Homemade turkey meatloaf. I did a mix of ground turkey, panko bread crumbs, grated sweet onion, shredded sharp cheddar, oyster sauce, hoisin, and gochujang. Plus dinosaur kale sauteed with salt, pepper, gochugaru, onion powder, garlic powder, lemon juice, and butter.
A surprisingly good dinner at the Comet Club. We enjoyed the crab toast and also had the hamachi tostada which came with great house-made guacamole.
We tried several drinks. We both enjoyed this layered negroni but my favorite was actually the French Onion Gibson (vodka with onion consommé, sherry, dry vermouth, and onion brine!).
I had a Waygu French Dip off of the specials menu and it was perfect. My leftovers were still great too.
Plus we got the cheesecake which was solid but probably not something I’d order again.
P.S. Of course my pre-dinner snacks were on theme!
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.
It was an especially successful 2nd week of Apple Month.
These apple rings tie with the Trader Joe’s gummies for best treat of Apple Month. Three different flavors!
Nightingale caramel apple ice cream sandwich is a 10/10.
I also quite enjoyed this crisp apple Olipop.
In other fruits, I tried a chocolate naval orange. It just tasted like a regular orange, but it was the best I’ve ever eaten.
The modern world is a horror-show so you’ve got to make little bits of joy where you can; hence, dinner theme weeks! This one was sandwiches, reimagined. We started out strong with Lido Kosher Deli‘s knishwich with pastrami.
I also had a latke with great applesauce.
Tuna melt nachos. Dill pickle krinkle cut kettle chips / baked with Trader Joe’s Ooey Gooey cheese blend / topped with a mix of canned tuna, Kewpie, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy jalapeños (plus brine), and bread and butter pickles.
Turkey burger fried rice. Leftover brown rice sauteed with fish sauce and soy sauce / sauteed ground turkey with ketchup, yellow mustard, and pickle brine / eggs / green onions / baby tomatoes / pickles (bread and butter and sweet and sour) / sharp cheddar / sesame seeds / and crispy onion and garlic.
Tofu bahn mi panzanella. Boiled super-firm tofu / toasted day old sub roll cubes / quick-pickled cucumber (thin sliced baby cucs left for 24 hours in a mix of sugar, salt, Milu everything seasoning, rice vinegar, and sesame oil) / pickled jalapeños / Trader Joe’s pickled red onions / cilantro / sauced with a mix of Sriracha, Duke’s, lime juice, rice vinegar, and sugar.
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).
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).
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.
My favorite Long Island coffee spot hopped on the fridge cigarette trend. Their version is diet coke with espresso, vanilla almond syrup, and a sweet cream cold foam. <– delicious
We also loved the tiramisu ice latte from MOTW. The espresso here had fantastic body.
We did not like this ube iced coffee with pandan cold foam (that’s on us, I really just don’t care for iced coffee with milk; I am mentioning it so maybe I stop trying it).
Meanwhile we adored our assortment of sweets from Fern and Aurora. Ube coffee cake swirl muffin / blueberry pop tart / pandan coconut butter mochi (the best butter mochi I’ve ever eaten, including in HI!) / ube krispie treat. We needed excellent snacks because we went to see Super Troopers at the movie theatre (I liked it! Not as good as the original but I preferred it to the 2nd one).
I also made a super duper homemade snack mix. Wheat Chex cereal and honey mustard protein pretzels baked with butter, ranch seasoning, and gochugaru plus peanuts, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds candied in a skillet with brown sugar.
Haribo bananas are a 9.9/10 for me.
Tori T’s is my favorite Long Island pizza. The texture on the square slices is unbeatable.
Red curry salmon cakes with a complementary dipping sauce. The cakes were a baked mix of canned salmon, red curry paste, lime zest, panko and egg. The sauce was Duke’s, red curry paste, Sriracha, honey, lime juice, and sesame oil. Plus roasted cauliflower.
Frozen dumplings (Bibigo chicken and vegetable mandu) plus frozen spinach, kale, and cauliflower rice sauteed with garlic, sesame seeds, gochugaru, rice seasoning, fish sauce, and soy sauce. Served in one bowl so I could easily top everything with chili crisp.
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…
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!
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.
This was one of my best birthdays in recent memory! We spent a long weekend in Hudson, filled with an excessive amount of handholding, pastries, and cocktails! Some highlights of our favorites …
Hudson Roastery butter pean iced cortado (with an extra shot, this is the best ratio for us here).
Treats at Kitty’s. This cruller was actually only ok, but I had a puffed rice krispy treat with tons of marshmallows.
Treats from Mel the Bakery, all 10/10. Jalapeno cheddar pretzel croissant / blueberry jam and corn cookie sandwich / almond chocolate croissant.
Pez Husker Du – white and Oaxacan rums, Flor de Azul, blue corn, and lime. The incredibly nice bartender gave us a taste of the house-made blue corn syrup and it was amazing.
Hereafter Marigold Weather including gin, lemon verbena tea, meyer lemon, orgeat, and honey.
Breakfast at Cafe Mutton. This restaurant is so special. We shared a perfect meal. Delicious house-made celery soda.
Zucchini, corn, and onion omelet with goat gouda. With toast buttered to near insanity. I asked for hot sauce and they brought out a house-made sungold tomato situation that was one of the best sauces we’ve ever tasted.
Lettuces salad with sungolds, cucumber, corn, scallions, herb dressing, pecorino, and breadcrumbs.
Milk-soaked almond cake with honey and blueberries.
Breakfast at Gracie’s Luncheonette. Chicken biscuit with honey butter and hot sauce and a great hashbrown. This was some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten.
Dinner at Gracie’s Luncheonette (yes, we went twice, it’s that good!). I got the white bbq half chicken – broiled half chicken with Alabama white BBQ (also some of the best chicken I’ve ever eaten; we loved the sauce and rub too), slaw, a biscuit (excellent), and mac and cheese (weak; meanwhile Adam’s fries were swoonworthy). Sadly, we enjoyed neither our iced coffee nor our iced coffee cocktail.
Dinner at Lil Deb’s Oasis. Their upcoming closure is giant loss. I’m showing my three favorite things but we ordered a lot and it was all great. Charred snap peas with tahini sauce / tomatoes and cucumbers with fennel, perilla, roasted peach jam, and sesame chili crisp. <– these were both stunningly good
Burmese crispy tofu lettuce wraps with spicy ginger mustard.
Dessert was my favorite course. We had flan, a surprisingly good dessert cocktail (with vodka, brown butter, dates, orgeat, and nutmeg), and the best – boozy – affogato I’ve ever had (with sweet cream ice cream, grilled pineapple, and coffee caramel tequila). I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the pineapple but it actually made the dish.
