Bushwick And Beyond

by Emily

Weekend theme flavors: rose, tahini, coffee, and duck.

I am super lucky that my husband feels the same way that I do about trying new foods and sharing foods; splitting things means we get to have tons of tastes! I feel lucky to have him in general too! (<– see also: the gorgeous flowers below that he surprised me with after work on Friday)

For Saturday breakfast we shared a soursop smoothie. It couldn’t compare to the fresh stuff I had at home but was still yummy. Frozen soursop puree, caramel almond milk, and cinnamon and nutmeg.

I also had an iced Americano while we did a big grocery restock trip. Pro tip – ask for “light water” so you can add some milk without losing espresso.

Lunch was a smorgasbord at Smorgasburg. Duck bun, smothered in sweet chili sauce. The crunch from the fried shallots makes this our favorite bao in the city. {A+}

I cooled my mouth down with an earl grey egg cream. {A}

We tried a savory crepe with egg, chili sauce, and a crunchy cracker. {B} The texture ended up not really being our speed, we both wished we had gone for the extra egg in it.

Palm sugar with tamarind caramel ice cream for dessert. {A+} This had such a unique flavor.

I tasted a bite of cinnamon rose and it was pretty amazing as well. We grabbed an unphotographed coffee at some point in there too.

Our evening plans included a tasting/tour of Owney’s Rum at The Noble Experiment so we wandered around Bushwick a bit. We were parked about a mile from the distillery so we got to see a few cool spots. And the tour was great; we really love factory/brewery/etc visits.

I also had a vodka soda with cherries. <– desperately needed lime

For dinner we fell head over heals in love with Faro. Gorgeous tableware, locally and humanely sourced foods, and delicious dishes.

We started with ricotta gnocchi with ramps, morel mushrooms, fava beans, and cured egg.

Plus a little gem lettuce salad with miso anchovy vinaigrette, pistachio, soft-boiled egg, and mint. It was amazing, truly the very best salad we’ve ever had! Adam and I both thought it was the best dish of the day. The mint made it absolutely perfect.

Drinks were a meh rosé and a sour porter which we loved.

We shared our entrées (more tastes!). Squid ink corzetti with peekytoe crab, uni, shiro dashi, and sorrel. I really dislike long pasta – I should have looked up corzetti before I ordered – but Adam was swooning.

And I lost my mind over our dry aged duck breast. It was served on a fantastic turnip puree.

Key lime tart with fresh strawberry sorbet for dessert.

We will be back!

Sunday baking project – tahini granola. Best granola I’ve ever made; I ended up eating a big bowl with milk for dessert at the end of the day.

For breakfast I ate it on top of plain Greek yogurt, with fresh berries, and a single Luxardo cherry.

Plus a rose latte in an amazing cup.

We spent our afternoon wandering around Chelsea Market to get out of the unseasonable cold.

Lunch was a sharp cheddar grilled cheese with a chocolate milk stout.

Seed + Mill served the highlight of the day – goats milk yogurt with the best tahini I’ve ever had. We couldn’t believe how delicious this was! I can’t wait to take my parents there this summer.

My home-cooked dinner was delicious as well, thanks, crockpot!

Chicken, potatoes, and baby carrots were cooking away with 40 cloves of garlic while we spent the day out of the house.

Served with roasted green beans with a sprinkle of almonds and cheese.

Yum. And I am basically stuffed again reading through this post!

9May2016

Spring In The City

by Emily

As of this morning our spring vacation comes to a close. We did St. Thomas, DC, and a few wonderful days in the best city on Earth (aka our hometown, NYC). After a month apart while Adam was in Texas the past two weeks have been fantastic. I’m going to miss him a lot this workweek.

In spite of the rain and bitter cold over the past few days we managed to pack a lot of fun into our Friday/Saturday/Sunday. We walked more than 10 miles around Manhattan on Friday, most of them in the downpour! We had enough reprieves from the weather to appreciate how insanely gorgeous our city is in the spring.

Here were our top five eats from the end of vacation…

{1} Breakfast at Back Room

Breakfast in a fancy hotel with a view of the city? Yes, please! And it was one of the best meals of the weekend. Adam got an amazing fish platter with herring and smoked sturgeon, smoked salmon, belly lox, pastrami salmon, fingerling potatoes, eggplant salad, and cream cheese with trout roe. I’m usually a bit too squeamish for lox but I happily stole bites of everything from this plate.

I had duck confit hash topped with a duck egg! With a cheddar biscuit with honey and butter.

