Coffees And Pastas

Adam and I had the whole weekend together, which was just lovely! Despite the heat we managed to take the dog to a farmer’s market and take a humans-only walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. And we ate so many good things! Highlights included…

A dalgona iced latte (always a winner!) with chocolate milk.

Blue Bottle‘s shaken New Orleans cold brew is a 10/10 summer special.

Lemon chess pie at the farmer’s market.

Brigaderio cake at Cafe Patoro. I also had a brigaderio iced latte that was hands-down the best thing I’ve consumed so far in 2023.

Dessert flavored booze! Decadent Ale guava cream pop IPA / Ellicottville strawberry crunch bar cream ale / Skatterbrain vanilla cake whiskey (I mixed this one with amaretto, diet coke, and fancy cherries and it was fantastic).

Brunch at Nuaa Table. Thai iced tea.

We shared the veggie dumplings and roasted duck buns.

Banana blossom salad with coconut poached chicken and quail eggs. The acidity here was perfection.

Spicy shrimp basil noodles.

Son-in-Law duck egg – fried boiled duck egg, homemade black pepper brioche, and tamarind-fish sauce caramel. This was my favorite dish.

Lobster roll from Luke’s.

Dinner at Patti Ann’s. This was really good but not mind-blowing like I was expecting.

We shared charred asparagus with hummus, walnuts, golden raisins, and za’atar.

The smashed patty burger – on milk bread with sharp cheddar, special sauce, tomato, and crispy shallots.

And duck lasagna.

Chili garlic noodles from Omsom. I added leftover veggies, chili crisp, and a six-minute egg.

Birthday Cake

Highlights from an extra-yummy week…

Monday was my birthday! Obviously I had a stash of on-theme treats. Milk Bar ice cream (10/10; it has a frosting ribbon!) / BelliWelli bar (8/10) / Made Good granola bar (9.5/10) / Premier Protein protein shake (4/10).

See also – my birthday gift to myself was ordering some of these delicious cocktail cherries I had in Traverse City, MI.

Other fun treats included huckleberry gummy bears from CO.

Mango-passionfruit fruit leather.

Homemade (mini) blueberry cobbler! I used a New York Times Recipe. Topped with ice cream.

You know my birthday dinner choice was Roast take-out (enjoyed in front of “I Think You Should Leave,” of course!). I got a bbq chicken crunch wrap (sharp cheddar, pepper jack, avocado, crispy tortillas, chicken, and chipotle ranch) and fries with house sauce. Plus homemade spicy sesame green beans (steamed/blistered and sauteed with gojuchang, tahini, and sesame seeds).

This week’s dinners were all wins. Korean steamed eggs with brown rice, sauteed bok choy, roasted zucchini, and chili crisp.

A summer veggie plate. Leftover zucchini / sauteed garlic baby broccoli / Trader Joe’s Sriracha baked tofu / cheesy corn salad – sauteed fresh corn, green onion, poblano pepper, mozarella, gochugaru, Kewpie, and lime juice.

Jumeokbap. I used brown rice and added Sriracha. And made mine giant! With leftover green beans (so good cold!) and cucumber tossed with gojuchang, sugar, and rice vinegar.

Denver –> NYC

This was a “short” week because I was in Denver until 2 am Tuesday East Coast time. My mom and I had such a fun vacation! Other than family stuff our favorite activities were the Rocky Mountain National Park (and just generally being constantly awed by how fantastically beautiful the wild flowers were!) and an afternoon at Meow Wolf.

I don’t have a ton to share from my return home because this was the longest short week ever. I landed in JFK at 6 am and was at my desk at work by 7:30! Also I worked through the weekend and had some of the busiest and stressful shifts of all time. Suffice to say we’ve mostly eaten take-out the past week! Here were some highlights…

Frozen tahini iced coffee. I made coffee ice cubes and blended them with more coffee, tahini, sugar, and a splash of half and half.

Very impressed with the Sang black coffee can (roasty, good body, and outdone only by Grady’s and Stumptown).

Extra-crispy Cosmic Crisp apple.

A winner Whole Foods’ hot bar day – Roasted veggies and roasted green beans / celery, date, and peanut salad / Caesar chicken salad / hard-boiled egg / mac and cheese.

Loved this alcoholic beverage from Empirical; it really did taste like pine in a lovely way.

Cinnamon bears are my new favorite kind of chocolate-covered gummy.

Dinner at a restaurant – Youta, a new ramen spot we loved. Spicy serano cucumber salad.

Fried chicken with garlic mayo.

I got the veggie ramen – truffle veggie broth, maitake, shitake, kikurage tempura, topped with menma and scallion.

And a mango parfait for dessert.

Dinner via takeout – Dario’s Pizza. New to us and a 9.5/10. We got two kinds of cheese slices, shredded beef, and spicy chicken.

Dinner “made” at home thanks to these kimchi vegetable dumplings and frozen cauliflower.

Plus homemade dumpling sauce.

Sandwich Week (Take Ten Thousand)

This was our best Sandwich Week yet! We also had some good snacks and fantastic veggie sides. Highlights included…

We tried and loved the new Ralph’s Coffee location. I made an affogato with espresso and their coffee/vanilla soft serve.

Weird Tea – good not great but a nice level of sweetness.

Tropical skyrs. The guava Siggi’s was surprisingly disappointing but the mango passionfruit Icelandic Provisions was top-notch.

With blueberries, blackberries, and cookie dough granola.

We had leftover Cheez-Its from our tofu (<– that sentence is funny. P.S. The extra-toasted variety is great) and I made this unhinged plate of microwave nachos.

Cabot seriously sharp cheddar popcorn. I usually don’t care for cheesy popcorn outside of Chicago mix but this was so sharp.

