Tag Archives: fruit

Goodbye, 2022

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Adam and I ended the year on a celebratory note with our fifteen year wedding anniversary! I thank my lucky stars everyday – realistically about 20 times a day! – that he’s my person! We had two fun nights that unfortunately I didn’t take a single photo of – at trip to Sundays in Brooklyn for their Snow Days pop-up (including themed cocktails, upscale popcorn, a giant burger, and fantastic roasted honeynut squash) and an evening of pizza take-out and tv in bed (an activity so wonderful I mentioned it in my wedding vows!).

Other highlights from last week included…

Jelly doughnut iced coffee for the last day of Hanukkah. Iced coffee with blueberry preserves and skim milk frothed with cinnamon, cocoa powder, and brown sugar.

Yogurt bowl – plain Greek with kiwi, persimmon, and vanilla almond granola.

Even more exciting than fresh persimmons is the start of citrus season; this Cara Cara was delicious and I also just bought a bunch of Sumos.

Snacks we brought home from Hawaii. Honolulu Cookie Company makes the best shortbread I’ve ever eaten.

Mochi and furikake seasoned popcorn.

Also these vegan gummies my mom put in my stocking were 10/10.

I’ve been seeing this ramen all over Instagram and I had to try it. Even with the addition of Kewpie and an egg it was almost too spicy for me!

A homecooked dinner. Roasted cauliflower and chopped onion / roasted chickpeas / fresh mint / tossed in honey, rice vinegar, and smoked paprika.

Merry And Bright

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Highlights from a very festive Christmas weekend…

Peppermint pour-over coffee with egg nog cold foam.

Dalgona iced coffee with eggnog.

Red and green yogurt bowl. Trader Joe’s eggnog Greek yogurt with kiwi, raspberries, and vanilla granola.

Holiday special scoops from Odd Fellows Ice Cream. Buddi’s Spaghetti Sundae – maple ice cream, chocoalte cookie crumbs, mini marshmallows, m&m’s, sno caps, and corn nuts / Moose Nog – egg nog ice cream with fudge swirls and peanut butter cups.

Seasonal brews from Ardent Brewing. The gingerbread was perfect, not too spicy at all, and the Fog Nog is truly my all-time favorite beer/alcoholic beverage/beverage in general. 15/10.

A very close 2nd all-time-favorite is Leyenda’s Candy Striper – a frozen delight with cachaca, coconut, vanilla, lemon, peppermint, maple, and cardamom.

We went to their Sleyenda holiday pop-up for seasonal drinks and a wonderful dinner (it was too dark for photos but my shrimp arepas were amazing). I also had a Reindeer Games with tequilla, cachaca, banana, honey, maple, lemon, pine, and bitters.

Chinese take-out from Blue Wave. I got fantastic veggie stir-fried udon. Also the best scallion pancakes I’ve ever eaten.

Red and green salads. Red leaf lettuce with homemade ranch, red bell pepper, fresh mint, a soft-boiled egg, and a garlic and herb lobster cake (frozen, from Luke’s via Whole Foods).

Red and green rice bowls. Brown rice / sauted bok choy / sourkraut sauted with gojuchang and sugar / soy marinated eggs.

P.S. I am off of work most of this week, which is just lovely! I sipped a fancy coffee while I wrote this post!

Hawaii 2022

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Adam and I just returned from six fantastically glorious days in Oahu! Best vacation we have taken yet.

Everything was beautiful (of course!), we got incredibly lucky with the weather, we loved our hotel (Hotel La Croix – amazing staff, beautiful views, and perfectly walkable to the beach and downtown), and we swooned over every activity and meal! And we saw a seal!! I did not pack a camera but couldn’t stop myself from Instagramming incessantly.

Some of our favorite activities – – –

Hiking. We went on four hikes this visit. Makapu’u Light House Trail / Kuliouou Ridge Trail / Diamond Head / Ka’ena Point State Park.

We went to Green World Coffee Farm and walked through the coffee plants. We also got a fantastic tour (with tastes) of the Old Sugar Mill Brand Waialua Coffee where they grow coffee and cacao.

Some of our favorite bites – – –

Flavor themes of the week – ahi, malasada, mochi, musubi, passionfruit, poke, taro, and yuzu. I lost my photo but we had a wonderful traditional meal at Helena’s – my first time trying poi!

