Tag Archives: coconut

Burgers And Baked Goods

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We spent a fantabulous Halloween weekend in Kingston! We ate so many good things!! Some highlights…

El Brekkie. The namesake taco was breathtaking – carne asada, scrambled egg, and a cheese crust. This was my second favorite stop of the weekend.

Pinkerton’s.

Their decadent egg sandwich is served on their house English muffin and it is the absolute best sandwich vehicle.

Kingston Bread and Bar.

We loved the Hash-ish sandwich – fried egg, house corned beef, red onion, crispy latke, and spicy mustard on a sesame milk bun.

Lucky Catskills. Coconut cold brew with black sesame cold foam.

Little Rye Bakehouse. We got an assortment of goodies would definitely come here again.

Blue Duck Brewing Company. We had dinner that was good but not great and drinks that were great. I would definitely go back here for drinks. This round was a pumpkin espresso martini and a Miss Lippy – white rum, Campari, lime, and passion fruit syrup.

Moonburger. What a fun spot! And my #9 cheeseburger was delicious. I loved the fries too but would not get them spicy again.

Sonder. My terrible photos do this meal no justice, this salad was the prettiest thing I’ve ever eaten. Cabbage and bitter greens with Green Goddess dressing, apple, and miso candied pecans.

House pickles / pickled eggs with aioli, crispy shallots, and evoo / bread with pumpkin butter, browned honey butter, and apple butter.

My all time favorite, number one burger pick in New York. With cornichons, special sauce, and American cheese. It is so charred and smoky!

We shared a terrible bread pudding and a fantasmic affogato (with cacoa nibs!).

Sorry, Charlie. This was my favorite stop of the weekend! Great service, great drinks, great pizza. They were doing fun Halloween specials including the Ecto Cooler shot – tequila, Midori, Suze, and orange bitters.

The clarified Painkiller was one of the best Painkillers I’ve ever had.

And their pizza had the best crust we’ve had in a while. We got a Caps and Stems – mozzarella, roasted mushrooms, sherried onions, garlic parmesan sauce, parmesan, and chives. We will definitely be going back here on all subsequent Kingston trips.

Bon Bon Butterfinger

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Things from last week…

I bought an obscene amount of chocolate from Bon Bon Bon and we’ve loved every bite! We ordered from them once before during the Pandemic and probably will again; they have gorgeous packaging and inventive flavors. My favorites so far have been the Salty Sap (crystalized maple caramel, butter cracker ganache, dark chocolate) and the Bumpy (fudgy chocolate cake cream, buttercream frosting).

We also tried the candy corn homemade Butterfinger recipe! As a registered dietitian I should probably be able to explain the food chemistry of why this works so well — I cannot, but I can tell you it was delicious.

Best yogurt bowl of the fall – plain Greek with blueberries and persimmon.

The week’s dinner theme was meat salads. (<– not an unhinged sentence) Listed from good to great: Tofu grinder salad. Boiled super-firm tofu strips, pickled pepperoncini, Edam cheese, Bomb Squad baby tomatoes, shredded romaine, pickled red onions, and olives tossed with plain Greek yogurt, Duke’s, vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, gochugaru, and dried basil.

Red curry tuna salad. Canned tuna and smoked trout with plain Greek yogurt, Kewpie, red curry paste, and lime / served on a microwave pack of coconut brown rice / with sauteed bok choy, red bell pepper, green onion, and garlic / and crispy onion and garlic.

Hot honey chicken salad. Shredded baked chicken breast, crispy baked navy beans, green onion, and chopped Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy jalapeños with plain Greek yogurt, Duke’s, Dijon mustard, honey, chili oil, and gochugaru. Plus roasted baby broccoli.

Jalapeño popper egg salad. Eggs (hard boiled eggs that I marinated in a mix of pickle brine, jalapeño brine, and rice vinegar), plain Greek yogurt, Duke’s Dijon mustard, chopped sweet and spicy jalapeños, and cubes of Kerrygold sweet cheddar. Plus sauteed asparagus. For added crunch across the plate – panko toasted in a skillet with butter, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and crispy onions and garlic.

Pandan, Pickles, Poke

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We had an exceptional weekend, including great food, long walks, and time in Dumbo, Chelsea, and Chinatown. Some of our favorites…

Fishs Eddy‘s newish Dumbo location has a coffee bar. Their delicious Fridge Cigarette take is their house-made cola with vanilla syrup and espresso.

