Nacho Zip Code

by Emily

My stuff, my husband, my dog, and I all finally live in the same place (New York) again! What a surreal week! I worked Monday-Tuesday, moved Wednesday, and unpacked Thursday-Friday. I am thrilled to be with my amazing family and excited to be back in New York but am deeply mourning leaving Charlottesville, and my fantastic Virginia family and friends, and my unbelievably great job. <– it’s an extremely good problem to have 🙂

My last Cville weekend was low-key because I was a bit under the weather. I mostly watched tv in bed, drank Gatorade, and spent $8 on precut fruit.

Before I knew it it was Tuesday and I was drinking my very last hospital coffee! Sidenote – the coffee stands in the hospital served my favorite iced lattes in Virginia and I am going to miss them greatly.

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Also that afternoon coworkers took me out for coffee and then after work we went to Hardywood for a final round of marshmallow gingerbread stouts and by the time I packed my car I was a drunk, overly caffeinated mess.

My last night my family took me out for nachos – multiple plates! – and margaritas and I got to tell them how unbelievably grateful I am for their hospitality. I lived with my cousin and her fiance for the last 4 months and they could not have made my life easier or more fun. A lot of people thought I was insane for choosing to live apart from Adam and Webster for so long but one of the biggest silver linings of situation was the time I got with my Virginia family.

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And they would be thrilled to know that the very first thing I ate in New York was nachos!

Once we got the car unpacked Adam and I headed to I am Nacho Mama for bbq chicken nachos and fancy honey coffee.

I also had tacos – griddled cheese and salmon.

Last night we had a fancy dinner at our local mall, Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Small Batch.

Little gem lettuce with pecorino cheese, radishes, fried soft-boiled egg, and ceasar dressing.

Local duck breast with honeynut squash, figs, and black garlic.

Chocolate souffle cake with milk chocolate sauce, cookie crumbs, and bourbon-brown sugar ice cream.

25Nov2019

Fluffy GBS

by Emily

I don’t have a ton of photos to share from last week because I ate a bunch of celebratory meals sans camera. By the time I leave for real next week it is going to feel fairly anticlimactic!

A work friend and I went out for drinks at Vitae {highlights include a maple cinnamon sour with smoked rum}.

A big group of co-workers took me out for lunch at Asado {highlights include a smoked chicken quesadilla}.

And my team took me out for dinner at Junction {highlights include a rum and coke with allspice syrup and charred baby carrots with goat cheese and carrot top chimichurri}.

Other highlights include…

Eggnog and coffee!

A vanilla coffee can with a peanut butter chocolate chip Perfect Bar.

The cortadito from Gaurijos is excellent.

Vanilla bean yogurt with maple pecan granola and cranberry relish.

S’mores pie and a cortado at Pie Chest.

An orange creamsicle IPA my family brought me back from Maryland.

Hardywood has released their Fluffy GBS – a toasted marshmallow gingerbread stout!

My cousin took me out for excellent Thai food. My drunken noodles were super spicy and loaded with veggies (including cauliflower!).

Have a great week (and a happy Thanksgiving, all of my American readers)!

18Nov2019

Oreo Crunch And Apple Brandy

by Emily

This past weekend I took my last trip to New York — last because I am officially moving in 2.5 weeks!!! This move is super bittersweet – I am over the moon to get to live with Adam and Webster and I love NYC but I am really going to miss Charlottesville, and my family here, and my amazing job. I’ll have to really soak in the South the next two weeks!

Our New York weekend was fantastic as always. We had babka and creme brulee doughnuts and walked all over the place. Saturday we met friends in Williamsburg for a walk over the bridge and an afternoon in the city.

Highlights include…

Milk Bar‘s Thanksgiving Croissant. It’s stuffed with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.

Drinks at Serra by Bierria. We tried four things from the holiday cocktail list – a buttered rum, a walnut Manhattan, a gin and blood orange drink, and an apple brandy drink.

