Brew, churro and cinnamon dolce.

Strawberry sparkling water and a soursop and sea moss drink.

Cinnamon Coke with rum. <– strongly recommend!

Baohaus‘ spiceland bao is a thing of beauty! 24-hour brined fried chicken served with lemon-garlic aioli, an 8-ingredient Szechuan chili oil, pickled cabbage, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, and cilantro. Their menu is limited because the things they do they do exceptionally well.

Great ice cream at Four Winters. They make each cup individually with liquid nitrogen. This was brown sugar speculoos with fudge, biscoff cookies, and extra sprinkles.

Even better ice cream at Caffe Panna, the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten, in fact! I got a cone with housemade whipped cream – panna – on brown butter straciatella and chocolate berry crunch (<– this flavor was the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted).

Plus we got an affagato special – ice cream and espresso with whiskey caramel and cacao nib hazelnut brittle.

Adam and I had an incredible dinner at Case Enrique – a Michelin starred, traditional Mexican spot in Long Island City. I went for the drinks and they did not disappoint. I had a soursop caipirnha!