You really can’t go wrong with duck on duck; my meal was almost too rich.

{2} Brunch at Du Jour Bakery

It was so good the last time that I had to go back and take Adam. I ordered an iced latte (made with Brooklyn Roasting Company) immediately.

And I went savory with an egg and cheese croissant sandwich. My meal came with a tasty side salad and Adam’s came with fries so we were in business!

{3} Donuts from Underwest

A Hells Kitchen spot inside of a car wash. We tried halvah and vanilla-lavender.

They were a bit cakey for my preferences (Adam disagrees) but the glaze was top-notch.

Plus coffee from Laughing Man, Hugh Jackman’s Tribeca shop that donates all of it’s proceeds to the Laughing Man Foundation.

That’s a honey lavender latte to fit with our donuts.

{4} Ice cream from I CE NY

Smashed and rolled ice cream! They spread your base flavor and mix-ins on a giant frozen metal plate.

I got Thai iced tea ice cream with sprinkles mixed in and popping boba, mochi, and condensed milk on top.

It was fun, and also some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. The base ended up being amazingly chewy! <– here is some info on why “chewy” is a compliment

{5} Dinner at Ten Ichi Ramen, a newish spot in Park Slope

We started with duck bao.

I got the veggie ramen, with an aged egg on top.

Not as good as Chuko but still pretty darn good. The broth was so creamy! Plus their chili garlic oil was wonderful, which is good for me because I add it to my ramen by the scoop.

7May2016

Quick Trip To DC 2016

by Emily

Part 2 of our vacation – a quick trip to DC/Maryland. We had to squeeze it in between St. Thomas and time in the city so our visit was short but sweet. We were drove to the District Tuesday morning and left to visit family in MD on Wednesday afternoon, but we still managed to fit in two museums, a long walk around Georgetown, and a visit with friends. Plus of course we found time to celebrate May 4th, aka May the Fourth be with you!

Our first sightseeing stop was the Museum of Natural History. I love the human origins hall (did you know I strongly considered going back to school for anthropology instead of dietetics?) but the gems and minerals exhibit is always our favorite. The stones all look like candy to me so I was very excited to buy some edible rock candy on our way out of the museum.

The next day we did the Renwick Gallery. The Wonder exhibition was fantastic. The instillations are stunning and incredibly moving. My pictures can’t do it justice but artist Gabriel Dawe turned string into light!

My favorite was Maya Lin’s marble river.

It flowed around the room in a way that was just breathtaking.

I skipped taking photos of most of our eats so I only have the really exciting stuff {coffee and sugar!} The Coffee Bar was our first stop after the drive in.

We went adventurous with an Americola – Americano with Mexican Coke – and the Honey Badger – cream, honey, and tons of espresso.

We also really enjoyed Compass Coffee.

I had a yummy mint cold brew and Adam’s cortado had some of the best espresso we’ve ever tasted.

Baked and Wired was an obvious stop in Georgetown, their funfetti cupcake is called the Uniporn.

We also tried the Texas Sheetcake, chocolate cinnamon cake with chocolate pecan frosting.

Dinner was one of the best parts of the trip. One of my best friends (my maid of honor) lives in DC and travels a ton so it is always a big treat to get to spend time with her. Her sister just opened a restaurant in Adams Morgan so we got to enjoy great food with our great company. Real talk – Tail Up Goat easily makes the top three list for meals we’ve loved this year.

I started by asking for the Hibiscus Agua Fresca with vodka in it because I’m a genius.

This was the first of several rounds of drinks so please excuse the fact that my pictures are pretty rough. I promise the food was actually as lovely as it was delicious.

There were four of us at the table and we ate family-style so we ended up getting to try a lot of the menu. Crispy salt cod with smoked cauliflower and pickled red onion. It was fun to try a different iteration so close on the heels of our salt fish patty back home.

Brown rice bread with roasted carrot, blood orange, and hazelnut picada. This was a great blend of textures.

“Potato salad” with trout roe, spring onion, and dill. I hate real potato salad but I would happily eat roasted potato with charred onion, pumpkin seeds, and pops of roe anytime.

Adam wanted to order the asparagus the minute we sat down. Served with almond skordalia, cured egg yolk, and pecorino. He came very close to licking the plate.

I was more excited about the carrot ravioli with ramp greens, pistachio breadcrumbs, and apricots. The pasta was perfect.

We tried two of the entrees. A stunning whole stuffed porgy with sunchokes, black walnut, and ramps.

And smoked hen of the woods mushroom with burnt bread sauce and chicken crisps.

