Kingston

The highlight of our weekend was a trip upstate to Kingston! We thrifted, admired the wildflowers, and ate some truly fantastic food…

Rough Draft. Adam got a delicious tea latte and my coffee was just perfect – iced espresso with housemade concord grape syrup and vanilla cold foam.

We found a new-to-us flavor of Something or Nothing.

Pinkerton’s. This was the best breakfast sandwich we’ve ever eaten. Scrambled eggs, sharp white Cabot cheddar, and herb and garlic mayo dressing on their exceptional housemade English muffin.

Plus a slice of passionfruit meringue pie.

Kingston Bread + Bar. Vanilla cake with blackberry buttercream, peach compote, and strusel.

Kingston Standard Brewing. They make good beers and very good wood-oven sourdough pizza. We got a Compost – crushed tomato, pesto, mozarella, parmesan, red onion, and arugula.

Sonder. This is my 2nd favorite restaurant in all of New York! Housemade za’atar bread with tomato butter and browned honey butter. Plus sweet potato bisque.

Golden beets with jalopeno cream cheese and pretzel bites.

Dry aged strip steak with sweet potatoes.

Sonder burger with cornichons, special sauce, and American cheese. Plus fries. This is my 2nd favorite burger in all of New York.

We finished the meal/day with the best dessert I’ve eaten this decade – flourless chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow.

Beaches

This weekend included a run on the Long Beach Boardwalk (one of my favorite weekend activities!), a long Manhattan walk, and some exploring in Brooklyn. It was a very tasty few days, here were the highlights…

Homemade iced coffees with banana cheesecake cold foam (in the blender – frozen banana, cream cheese, butter extract, vanilla bean powder, brown sugar, skim milk).

A wonderful smoothie – frozen banana and peaches, soursop juice, vanilla protein powder, and malted milk powder.

Delicious pandan coconut sparkler from Lucky Ox.

Other Half. We split a flight of mostly double IPAs but also their Mister Softee collab strawberry yuzu sour.

Saint Street Cakes. The hype about the chocolate chip cookie is real. We also really loved the miso peanut butter cookie and blackberry cornbread cake slice.

This mochi doughnut from Win Son‘s Manhattan location was probably the best thing we’ve eaten so far in 2025.

Post-run breakfast on the boardwalk! We split a turkey, egg, and cheese taco and a fresh juice with green apple, spinach, ginger, and lime. We probably wouldn’t get food from this spot again but I would definitely get another green juice.

An easy but exciting, mostly home-cooked dinner. Leftover brown rice reheated in the microwave with rice vinegar, furikake, and white sugar / mayak eggs (I also put some mini mozzarella balls down in the marinade! / broccoli roasted with evoo, five spice, and gochugaru / fried chicken tender from Dave’s Hot Chicken. P.S. I ate all of an order of fries on the drive home; they are fantastic.

Dinner at Kabawa. We had a great meal here – some of the best goat I’ve ever eaten. It wasn’t lit for photographs but I happened to get a shot of my two favorite dishes. The bread course with house-made roti and cassava dumplings and an assortment of sauces.

Birthday cake flan. This was the best flan I’ve ever eaten.

Dinner at The Long Island Bar. We loved it here!

Cheese curds.

Roasted beets with hazelnut dukkah, brandied cherries, ricotta salata, and creamy herbed vinaigrette and shocking good deviled crab toast with, roasted corn and herbs and black garlic mayonnaise on toasted sourdough.

A single patty L.I. burger – dry-aged beef patty, pickles, cheese, and fancy sauce. Plus a yummy side salad.

P.S. It’s Apple Month today!!

Drinks!

Summer Salad

Things from the week…

It is my birthday month so I, of course, opened my stash of birthday cake coffee concentrates.

Trader Joe’s sparkling matcha lemonade. Not too sweet but the flavor was weak.

Fruity candies. The freeze-dried orange slices were okay (good texture but the flavor was off) but we loved the strawberry gummy assortment from Trader Joe’s.

We are head over heels for protein peanut butter cups this week. 2 tablespoons of peanut butter mixed with 1 Tbsp malted milk powder, 1 Tbsp vanilla protein powder (for texture), 1 Tbsp total maple and/or honey, and a pinch of salt; topped with chocolate shell.