Whole Food’s lemon and yuzu jam cookie.

Another week of me really enjoying both of these chewy snacks.

Turkey and cheese, french-toasted. Trader Joe’s sourdough sandwich bread, jam, smoked sliced turkey, and sharp cheddar, french-toasted. With roasted brussel sprouts that I sauteed with red onion, baby bell pepper, butter, honey, and harissa.

Turkey and cheese, chopped. How have I never had a chopped sandwich like this before? It was amazing. We chopped together smoked turkey, maple roasted turkey, sharp cheddar, leftover garlic baby broccoli, banana peppers, yellow mustard, mayo, and paprika. On sub rolls.

Tuna, blended. We took our tuna salad to the next level by putting it in the food processer; with smoked trout, mayo, and capers. On sourdough with avocado and pickled red onion. Plus garlic sauteed baby broccoli; I topped mine with butter-toasted cheez-its and baby bell peppers sauteed with candied jalopenos.

Eggs, doubled. My dad and I had a conversation awhile back wondering why no one makes egg sandwiches with more than one kind of egg? They absolutely should! This was a soft-scrambled egg and a fried egg, with yellow mustard, mayo, and sharp cheddar, on sourdough. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Traverse City 2023

Adam and I had an amazing vacation in Michigan! We ran along the lake, took a ferry to Mackinac Island and admired the flowers, explored downtown, and spent time with friends and met their twin babies!

Our favorite things we ate included…

A perfectly roasty latte from Higher Grounds.

Iced espresso with cherry cold foam from Espresso Bay.

A fantastic s’mores cold foam cold brew from Biggby Coffee.

Rocky road fudge on Mackinac Island.

Ice cream with housemade fudge from Milk & Honey.

Yuzu and Earl Grey macarons from Merlyn’s Patisserie. Also an ube crinkle cookie that was the 2nd best cookie I’ve ever eaten.

The number one best cooke we’ve ever eaten was a peanut butter cookie from Common Good.

The smoked whitefish hushpuppies from Great Turtle.

Everything on the menu at Sugar2Salt, our new favorite restaurant. We liked it here so much we went back the next day! This was The Duck – duck leg confit, duck ham, duck sausage, and a duck egg with applesauce, poached pear, and crispy greens.

The salad from Mama Lu’s with pepitas and gigante beans. Plus a margarita made with creamy coconut.

A cherry whiskey slushee from Traverse City Whiskey Co.

The Pterodact Ale IPA from Terra Firma.

Staycation

By the time this post goes live I’ll be on my way to visit friends in Traverse City, Michigan! I can’t wait!!

I’ve actually been on vacation since Saturday, which is great. Adam’s siblings came into town and we took them to Eataly, Roast (off course!), an escape room, and more. Then they took a family trip and Webster and I had a little staycation. Basically I spent three straight days with the dog on my lap — it was perfect.

Some highlights from the past few days include…

Southdown Coffee‘s espresso tonic. I don’t even like tonic water but I love this.

The Layers Perfect Bars are an 11/10.

I had not expected to love these BelliWelli bars but I do, the chocolate chip cookie flavor is easily a 9/10.

Yogurt bowls. Plain Greek with chocolate chip cookie dough granola, blackberries, and blueberries.

See also – watermelon with fresh berries. I love summer!

His and hers Ben & Jerry’s for the dog and me. We loved it.

Roast breakfast burrito with eggs, avocado, hashbrowns, and aioli.

Giant salad from Burrito Blvd. With chicken, zucchini, corn, tomato, and cheese. See also, but without a photo – we took Adam’s family to Rosa Mexicano and I had the best cheeseburger I’ve eaten in 2023.

Trader Joe’s Thai Noodles

I hope all of my local readers are breathing a little bit better! Highlights from the past week…

A sucessful fridge dregs yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s guava passionfruit Greek yogurt with a bit of cottage cheese, mandarin orange, and chia seeds.

The cookie dough flavor is the best Perfect Bar flavor (though I am hoping to get my hands on the crispy layered ones again asap).

Plant-based gummies. The ones on my left are one of my favorites but I was not a fan of the ones on the right as they were basically fruit leather (note – Adam loved them).

An assortment of citrus sparkling beverages. The Social Hour was the stand-out. I was suprisingly not that impressed by the Topo Chico.

I enjoyed these Trader Joe’s Mee Krob seasoned noodle crisps and would buy them again.

Trader Joe’s chicken and veggie gyoza potstickers (9.5/10) with edamame and dumpling sauce on the side.

Trader Joe’s Thai wheat noodles sauteed with spinach, edamame, green onion, and a spicy sauce (including gojuchang, Sriracha, and chili crisp!) and topped with sesame seeds and a fried egg.

Eggcellent Eats

Yummy highlights from the past week…

We made the best iced matcha with creamy lemonade – fresh lemon and lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon seltzer.

Pickles are a top tier snack.

And these Trader Joes Crunchy Curls are possibly the most satisfying thing I’ve ever eaten.

Double double IPAs. We loved the Destihl and liked the Montauk Brewery.

Soft-scrambled eggs (plus an extra soft-boiled egg) / a huge pile of sauteed green beans with chili crisp / Paris Baguette mini garlic croissants.

Soy marinated eggs with brown rice, roasted cabbage, and chili crisp.

Soy eggs with smoked almonds, cottage cheese, and cucumber salad (chopped and tossed with white pepper, sugar, and Sichuan pepper salt).

Fried rice. Leftover rice with Sriracha, soy sauce, and fish sauce / eggs / Trader Joe’s turkey summer sausage / green onion and white onion / chopped baby brocoli and baby cauliflower with salt, white peppers, and tons of garlic.