Bunny & Bro‘s blackberry pie iced latte.

Bahn by Lauren‘s lime drip (flashed chilled coffee with sweetened lime) is a 100/10.

Their famous pandan honeycomb cake was good but not my personal favorite.

MOTW pumpkin pie iced latte.

We also tried their butter chicken empanada.

Nine Treasure’s Creamery ice cream sandwich with kaya toast ice cream on mango crinkle cookies.

Seed and Mill‘s sesame sundae is Adam’s favorite dessert in the city. We also got a square of pb&j halvah that was amazing.

Hawaiian food from Aloha Alley. We shared their Loco Moco plate (beef patties with beef bone broth mushroom gravy, eggs, rice, and macaroni salad) and the ahi poke (tuna with scallions, seaweed salad, sweet onion, soy garlic shoyu, and crushed macadamia. Plus furikake rice).

Hots Pizza was adorable and had the nicest workers. We swooned over this pickle slice and want to go back to try their other stuff ASAP.

Big Tings in Chelsea Market served us an great jerk chicken sandwich and iced tea with sorrel.

We were totally smitten with the sandwiches from 20 Blocks, every ingredient is clearly chosen with so much care. We shared a Turkey Town (house turkey, fried green tomato, baby romaine, and Cajun mayo on honey whole-wheat) and a Corn Star (charred corn, cowboy candy, and havarti on toasted milk bread).

Dinner at the always excellent Her Name is Han. We got a Mint Garden (green tea infused soju with fresh mint, basil, and perilla leaves) and a Hallabong Spritz (basically an aperol spritz with Jeju citrus).

We shared a bunch of things and are already excited for our appetizers. Korean fried chicken (which comes with a great sauce and wonderful radish kimchi).

Rice cakes with kabocha squash, shishito peppers, and a yuzu gochujang sauce / kimchi cheese pancake topped with a poached egg.

Gochujang grilled chicken thighs (the onion slaw on the side was my favorite bite of the evening). We also had minced beef bulgogi that I forgot to photograph.

P.S. Our actual favorite item of the weekend was a 100/10 cafecito from Titi’s Empanadas on the Lower East Side.

Banana, Bean, Black Sesame

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Highlights from last week…

Pachanga Coffee iced latte with oatmilk and guava.

Plan skyr bowl with blueberries (Sweetest Batch and Jumbos!) and Grady’s peanut butter coconut granola.

Plain skyr dessert bowl with One Trick Pony cinnamon sugar peanut butter (divine!), banana chips, chocolate chips, and granola.

Grape cruffin from Ansa Coffee (impeccable!).

We loved the banana soft-serve from Koke. I got black sesame with banana chips and black sesame sauce.

Also a perfect black sesame mochi cookie with groats in it.

A chocolate menagerie from L.A. Burdick.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Princess cake and a caramel peanut butter bar. They are probably my 3rd favorite cake shop in all of NY.

Gertie’s new bagel shop concept knocked our socks off. We shared a bagel with scallion cream cheese, whitefish salad, and pickled peppers and latkes with apple butter and sour cream.

Tuck Shop‘s tuna melt is my new favorite. I was also head over heels for their honey mustard mayo (2nd sauce of all time; nearly tied with the salsa I had in Taos, NM).

Mimi Cheng‘s Thai chili lime dumpling special.

Authentic Thai takeout. Pad see ew with mock duck and tom kha gai fried rice.

Curry beans. Great Northerm beans and roasted garlic sauteed with green onion, ginger, coconut milk, lime juice, red curry, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Served on a mix of brown rice and roasted riced cauliflower.

A very loose take on joomukbap. Leftover rice made into balls with sauteed kimchi, sesame seeds, shredded cheddar, canned tuna, roasted garlic, skyr, and Kewpie and coated in roasted seaweed and furikake. Plus roasted eggplant (a local baby eggplant variety!) sauteed with tahini, gochujang, sesame oil, and honey.

A loose take on callaloo. Frozen spinach cooked with yellow hot pepper, white onion, garlic, urfa chili, curry powder, coconut milk, and crab meat. I ate my bowl with a side of Vigil’s butter and mesquite beef jerky.

Brothy beans. Sauteed leak, green onion, and baby bok choy with ginger, gochugaru, butter, rice vinegar, chicken broth, and pinto beans. Served with buttered toasted sourdough bread (from Cafe d’Avignon, delicious).

