Tag Archives: chicken

Coconut, Banana, And Egg Coffees

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We had a terrific weekend filled with tons of good food, good coffees, and several long walks (including bridge walks – our favorite!)! The five best food stops were…

A&C Super. It took us too long to check out this cute bakery but we hope to head back quickly. We had a banana bread muffin and an amazing pull-apart croissant bread with cardamom sugar. Plus their coconut iced coffee (with toasted coconut infused sweetened condensed milk!) with a shot of espresso.

11:11 Cafe. We loved their banana iced latte. This was milkier than we prefer but the milk was so tasty.

5th Sip. This is a newish Vietnamese coffee spot. We got the Hanoi Egg cold foam.

Brunch at Pig and Khao. Vietnamese iced coffee and a Green Hour – Thai basil gin, pisco, cucumber, lime, mint, aquafaba, and orange bitters.

We shared the Thai basil chicken.

And Khao Soi.

Plus doughnuts with a pandan cream.

Dinner at Bonnie’s. This Cantonese-American spot exceeded my high expectations. We shared and loved a good portion of the menu. Henny Kravitz – Hennessy VS, toasted coconut, Plantation pineapple rum, Copalli white rum, lemon, and sherry.

Sour Cherry Negroni – Ilegal mezcal, sour cherries, and Empirical plum liquor. We also had an unphotographed Ribena Highball – Ilegal mezcal, Ribena blackcurrant, ginger, lemon, and San Pellegrino.

Yauh Ja Gwai Panzanella – heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, stone fruit, pickled mustard greens, and fried cruller.

Dao Gok – Chinese long beans, fermented bean curd garlic butter, and fried cruller.

Naw Mai Fan – buttered crispy sticky rice with snap peas and herbs.

Cheung Fun – seared rolled rice noodles with bean sprouts and chives (we got the vegan option for this but I bet the shrimp based xo sauce is divine). We also had an unphotographed Fuyu Cacio e Pepe Mein -cacio e pepe, fermented bean curd, pecorino, and black and white pepper.

Chow Nai Sundae – malted fried milk, ovaltine hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, and buttered peanuts.

Brinner Winner

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We did breakfasts for dinners this week. Here was everything I ate on theme…

Coffee, obviously. Sweetie Pies on Main makes some of our favorite lattes in Long Island. These specials were crazy – tres leches and tiramisu!

Cereal [milk latte]. Espresso plus skim milk I infused overnight with Cocoa Pebbles.

Orange juice. I wanted to be on-theme but I hate juice so we made cocktails. OJ with vodka and amaretto plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some Target rainbow sherbet seltzer.

Smoothie. Blueberry pancake smoothie. Frozen blueberries blended with cottage cheese, butter extract, maple syrup, vanilla protein powder, malted milk powder, and water.

Blueberry muffins. I think these protein mini muffins are disgusting in a delightful way.

Yogurt bowl, obviously. This was plain Greek with blueberries, blackberries, and cookie dough granola.

Egg and cheese biscuit. Hometown Bakeshop‘s build-your-own breakfast sandwich. We got a cheddar biscuit with two over-medium eggs, cheddar-jack cheese, caramelized onions, and smoked aioli.

Avocado toast. Whole-wheat bread toasted with butter topped with smashed avocado (with lemon, salt, and gochugaru) and cold-smoked sockeye salmon. Plus sauteed purple asparagus.

Cottage cheese bowls. Topped with cucumber salad (sesame seeds, gochugaru, rice vinegar, and sugar) and baked chicken meatballs (panade, hoisin, gochujang, oyster sauce, and white pepper). I ate several meatballs before they could make it to my bowl!

Oatmeal. Trader Joe’s rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds – 10/10, it is perfect out of the microwave – topped with a fried egg, chopped baby broccoli sauteed with lemon and garlic, spicy caramelized peanuts (sugar, salt, white pepper, evoo, gochugaru, and togarashi), and chili crisp.

Bacon, egg, and cheese bagel salad. This was my best idea of the week. Arugula dressed with garlic Dijon dressing and horseradish Sriracha aioli / sharp cheddar / beef bacon / homemade bagel croutons (Bagel Joint sesame gochujang bagel tossed with evoo, salt, white pepper, and gochugaru and baked) / six-minute eggs.