This was my favorite dish of the night! I’ve now had hen of the woods smoked and fried and I am obsessed with them. Between the mushrooms and the burnt bread sauce this plate was perfectly umami.

We weren’t too stuffed for dessert.

almond cake with mascarpone and rhubarb jam. Fyi – tepache is a sweetened and fermented pineapple beverage and budino is a type of Italian pudding.

A fantastic meal all-around and it was really neat to get to see another high-school classmate rocking it in the culinary world.

I soaked up family time in Baltimore and didn’t take a single picture. Coming up – the last leg of vacation is time off in NYC.

3May2016

{The Best} St. Thomas Visit 2016

by Emily

Adam and I started our two-week vacation off right with an incredible visit home to see my parents and soak up some sun. For the first time since college I managed to have the dates line up so that I could make it for Carnival*! We also went to St. John*, The Baths*, the beach, and got to spend time with old friends. It was pretty much the perfect trip.

* I took way too many pictures so all of the items starred above are going to have to be their own posts over the rest of the week

Speaking of too many pictures, I’m limiting this post to the highlights. Here are some of our favorites from home…

The best hosts – my parents. In addition to driving us all over the place, ironing my dresses, playing board games even though Adam always throws a fit, and just being generally amazing, they cooked us Adam’s favorite meal and my favorite dessert. Bill Clinton’s Enchiladas.

And key lime pie.

Which meant there was leftover pie for me to eat on top of Greek yogurt. <– the best thing ever

I always serve it with flax so it’s basically a health food.

The best breakfast – Barefoot Buddha.

I got an iced Vietnamese latte and the sandwich I ate on my wedding day, aka the Bigfood Bagel sandwich: egg frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, chipotle aioli, tomato-onion coulis, and fresh spinach.

The best brunch – The Grille Room at Mahogany Run. My (extra-spicy) Bloody Mary came topped with a stuffed olive, banana pepper, and shrimp!

I also had a really top-notch chopped salad with shrimp and chipotle-ranch among other yummy things. And then every singe person at the table ordered a vodka + soda and all was right with the world.

The best coffee – Bad Ass at Yacht Haven.

My triple non-fat iced latte was perfectly roasty good.

The best pizza – Island Time Pub. Pro tip – start with a salad, they are gigantic and two-three people can share one.

Adam and I got a pie with artichoke, Kalamata olives, and roasted garlic.

Plus their drink menu is on point.

The best johnny cake – served at the window on the Waterfront by The Greenhouse, with cheese.

Caribbean johnny cake (versus the cornmeal version found in the American south) is slightly sweet, unleavened fried bread. It is delicious in general and freaking mind-blowing when served with cheese.

8Apr2016

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

by Emily

{1} Stumptown’s newest cold brew box – coconut.

{2} This week’s homemade coffee blend – chocolate milk and espresso roast.

{3} Giant veggie omelet for breakfast at work. They are made fresh to order and are by far the best dish coming out of the cafeteria.

{4} Garlic veggie pizza with a side of brussels sprout salad.

{5} Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with strawberries, praline pecan granola, walnuts, and chocolate covered cacao nibs.

{6} Oatmeal bowl. Oats, chia seeds, strawberries, and cookie butter. Simple, but this was the best oatmeal of the year.

{7} This month’s Skoshbox. There were chocolate-covered potato chips!

{8} Biscoff chocolate chip mug cookie.

{9} Trader Joe’s frozen “pizza.” The crust was a bit floppy but the sauce had good spicy kick to it.

{10} Creamy tomato turkey. Sautéed ground turkey with browned mushrooms, roasted plum tomatoes, tomato paste, sour cream, tons of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Plus roasted zucchini. I made a truly excessive amount of this dish and even after a couple of meals there’s still some left for next week.

{Bonus} Non-food Entertainment Top Five

{1} “Hart of Dixie.” I finished it last week but it I’m still not over it, the storyline was just so fun! It was such a feel-good show, I really enjoyed watching something that wasn’t heartrending for a change (<– Whedon fan).

{2} Slate. The source of 95%+ of my news plus the amazing Dear Prudence advice column (<– her response to “Too High” was spot on!).

{3} Girls with Slingshots. Another soap opera! This webcomic series is on long-term hiatus but you can start at the beginning and read through the archives.

{4} Serious Eats. The source of 95%+ of my food-based news and cravings. This is one of the sites I check every morning during my train ride, I’d hate to miss an article like the Nacho Showdown.