We walked over to Kona Coffee Purveyors several times. Also to the Starbucks Reserve for this delicious americano con crema with demura sugar and cinnamon.

Guava malasada from Leonards. Also my favorite thing I ate all trip was a taro mochi malasada from a convenience store.

There was a great Japanese store near our hotel and between that and the well-stocked 7-11 I tried some very exciting things.

Passionfruit mochi bar.

Salted cod roe and cheese musubi.

Halo halo.

Local fruits from a roadside stand. Starfruit, passionfruit, and coconut.

Shave Ice! We went to Waiola Shave Ice and Matsumoto Shave Ice. The boring looking one was actually white cake and yuzu (!!!) with vanilla ice cream and sweetened condensed milk.

Poke! So much fresh tuna. We went to Maguro Brothers and Ono Seafood.

Dinner at O’Kims. Fried chicken and purple rice with the best kimchi I’ve ever eaten.

Lunch at Piggy Smalls was our favorite meal of the trip! And dinner at Pig and the Lady was a close second. Twice fried brussel sprouts, tea leaf salad, brisket with pancakes and eggs, great cocktails (Adam had a POG slushie!), and an egg coffee.

A perfect trip!

Festive Feasting

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It was a fun week! My aunt and uncle were in town for a show and we had a great time meeting up with them. I didn’t take any photos but we had GREAT meals at Canary Club and El Quiote.

Highlights include…

I managed to eat a truly impressive amount of peppermint and/or Christmas themed food!

Blank Street‘s candy cane cold brew was possibly my favorite coffee of this year!

The coquito cold brew (with two shots of espresso) from 787 obviously isn’t bad either.

Health-Ade Holiday Cheers kombucha.

Peppermint vodka seltzer, yes, I dyed it green.

Amazing tiramisu eggnog at Dante.

Peppermint ice cream (12/10) with peppermint chocolate quinoa bites.

Adam’s favorite bakery in New York is probably Blacksmith’s Breads. He sweetly surprised me with a pretzel bread.

Greek yogurt bowl with tiger syrup, granola, and persimmon.

Good-not-great but incredibly convenient microwave rice rolls.

Very Spicy Vegan Dan Dan Noodles from Very Fresh Noodles. It wasn’t actually that spicy (more numbing than hot) but the noodles were unbelievably fresh, bouncy and perfect.

This was the best meal I’ve made this year. Roasted broccoli / roasted red onion / roasted white beans / dried cherries / best ever sauce; in the food processor – parsley, roasted jalopeno, Korean chili flake, smoked almonds, smoked sardines, parmesan, honey, garlic, salt, evoo, and a bit of water / and I topped my bowl with candied jalopenos.

My True Love Gave To Me…

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Three peppermint snacks, two cocktail ingredients, and a yogurt with passionfruit in it!

Three (festive) things from this weekend…

I’m very into this fancy, dessert-y yogurt brand.

A peppermint-focused work snack. I forget every year how tasty the chocolate mint Perfect Bars are.

Coke didn’t release their cinnamon cola this season so I made my own boozy version.

It’s Starting To Taste Like Winter

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Highlights from this week…

Wonderful yogurt bowl – plain skyr with granola and persimmon.

Milk Bar birthday cake iced latte.

Great horchatta with espresso at For All Things Good.

I pulled pumpkin chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and they were even more amazing than I remembered.

I’m not ready for eggnog yet (make that – I am always ready for nog but I am not releasing the eggnog floodgate yet) but I have fully embraced peppermint! Like the limited release Wendy’s peppermint frosty.

Or Minter Wonderland ice cream.

Brooklyn Cupcake! Cojito, tiramisu, and guava cheese.

Best iteration yet of the butternut squash we make every year. This year we served it as a warm salad. Roasted butternut squash and shredded brussel sprouts, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pecans, dried cherries, and homemade dressing (3 T lemon juice, 3 T maple syrup, 2 T stone ground mustard, 1 T Kewpie, 1 T crystal hot sauce.

A meta dinner win – cobb salad egg salad in endive lettuce cups. Eggs with mayo and mustard, chives, avocado, turkey bacon, and blue cheese.