Summer salad! Heirloom tomatoes with plum, peach, nectarine, pan-fried paneer, and crispy roasted chickpeas, topped with salt, chili oil, honey, and balsamic vinegar.

We paired our mostly fruit salad with a side of roasted romanesco, which was delicious.

This meal was a watery fail and I am blogging it to remind myself not to put cold silken tofu on top of dumplings again. Silken tofu / pan-fried Trader Joe’s Thai shrimp gyoza / celery and green onion sauteed with garlic, Sichuan pepper, and white pepper / homemade dumpling sauce – rice vinegar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, sesame seeds, green onion, and chopped smoked almonds.

BBQ plates. Mashed potato salad (we overcooked our potatoes so we leaned into the mashed vibe and made them extra creamy) with celery and cornichon pickles, dressed with plain Skyr, Duke’s mayo, Dijon mustard, pickle brine, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Turkey meatballs with panade, egg, ranch seasoning, bbq sauce, and shredded sharp cheddar. And roasted green beans.

I don’t know what to call this bowl but the combination worked! Roasted zucchini and orange sweet potato topped with pan-fried paneer and tempeh sauced with Dijon, rice vinegar, and apricot jam.

Almond, Peanut, Pecan, Pistachio

Some favorites from this week…

Fun syrups from El Guapo, pecan and almond. They were good in iced coffees, okay in an iced matcha, and fantastic in an iced diet coke!

Obviously the best coffee of the week was the Dubai bar monthly special latte from Buzz’d.

My favorite skyr bowl this week had honey, salted peanuts, blackberries, and blueberries. I have been head over heels for the Driscoll’s “sweetest batch” blueberries.

I think I have tried and loved every flavor of these peelable gummies from Duane Reade. Peach was lovely and floral.

I’ll buy pretty much any new product Ben & Jerry’s puts out and this sundae style pint did not disappoint. It had butter toffee pecans!

I love a good egg salad. This one had chopped cornichons, poblano pepper, tons of mayo, and dijon mustard. Plus roasted broccoli on the side.

This dinner looks horrible but it really was good; brown rice and roasted riced cauliflower / baked eggplant sauteed with gochujang, black sesame paste, and sesame oil / a take on Korean steamed eggs / topped with chili crisp and peanuts.

I used leftover cauliflower/rice in kimchi fried rice. With poblano peppers, peas, green onions, eggs, soy sauce, fish sauce, and rice vinegar. Topped with surprisingly great grilled shrimp from Whole Foods.

Creamy gochujang pasta. Brown rice noodles tossed with cream cheese, gochujang, and sauteed dinosaur kale and green onions. Topped with sesame seeds and gochugaru and served next to some baked turkey meatballs.

Our favorite dinner of the week (month!) was savory oatmeal bowls. Trader Joe’s rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds / bok choy sauteed with ginger / TJ’s frozen tofu sheets / chili crisp / six-minute egg / candied peanuts with gochugaru.

Painkillers In The Snow

I knew we’d been homesick after my mom left so I filled the week with Caribbean flavors to remind us of home! Highlights…

This week’s coffee combo.

Smoothie – pineapple with frozen peaches, water, and vanilla protein powder.

The last of the hibiscus iced brownies.

Tropical candies. Passionfruit marshmallows and pineapple and passionfruit gummies. Both were delicious.

Painkillers!

I also made rum and coke slushies.

We love our loose take on callaloo – chopped spinach sauteed with yellow onion, habanero pepper, and garlic, with crab meat and coconut milk. Plus I made dumb bread – with butter and cheese – that we adored.

Rice and beans (brown rice with yellow onion, ginger, habanero pepper, dark kidney beans, and coconut milk) with baked salmon cakes (canned salmon with green onion, egg, panade, mayo, smoked paprika, and Jamaican curry powder) and roasted peppers (bell, poblano, and onions).

Stars And Smoothies

Yummy things from the week…

Smoothie #1 – iced matcha, cottage cheese, brown sugar, and frozen mango and peaches.

Smoothie #2 – chocolate protein powder, water, black sesame paste, and frozen blueberries and cherries.