{5} Taylor Swift’s hilarious Apple Music commercial.

4Apr2016

Last Week’s Top Ten

by Emily

{1} Swapping out my wardrobe to welcome in the spring-ish weather.

So today and tomorrow are supposed to be pretty darn cold, but the rest of the month is looking so nice that I went ahead and traded my summer and winter gear. Scarves and boots are still available but if we get a freak snowstorm I’m out of luck because all my coats are at the cleaners. It felt good to get that big project done.

{2} Enjoying coffee again.

Extra espresso in my giant iced latte? My health is officially back to 100%.

This upcoming week I did brew a batch so I won’t have an excuse to buy coffee out every day.

{3} Berry smoothie.

Maple kefir, dates, and frozen mixed berries.

Kefir was the perfect smoothie liquid.

{4} Dessert-y oatmeal bowls for lunch.

Oats with chia, freeze-dried raspberries, pecans, and strawberry shortcake M&Ms.

Oats with chia, freeze-dried raspberries, and a big scoop of Biscoff.

I bought a jar of Biscoff last Saturday and it is practically empty now – – I am the only member of the household who eats Biscoff.

{5} National Pecan Day is April 14th and Nonni’s sent* me some Turtle Pecan Biscotti to celebrate.

*Free sample alert – no additional compensation was provided for this post, all opinions are my own.

The biscotti was quite good next to my coffee – crunchy but not toothbreakingly so and a good balance of salty and sweet.

But even better crushed into my all-time best yogurt combo. Turtle pecan yogurt bowl: maple yogurt, toasted pecans, chocolate-covered cocoa nibs, biscotti, and chopped plucot.

Or check out Nonni’s Pinterest page for some other pairing ideas.

{6} Binge-watching “Hart of Dixie” on instantwatch.

Yes, the show where Rachel Bilson plays a doctor in the deep south. And yes, it is totally a soap opera. But it is completely addictive! I am a woman obsessed, or I should say I was a women obsessed – I may have already finished watching all four seasons!

{7} Kombucha.

The Master Brew line from Kevita has been knocking my socks off.

Grapefruit was perfectly sweet and tart.

{8} Healthy sticks to scoop up less-healthy dips.

Baby carrots and green pepper in spinach and artichoke dip.

Apple slices in melted Biscoff and dark chocolate peanut butter.

Apple dippers in cookie butter are even more satisfying than licking it off of a spoon like I usually do.

{9} Taco brinner.

We loved our fish tacos so much the week before that I knew we needed a repeat.

This time our hard shells were stuffed with sautéed onions and peppers, shredded cheese, roasted tomatillo salsa, and scrambled eggs. This was practically the only meal I cooked all week, the other nights I mostly ate chips with cheese and salsa so I’d have time to watch my stories!

{10} Chuko Ramen.

I introduced a girlfriend to the joy that is their veggie miso with a soft egg and chili garlic oil on top.

It is the perfect dinner spot because Ample Hill’s ice cream is just a short walk down the block!

What are you looking forward to this week?

4Mar2016

Short And Sick

by Emily

This week was short but no cakewalk. Monday I was off because I worked Saturday/Sunday, and Thursday I was off because I’m a coughing, sneezing, miserable mess. How am I sick again?? Apparently my immune system is as over winter as I am.

I ate pizza and/or soup for 90% of my meals this week. Here were my more exciting eats…

Brooklyn Roasting Company has nitro cold-brew now and it is flipping delicious.

This week’s tea was vanilla rooibos. Perfect for my throat and yummy with a bit of milk and honey. Rooibos is definitely my favorite type of tea.

This yogurt bowl was the best thing I ate all week. Coconut Greek with fresh strawberry and pomegranate, Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes, chia seeds, and toasted pecans.

Monday, before I knew how sick I was, Adam and I both had the day off and we had a wonderful time in the city. We got sushi burritos! Mine was fantastic – sushi rice, marinated tofu, cucumber, carrot, pickled cucumber, seaweed salad, tobanjan mayo, tempura crunch, and sesame seeds.

Split a cone at Big Gay Ice Cream. The salty pimp = vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche, sea salt, and chocolate dip. Plus sprinkles.

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And took a long walk (sans coats!) through Chelsea and across the Manhattan Bridge.

This week’s Skoskbox had some big winners, especially the grape Hi Chew.

Here’s the only dinner I actually cooked this week. Cheesy scrambled eggs and spicy green beans.

I put the green beans under the broiler – to attempt something like this – and they came out great.

I hope everyone is feeling their best this weekend!

