This weekend I: worked both days // celebrated Rex Manning Day by watching Empire Records and eating pizza and brownies // celebrated Easter by infusing vodka with Peeps marshmallows and eating my weight in sugar.
Highlights included…
Tapatio pickles. These were nice and firm and spicier than I was expecting.
Peeps vodka with pink Ting. <— a perfect combination!
Triple chocolate brownies. The Bakers chocolate recipe (halved) with the addition of espresso powder, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips.
Nougat candies that my parents made at home!
Noosa lemon bar frozen yogurt is a 10/10 for Spring.
Turkey laab (we love this recipe) with sauteed bok choy and fennel with ginger and green onions.
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.
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.
Adam and I had a really lovely weekend. There were storms Friday night into Saturday morning but afterwards the weather cleared up nicely so we could enjoy some walking dates. We covered a lot of ground, including walks across the Williamsburg Bridge and Queensboro Bridge. Also a trip to the Guggenheim for the Nick Cave exhibit.
Doughnut Project‘s maple cruller is our favorite doughnut in the city.
Lucky Kings Bakery‘s fried mochi stuffed with red bean paste and rolled in sesame seeds. This was amazing.
Banana pudding at Baonanas. Cookies and cream and ube.
Drinks at Dante. Our favorite was this Amalfi Limonata – malfy lemon gin. limoncello, lemon curd, lemon juice, and limonata soda.
I 100% planned last week’s meals so we would have leftover ingredients for homemade painkillers. Pineapple juice, fresh orange juice, and light coconut milk with sweetened condensed milk with dark rum.
Brunch at Loulou. I had a Remy – tequilla, Lillet Rose, and homemade grenadine with lime and sparkling grapefruit.
Also a gruyere omelette.
Lunch at Tacombi. Horchata / hibiscus agua fresca with mezcal and chile.
Corn esquites.
Breakfast taco with eggs, pico, and Oaxaca cheese. <– best dish of the meal
Birria tacos.
Dinner at Super Burrito. We ordered all of this week’s specials with ground beef – burrito, crunchwrap, and nachos. We loved it here!
Epic homemade burrito bowls. Roasted cauliflower rice with roasted onion/bell peppers/poblano pepper, sharp cheddar, double roasted salsa, chicken and chile verde sausage, crispy tortilla strips, and pickled jalopenos.
It was a short workweek because I spent Monday-Wednesday in Ohio. My grandma is moving and I went help pack up/visit with her and my mom! Here were some random things I’ve enjoyed since I got back home…
Pocket latte – coffee chocolate bar with caffeine.
This real latte was better. New York Beanery‘s monthly special is a mint mocha. We also had a pretty amazing creme brulee latte.
Fruity, extra-creamy yogurts. The fig was too lemon-y for my tastes but the marionberry was perfect.
Buttered popcorn with togarashi, furikake, and brown sugar.
Yogurt soju 9/10 and yuzu jelly sake 20/10.
We tried and loved a new-to-us Vietnamese spot in Long Island – Sup. Bang bang chicken salad.
Vietnamese iced coffee (with also had a great strawberry tea) and green papaya salad.
An array of pink and/or chocolate-covered-berry coffees. Strawberry milk with espresso and mocha / raspberry pour-over with chocolate milk / iced coffee with chocolate milk and Luxardo cherry.
Prospector Popcorn’s chocolate strawberry flavor was a 9.9/10. We also had themed marshmallows and conversation hearts.
On-theme probiotics – Pure Love kombucha.
Chocolate-covered cherry smoothies. Frozen cherries with chocolate milk and plain Greek yogurt.
Note to future Emily – I did not love the plum version of this hard seltzer.
However, this caramel peanut butter candy bar flavor from Jeni’s is possibly my favorite ice cream.
We loved this cozy dinner. Chicken salad with Candy Snap grapes and smoked almonds / roasted brussel sprouts / roasted delicata squash.
Easy lox toasts. Toasted rye with butter, cream cheese, furikake, gochugaru, and smoked sockeye salmon.
We enjoyed our veggie in green smoothie form – fresh tangerine, frozen spinach, mango, and banana, with water, honey, and key lime juice.
And an egg burrito with extra veggies. This was only ok (who puts carrots on a burrito? And it needed way more hot sauce) but Adam’s egg and cheese sandwich was a work of art.