Two Coffees

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We had a fantastic weekend! We ran on the Long Beach Boardwalk and got dinner at Lil Al’s and had a sunset burger picnic. We drove to Robert Moses Beach in a beautiful sunrise and did the walk to Fire Island (and saw so many deer, including a buck that was less than three feet from us!). We hung out just outside of the Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms concert in Central Park and heard “Follow You Down” live (plus, even more excitingly, Spin Doctors performing “Two Princes!”).

Some food/drink highlights…

We had a fun time making mini lattes to taste-test these Bizzy espresso shots. I much preferred the dark roast but both were nice in milk.

Kismet Coffee served us the my favorite sweetened latte of the summer – with blueberry syrup and a coconut cold foam. We also had a banana bread cold brew.

This mint coconut cold brew from Bluestone Lane was so sweet that we had to throw it out after a couple of sips (but it was delicious!).

We loved (and finished) our coffees from Kora. Mint julep cold brew with oat milk (delicious!!) and iced espresso with leche fan cold foam.

We also loved our treats. Ensaymada croissant with buttered sugar and edam, kouign amann, FFG cookie with Medjool dates, pecans, toffee, and sea salt. These were all mind-blowing.

Mini black sesame bingsu with espresso from Seoul Sweets. This was tasty but not worth the hassle of the location for us.

The Greek yogurt frozen yogurt from Kostantina is the best froyo I’ve ever had. I got plain with stewed blueberries and peanut butter kataifi.

Fun drinks at Terrace including a trio of jello shots!

The best drinks of the weekend were consumed with dinner at Wang Lang. Adam had a satay old fashioned that was a 100% scent match for satay! And I get the hype around the mango sticky rice cocktail (Tito’s, mango puree, mango syrup, and lime with a toasted rice cream).

I also had their summer special – pandan-infused rice rum with ginger and green chili syrup and clarified lime. Delicious.

My entree – beef pad se ew – was also delicious.

And we shared the chicken larb spring rolls to start.

We ordered a lot from Masani Pizza but my favorites were the chicken roll and the swoon-worthy (literally!) cacio e pepe slice.

I made my Lil Al’s leftovers into something even better – macaroni and cheese (theirs was good but it was American-style and I much prefer baked) shaken up with a hot chicken tender from Dave’s Hot Chicken, Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning, and leftover roasted broccoli.

Open Sesame

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Things from the week…

More fun drinks. All good/would buy agains. Pineapple yuzu kombucha / pandan coconut soda / banana water (this was our favorite!).

A summer watermelon date. It was kind of disappointing, but fun to eat in the kitchen as a whole family.

This black sesame bar was nice; not roasty enough for me but also not too sweet.

Guac Shop take-out. They crammed so much food into this food! My go-to order – a rice bowl with tofu, sweet potato, roasted cabbage, corn, pico, jalapeño mango salsa, cheese, and cilantro aioli. Plus chips with guac.

Hetty McKinnon‘s hoisin garlic noodles for the New York Times (recipe). As I write this post I am realizing that I completely left out the garlic — but they were still great! Paired with roasted sprouted tofu and snap peas sauteed with garlic, sunflower seeds, and parmesan.

Spicy maple miso chicken with a maple miso tahini salad. The best meal of the week! Baked chicken thighs sauteed with maple syrup, white miso, rice wine, soy sauce, and gochujang. Plus roasted broccoli, raw fennel, and green onions tossed with maple, miso, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, and tahini.

Sips, Sweets, Sandwiches

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It was another great weekend! We stayed local this time, but enjoyed longish walks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. And shared so many sweet treats and sweet treat drinks! I considered including slushes in the title! Like I said, a great weekend! Highlights…

Bean Monger ube biko iced latte.

Moon Coffee Lab salted caramel iced latte with banana milk. Banana is the best coffee milk.

Levain cookie milk iced latte. The cold foam was delicious but my favorite part was the espresso; I had never tried coffee from here before but I definitely will get it again!

The very best coffee of the weekend came from Smiley Coffee – espresso with coconut slushie.

We happened across a street fair that had red sorrel. The spot was serving it with mint which was lovely.

Speaking of things that tasted like home, this soursop infused coconut water was nice and not too sweet.

Tender Crush frozen Diet Coke with vanilla soft serve!

Red Gate Bakery Fudgenutter cookie.