27Feb2016

Sprinkles And Sandwiches

by Emily

By the time this post goes live I’ll already be on my way to work (wan wan). I’m working Saturday/Sunday because I have Friday/Monday off, and I’m heading in extra-early because we have family visiting and I need to be done and free to hang out in the afternoon. The good thing about visitors is that we’ll probably take them to Ample Hills!

Friday was a boring mix of buying new couch slipcovers and filing our taxes (wan wan), but Monday we’ve got some fun breakfast plans lined up.

A few of my dinners were pretty darn weak, but all of this week’s lunches were exclamation point worthy.

Daytime Eats

This weeks’ coffee – Starbucks espresso blend with skim milk. With a piñata apple.

And a chocolate pretzel protein bar.

Or a wonderfully juice sumo mandarin.

Or a lavender kombucha.

Plus buttered toast.

I also had an Americano with chocolate milk.

Plus Adam and I split a butterscotch latte while we ran errands.

With extra espresso, Adam loved it too.

This week’s tea – Roobios.

Amazingly, this caffeine-free herbal was my favorite tea thus far. With milk and honey it was downright delicious.

I’m still excited by this gum.

The flavor dies in about a minute but who doesn’t love a gum with sprinkles?

Oatmeal bowl. Oats with freeze-dried raspberries and blueberries and peanut butter chocolate chips.

The oats were great, but I ate much earlier in the day than I usually do (and then stayed for an hour of overtime!) and I ended up also getting a guava cheese empanada on the train home.

Yogurt bowl. Plain 2% Greek yogurt with fresh blackberries and pomegranate, toasted pecans, chia seeds, and Heritage Flakes.

Yogurt bowl. Maple Chobani with blackberries, pecans, and Heritage Flakes.

Salad bar. I love the days when the cafeteria does a Greek section; my salad was loaded with falafel, tzatziki, and taboule, plus black-eyed peas, olives, and cucumber.

Friday, Adam and I went to lunch at a new restaurant near our apartment. The meal was underwhelming, but I made a great yogurt bowl for dessert when I got home.

Plain Greek with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon, maple pecan granola, more pecans, and Luxardo cherries on top!

Nighttime Eats

House snacks included cashews – I’ve been making Adam trail mix bags for work and snacking heartily while I assemble them.

And chocolate-covered gummies.

And fun snacks included two girlfriend outings this week. A coworker and I got drinks at Colonie after an outlandishly frustrating work day. Bolivian Rose – Singani 63, Aperol, Dolin dry vermouth, Combier, and a super fragrant lemon twist.

And I introduced a friend to the Korean-style shaved ice at Snowdays.

They had specialty flavors – Thai iced tea! Topped with mochi, sweetened condensed milk, and grass jelly.

The mid-week blahs led to some pretty disastrous meals. Like big salads – baby kale, cashews, chia seeds, pomegranate, and peanut sauce – and horrifyingly cheesy nachos.

Or a sandwich night where the only veggies to be found were a side of baby carrots.

My sandwich – with a butter-toasted brioche, roasted turkey, raw milk cheddar, special sauce, and tons of pickles – was delicious but not the healthiest.

But we went on a really fantastic Tuesday night date at Talde. Now that I know that I like ginger in drinks I could order the Ginger Rose – Four Roses bourbon, Applejack, lemon, and ginger-cinnamon infused grenadine.

The drink was good but the meal was to die for; truly one of the best dishes we’ve ever had. Acorn squash rendang with Malaysian grits, fried shallot, pickled shitake, and a six-minute egg.

The blend of textures and flavors – crispy with creamy, spice with sour – was unbelievably satisfying. Dessert was sweet with salty.

Pretzel-potato chip bars with chocolate ganache.

And we started the week with veggie tofu bowls.

Extra-firm tofu was marinated in stone-ground mustard, lemon juice, honey, and evoo then baked ’til crispy.

Served on top of honey butter shredded carrots, and sautéed brussels sprouts tossed in the tofu marinade.

And ended the week with veggie packed pasta. TJ’s spinach tortellini with red sauce.

We gussied up the sauce with sautéed mushroom and onion and roasted zucchini and graffiti eggplant. I followed the Serious Eats trick of adding pasta water.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Let’s cross our fingers for more warm weather!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: eggs

Bushwick And Beyond

Spring In The City

Quick Trip To DC 2016

{The Best} St. Thomas Visit 2016

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

Last Week’s Top Ten

Short And Sick

Sprinkles And Sandwiches

Daytime Eats

Nighttime Eats