It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas! Very excited about this year’s ridiculous line-up on on-theme items.
Highlights from this past week include…
Eggnog + Trager Brothers Coffee (<– the stuff from the hospital coffee shop in Virginia that I was obsessed with).
Plus I made an eggnog dalgona coffee!
A very pepperminty breakfast. I was expecting the peanut butter/mint combo to be strange but that Perfect bar was actually amazing.
Greek yogurt bowl with cranberry sauce, cinnamon, and butter rum trail mix.
Still really loving these cocktail hour truffles from Trader Joe’s.
We are even more excited about these buttermints that my parents HANDMADE!?!
Turkey taco night. Corn tortilla with homemade chipotle salsa / sautéed white onion, yellow and orange bell pepper, and poblano pepper / ground turkey / shredded cheese / sour cream / hot sauce. Plus a taco-less pile fillings on the side.
Taco bowl night. Everything from the previous meal plus cranberry sauce and minus the tortilla.
We took a break from tacos with take-out from our favorite Japanese place. Garlic sautéed veggies, tempura veggies and chicken, seaweed salad, edamame, and tofu.
I hope all of my American readers had a safe but satisfying Thanksgiving. Adam and I both worked the holiday but were able to continue our tradition of Thanksgiving night nachos! And thankfully our days ended early enough that we had time to chat with my parents while taking the dog on a cocktail walk and Zoom conference with all of my in-laws in the evening.
We spent a little time talking about things we are thankful for which was an easy assignment for me because I feel like thankful is actually my primary state of being – at least five times a day I thank my lucky stars that I just get to know Adam and Webster, let alone have them both love me back.
By the way, even my non-holiday eats were still pretty much on-theme because the short list of superficial things I’m thankful for definitely includes coffee, boba, sprinkles, ice cream, and pizza! Highlights from the past week include…
Thompson Square Bagels (my favorite in the city) poppy seed with birthday cake cream cheese.
Yogurt bowl win. Plain Greek with peanut butter, cranberry dressing, and granola. Trader Joe’s cranberry dressing (the stuff in the refrigerated section, not the canned one) is the best in the game.
This s’mores kefir was good but not as exciting as I wanted it to be.
Whole Foods has a whole line of specialty holiday ice cream flavors so I am obviously going to be eating ice cream every day for the next month.
Thanksgiving nachos. This year we did Trader Joe’s horseradish and chives potato chips / shredded cheese / duck fennel sausage / shishito peppers / cranberry dressing. Plus roasted brussel sprouts on the side.
And we stayed on theme with maple margaritas.
No pie for dessert, but we did have these festive truffles.
Roasted broccoli and cabbage with spicy cashew sauce and rolled tofu.
We lucked out that Taglio is so close to our apartment because they are currently my favorite pizza in the city. This roasted potato and vodka slice were both 10/10. Plus they have given a ton of food to the workers at Adam’s hospital throughout the pandemic so I am thrilled to support them (multiple times a week!).
Homemade chili topped with sour cream, jalopenos, and pimento cheese. I used duck sausage, black beans, orange bell pepper, poblano pepper, sweet onion, diced tomato, spices, and beer.
Adam and I had a delightful weekend! We spent time in Williamsburg, walked across the bridge to the Lower East Side, and drove out to Huntington and enjoyed the changing leaves.
My five favorite things were…
{1} Fantastically chewy treats from Alimama. A creme brulee mochi doughnut and a Vietnamese coffee and mini boba filled cream puff.
{2} Our first time eating – and adoring- fresh rice noodle rolls. Stuffed with egg, crab meat, and chicken.
{3} There’s a new Whole Foods near our house that serves reuben pizza and it’s possible we’ll never cook dinner again.
{4} Oddfellow’s holiday flavor line-up is insane. We tried coquito this weekend, topped with concord creme pie (concord jam infused sweet cream ice cream with chunks of pie crust), swoon.
{5} Epic take-out from Lazy Siu’s – vegan burnt ends, snow peas cooked with duck fat and shallots, and skin-on fries.
I had a both personal day and a weekend comp day off this week which meant that I had a nice short and easy work-week. The weather was mostly beautiful too, so I got to maximize my time off with fun days in Brooklyn! And while I was at work I gave a presentation on critical care nutrition to all of the medical residents that went well.