Comfortland + Donut Diva never miss; this guava cheese Linzer tart was exceptional

Perfect frozen drinks at Antojitos BK. 2nd best texture in the city (only beaten by Connolly’s). We had an espresso martini and a Nutcracker.

Sandwich Board duck tsangwich was a 10/10 – bolo bao with roast duck, crispy duck skin, cucumber, scallion, hoisin sauce, and house chili oil.

We didn’t love our ribeye sandwich at Sanwits.

But my Halo Halo was excellent. Not exactly what I am usually used to but so creamy and I loved the caramelized plantain.

We were blown away by our meal at La Fleur Rouge. Really thoughtful, beautiful dishes in a great environment. Guava Plum – tequilla Empirical Ayuuk, pink guava, plum, and salt.

Peking duck bao.

Morel duck soup.

Crispy Chinese eggplant with pineapple, bell pepper, and sweet and sour. These were a can’t miss.

The cheeseburger, which came with pickled cucumbers and seasoned fries. This sounds mean but it is in fact the highest compliment — this tasted exactly like the breakfast sausages you used to get on planes! Doesn’t break my top five but I did love it.

Tai Chi Fried Rice with confit duck, shrimp, and squid ink. This tasted even better than it looked and kept wonderfully leftover.

Finally molten chocolate cake with rum raisin ice cream and Golden Graham crumble.

And egg yolk beignets with apricot marmalade.

The best thing we ate all weekend was the fried rice I made with our James‘ leftovers. White rice and eggs from home plus short rib ragu and charred broccolini with Waygu beef bacon.

Chicken Salad JCT

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Highlights from an extra-yummy week…

Brunch date at Twisted Fork. We had a surprisingly good blueberry pancake iced latte (with maple syrup and blueberry cold foam).

A breakfast martini with gin, triple sec, lemon juice, and orange marmalade.

A bloody mary.

And I had a chicken sandwich on ciabatta with avocado, housemade pickles, and sweet chili aioli.

Dessert yogurt bowls. Plain skyr with granola, honey sunflower butter, and red plum and banana cooked down with butter, brown sugar, and vanilla sugar.

Plain skyr with (microwaved frozen) blueberries, peanut butter, and brownies (THE brownie recipe with the addition of espresso powder, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips).

I also blended brownies into a shake with vanilla ice cream and coconut syrup.

See also – this iced matcha latte with coconut syrup was lovely.

It’s my birthday this week and my parents sent me a plethora of on-theme snacks that my coworkers and I have been taste-testing.

Speaking of themes, we did another Sandwich Week for dinners! Chicken salad JCT, ie a BLT but with jerky, chips, and tomato. My chicken salad was shredded baked chicken breast with Duke’s, plain skyr, pickled jalapeño brine, and chopped pickles. We mixed in butter mesquite beef jerky (we brought home several bags of jerky from New Mexico and we are obsessed with it) and bbq potato chips and topped with fresh tomato; on sliced whole-wheat. Plus sauteed baby bok choy with green onion, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Takeout from the OG – Roast. Half a fried chicken sandwich – with pickles, Mike’s hot honey, and cheddar / half a filet mignon special – with chimichurri, onion jam, potato straws, mozzarella, and roasted garlic butter / unphotographed fries / and homecooked veggies – sauteed zucchini with tomato, dried basil, sumac, salt and pepper.

Meatball wrap. Mission tortilla / baked turkey meatballs – ground turkey, panade, egg, hoisin, pepper, urfa, and shredded cheese / cream cheese mixed with confit garlic / crispy fried garlic and onions. Plus roasted green beans.

Tofu wrap. Roasted Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch mixed with plain skyr, Kewpie, white miso, lime juice, and cotija / crunchy cheese bites / roasted super-firm tofu tossed in a skillet with honey, lime juice, soy sauce, chili crisp, gochujang, and ginger. Plus sauteed asparagus.

Hot pepper peach chicken bagelwich. One of my most important childhood taste memories is eating hot pepper peach jelly on cream cheese with my Ohio family and that informs this bagel. A leftover Apollo bagel, toasted and topped with a mix of cream cheese, baked chicken, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pickled jalapeños, and sauteed peaches. Plus baby broccoli sauteed with baby tomatoes, confit garlic, salt, pepper, and gochugaru.

A very important postscript – the 7-11 egg salad sandwich is a 10/10.