Caffe Panna. I had peanut butter oreo crunch with fudge sauce! Also Adam got an affagato and I drank his last sip of espresso and it was genuinely the very best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.

29Oct2019

Cafe Con Leche, Cerveza Con Calabaza

by Emily

Adam came to visit me last weekend, aka I had the best weekend ever! He probably won’t be back in Virginia until my cousin’s wedding next year so we made the most of the visit. We went to several old favorites and couple new favorites!

Weekend highlights include…

Saturday was National Pumpkin Day and Tropical Smoothie Cafe sent me a free coupon to try their Pumpkin Pie Smoothie to celebrate. Made with real pumpkin, Ghirardelli white chocolate, cinnamon, and non-fat yogurt. It was very pumpkiny without being boring and just sweet enough.

Drekker‘s Everybody Love Everybody is a rainbow sherbet sour and it’s PINK!

Hardywood had a Halloween-themed black IPA on tap – the Heebie Jeebies! Plus I had a None of This Makes Sense double IPA (my current favorite beer) and a soft prezel with cheese sauce.

Gaujiros Miami Eatery is Charlottesville’s new Cuban spot and it is damn good! I had eggs with beans and rice plus fried cheese.

Plus a Cortadito that was so delicious I went back again the next day for another one!

Quality Pie. We split a Spanish Tortilla.

And I had (super buttery, garlicy) foccacia with egg and cheese.

Dinner at Comal with my cousin and her fiance. I didn’t snap any photos but we had an absolutely amazing meal at this new Oaxacan spot in Belmont.

P.S. No more posts coming from me this week. Tomorrow morning I’m on my way to Ohio to celebrate my grandma’s 90th birthday!

18Oct2019

A NY Weekend > A New York Minute

by Emily

I spent Friday night – Tuesday afternoon in the city enjoying a New York long weekend with my boys! So much fun! We ate ice cream at least once a day, took long walks around Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, and Long Island City, and had a great night with friends at a delicious dinner (Baoburg – I don’t have photos but it was fantastic!) followed by a trip to Barcade!

Highlights include…

A malted cold brew.

Is one of my favorite things about NYC the ability to find weird and amazing drinks absolutely everywhere? 100% yes. And we took full advantage of that this weekend. New canned coffees from Chameleon Cold Brew, churro and cinnamon dolce.

Strawberry sparkling water and a soursop and sea moss drink.

Cinnamon Coke with rum. <– strongly recommend!

Baohaus‘ spiceland bao is a thing of beauty! 24-hour brined fried chicken served with lemon-garlic aioli, an 8-ingredient Szechuan chili oil, pickled cabbage, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, and cilantro. Their menu is limited because the things they do they do exceptionally well.

Great ice cream at Four Winters. They make each cup individually with liquid nitrogen. This was brown sugar speculoos with fudge, biscoff cookies, and extra sprinkles.

Even better ice cream at Caffe Panna, the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten, in fact! I got a cone with housemade whipped cream – panna – on brown butter straciatella and chocolate berry crunch (<– this flavor was the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted).

Plus we got an affagato special – ice cream and espresso with whiskey caramel and cacao nib hazelnut brittle.

Adam and I had an incredible dinner at Case Enrique – a Michelin starred, traditional Mexican spot in Long Island City. I went for the drinks and they did not disappoint. I had a soursop caipirnha!

Plus a tamarind margarita.

We started with the rojas con crema – roasted poblanos with onion, corn, cheese, and cream. Scooped up with tortillas that were out of this world.

And I ordered the mole de piaxtla – mole sauce over chicken and rice.

Dessert! Tres leches, flan, and cafe con leche.

Other fun things… I pulled out this St. Thomas bag my parents got me. It makes me happy every time I reach into my purse.

And Adam bought me this gorgeous bracelet at a shop in Brooklyn.

🙂

4Oct2019

It’s Pumpkin Month!

by Emily

It’s Pumpkin Month! Check out my exciting, gourd-y stash:

Related note – my coworkers know me so well!