Buffalo chicken salad (shredded chicken with mayo, Franks, vinegar, blue cheese, and chives) with roasted broccoli and Japanese sweet potato.

Top 5, x2

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Some of our favorite things from an exceptionally delicious weekend. We went to our favorite brewery and tried two restaurants that both easily made the cut for top five meals we’ve eaten in 2022.

Drinks at Evil Twin – we had a fall x candy x Wonderland line-up of beers.

Even More Hydra fruited sour / Fresh Feet & No Chicken citrus milkshake IPA / Fun Sized Halloween candy sour ale / Marshmallow is the New Milk Sugar marshmallow triple IPA / Back to the Pumpkin Patch pumpkin milkshake IPA. Also a Concrete Jungle fruit punch gose.

Dinner at Sobre Masa – a Mexican restaurant and tortilleria in Bushwick.

We shared seared queso fresco with fresh salsa.

And the best chips and guacamole we’ve ever tasted, with a variety of salsas.

I drank an El Pastor De Flavor – fat-washed tequilla, rum, roasted guava, masa, Vino de Agave, lemon balsam magnolia aperitif, and Mexican bitters.

And I ordered the oyster mushrooms with cracked corn, hoja santa, and guajillo mole. Plus housemade tortillas.

Housemade flan and tres leches for dessert.

Dinner at Potluck Club – a Cantonese American Restaurant on the Lower East Side. Everything was fantastic and the space was so cute!

A yuzu hard seltzer and a Chinese pale ale.

Spicy eggplants with fried shallot and cilantro.

Braised short rib with kobucha squash.

Rice roll noodles with oyster mushrooms, asparagus, chives, and hanger steak. <– best dish of the weekend!

Saucy, Spicy, Stupendous

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I’m late on this post but we had too many wonderful things last week not to share! Mostly lots of very (very, very, very) good restaurant meals. Three different days I got to take a super-long city walk (including a Central Park date with the husband!). Highlights include…

Coffees with brown sugar syrup.

A tamarind Americano from Le Phin.

Breakfast at Ursula. We shared a strawberry chamoy pastry.

And a sopaipilla with grassfed beef, green chile, refried pinto beans, and cheddar.

Breakfast at the Blue Light Speaky Cheesy pop-up. The workers could not have been more wonderful here and everything was fantastic! We shared a sandwich with pesto scrambled eggs, goat cheese, blueberry jam, and arugula; a maple lavender latte (<– topped with orange zest, which apparently is my new favorite thing); and an iced Getaway Latte with sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Malted berry smoothie. Frozen cherries and strawberries with Greek yogurt, chocolate almond milk, and malted milk powder.

Yogurt bowl – vanilla skyr, pecan granola, chia seeds, blueberries, and cherry plums (<– both Adam’s and my new favorite fruit).

Cookie dough granola (<– amazing, the flavor is spot on!) with blueberries and chocolate almond milk.

Lunch at Bahn (<– best meal of the whole week!). Iced Vietnamese egg coffee.

Summer rolls with shrimp and mung bean sauce.

Rolls with crispy shrimp, beef jerky, green mango, Sriracha, and egg yolk cream.

Noodle salad with sizzling butter beef.

Dumplings from Mimi Cheng. Their monthly special is a collab with Pecking House and is stuffed with buttermilk twice-fried chicken and topped with the best chili crisp I’ve ever tasted.

Homemade(!) grain bowls. Farro with pesto, chicken pesto sausage, fennel greens, and sauteed celery and baby orange tomatoes.

Adam forgot his credit card at BKNY Thai so we went back sooner than we were expecting to. A serendipitous mistake because our take-out was 11/10. Fish cakes / dumplings with ground chicken, shallot, peanut, and preserved radish / beef Pad See Ew with extra Chinese broccoli.

Omekase at the Chemisty Room at Sushi Lab. We ate at the counter and the service was impecable. I only took a few photos but everything was delicious and gorgeous.

Dinner at Wen Wen. My daiquiri with rum, Cachaça, and birds eye chili was perfect and balanced.

We had numbing celtuce salad with garlic, red vinegar, and Sichuan pepper.

Hot honey popcorn chicken.

Cold sesame noodles with cucumbers and egg ribbons.

Beef noodle soup with pickled mustard greens and a 16-hour oxtail broth.