Cheese plate! Craize guava corn crackers, extra-sharp cheddar, and starfruit.

McConnell’s double peanut butter chip is our all-time favorite ice cream so we were pretty jazzed to pair it with their (quite tasty) pre-cooked chocolate chunk cookies.

Peanut chicken pizza. Two-ingredient pizza dough with an egg wash sesame seed crust / sauce – peanut butter, sugar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and water / baked chicken cubes / quick pickled carrots and scallion / pizza blend cheese. Plus green beans sauteed with honey, mustard, and gojuchang.

Cottage cheese dinner bowls. Topped with marinated eggs, sunflower seeds, and quick-pickled cucumber.

Chicken and cabbage bowls. Roasted cabbage topped with Nước Chấm and tons of toasted peanuts / ground chicken sauteed with ginger, scallions, and soy sauce.

Minnows And Salmon

Highlights from the past week…

Blue Bottle‘s Nola Shakerato is a work of art.

Smoothie with cottage cheese, peaches, mixed berries, and water.

Sandwich on garlic naan with sliced turkey, cheddar, and soft-scrambled eggs.

We ordered a whole spread of treats at Patisserie Tomoko, our new favorite dessert spot in Williamsburg. Yuzu cheesecake / black sesame red bean mochi / pumpkin pie. All 10/10!

Plus their special, the yuzuchoco float – yuzu sorbet, yuzu ice cream, and yuzu seltzer with a salted chocolate popsicle.

We ended up with these Trader Joe’s chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzels by mistake (sorry, Dad, they didn’t fit in your birthday box!) but Adam and I both love them.

Dinner at Minnows. We got fun drinks including an old-school frozen grasshopper.

Adam and I adored everything we got here. We shared a smashburger with pimento cheese.

Hushpuppies with salted honey butter.

A “big salad” with corn, pepitas, fennel, cojita, and citrus thyme vinaigrette.

Collard greens.

Adam surprised me with a sourdough croissant from Winner (YUM) so I made breakfast tasting plates for dinner. With roasted asparagus, a medium-boiled egg, Trader Joe’s hot-smoked salmon, and a horseradish dipping sauce.

Creamy mushroom pasta. Whole-wheat spaghetti with crispy sauteed oyster mushrooms and maitake mushrooms and a sauce made with cream cheese, gojuchang, and lemon juice. I topped mine with kelp flakes.

Baked buffalo chicken meatballs (with blue cheese and cream cheese!) and roasted broccoli with a horseradish ranch dipping sauce.

Soup’s Up

Highlights from this week…

Whole Foods’ Spring latte special is brown butter cookie – good but not excellent.

Meanwhile, Partners‘ Spring latte special is mojito and it is a 10/10.

I added butterfly peaflower tea to this smoothie (with frozen peaches, banana, soursop, and vanilla almond milk) to make it pretty and ended up with greige.

I was much more successful with frozen blueberries, banana, almond milk, and butterfly peaflower tea.

BelliWelli birthday cake flavored probiotic bar.

I feel like I should give another shout-out to this rapidly dwindling bag of Zapp’s Voodoo seasoned pretzels.

Passion fruit sips; hard seltzer and kombucha.

I had a day off this week and I walked 7 miles roundtrip from Penn Station to the Seaport for this burger and fries. The signature smashburger with gojuchang aioli, American, miso-caramelized onions, and garlic parmesan butter and waffle fries with red miso cheese sauce.

Monday I hadn’t gone to the grocery store for the week yet but we cobbled together a pretty good dinner. Chips and guacamole from our local burrito place.

Bitchin dip with mini sweet peppers (and cucumber slices).

And these Fillo’s walking tamales – Adam liked them, I thought they were underseasoned.

Tuesday I went to the fish counter and whipped up this Southern feast. Fried catfish (breaded in a mix of flour and cornmeal with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika); collard greens sauteed with green onion, lemon, and garlic; and hushpuppies. Then I doused my plate in honey, lemon, and Crystal hot sauce.

And Wednesday I made a giant batch of soup. With evoo, salt and pepper, garlic, yellow onion, celery, zucchini, carrot, potato, diced tomato, harissa, chicken broth, and chicken breast.