This week’s eats highlights were all about burritos, bowls, and tasty take-out…

I go in a bit later on Wednesdays (so my timing works for after-work yoga, which I actually made it to this week, whee!) so I took myself on a breakfast date to Marie Bette for one of their outstanding pretzel croissants.

This Trader Joe’s breakfast burrito – with eggs, cheese, chicken sausage, and potato – was pretty great.

And this adobo chicken burrito from Whole Foods wasn’t half bad either.

Pumpkin spice latte from La Colombe.

Pumpkin spice bar with pumpkin jellies! Those gummies were such an exciting find from H-Mart.

Lunch from the food trucks/farmers’ market that sets up at the hospital. I got nachos with spicy chicken.

Roasted shredded brussel sprouts with hot smoked salmon, pumpkin seeds, spicy peanut vinegarette, and zhoug.

Roasted broccoli slaw with sesame ginger baked tofu, honey butter almonds, spicy peanut vinegarette, cucumbers, and zhoug. And when the zhoug ran out I topped it with sriracha.

30Sep2019

A Perfect Weekend

by Emily

An ideal weekend would involve time with my boys, but this weekend did include several (quite yummy) snack items from the Perfect Snacks company! Also a trip to the Farmer’s Market, an afternoon of day-drinking with my cousin, and a Sunday shift at the hospital. Also, apparently, me being way too excited about everything I ate.

Highlights…

Cinnamon bears with espresso is the best combo.

Whole Foods uses a chocolate powder – versus a syrup – in their iced mochas and I am obsessed with them.

This local cold brew – with chicory, cinnamon, and lavender! – was pretty good too.

Still obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie dough bar that has no internet presence (they seem to be sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s?).

Breakfast biscuit from Ace with pimento cheese, a sunny side up egg, and jerk chicken.

Perfect for Apple Month – a caramel apple cocktail from Vitae! Vitae Golden Rum, Zirbenz Pine Liquor, lemon juice, salted caramel syrup, and cinnamon apple cider.

Still obsessed with the IPAs at Hardywood.

These new peanut butter cups are extra-strength delicious! They aren’t overly sweet and they don’t contain any palm oil, my two requirements in peanut butter cups. They’re still not a “health food,” but compared with Resse’s they do have an extra 3 grams of protein and 10 grams less sugar.

The last of my superior salad mix – romaine with Greek feta dressing, chorizo seitan, honey butter almonds, celery, and zhoug.

23Sep2019

Quality Time

by Emily

It was the best weekend ever; my boys came to visit me!!!!!

The three of us had just the absolute best time. It helped that we ate and drank such yummy things but mostly it was great to hold Adam’s hand while Webster sat in my lap.

We really made the most of Charlottesville too, we went to our two favorite restaurants and our two favorite drink spots, walked a ton downtown, ran at Riverside Park, and even went to a polo match with a group of my coworkers.

Highlights (including some random things I ate on Friday) include…

An Apple Month breakfast, Trader Joe’s caramel apple yogurt with cinnamon cereal.

Brunch at Quality Pie. We split an egg and cheese biscuit and salmon with scrambled eggs and cream cheese on rye.

Also a chocolate chip cookie.

Hail Merry cookie dough bites.

Beers at Hardywood. Tropic like it’s Hot sour with dragon fruit, blueberry, passionfruit, and pineapple // Tropication IPA // The Great Return IPA // Raspberry Short Kate milkshake IPA brewed with milk sugar and fresh raspberries.

Cocktails at Vitae. S’mores = smoked rum, chocolate bitters, marshmallow simple syrup, orange, and a graham cracker rim.

Hawaiian take out from Mochiko. Mochiko fried chicken with cucumber kimchi, slaw, and rice. Plus a passionfruit shortbread bar.

A simple salad at home. Romaine with champagne vinaigrette, celery, cashews, and curried chicken salad.

Dinner at Little Star = the best meal of the weekend and also maybe the best thing I’ve eaten in 2019. We ordered all of the things but it was serendipitous that we overordered because now Adam has dinner for tonight after his long drive.