Highlights include…
This remains my favorite coffee combo. So much fun that I can make *real* Vietnamese iced coffee at home!
This coffee – with brown sugar syrup, boba, tiger jelly, and cream mousse – from Tiger Sugar was pretty good too!
We almost never buy pre-cut fruit (Adam brought this home from work) but it is so luxurious to have in the fridge.
A girlfriend and I went to Williamsburg for spicy ramen… with lobster!
P.S. We took a walk afterwards – for milkshakes — in tank tops — in November —- and were a bit too hot which was both completely horrifying and also quite lovely.
It rained my other day off but Adam and I got take-out from Mission Chinese and had a fantastic time picnicing in the back of the car. Rice cakes with inari and bitter melon + Kung Pao with home fries, chili, peanuts, and pastrami.
Let’s just start this off with a GIANT sigh of relief! There was no post last week because I most ate a horrifying amount of ice cream while refreshing the election results. Thankfully our country made a move back towards decency this weekend and I was able to function as an adult and cook dinner and go to bed before 2 am.
I haven’t seen any eggnog yogurts yet this year so I’m still on the pumpkin. Siggi’s with granola, cashew butter, and maple syrup.
Paw-paya cocktail!
I loosely followed this recipe for Geng Dang Muu, swapping pork for turkey. Served with sticky sushi rice from one of our many nights of take-out last week.
We actually had a very busy Sunday but the title references something later in the post! Really, we had the best weekend ever. I know I say that every time Adam and I have a weekend together, but this one was my new favorite! We walked around the Lower East Side eating all of the things, took a long walk through Williamsburg/across the bridge, and made fancy sandwiches which we ate in bed while laughing hysterically at the latest SNL.
10/10 meal at Thai Diner. Perhaps my new favorite spot? We shared Thai iced tea, milo hot chocolate with pandan marshmallows, and a spicy tamarind mezcal margarita.
Plus chicken phat see eiw (which was perfectly packed with basil and Chinese brocoli).
Adam and I had time together on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we had just the best weekend ever! We got super lucky with nice weather which makes all of the difference this time of year.
Friday night we met up with friends for distanced fun in Brooklyn. Dinner and some stand-up comedy. Ample Hills does shows on their rooftop and each $10 ticket comes with a giant cup of ice cream! I got Coffee Toffee and No Sleep ‘Til Pumpkin – coffee ice cream with pumpkin gooey butter cake pieces.
Saturday we took a sixteen mile walk around the Upper West Side and Central Park.
And Sunday we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Food highlights from the week include…
Rainbow cookie iced latte with edible glitter and pink whipped cream(!!!) from Crave.
Snacks from H-Mart. Oreo bubble tea candy and durian chocolates. Plus seaweed and salted egg potato chips.
A two chip chocolate chip cookie from Levain (newest best cookie ever) and a Campfire Cappuccino from Orwashers (with toasted marshmallow and hickory smoke, newest best marshmallow coffee ever).
Dinner at Tradisyon. I had Kare Kare – stewed oxtail and brisket in peanut sauce with eggplant, green beans, and bok choy and shrimp paste.
Plus we got delicious popsicles. Soy milk with mochi and brown sugar and calamansi cheesecake with meringue.
Last weekend the husband and I were both off Friday night through Monday morning and it was amazing! It was the most time in a row together we’ve had in months! We made the absolute most of it cuddling with the dog, taking multiple trips into Brooklyn, and catching up on the last season of Agents of Shield.
Our favorite activity of the weekend was definitely the afternoon we spent in Industry City enjoying the art.
We ate a million exciting treats, highlights of which include…
A freddo cappuccino from Oasis Cafe. Also an unphotographed Oreo caramel mousse!
Love, Nelly – a newish Colombian bakery in Bushwick – is our new favorite spot. Every single design choice is perfect.
Among other things, we had a coffee with condensed milk and crushed ice,
and a shaved ice with passion fruit and almond syrups and passion fruit meringues.
A fresh soursop milkshake from a Vietnamese spot in Flushing.
Bars have to sell you a food item with your drinks to serve outdoors here and Adam’s favorite German spot has added a cup of marshmallows and gummi bears to its menu!
Drinks at Diamond Reef. Their outdoor space is great and they served me the best frozen pina colada of my life! Also chips and guac, blistered shishitos, and a pretty great guava rum punch.
Eating Chalk 