Unbrielievable

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Some things from the weekend, two sweet and two savory. My savory items had a brie and sourdough theme going (and as I write that I really want a sandwich on sourdough with brie!). We also did some out of the house stuff that I didn’t bring a camera for – treats and lattes at a local coffee spot that we hated and will keep unnamed and our 1st trip to Dave’s Hot Chicken which we loved.

Marzipan! I saved a few to put in a yogurt bowl.

Passionfruit and chocolate is a surprisingly good combo.

Baked brie with honey and walnuts. Served with roasted baby zucchinis and Trader Joe’s sourdough rye chips.

Sourdough fusilli pasta with chicken breast, caramelized sweet onion, and sauteed baby spinach tossed with tons of lemon juice and zest and melted brie.

Pierogi, Calzone, Hot Pockets

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This week’s dinner theme has to be my most unhinged — foods in an edible package. I am mentally categorizing “edible packages” as packets, by the way (i.e. no turducken!).

Mochi-wrapped ice cream. This milk tea flavor from Bubbies was fantastic and these are possibly the best ice cream mochi I’ve ever eaten.

Gummy mangos in an edible candy peel. The peelable gummies from Walgreens are top tier. It was a yummy week!

Rice noodle rolls with shrimp. From Trader Joe’s.

Soup dumplings. We went to Nan Xiang to try their chicken soup dumplings and thought they were great.

We also had their mustard greens with tofu skin and edamame which were good.

And their stir-fried rice cakes with shredded beef which were only ok.

And ube bao stuffed with red bean paste (more packets!).

Potstickers. Trader Joe’s chicken and vegetables. Paired with roasted broccoli and a dumpling salsa inspired by Leah Cohen (crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, gochugaru, sugar, Fly by Jing Sichuan chili oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, and green onions).

Tortellini. Whole Foods kale and cheese. We tossed them with orange baby tomatoes, roasted zucchini, baked chicken, sharp cheddar cubes, and a green sauce (fresh baby spinach food-processed with evoo, chili oil, sesame oil, salt, garlic, and walnuts).

Samosas. Trader Joe’s mini vegetable ones. Paired with curry cauliflower (roasted cauliflower sauteed with evoo, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and Jamaican curry powder) with pickled red onions and fried eggs.

P.S. We’re going to Queens for empanadas tonight. Other than the other thousand varieties of things stuffed into pastas, did I miss any??

CarbohyGREAT

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Some yummy things from a perfect weekend…

Dayglow Coffee. Warhol – espresso, cream, citrus, cinnamon, and vanilla. Morning Show – distilled coffee, orange, condensed coconut, and passionfruit. We were delighted with these.

Humble Cafe is our favorite local Long Island coffee spot. Ice latte with pandan syrup and a taro mochi cookie.

Bagel Joint. We got a Thai iced tea egg cream.

And a duck egg everything bagel with ramp cream cheese and tuna bacon.

DSK Brooklyn. Adam had German beers and I had a shockingly good chicken bratwurst (on a pretzel bun with mustard!).

Pasta Night date night. My Daddy Issues cocktail had bourbon, coconut washed Campari, lime, and ginger beer.

We split the salted cod fritters special.

Roasted brussels sprouts in chili crisp.

Pesto pasta – radiatori in basil pesto with pecorino and poached tomatoes.

And the Big Ragu – rigatoni with golden tomato sauce, slow braised beef ragu, and Parmesan cream.

We of course also had to go to their origin restaurant – Ciao Gloria – earlier in the afternoon. Granita (slushie espresso with sweetener and oat milk) and a espresso chocolate chip cookie and a blondie with tahini and jam. Excellent.

Rita’s Pizza. This was my favorite meal of the food-filled weekend! La Rita – orange marmalade reduction, fontina, caramelized onions, thyme, duck prosciutto, Truffleist duck mousse.

Obviously we got The Sundae – maple and vanilla soft serve twist with hot fudge, torched marshmallow fluff, Luxardo cherry, chocolate pearls, and a waffle cup.

Word Salad

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We don’t always have a weekly dinner theme (often!) but I do have several queued up in a row. This week was SALAD…

Fruit salad skyr bowl. Plain Siggi’s with blueberries, blackberries, mango, and kiwi.

Candy salad! A mix of Nerds Easter items and sour tropical Mike and Ike’s (<– wonderful).