Cookie x cookie coffee wins. I 11/10 loved the Stew Leonard’s cookie dough flavored coffee and also enjoyed the Califa cookie butter almond milk creamer far more than I was expecting to.
Sliced Hunnyz apple (a new favorite) with honey, cinnamon, and chunky peanut butter.
Yogurt bowl with plain skry, vanilla bean paste, honey, persimmon, passionfruit, chia seeds, and vanilla almond granola.
See also, plain skyr with cinnamon, blueberry jam, persimmon, Mineola tangerine, and granola.
We spent an obscene amount of money on Taco Bell delivery for dinner one night so I tried to bring balance back to the Force with a green juice. Lol, unfortunately I grabbed the wrong bottle because this ended up basically being lemonade with aloe and chlorophyll.
We liked these Zapp’s honey mustard pretzels a lot. Not as much as Dot’s but more than their voodoo variety which ended up being too seasoned for us. Also, I use the adjective “jazzy” at least four times a week so clearly I had to buy these.
We loved these Trader Joe’s lentil and chickpea crisps. Great texture.
These Ben & Jerry’s s’mores cookie dough bites are my favorite thing I’ve ever eaten. I love everything about them but the truffles specifically are mind-blowing.
Leftover jalopeno cheddar hushpupies from Sweet Chick with honey and leftover crab dip.
The Burrito Blvd near our apartment has the best toppings; this rice bowl was 40% rice and 60% chopped zuchinni (my ideal burrito bowl ratio). Also chicken, corn, tomato, cheese, and mild salsa.
Homemade laab. I followed this recipe. We quite enjoyed it and were not sad to have sourced toasted rice powder. Plus sauted bok choy with ginger and sesame seeds.
Spicy, tomato-y chickpea bowls. I sauteed graffiti eggplant and sweet onion with fire-roasted diced tomatoes, harissa, and chickpeas. Topped with plain yogurt and fresh mint.
Homemade cashew chicken. I followed this recipe except that I swapped breasts for thighs and added red bell pepper. With brown basmatti rice and roasted broccoli.
P.S. We have exciting dinner reservations tonight for Omakase at Koyo. I’m not bringing my camera but from what I can tell online everything should be gorgeous (and delicious!).
Some highlights from an exceptionally yummy week! We had some bonkers-good snacks and dinners the past few days…
Sumo mandarins and new Hunnyz apples – perfectly sweet and with a balanced texture, not super crisp but not at all mealy.
Yuzu beverages, both winners. I mixed the High Tide sparkling water with iced matcha and the Lunar hard seltzer with vodka.
Crispy lentils. I loved how roasty these were.
Snack Mates pizza and chicken and waffle flavored meat sticks. These were great.
Strawberry chocolate mochi. This was definitely the best packaged mochi I’ve tried.
The Reese’s Big Cups continue to be the ultimate candy; this new Reese’s Puffs variety was a 10/10. My personal ranking is potato chip > puffs > pretzel. Meanwhile, we liked these so much we bought a box of Puffs and I was very underwhelmed by them in cereal bowl form.
I don’t accept many product samples for the blog these days but this was truly the perfect fit – Prospector Popcorn. The flavors were delicious (the Belgian chocolate toffee was my favorite), they were super fresh, and none of the coatings contain palm oil. We truly loved these and have already ordered more bags with our own money. Huge bonus – this company is a non-profit dedicated to employing people with disabilities (74% of their current workforce).
Korean chicken bowls. Sliced chicken thighs marinated in gojuchang, soy sauce, garlic, and brown sugar and sauted in canola oil. With green onion, sesame seeds, and chopped roasted baby cauliflower.
Salads. Green lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette, crispy lentils, roasted carrots (rainbow baby carrots roasted with butter, evoo, honey, cinnamon, smoked paprika, and urfa pepper), and a fried egg.
Pizza bites (this recipe – we loved it!), garlic turkey meatballs, and roasted romanesco with pizza sauce for dipping.
Pizza-inspired tteokbokki. Rice cakes / roasted cabbage and red onion / green onions / shredded chicken breast / pizza sauce with gojuchang, gochugaru, sugar, evoo, and water / pizza blend shredded cheese.
Eating Chalk 