Dinners are listed from least to most favorite (though we quite enjoyed them all). Shredded tofu salad. Super firm tofu (shredded and tossed with evoo, hoisin, and gochujang and then baked until crispy) with roasted cabbage, scallions, bell peppers, and peanut sauce (chunky peanut butter, lime juice, rice vinegar, horseradish Sriracha aioli, sugar, and a bit of water).

Lox bagel inspired salad. Romaine, roasted garlic dijon dressing, hot-smoked sockeye salmon, Biena everything chickpea snacks, capers, cucumber, and pickled red onion.

Nacho chicken salad. Baked chicken, poblano pepper, tomato, scallion, black beans, sharp cheddar, Quest nacho cheese and loaded taco flavored protein chips, plain skyr, mayo, lemon, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Plus roasted cauliflower.

Loaded tuna salad. Canned tuna and smoked trout with mayo, dijon, salt and pepper kettle chips, scallions, sweet baby gherkins, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet pickled jalapenos. Plus a big pile of roasted green beans.

Sub, Hoagie, Grinder, Hero

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It is no longer coat weather in NYC, woo-hoo! Other highlights from the week…

Banana bread frozen coffee. Coffee blended with ice, cream, frozen banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter extract, and vanilla protein powder.

The rest of the week I did this cookie x cookie combo. The Javy cookies and cream coffee concentrate and Chobani cookie dough creamer were both good but not great.

Beautiful nougat candies my parents made for Easter.

This week’s dinner theme was sandwiches so of course I had some peanut butter and jelly snacks. Yogurt bowl – plain skyr with chunky peanut butter, concord grape jam, and blueberries.

Reese’s peanut butter and jelly big cups(!!!). These were 10/10’s (but still not as good as the chip ones!).

Egg salad. Whole-wheat bread with egg salad (hard-boiled eggs, mayo, Dijon mustard, plain skyr, scallion, poblano, and cornichons). Plus baby carrots and blueberries.

Turkey meatball. Brioche buns with Trader Joe’s pizza sauce and baked turkey meatballs (with pizza cheese, panade, and tons of garlic). Plus roasted broccoli.

Spicy chicken. Whole wheat bread, baked chicken (marinated in yogurt and Sriracha), chunky peanut butter, Kewpie, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy jalopenos, and sharp cheddar. Plus steamed green beans sauteed with caramelized kimchi and Dijon mustard.

Tuna smash-melts. Tuna salad (canned albacore tuna and smoked trout, capers, scallion, sweet gherkins, mayo, Kewpie, Dijon mustard, and paprika) and sharp cheddar on a brioche bun that I squashed in a skillet with butter. Plus roasted zucchini.

Hoppy Easter

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Somethings from this week, mostly on-theme and/or coffee…

No one is surprised that I’ve been buying Easter candies for months.

I also have been saving up lemon and coconut bars. The Melo bars are all 10/10 but the lemon flavor is actually my favorite. I also was very pleased with how lemony the 88 Acres one was.

Buzz’d Express Coffee‘s marshmallow Peep cold foam cold brew is maybe my favorite coffee of 2025.

I also made my own version with toasted birthday cake Peeps blended into an iced coffee with cream, sugar, vanilla bean powder, and vanilla extract.

Coconut water with dalgona-style espresso (9/10).

A spring-y cottage cheese bowl with leftover fermented banana cake, kiwi, blackberries, and edible flowers.

Trader Joe’s dried baby pineapples. These are nicely sweet and chewy.

We tried the rice paper noodles hack with brown rice spring roll wrappers (loved it, the chew was perfect). Stir-fried with Pad See Ew sauce, baked chicken, green onion, broccolini, and egg.

Buffalo chicken cabbage bowls. I made a cole slaw with green cabbage, green onion, tomato, Greek yogurt, mayo, dijon mustard, vinegar, white pepper, sugar, and blue cheese. Topped with baked chicken that I tossed in a skillet with butter, dijon, and Frank’s buffalo sauce.

Sheet-pan hash. Sprouted extra-firm tofu baked with brussels sprouts, yam, green onion, blue cheese, and Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pecans. I topped my bowl with honey and chili crisp.

Pizza night! Two-ingredient crust plus two ingredients (garlic and onion powder) / Trader Joe’s pizza sauce zhuzhed up with tomato sauce, roasted garlic, and urfa pepper / pizza-blend shredded cheese / sauteed mushrooms (a frozen blend with white, crimini, portobello, and shiitake) with green onions, gochugaru, and butter. Plus roasted yellow cauliflower.